Note:  The following are excerpts from reports and stories sent by Jacque Spence, mission co-founder, who coordinated an eye team to  Chuuk May 15-30, 2003.

May 19: Our first day at the clinic was really busy.  We saw 38 patients and did 6 surgeries and dispensed 44 pairs of glasses.  

A grandmother brought little 18-month-old Jervann Shirai to the clinic. This was one of the saddest cases. Several months ago, this little baby became very sick.  She ran a high fever and was dehydrated, and by the time they got her to the hospital she was comatose and septic.  She couldn't open her eyes.

The doctors gave her antibiotics and little Jervann started to improve. But still she wouldn't open her eyes.  Dr. Jim Bainer examined this little girl. We didn't have an eye retractor to pull back her eye lid so Dr. Bainer made one with a paper clip. What he saw was so very sad - the little girl's cornea was scarred, probably from the high fever.  She will be permanently blind.

My heart aches for the people of Chuuk.  I know they came to the clinic expecting a miracle - and we could not help.

May 20:  I think that my time in the islands is a time with God.  When I leave the house, I leave my safe haven where I’m in charge of everything. And all of a sudden, I become aware of how totally dependant I am on God to make this mission a success.  

From the start of the trip I was acutely aware of this.  Meeting the team in Los Angeles and getting all our luggage together was a horrendous experience.  We were met by a wonderful man, named Al Schera, who brought over all the eye boxes from SEE International.  These boxes contained all of our eye supplies.

Since 9/11, the airlines have not allowed us free excess baggage like they used to.  We are only allowed to check two 70-lb. boxes; anything over that costs $80 per box.  All team members carry their personal luggage on board.  For each leg of the trip, we are charged for excess baggage.  We checked 20 boxes of medical equipment and supplies (10 of them excess) and were charged $800.

The lines were unbelievably long for check in.  Al got us to the front of the line.  After we checked in, every single box had to go through the x-ray and some boxes had to be opened.  Then we had to go through security check.  By the time we were finished, we had five minutes before the plane was scheduled to take off.  Some of the team had gone ahead to try to hold the plane, but the ticket agents said there was no way to do this and that they were going to leave without us.  But the angels held the doors and we all made it on the plane!

May 21:  Another sad thing happened today.  I went to the operating room to see how the team was doing.  The Chuuk doctor had just delivered a baby.  It was a cute baby; I looked closely and the baby was nicely formed, but something was wrong.  That little baby was kind of blue and very still and wasn't crying.  Dr. Loren Denler told me that the baby was dead.  

My heart is still hurting.  The Canvasback doctors told me that this happened because the hospital does not have monitoring equipment. The Chuuk doctors couldn't tell that the baby was in distress in the mother's womb, and they didn't deliver the baby in time.

The reason this touches my heart so much is that this could have been my son Sterling.  When I was about to deliver, Jamie was watching the monitor and saw his little heart beat go down.  He immediately called the nurse and the doctor and the doctor said that we had to go into surgery.  I asked if I could pray and the doctor said, "Pray fast!"

Every day, I thank the Lord that Sterling was born in America where there is good medical care, and that he has been given so many opportunities - opportunities that the children in Micronesia will never have.  Just the opportunity for life is something to be thankful for. . .

May 22: Today, the wind blew very hard.  There's a tropical storm brewing and the nurse who is helping me said that four breadfruit trees came down next to her house last night.  
 
The governor told everyone to stay home and closed all of  the government offices except for Health Services and Public Safety.  The ocean was coming over the road as we drove to the hospital this morning.

[Note: Tropical Storm Chan-Hom started just southwest of Chuuk and moved east over Chuuk before heading north and west to become a full-blown typhoon.]

We didn't have many patients come in today, but I met a four-year-old girl named Angel.  Angel was a premature baby at six months in Honolulu.  She weighed 1 lb. and was shorter than a dollar bill.  One of her eyes is blind and the other is really nearsighted.  Although we didn't have a child-size pair of glasses, we did fit her with a pair of adult glasses and it really opened up a new world for her.  

