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Do you have a favorite charity that has touched your heart? And what would YOU do to encourage others to make a donation?

According to the latest report,  the ALS Ice bucket challenge has admirably raised over $88.5 million dollars for a most worthy cause.

It is amazing how a quirky idea has prompted so many people to act – and give.

We have made our donation to ALS, sans the ice bucket.

One of the most compelling reasons for doing so was a  blog post that described what it is really like to have ALS.

I encourage you to read it: http://www.bostern.com/blog/2014/08/15/what-an-als-family-really-thinks-about-the-ice-bucket-challenge/

We all have special charities that we support, don’t we?

So I started thinking about what it would take to motivate people to donate the one that is dearest to our hearts – Medical Ministry International, also known as MMI.

Describing what life is like for those whom we serve is the best way to explain why MMI is committed to serving the poor.

In most Third World Countries, medical care is either unaffordable or simply unavailable.

As eye project volunteers, we have seen how people deal with disadvantage and hardship due to having impaired vision.

Imagine yourself in these circumstances:

• You have not seen your children – or grandchildren – for many years because you are blind from cataracts.
• Undiagnosed and/or untreated glaucoma continues to decrease your vision.  Glaucoma drops that slow this process are nowhere to be found – and if they are available, they are extremely expensive.
• You are a child – or adult – with strabismus (crossed eyes).  If you are a woman, you have no chance of either getting a job or finding a husband if you have this condition. As a child, you are self-conscious of how this makes you different from your peers (not to mention how this wreaks havoc with your vision).
• You can’t see to read, cook, or do anything requiring near vision simply because you can’t afford a pair of reading glasses.
• To come for evaluation/treatment at an MMI eye project, you may have to walk for miles on unpaved roads, or ride a bus – or, in the Amazon region, a boat,  for hours to arrive at 3:00am just to get a place in the line. You then keep your place (with hundreds of others) until the clinic opens at 7:30, hoping to get in. Once inside, it takes hours to progress through the line to see the doctors.You forgo any food or drink because you don’t have extra money for that.

On our eye projects, we treat as many patients as humanly possible on a given day. When necessary, they receive prescription or reading glasses; if glaucoma drops or  laser treatments are needed, they are provided.

Cataract patients are able to see again after their surgery. When we are able to operate on strabismus patients, they often cry when they see their newly straightened eyes in the mirror.

MMI does a wide variety of medical projects each year, all over the world.

If reading about the plight of our patients touches your heart, please accept this challenge and donate here:  every $1 you give provides $8 worth of medical services.

I hope that a cure can be found for ALS now that their funds for research have skyrocketed.

We will never eradicate poverty in my lifetime – but my prayer is that MMI will be able to continue to minister to the poor and underserved.

Please consider helping…