I finally was able to sort through hundreds of photos and put them together into a video that we will use to thank our supporters and donors. These people have captured my heart.
For those who don't know the story of our journey, let me just say that without a doubt, we know God had a plan. We took 500 pairs of donated eyeglasses with us, all read and coded with strengths by local optometrists. When we checked in in Detroit, our luggage was checked straight through to Guatemala City, even though we had to change planes and go through immigration in Mexico City. However, when we arrived in Mexico City we had a few snags... first we landed the same time an Air Canada plane landed, and the line in Immigration took over an hour. Next, we needed to find Taca Airlines and needed to obtain our boarding passes before getting on our flight, which turned into a circus. Needless to say, we missed our flight. After much negotiating and prayer, Mexicana Airlines allowed our group to get on one of their flights, but our luggage was held up in customs. This turned into a 5 hour nightmare! The customs agents made us open all of our luggage (16 suitcases, all packed with mission supplies like vitamins, dental kist and the 500 pairs of eyeglasses!). After opening the vitamins and tasting them all, they saw the eyeglasses and wanted to "tax" us $800 on the glasses! Eventually the price came down to $400, then $104, and then $80, and when we went to get cash from the ATM to pay them, the card didn't work! So we told the agents we were just leaving the glasses. Before leaving, Mike said to them, "You know, it's a shame... these glasses were all donated to us and we are bringing them into this region to help people. These glasses aren't OUR glasses, they're God's glasses." It must have touched one of the agents, because she then told us we could have them back as long as we could present our boarding passes on Mexicana. The glasses got a personal escort to the check-in counter by a customs agent.
The interesting thing is that because we missed our flight, we were able to meet a US medical team on our new flight that was going to the village right next to San Juan Sacatepéquez. They told us to send over any people we encountered that needed medical attention, as they were there for 2 weeks.
Well.... we soon realized that God had a plan for us to miss our initial flight and to get held up in customs (he always knows better than us!). During our week at the church in San Juan Sacatepéquez, and during our eyeglass clinic, we met several people that we referred to the clinic. Many, many people were blessed by the glasses they received. It was a pure joy to be there and to watch someone put on a pair of glasses and see clearly for the first time! We not only fitted adults and elderly, but many children. One little girl will forever be etched in my mind... when we finally found the perfect pair of glasses for her, she just beemed and hugged us all so tight. God is good!
