Liberia container shipped

On Wednesday, we saw the culmination of several months' work, as we shipped out our container full of supplies for the Emergency Department at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia. This container contained hospital beds, surgical lights, patient monitors, and many other pieces of valuable equipment that will greatly improve patient care at JFK.

In August, Mike and Daniel will be returning to Liberia with a team of medical volunteers to supervise the installation of equipment and relieve the overworked staff at JFK. For more information about HOH's work in Liberia, check out the Liberia page of our website, at http://hospitalsofhope.org/liberia.htm. For more information about the Liberia trip this summer, contact Daniel at daniel@hospitalsofhope.org.

Santusa's surgery

We've received great response from our post yesterday, and we've already received sufficient funds to cover the costs of Santusa's surgery. We will let you know if there are any further needs. Thank you so much for your overwhelming support; this surgery has the potential to make a huge difference in the life of this family!

Urgent Request

We received an email today from our hospital administrator in Bolivia. On May 8, a young woman named Santusa was admitted to our hospital with acute pancreatitis. Although Santusa's husband works as a chauffeur, they are very poor. They and their three year old daughter sleep on the floor every night.

Santusa's condition is serious, and her husband is at the point of taking her home to die. Our hospital staff would like to try surgery, but the cost is approximately $1,150 US dollars, and the hospital does not currently have the funds to cover it.

The situation is urgent, as her husband will take her home tomorrow if we cannot cover the costs of her surgery. Please prayerfully consider giving to help cover the cost of Santusa's surgery. You can give online, at http://hospitalsofhope.org/donate.htm; please give us a call at (316) 262-0964 or send me an email at leta@hospitalsofhope.org to let us know that you would like your donation to be directed toward Santusa's surgery.

Website survey

We're considering making some changes to our website, www.hospitalsofhope.org, so we've put together a short survey to gather feedback about ways we could improve it. Please take a few minutes to fill out the online survey at http://tinyurl.com/q2x5lq. Thanks!

Missionary training and container release in Bolivia

Hospitals of Hope in Bolivia has been given the opportunity to participate in the Bolivian church's missionary endeavors, helping enable Bolivian missionaries to carry the gospel to other parts of the world. The above picture shows Hospitals of Hope volunteers giving basic medical training to Bolivians training to go as missionaries to places such as the Middle East, enabling them to care physically as well as spiritually for those they serve.

In other news, we are pleased to announce that the container we shipped to Bolivia at the end of March has already arrived, been released from customs, and been unloaded. The last container that we shipped to Bolivia was stuck in customs for a year and a half, so we're thrilled that this shipment went so smoothly. USAID worked with us on this shipment, allowing us to clear customs quickly and easily, which means that the supplies and equipment we sent can be put to immediate use. Thank you all for your prayers for the quick release of our container.

A word of appreciation

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of the wonderful volunteers who have given their time to serve with Hospitals of Hope.

The guest house in Bolivia has been busy for the last several weeks, as volunteers from Wichita, other parts of the U.S., and even Canada have been serving at the hospital. They have taken care of patients, participated in "street kid washings," and done manual labor on the hospital grounds. If you haven't seen the new volunteer pictures on our Flickr group yet, check them out at http://www.flickr.com/groups/hospitalsofhope/.

The international volunteers aren't the only ones we owe thanks, though. We have great local and "virtual" volunteers, as well. Our local volunteers come in and help us here at the office and warehouse, doing everything from office work to mowing the lawn. Our virtual volunteers complete tasks at home on their own schedules and email their results back to us, greatly reducing our workload. One virtual volunteer has worked for us for over 80 hours in the last month!

Our volunteers are vital to the work we do here, enabling us to do far more to serve the poor around the world than our 3-person staff could handle on our own. We couldn't do it without all of you!