Together in Cincinnati

Medical students, staff, and past residents from Texas A&M Scott and White at Christian Ophthalmology Society conference.  

We had a great week at the Christian Ophthalmology Society (COS) conference in Cincinnati.  We got to see many friends from residency that now live all over the country. A highlight was getting to see Glen and Kim Strauss from the Mercy Ships. He trained Nathan on the ship, so it was a pleasure to catch up with them. Nathan benefited greatly from the teaching during the conference, and speaking with other missionary ophthalmologists. 

While the ophthalmologists are in their conference, there is usually a separate speaker for the spouses. This year a woman from the "Voice of the Martyrs" magazine spoke. If you have not heard of this magazine, you need to get it! It is free and shares stories from all over the world from believers in the persecuted church. It was encouraging and convicting to hear about what is happening with our brothers and sisters in sensitive countries. The gospel is really spreading through persecution!

An interesting event in our lives this week was that we thought our certified birth certificates and criminal reports had been lost. We needed these documents authenticated to obtain a visa in Costa Rica. This whole process has taken months, so you can imagine we were really excited that our documents had finally reached the Costa Rican consulate and that we were almost done with this process. 

Unfortunately, we learned on Tuesday that our documents had been completed and mailed back to us on July 21. The consulate is only 120 miles away in Atlanta, so the documents should not take 2 weeks to arrive. The consulate nor the post office had any idea where our documents were. So after many hours of researching identity theft protection and praying for our documents to arrive, they showed up on the front doorstep yesterday. They had never been cleared through the post office, so although we had sent them via certified mail, they were not trackable. Wow, the Lord really provided!

On Sunday, we arrived in Augusta, GA to spend these last few weeks in the Sates with my family. We are really enjoying seeing my parents. This weekend we (our team) will have a Commissioning service at First Presbyterian Church in Augusta. My brother will be here from California, as well as Nathan's family and several friends. We are looking forward to great time with them. 

Here are some pictures from COS:

Dear friends from Texas (Katharine Williams, Mandolyn Tsai, and Allison Walgama)

Sweet friend Jennifer from our days in Texas

Visiting with a missionary ophthalmologist from Swaziland, Africa

Dear friends and mentors, Glen and Nell Brindley. Goodbyes are never easy