KCMA’s Eye Doc in a Box Seminar Teaches Evangelism

Story by Mindy Claggett | Photos by Jay Herndon

In preparation for the Service Learning Honors Program’s spring mission trip to Belize, Kettering College of Medical Arts (KCMA) in Kettering, Ohio, sponsored a seminar on how to run eye clinics in developing countries.

Fourteen KCMA students and faculty members attended the seminar, which featured Denver optometrist David Curtis, founder of the Eye Doc in a Box organization. Curtis started the program after he discovered on a 1999 mission trip to India that despite years as a practicing optometrist, he didn’t know how to run an eye clinic in a place without electricity and other modern conveniences. After several mission trips, he developed a system that worked and decided to share it so that lay people could deliver high-quality services in their mission work while spreading the love of God. Students from Curtis’ seminars have provided care to more than 20,000 people in need.

At the seminar, the KCMA students learned how to perform eye examinations and fit prescription eyeglasses while using eye care as an evangelism tool.

“I saw students engaged, excited and motivated to go forward and bring the gift of sight and the gift of God to the people of Belize and of future mission locations,” said Laura Willis, assistant professor of nursing and coordinator of the Service Learning Honors Program. “The students even planned a day to practice what they learned in preparation for their trip.”