The last time we worked in Chuuk, we brought a case of Christian books with us.  I put them in a corner at the clinic, with the intention of giving them to a local pastor to distribute.

I couldn’t believe what happened next.  People would walk into the clinic and walk over to that corner and take the book!  They would come into the clinic and ask for the book.  By the time we finished our clinic, all those books were distributed!

This year, I felt impressed to bring a case of Steps to Jesus, a simplified version of Steps to Christ.  I also brought over a wonderfully written book by my pastor called A Bridge Over Time.  I included some more expensive books for the doctors: Gifted Hands, about Ben Carson, A Thousand Shall Fall and many others. 

The day we unpacked our boxes, the hospital staff noticed the books and began asking for copies.  Then when the clinics started, the hospital chief of staff, Dr. Sablun,  started handing out the books, telling the patients to read them. These books are true mission stories and really witness about God’s power.

May 27:  This morning at worship, I shared a story about our time on Namonuito Atoll back in 1995.  I told the team about Kiki Always, an exceptionally motivated health assistant who came to our boat with a man who had cut his hand with a machete.

"Doc, doc, do you have any sutures?" he asked.  Dr. Mike Van Valkenberg brought out sutures and started to sew up the wound, then stopped and asked Kiki if he would like to do the job.  Kiki did a perfect job of suturing that man's hand.  Leaving the boat he said, "If only I had sutures, I could do so much good!"

Kiki met the Canvasback medical team as we came ashore.  "Doc," he said, "I have many children with ear infections.  Can you look at them?"  Kiki brought child after child to us and correctly told us his diagnosis. "Kiki, how do you know these children have ear infections?" we asked him.  "I see them pulling their ears; I see pus flowing from their ears; I smell the ears.  Oh, if only I had an otoscope, I could do so much good!"

Of course, we gave Kiki an otoscope and plenty of sutures.  But those weren't the only things that Kiki needed . . .

This afternoon, as I was working in the eye clinic, the door opened and a nurse said, "Jacque, someone would like to see you."  A man walked in and after a few seconds I said, "Kiki?"  I couldn't believe it!  Kiki had motored his canoe all the way from Namonuito Atoll through the big storm (remember we just had Typhoon Chan-Hon pass over us.)  He had passengers in the outboard canoe and a load to taro to bring to relatives. They motored 80 miles through the storm and ran out of gasoline.  Thankfully, another boat came along and gave them a can of gas.  The waves were so big that they threw the bags of taro overboard to lighten the load.  

Kiki came to the hospital because he needed medicine.  On his island, many people had the flu and he didn't have antibiotics or even Tylenol to give them.  No sutures, no dressings, not much of anything.  He heard that Canvasback was working at the hospital and he came to see me. 

And do you know what he said?  "Oh, if only I had antibiotics and Tylenol, I could do so much good!" 

Kiki told me that there is a new, unpaved coral airstrip on Namonuito. So when he asked me "Can you please send a team to help my people?"  you can guess what I told him.  "Kiki, I'm sure that the Canvasback family of supporters will help us find a way."

The Lord is definitely calling us to these forgotten islands.

May 29:  The work in Chuuk has gone very well.  The eye team has been really great to work with.  We provided 176 Examinations and performed 71 surgical procedures, including 50 cataract surgeries.  We dispensed 387 eye glasses.  

The doctors have been challenged to do their work.  They aren't used to seeing such rock-hard cataracts.  

Sanphy Williams, the new Health Service Director, is so happy that we have worked at the hospital.  He wants us to come back again. And he wants our help in getting hospital supplies and equipment.  He will accept short-dated medicine.

The dental director here has asked us to send dental teams.  

Health Service personnel and leadership have been so gracious and hospitable.  This is a difficult place to work in.  Lack of everything is what stands out the most.  We have seen three births in the O.R.,  two of these have been stillborn.  In both cases, the mother was in distress but they didn't get to doing a C-section in time.  In the last case, the mother also died.

I can't thank the Lord enough for the blessings He has bestowed upon me.  Every day in Chuuk there are things that happen to remind that I am blessed beyond measure.

Tomorrow we get back on the plane.  I am returning home with an even stronger desire to help the people of Chuuk.