The DenOuden's Vision Mission

When Des Moines, Iowa, ophthalmologist, Chris DenOuden,
was performing surgeries in small Iowa communities, he
had no idea God was already working to use him and his
church family to provide sight to thousands of people in Haiti.

Yet that's exactly what started to happen when his wife
Sue and son CJ, then a senior in high school, traveled to
Haiti with a mission team from Meredith Drive Reformed
Church (MDRC) in the summer of 1998. The team visited
Hospital Bienfaisance in Pignon, and Sue asked medical
direct0r Dr. Guy Theodore what his biggest need was for his patients.

"I thought for sure he'd answer with something like 'money' or '
equipment'," Sue said. "But his first answer was 'eye care'. He had
no idea my husband was an ophthalmologist, or that my background
was in medical practice management. We got back home from Haiti,
and I told Chris, 'We've got to figure out how to do this.'"

Thanks to Chris' experience traveling to smaller Iowa
communities to perform eye surgeries, he already had a
full range of surgical equipment designed for traveling and
the experience of setting up a mobile surgery unit. Just a few
months later, in January 1999, the DenOudens were back in
Pignon shadowing the current eye care provider who was scheduled
to retire. The next month the DenOudens returned to Haiti with a
full team of 18 volunteers from churches around the Des Moines
area to begin their work as the MDRC Vision Mission Team. Half
of the team members work in the vision clinic, while the other half
work on repairs and improvements to the hospital and surrounding facilities.

On clinic days, anywhere from 200 to 250 patients gather
outside the hospital and the team performs a number of
screenings to determine the patients' needs. Patients are
given basic vision checks and glaucoma testing, and vision t
eam members determine the next steps for a patient. If surgery
is necessary, the patients are sent into the surgical suite and return
the following day for a checkup and eye glasses.

Every aspect of the team's visit is funded through donations.
Communion offerings from MDRC members help provide eye drops
for glaucoma patients, and hundreds of patients have seen the damaged
caused by glaucoma halted because of these drops. Corporate sponsors
like Alcon Medical Missions donate thousands of dollars worth of
supplies each year, and about 1,500 pounds of supplies are sent to
Haiti in advance of each trip.

"We couldn't do this without folks like Alcon," Sue said. "
We have to bring all our supplies with us, since we walk
into the surgical suites with nothing. Every bandage, every
staple, every sponge we use - all that has to be donated
and shipped to Haiti."

Since that first trip in February 1999, the Vision Mission
Teams have seen 11,782 patients, performed 571 surgeries,
and dispensed 5, 077 pairs of eye glasses. Sue, as a medical
practice administrator, keeps detailed records on patients and
procedures. These records not only document the patients' details,
but help the DenOudens and their church family celebrate God's
faithfulness in growing their medical mission efforts.

"It always amazes me how God uses situations in Haiti to sharpen
us and make us better at what we're doing there," Sue said. "In 2004,
we had to set up in the Dominican Republic because of unrest in Haiti.
We thought it would take us off track, but on that trip we learned how t
o set up a triage process to evaluate patients and run them through
treatment stations. Now, using that process, we're able to see two to
three times the number of patients and treat so many more of them."

Sue's records back up that experience - in 2003, the trip
before the relocation to the Dominican Republic, the team
treated 380 patients in the clinic environment. During the
most recent trip in February 2012, the team treated 1,410
patients in the clinic, the highest number in the 14 years the
DenOudens have been traveling to Haiti.

The February 2012 trip was memorable for another, more
personal reason for the DenOudens. Chris' son, CJ, now a physician
specializing in emergency medicine, traveled to Haiti and worked
alongside his father helping evaluate and treat patients.

"I can't tell you what it felt like to be in the clinic and see the way
things have evolved since that first trip with him," Sue said. "
He just did a fantastic job."

The DenOudens plan to continue their work in Haiti,
and are praying for God to raise up additional workers
to come alongside them and experience what they've l
earned through their travels to Haiti.

"We're so blessed through this," Sue said. "It's been so good
for our family, for our marriage - it's truly changed our lives."