Filed under: Bible, children, Christian, eye glasses, God, Honduras, hunger, Kids Against Hunger, Lions Club International, Minnesota, mission trip, volunteer
By Carol Stender
cstender@agrinews.com
STEWART, Minn.
Orville and Elvera Trettin of Stewart, Lloyd and Karen Olson of Hutchinson, and Bob Wacker of New Germany serve and deliver food, hand out clothing, bring needed walkers, canes and wheelchairs and check vision and fit the poor with glasses.
“Why we wear so many hats, our necks hurt,” laughs Elvera.
The five farmers have a love for helping others. They all help the organization “Feed the Kidz,” which prompted them to start their own effort they call Vision Honduras. The organization started eight years ago when Bob and Orville traveled to the country.
“We went there to check on a load of food we had sent through the organization called “Kids Against Hunger,” which is now called Food for Kidz,” Bob said. “And we saw the poverty and all the needs. That was in July and the following February, I said I was going down to see if we could do something for the people.”
Bob spent a month in Honduras during that trip and Orville came a week or two later. They assessed the needs and, with others, built areas to feed the poor.
Orville, a Lions Club member, saw an opportunity for the organization’s efforts to collect used eyeglasses to benefit the Hondurans. The eyeglasses, collected by Lions Clubs from throughout the country, are sent to a Wisconsin prison where inmates check the lens prescription using lensometers. The glasses are put in bags with the prescription information and sent throughout the world.
They travel from village to village, checking vision using auto eye refractors. The measurements they take are matched with the eyeglasses and given to the Hondurans.
Elvera remembers one 92-year-old woman during their first trip who arrived in a wheelchair. She said they couldn’t do anything for her because she was old.
But the group tested her vision and gave her a pair of glasses. She was then able to read her Bible, Elvera said.
One man, wearing the eyeglasses given to him by the team, stood looking out at the mountains, Lloyd said.
“He just cried,” he said. “He was able to see his mountains, which he hadn’t seen in years.”
Karen laughs remembering one man who was given a pair of transition glasses that darkened in the sun but return to a clear lens indoors. He kept moving in and out of a building saying he thought it was a miracle, she said.
“They all have this same look when they are able to see,” he said. “They get this huge smile.”
The group works with Luis Vargas for their mission efforts. Luis came to the United States for college and returned to Honduras to help his people, Bob said. He covers a 300 to 400 mile area working with groups to deliver food, clothing and more to the poor. He doesn’t want any of the food and items to be tied up religiously or politically, Bob said.
Luis arranges almost everything for the group, including where they’ll travel and where they’ll stay whether in a hotel or in private homes.
Vision Honduras has touched many lives in the last eight years, but their efforts haven’t affected just the people they come to serve. Each member of the group has been blessed by the experience.
For Orville and Elvera, it is like a dream come true. The two felt called to missions as a young couple, but put their plans on hold when some weren’t supportive.
“We turned to farming,” said Elvera.
They operated a dairy, hog and crop farm by Stewart and retired 10 years ago.
“We truly enjoyed farming,” she said of the operation now run by one of their children. “But now we can turn to our love of missions.”
Lloyd and Karen retired from their hog and crop operation eight years ago. They rent out the cropland.
Their farm background has come in handy on their trips, they said. They’ve been able to improvise with tools when a fix-up is needed. They laugh when describing the tool they were given when they needed a pencil sharpened. They were given a machete. It must be the local answer to a Swiss army knife.
Bob worked in the poultry industry and now sells equipment to poultry farms.
Vision Honduras is a locally-based mission. Wherever the group is, that’s where the corporate office is, Elvera said. Donated items are stored at the Stewart school and shipped via containers to Honduras.
In 2009, through their efforts, more than 1,000 Hondurans in eight villages received better vision through the eyeglasses.
They invite others to join their efforts but realize not everyone is able to make the roughly three-week trip. One group in Worthington makes diapers from T-shirts. Another uses drapery fabric to make the eyeglass holders each Honduran receives. The Hondurans receiving eyeglasses are also given a New Testament Bible.
Anyone interested in learning more about the group and its 2011 February trip, can contact the Trettins at (320) 562-2500.
