A Good Day

Lisa Greyling, volunteer photographer and journalist for MAF, recently went on a flight with our volunteer ophthalmologists and ZEMA where she met a patient named Johannes.

Although the day didn’t start out as planned due to heavy cloud cover and the fact that the team had to land in Polokwane instead of at Vuwani. Because of this, Lisa knew God had plans for the day and His promises opened her heart for the adventure ahead.  Landing at the Polokwane airport meant the team had to hire a car and drive two hours to the hospital. The drive usually takes only takes 45 minutes, so the doctors felt pushed for time to complete all the surgeries scheduled for the day.

Lisa spotted Johannes Samson while he was waiting in the long que for his turn to receive surgery. She approached him and he spoke to her about the Lord, his family, and his life’s struggles and blessings.

Lisa says, “It was such a beautiful moment as he explained that in spite of his age and health issues, the ophthalmologists that come with us are still willing to help him with his eyesight.”

Johannes previously had a cataract removed from his right eye by our ophthalmologists in 2013, his sight improved drastically because of this and he was returning to receive surgery on his left eye.

Before Johannes left, he said, “The doctors could have easily told me that I am too old. They could have said, ‘No, we would rather do surgery on someone who has a few years to spare.’”

Lisa says, “This broke my heart and to see his thankful heart made me realise that against all the odds of the day, this was a good day.”