Office of Public Relations
Missouri Baptist University
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For Immediate Release
RE: Opening Eyes
Opening Eyes
September 25, 2006
The overlapping needs of impoverished Romanians, the Tugen people of Western Kenya and Brazilians residing in the densely populated city of Florianopolis may not seem to be strikingly obvious.
But Dr. Jerry Deese, chairperson for MBU’s Natural Sciences Division and associate professor of math/physics, met thousands of people this past summer in those wildly different cultures who shared a distinctly similar plea.
“Everyone who we saw this summer was desperately in real need of quality eye care,” Deese said. “Every place we went, so many people lined up with the hopes of getting an old pair of eyeglasses.”
Two ladies sit outside of a vision clinic in Baia Mare, Romania. In conjunction with a long-term partnership with his church, Dr. Jerry Deese has visited Baia Mare four times in the last four years.
For more than five weeks this summer, Deese traded in his days inside the lab at MBU for the chance to help correct the eyesight of people living in developing parts of the world.
The trips—in conjunction with his church, First Baptist Church of Ellisville, Mo., and the North American Mission Board—proved, well, eye opening.
Specifically, Deese’s group sponsored free vision clinics for people living in Brazil, Romania and Kenya. Using a machine called an autorefractor, Deese instantaneously provided those in need with an objective measurement of their eyesight’s health. Patients then chose a new pair of eyeglasses, or, at least a pair that was new to them. Lions Club International donated thousands of refurbished eyeglasses for the cause.
“It’s like life in the U.S. 100 or 150 years ago”
Deese is no stranger to Baia Mare, Romania. In conjunction with this church, he’s visited there four times in the last four years in an effort to share Christian compassion through optometry. His church, which has made nine trips to Baia Mare over the last four years, has developed relationships with natives living in twenty-two villages around Baia Mare. FBC Ellisville has established churches in eighteen of those villages.
Despite his frequent visits to Romania, that region’s primitive culture was no less startling when he visited there this past May.
“Many people don't have cars or electricity. People still get around by horse and buggy,” Deese said. “It is like life in the U.S. 100 or 150 years ago.”
Not surprisingly, eyeglasses aren’t readily offered there. Jesus isn’t either.
“The idea is to start churches in these Romanian village. The eye clinics give us a way to relate with the people” Deese said. “We offer them free glasses and then use that as a way to share the Gospel, which many people have never heard. The result is always good. They know the Gospel is good news.”
Big city, little resources
A line of hundreds of people wrapped around a city block in Florianapolis, Brazil one day last July, each person patiently waiting to receive a pair of glasses.
The beauty of Florianapolis, a city built on the Island of Santa Catarina that is home to more than 370,000 people, has made it the sort of darling city of Brazil. But poverty still exists.
Dr. Jerry Deese, left, performs an eye examination on a student who lives in an impoverished neighborhood in Florianopolis Brazil.
“We were in an area of this big beautiful city where people simply don’t have a lot of resources,” Deese explained. “Most don’t have jobs. Some of them get money by recycling things from the trash.”
In partnership with long-term efforts of the International Mission Board, Deese’s group to grow churches in poor neighborhoods while drawing attention to the lack of government support for those neighborhoods.
Evangelistic services were held every evening and, for many, the Christian values of redemption and hope were indeed good news.
The result: About 1,200 Brazilians were fitted with glasses and about fifty professions of faith were made.
Presidential Greeting
When the former president of Kenya overheard that a group of American Christians were going to be working in his homeland in the Rift Valley, he immediately requested a meeting.
Turns out, President Daniel arap Moi’s late wife was a Baptist. He wanted to help.
Hundreds of Kenyans form a line with the hopes of getting an eye exam in a remote village in the Rift Valley. Dr. Jerry Deese helped perform about 5,000 eye examinations this past summer in Kenya, Brazil and Romania.
Partly because of Moi’s influence, Deese and other missionaries held medical and dental clinics, in addition to the planned eye clinics, throughout villages located in the Rift Valley.
During the evenings, throngs of local Tugen people gathered for worship services at the rural village’s community center, a former gathering spot for communist leaders.
“You just wonder where all of these people live,” Deese recalled. “There are only four or five buildings in a village.”
Similar to Deese’s other trips, his stay in Kenya proved fruitful. In fact, more than 4,000 Kenyans received some sort of assistance throughout the week. Between 600 and 700 professions of faith were made. Two churches were started and a local farmer who was impressed with the ministry donated a plot of land for a church, Deese said.
All in all, the teams Deese joined this summer gave away about 5,000 glasses to people across the world. And while improving the sight of those who don’t have the means to get quality eye care is important, using the eye clinics as testaments to his compassionate faith is paramount.
“We’re carrying out Jesus’ commands to be his witness even ‘to the remotest part of the earth,’” Deese said.
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Missouri Baptist University is a premier Christian university in Saint Louis, offering graduate and undergraduate studies in over thirty specialized fields and nine degrees. MBU's education and fine arts programs are nationally known in addition to business, religion, administration of justice, and more. MBU is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Missouri with an enrollment of over 4,500 students at five locations in the bi-state region — West County, Lincoln County, Jefferson County, Franklin County and the new Illinois extension at Lewis and Clark Community College.
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