MEDICAL MISSION TESTIMONIALS

Pastor Jesse Liles, Willow Creek Baptist Church of Prescott, Arizona

"I have made seven short term mission trips to India. In those seven years I have tried various ministries such as: Pastor’s conference, evangelistic crusades, children’s vacation Bible school but by far the most effective evangelistic tool I have found is the Eye care clinics. Dr. David Curtis came to Arizona and trained a group of us to do this ministry. We found that the brief training prepared us for our eye care mission trip. Since then we have taught new mission team members in these concepts. Dr. Curtis has been a great coach and mentor to us. Our church has used the eye care clinic for the past three mission trips and we are convinced that it is by far the most effective tool for reaching people for Jesus that we have found. The eye care clinic is a compassionate servanthood evangelism project that draws all people to receive eye exams and free glasses. We have found it to be far less expensive to do the eye care ministry than the evangelistic crusades. It is more personal in the sense that every patient is talked to about Jesus and is prayed for. The indigenous church planters have testified to the effectiveness of our eye care ministry. They tell us that the eye care ministry has opened doors with the community leaders. It has created a bridge of opportunity for the local pastors to been seen as community helpers. Our eye care ministry is growing each year. The following is a record of the growth:

1,100 patients examined in 8 days
2,015 patients examined in 9 days the next year
2,300 patients examined in 9 days the next year
The following year we planned to take two teams to conduct eye clinics and plan to examine 5,000 patients. What other ministry gives you the opportunity to personally evangelize 5,000 people?"

The following is a sample of the reports from the Indian pastors in their own words explaining how effective the eye clinics are:

“Sewing ladies in India: many sewing ladies who received the eye glasses are very happy because they can see very well as they sew. These ladies are now interested in reading Bible because they can see the small letters. These ladies are very glad and many are testifying that their headaches are also gone.”

“Muniswamy, 64 years of age, has no children no one is there to take care of him. Many a time he has fallen when he walks on the road because he could not see; and he thought that his life will be just like this till he dies. But when he received the glasses, he could see very well. Now he is not worried of any help. When our pastor went to that village, this old man calls our pastor and told that many people are doing different kinds of help but you are all like God and blessed us with the eye. So our pastor told the old man ‘we are not God’ Jesus is only the God. So he said tell me about that God and our pastors are sharing the gospel with him.

Like this we have many people telling us stories how grateful and helpful these glasses were. In Chittor (southern India) also all the people are very happy and many are going to our house church and the pastors there have also got opportunity to bring the other family members to the church. We are really having very good response and good respect from the people which is helpful to us to reach the unreached. Our pastors are thrilled to go into the villages and when they go people are just calling them to go to their houses and pray for them and share the gospel. Today our house churches have grown from 18 people to 35-40 people in each house church. “

Raymond Feissli

"David, First I want to thank you for the wonderful ministry you've introduced me to. I went to Peru in August where a team of church leaders from Iquitos took us down-river to 7 different villages to work with the people they are discipling. We examined around 300 people, gave out 283 pairs of eyeglasses, and I saw 2 men pray to receive Christ as well as several skeptics deeply moved by the free grace this team offers. I trained one of the local Pastors how to do the exams and others how to interview and dispense the eyeglasses. I left about 800 pair of eyeglasses and both of my sets of paddles. They are working with 9 other villages and that is continually growing, plus they often do evangelistic outreach in Iquitos as well.

Haley Bilotti – Niger, Africa

Dr. Curtis,

I just wanted to send an email and share a little with you about our mission trip to Niger, Africa. In the eye clinic we saw 1,000 patients in 7 days!! Beth, Kent, and myself refracted the patients and Shelia along with some local missionaries fitted the Nigerians with the glasses. We had a great experience and we saw lots of conjunctivitis and cataracts. We even had a boy come in who was blind in one eye and with the other eye he couldn’t even see food on a plate that was right in front of him. Through prayer and God’s help, we were able to give him a pair of glasses that allowed him to see out of the one eye. I wanted to make sure he could see so I borrowed a coin from a lady and dropped it on the ground. He was able to walk over and pick up the coin from the ground! It brought tears to our eyes and joy in our hearts to know that we had changed his life forever! The Nigerians were so happy that we were able to give them the gift of sight. After we finished with the patients, we sent them to the local pastors so that they may pray with them and get their information that allows them to follow up with them. However, I was blessed enough to have a conversation with the lady pictured below and she accepted Christ right there with us!! So cool!! We are so thankful to you for teaching us the skills to be able to refract these people or give them medication to heal the infections. Your seminar definitely has equipped us and prepared us to be able to give these people their sight back. This was our second year having the eye clinic and it overflows our hearts with joy as we see the looks on the Nigerians faces and the hugs we receive from them are priceless!! God used us in many ways and I just wanted to share a few of those with you.

Thank you again for your obedience to Him and your passion to continue to spur us on to go on these trips and give the gift of sight and the gift of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ to people all over the world! May God continue to bless you, your family, and your business abundantly!!

For His Glory,