I woke up and immediately knew something was wrong. I could not see out of my left eye. It was like someone had pulled a shade three quarters of the way down over my eyeball. I mentioned it to Bob and told him I didn’t think it was serious. That day we were moving to the Jesus House from the place we were staying. There was a lot happening at the house. Terry and Susan were packing to leave and we were unpacking. People were coming to the house to say good bye to Terry and Susan. I mentioned I could not see out of my eye and they prayed for me, but it wasn’t on the priority list.

That evening I mentioned to Bob it had not improved at all. He called a friend who is a general practitioner in Jericho. He said I should go to St. John’s eye clinic in Jerusalem. It was a first-come first-served clinic. We made arrangements for Tim and Louise, another American couple working with us, to come to the house early and keep it open while we went to Jerusalem the next day.

That morning we left for Jerusalem. We had our grandson, Bobby, with us. We got to the clinic, stood in line to get registered and were told we had to pay. It was ten shekels which was $2.50. We then got a number and was told to go to another building. We got there early and it wasn’t long before they called me.

First they gave me an eye test. I had to cover my left eye and tell them which way the E was pointing, when it came to my left eye I could see nothing. I went in and saw the doctor who sent me back out and told me to wait. We waited and waited and soon all the people were gone but us. Someone came out and ushered us back into the exam room. There were lots of doctors there. They sat me down and examined my eyes again with the machine. They had everyone look at it. They told me I had a detached retina but they had no doctor at that hospital that could do the necessary surgery. There was a doctor in Bethlehem who had trained in England who could do it. I would need an appointment.

I asked about coming home and they said if I took the time to do that I would never see out of that eye again. So they called the doctor in Bethlehem and made an appointment for me the next day.

We called a friend to go with us to Bethlehem since we didn’t know where we were going and didn’t know the language so couldn’t ask for directions. This time we left Bobby with Tim and Louise at the house. We got to the doctor’s and he wanted to put me in the hospital immediately. The hospital was in Ramallah. I told him I couldn’t go that day because of Bobby. So he arranged for me to go to the hospital the next day

TO BE CONTINUED.

A thankful Jan