GAs open their eyes to missions need

September 3, 2001

GAs open their eyes to missions need
___BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--Girls in Action groups in Baptist churches nationwide got a new vision for ministry this summer, and as a result thousands of Hondurans will see life more clearly.
___GAs donated more than 3,000 pairs of used eyeglasses to International Mission Board missionary Jo Anne Foreman after reading about her ministry in periodicals produced by Woman's Missionary Union. GAs is the missions education organization for girls in first through sixth grade sponsored by WMU.
___Foreman, who has worked in Honduras since 1978, conducts eye clinics in rural areas, in addition to her other work teaching discipleship classes and starting Bible studies and churches.
___At the clinics, Foreman does eye examinations and presents Hondurans with pairs of eyeglasses that match their prescriptions. After glasses are distributed, clinic volunteers share with patients the circle of love within the ministry.
___"We tell them that God loves them so much that he touched someone's heart to provide the glasses, he touched other people to help in cleaning the glasses, finding the prescription of them and getting them to Honduras," she said.
___Before the glasses ever reach Honduras, Christians in the United States diligently work toward the ministry's fruition. People around the country send their old or new spectacles to Foreman's home church, Central Baptist in Marion, Ohio.
___Rural churches in Honduras offer their buildings for the clinics, and volunteers from the churches help staff the ministry. Church members visit the newly spectacled patients to invite them to church and to offer more information about Christianity.
___Foreman deliberately establishes the clinics in areas where no optometrists practice, so the clinics often are the only venue those with poor eyesight have to acquire the help they need.
___Foreman and those involved in the eyeglass ministry were astounded by the GAs' response. "We never expected to receive so many," she said.
___Individuals or churches interested in participating in the eyeglass ministry in the future may send glasses to John Savage, 3550 Maple Grove Road, Marion, Ohio 43302.

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