History
Dr. Lowell Gess
The African ministry of Lowell A. Gess (B.Div., M.D.) and his wife, Ruth, a registered nurse, began in 1952. Dr. Gess served in various locations in Africa as a general physician before he received additional education and training as an ophthalmologist. As an active medical missionary and later as a volunteer, he has served nearly 60 years as an ophthalmologist in Sierra Leone, and more than 25 of those years at the Kissy Eye Hospital in Freetown.
After establishing a private practice in Alexandria, MN in 1975, Dr. Gess and his wife returned to Kissy for three months every winter for many years. Now retired, he continues to serve the eye hospital at Kissy in an active advisory capacity and through on-site visits as he is able.
Establishing the Central Vision Global Fund
In 1982, after hearing Dr. Gess speak about his ministry, a group of men from Central United Methodist Church in Milbank, SD were inspired to go to Sierra Leone to construct a clinic that would ultimately become the Kissy Eye Hospital. Roger Reiners and the other four men who made that first journey never dreamt they would ever return to Sierra Leone after that first trip. They were soon proved wrong. After several weeks of work, they had not reached their goal and realized more funds were needed to build the kind of building they had envisioned. The team came home and, along with Dr. Gess and his family, established the Central Global Vision Fund (CGVF) and began making presentations in other churches to raise the nearly $100,000 needed to complete the project.
Approximately $80,000 was raised over the next month. When teams returned in 1983, they found that the exchange rate had changed drastically — the Sierra Leone currency (the Leone) had been greatly devalued and their $80,000 was just what they needed to complete the work. Finishing touches were made to the building in 1984 and again in 1987. Due to the 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone throughout the 1990s, work teams were unable to travel to the country. Trips resumed in 2004.
CGVF Today
Gifts given through the Central Global Vision Fund continue to support the work at the Kissy Eye Hospital in addition to two other eye hospitals in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Our ministry partner, Christian Blind Mission, currently provides staff ophthalmologists and professional training for support staff at Kissy.
Due to ongoing urgent needs in Sierra Leone specifically, Roger Reiners makes annual trips to assist with building construction, generator repair, and ophthalmic equipment repair and replacement. Most recently, he was privileged to assist with the assembly of a temporary testing center in which a research team from Emory University Hospital studied the effects of the Ebola virus in the eyes of survivors. Assisted by their home church, the Reiners ship containers of ophthalmic equipment and other beneficial items for the eye hospital and other United Methodist Church ministries in Sierra Leone.
