Leaving for Haiti: Dennis and Sara Cowley of Winamac will leave this week for a four-month mission trip Haiti. The couple have visited the country three times in the past year. (See story below)	New Vision Ministries: Dr. Dennis Cowley of Winamac visits with a patient on a previous trip to Haiti. He works with New Vision Ministries to provide eye care in the earthquake devasted Caribbean nation.

Dr. Cowley, OD, has sold his eye care practice in Winamac, effective Jan. 1, to Dr. Jennifer Gudas, OD., who has shared an office building with him for the past several years. However, he may continue to see some patients at the office during return periods in Winamac, depending on the need and other circumstances.

The Cowleys are no strangers to this type of eye care mission work in the Caribbean and Central America. They have worked in Jamaica twice and once in Costa Rica, and Dr. Cowley made several similar mission trips during the 1990s.

When asked what moves them to take on such a project, Mrs. Cowley answers simply, "the need."

She explains that volunteers can, of course, help and make a difference in short visits. But in the work at the clinic where they have returned time and again, the couple have felt a calling to see projects carried through from beginning to end. They will be stationed at a clinic in a village along the coast, about 40 miles north of the capital city of Port-au-Prince. From there they will often make day trips to other villages to provide eye care and other assistance.

While she sometimes assists her husband with his patients, Mrs. Cowley says she also has her own work, including the oversight of a "mini-pharmacy" in the village clinic.

New Vision Ministries, which was founded in North Carolina, had begun providing eye care to Haitians years ago. But since the January 2010 earthquake, the program has been providing so much more, including other medical care, food, shelter and clothing, to as many as possible.

The Cowleys are launching a website to post updates on their work for friends and others who are interested back in the U.S. It can be found at http://cowleys4haiti.wordpress.com/