A National Emergency

I have a backlog of blogs I am waiting to publish, so as to not overwhelm you. I need to update you regarding the status of Lucia. (She is home now, but we don’t know how long she will live). I also want to share with you some hard lessons I have been learning. However, I need to put these blogs off a little longer to alert you regarding a crisis in Guatemala and ask for your help.

For some time now I have been telling you of the crisis in the Guatemalan healthcare system. The national hospital system has been woefully lacking in basic supplies for months. (By basic supplies I mean things like acetaminophen, pain killers, bandages, vaccines, anesthesia and more.) Today we learned that things have reached a crisis point.

Roosevelt Hospital in Guatemala City, which is the largest and best national hospital in the country, may be suspending patient services tomorrow due to a lack of these basis supplies. This means more than a thousand patients will be without care. Even if they are able to keep the doors open and doctors and nurses on staff to treat patients, they will not have what they need to care for them.

In other national hospitals conditions are the same or worse. This morning I was told of a lady who was in labor in Antigua and she needed a C-section. The hospital did not have the supplies they needed, so they sent her out to buy them. She was in labor and out on the street begging for money so she could buy the supplies.

Last week there were 18 women lined up awaiting C-sections in that same hospital, but they did not have the supplies to do them. Their families were out begging, borrowing and purchasing the supplies they needed. I wonder how many of those children will have special needs as a result of stress caused by delayed birth.

In another hospital near Huehuetenango, they are using old sheets and towels to bandage wounds. Yesterday a group of doctors from the area was out begging for money for medical supplies. And things are going to get much worse before they get better.

So what does this mean for us? This crisis hits families with children who have special needs more than most. Many of them are frail and prone to infections and respiratory illnesses. And now they have no where else to turn but us. Further, this crisis will result in an increase in special needs due to effective intervention during childbirth. And it means that burden for medical care will increase significantly on our ministry as our families have no other option for assistance. Almost daily people are seeking us out for medical care, some via phone, while others are knocking at my gate. I am having trouble keeping my medical bag sufficiently stocked.

We are seeing a steady rise in medical emergencies in our families. So, I am asking for your help.

I do not fundraise for this ministry. We do not ask for money to pay salaries, rent, gas, maintenance or other ministry expenses, and I will not start now. God always provides for those things as we trust in Him. However, I will ask for money to go to specific needs of families, and that is what I am asking now.

Would you pray about donating to our Emergency Medical Fund? If you do, not one penny will be spent on administration or ministry expenses, but it will all go directly to providing doctors and medicine to those in desperate need. Please hear that again…every cent of your gift will go directly to those in need of emergency medical care.

We need this fund to increase significantly to meet this current need. So, if you feel led by God to respond, please visit http://www.hopeforhome.org/Donate.html to learn how you can give. And please note that your gift is for the Emergency Medical Fund. If you are unable to do so at this time, then please commit to pray for this ministry and those we serve. And pray for Guatemala. There are dark days ahead for this country, but they give us an opportunity to shine the light of Jesus more brightly!

Thanks, and God bless you!

Daryl