After my last post, I had a couple of questions about our medicine supply and giving to Agape in Action.

 

First of all, for those who would like to give to the ministry, you can find all the info you need on the Agape Website. As you will see there, all the money you give will go to the project in Guatemala. As you may know, the IRS is a little touchy about designating your gift for a specific purpose. However, if you donate by PayPal, there is a line where you can put what your donation is for--such as "medicines for Guatemala." You could write a similar request on a sticky note (not on the check itself) if you send gift by mail. I know that many people have expressed a desire to give towards our ministry. Now you know how.

 

Areli and I are in a somewhat unique position as missionaries in that we do not have to individually raise our own support. Our support comes from previous donations to Agape In Action. Therefore, anything you give will go directly towards our projects--medicines, gas for the truck to get to clinics, surgeries, special medical help beyond what we can give, etc. This is a little weird (unique) for us to ask for support as we already have our personal support covered. But we certainly need your support for what we do.

 

Today, I updated the pharmacy inventory to reflect a gift from Kingsway Charities, for which we are thankful, a large ($1500) order that I put in this week to Blessings International. We should have these medicines here in Guatemala in about a month. Most medicines we can get cheaper than you can through various organizations. Therefore, in most cases cash donations are the most cost effective. If you are coming down, please review the pharmacy inventory. Specific medicines that are helpful to bring are medical samples of various sorts (as long as they are on the list of things we can use), creams (anti-fungal, steroid, and especially moisturizing creams). We see a ton of eczema and dermatitis caused by extremely dry skin. One special need that I foresee is for pioblitazone (Actos) and/or roiglitazone (Avandia). These are both diabetes medicines of the same class that are still under patent and therefore very expensive. Believe it or not, we see a lot of diabetics here. If they cannot be controlled on the two other classes of medicines that we can offer, this is their last chance as we are not able financially and practically for the most part to treat with insulin here.

 

Well that's the overview of the status of our pharmacy. If you would like to donate to help cover the cost of our most recent med order, please see the Agape Website and mark your donation "April Blessings Order." You could buy a lot of medicine for us for 20 bucks.