Once a year LensCrafters holds a nationwide event where they invite non-profit organizations to bring in children for free eye exams and free glasses, including the lenses and frames. For over a year, our local LensCrafters had been set up with a school to serve 25 of their students. The week of Thanksgiving, the school backed out, so LensCrafters called us. They had filled 20 of the spots already, but still needed five more kids. With the holiday weekend approaching, we scrambled to find some kids who might need help. We found five children, three of whom had glasses at one point. The glasses had been lost, stolen, or broken, and replacing them was difficult.
The first boy I recruited was Malik, who is legally blind. I knew that his sight was poor, but over the summer I saw that he had to have his nose pressed against anything he was reading. He also can't see anything that's far away. We did contact a local church to see if they could get us on the right road to help him. We spent five hours at the doctor's office, and they sent him to a specialist. We were told that he could barely see his hand in front of his face. No one can understand how he doesn't walk in to walls! The specialist wrote Malik a prescription and said that if the glasses didn't help, he would need to have surgery. Malik has learned how to survive.
Though the church offered to help pay for the glasses, when LensCrafters called, I knew that God Himself had sent us just the right person to help Malik. When we visited the store, the woman in charge was wearing a prescription that was as strong as Malik's. She looked at us and asked, "How long has he had these glasses?" When we told her the number of years, she was downright angry. "He can't see!" she declared. Malik had the opportunity to pick out the frames he liked, and she gave him two pairs of glasses for free, promising that LensCrafters would replace them if they were ever broken or stolen.
Malik's brother, Tony, was also with us. His mom said that Tony needed glasses, too, but I didn't think that his eyes could be as bad as his brother's. Well, they were. We learned that Tony should never be without glasses. Another child we brought, Julia, was having headaches every day because she didn't have glasses. I could not believe that these kids just lived with the fact that they couldn't see. It was just the way things were, and that was that.
Our visit to LensCrafters struck a chord with me. It made me remember that is is the simple, everyday pleasures that the families in our community often live without. These kids had learned to function without being able to see. While not physically, I thought about how we all do this spiritually. We just learn to live with it, whatever "it" is. We just accept it and move on. We can't see that there is a better way. We can't see that we need more. But God wants us to see. I want to be like the people who witnessed Jesus in Matthew 15:31: "The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel."
-- Leneita Fix, Ministry/Program Coordinator (The names of the children in this post have been changed to maintain their privacy.)
The first boy I recruited was Malik, who is legally blind. I knew that his sight was poor, but over the summer I saw that he had to have his nose pressed against anything he was reading. He also can't see anything that's far away. We did contact a local church to see if they could get us on the right road to help him. We spent five hours at the doctor's office, and they sent him to a specialist. We were told that he could barely see his hand in front of his face. No one can understand how he doesn't walk in to walls! The specialist wrote Malik a prescription and said that if the glasses didn't help, he would need to have surgery. Malik has learned how to survive.
Though the church offered to help pay for the glasses, when LensCrafters called, I knew that God Himself had sent us just the right person to help Malik. When we visited the store, the woman in charge was wearing a prescription that was as strong as Malik's. She looked at us and asked, "How long has he had these glasses?" When we told her the number of years, she was downright angry. "He can't see!" she declared. Malik had the opportunity to pick out the frames he liked, and she gave him two pairs of glasses for free, promising that LensCrafters would replace them if they were ever broken or stolen.
Malik's brother, Tony, was also with us. His mom said that Tony needed glasses, too, but I didn't think that his eyes could be as bad as his brother's. Well, they were. We learned that Tony should never be without glasses. Another child we brought, Julia, was having headaches every day because she didn't have glasses. I could not believe that these kids just lived with the fact that they couldn't see. It was just the way things were, and that was that.
Our visit to LensCrafters struck a chord with me. It made me remember that is is the simple, everyday pleasures that the families in our community often live without. These kids had learned to function without being able to see. While not physically, I thought about how we all do this spiritually. We just learn to live with it, whatever "it" is. We just accept it and move on. We can't see that there is a better way. We can't see that we need more. But God wants us to see. I want to be like the people who witnessed Jesus in Matthew 15:31: "The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel."
-- Leneita Fix, Ministry/Program Coordinator (The names of the children in this post have been changed to maintain their privacy.)
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