Altai is a very beautiful but also a very spiritually dark region. This spiritual darkness causes high rates of alcoholism, smoking, and violent deaths; while we were in one village there was a double axe murder! This, combined with many remote villages with little access to health care, means that Altai has one of the lowest life expectancies in all of Russia. Therefore, what a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate God's love through providing medical care!

In the Ust Koksa area, we traveled to nine villages which required setting up clinic and breaking down the clinic each day, a little hard on the back. In each village, the story was the same. Usually the people would gather at the clinic site early each morning long before we arrived. In each village more people had gathered than we could possibly see in a day. What a heart wrenching experience to have to turn people away who desperately want the care that you have come to give! After the first day of clinic the authorities came and told us that we could no longer hand out Bibles or children's literature. However, God is sovereign. Each day we would set out the Bibles and literature that we had designated for that day, and by the end of the day, it was all gone. Of course, when someone took a Bible or literature it provided an opportunity to talk, "Oh, I see you are interested in spiritual matters..." On this expedition, we also had a dental hygienist and two teams who fitted eyeglasses. The following is a story from one of our eyeglass team members:

It was late, the clinic had finished for the day, and our eyeglass team was "packing up" to leave, when Brenda noticed an elderly man "feeling" his way along the wall, slowly, one small step at a time, because he could not see. He was blind. In a feeble voice he pleaded, "Can you help me?" How could we help this man? We can not give him new eyes, or take away his cataracts. What could we do? The situation seemed hopeless.... So, Brenda did the only thing that could help.... she prayed, and a simple prayer went up thru a spotless blue sky to the God we love and serve.

Suddenly, the thought came to look in an old box of "throw away" glasses. These are old prescription eyeglasses, that people give us, but it is always hard to find another person on the planet who has the exact same kind of eye correction. But, there in the center of the box was (1) pair of "cataract sunglasses" (+15)"! These are the ones that look like "coke bottle" lenses. She led him to the window and put on the glasses; if he could just see the shape of a building, that would be a miracle.

"What do you see?" she asked. Suddenly he exclaimed, "I can see trees ... and people ... and ... and ... with joy and trembling in his excited voice, he said, "I can see their faces!" Tears started to flow, and he looked down ... There below the window was a box, and he said, "I can see numbers, and letters" ... "I can see," "I can see", he cried again and again.

Miracles can and do happen when we are obedient to the command of God to GO and share His Love with those who have never heard. Brenda "almost" did not come because it was so expensive. Yet, she KNEW in her heart that God wanted her to come, and so she obeyed. It takes FAITH to leave your comfort zone and follow Jesus and many people decide not to come. Yet, the few that sacrifice for Jesus, have JOY that others will never know. The JOY of "pouring out" your life for God, and seeing His hand at work, right in front of your eyes!

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