From Don Thomas who works on behalf of Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (whom we have supported in the past)

Dear Family and friends

I am writing to share some good news

After a difficult and extended time in Malawi and South Africa dealing with Mary's serious hip fracture, which she suffered as the result of a fall on June 21 in the Ncheu District, we are flying back to the U.S.

We will be leaving Johannesburg this evening.

Mary is making excellent progress in her recovery from the hip replacement surgery on July 24.

We have been humbled and grateful by the enormous number of kind notes we have received and for your supportive prayers.We are also grateful for the excellent medical and nursing care and for the generous hospitable spirit of our Malawi and South African friends, but we are overjoyed that the date for our return home has arrived.

As you know, Mary and I have been spending about two months each summer for the past 7 years in Malawi, one of Africa's poorest countries. The Malawi people are among the finest, warmest and most loving people we have ever known.
Many of them have become family to us.

Poverty, malnutrition, limited medical resources and inadequate clean water dominate the lives of many of them.

When we are in Malawi we volunteer in rural clinics and hospitals.
We work with rural community based projects organized by the Malawi people
as they deal with the disease and hunger and death that are part of their everyday existence.

Many of these efforts are supported by the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA) which introduced us to the needs of Malawi's people.  

We also organize travel for friends from the U.S. who come to learn from and to be in solidarity with the people of Malawi.

Through careful listening and respectful observation, our U.S. travelers discern how they can best serve in order to bring hope to Malawi's orphans, to their guardians and to the sick and dying.

The good news in all that is not in the unbelievably poor conditions that our Malawi friends face every day, but--- that they are rising to the occasion, helping one another in the most remarkable ways. And, with the help of caring people in the U.S., resources are made available to help them tackle their problems. Individuals and congregations and non-governmental organizations are all helping in these efforts.

I am very grateful for the financial support that you have given when I have asked you in the past to support GAIA's work.

I know of many great organizations, but I know of none that makes every dollar given accomplish as much as GAIA does, nor of any that works any more closely with the Malawi people, utilizing their leadership skills and vision and commitment to invest in lasting and sustainable changes in their communities.

When I am so fresh from seeing how effectively your gifts are helping the children and their women caretakers and in helping reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in Malawi, I cannot let the opportunity go.

I must ask you once again to consider helping these people with your prayers and with your dollars.

Please go to the GAIA website right now and see if you are not moved by what your gift can do. (www.thegaia.org) 

You can give immediately on line or put a check in the mail ---or even make an ongoing commitment, as some of my friends do, by having a set monthly donation authorized through using their credit card.

Now---here is some other good news. And now I am not asking you for money. I am asking for your voice.

Senators Tom Daschle and Bill Frist are about to meet with the committees that write the governing agendas for the Democratic and Republican party.

They are going to ask the political leaders who make up these committees to add anti-poverty planks to their platforms, making ending global poverty official party policy.

And they need our help.

I just took action with the ONE Campaign and signed their petition to the platform committees.

Senators Frist and Daschle will deliver our signatures and send the message that Americans want a strong commitment to ending the suffering caused by extreme poverty and global disease.

You can take action too, here:

http://www.one.org/platforms/?rc=platformstaf

Our nation and other nations need to keep the promise we have made to the world's poor.

Let your voice be heard. Shift the use of our tax dollars away from waging war to waging peace by ending the suffering of the world's poorest people.

This is a time of hope!

Join me as an active ONE member and let our voices be heard by our leaders.

Mary and I send our love,

Don