Help?

Hello, friends! I have lots to write, about Holy Week, a recent trip to La Paz, the girls, a few new adventures, and so on. This afternoon, however, I just wanted to drop a quick appeal in hopes that there are a few readers out there who are feeling generous.

I'm leaving a lot of details out, but if you'd like more you can certainly email me and we can talk. One of my dear friends here is in need. Yes, I know, this is Bolivia, who isn't in need? But she has a special role in my experience here and I'd like to do what I can to help her. She was the first person I had a genuine ¨heart to heart¨ with and was a huge comfort when Lee passed away. She recently discovered that her mother has liver cancer and I would like to do what I can to support her after everything she has done for me in my own experience of grief.

After weeks of tests and operations and hospital stays her family has incurred quite a bit of debt they have done their best to pay off. They've depleted their savings, sold what they can (I've seen pictures of her home...it's about what you picture when you think rural poverty in Bolivia), payed off as much as they can, and remain with about $2,000 in debt and the possibility of additional chemotherapy (and its trumendous cost) pending.

I would love to tell you more about this woman, but her situation is very private at this point. The sisters don't know about her family's financial situation and I can tell it took incredible humility for her to say anything to me about it in the first place. If anyone, you, someone you know, a church group, a club, anyone has any interest in supporting this family in any amount PLEASE let me know ASAP. Really, it's easy to leave the bills and the desperation and the need to someone else, but one of the things I've learned here is that, often times, there is no one else. If the need is met, it is by God working through us and, as the sisters tell me every day "God will repay you!" Also-I promise that making a donation doesn't mean that you will be hounded for money at every opportunity.

Thanks for your consideration.