Dear All,

Several weeks ago we packed up alot of the laproscopic supplies and I mailed them to Florida to be transported on to Ecuador.  Dr. Edgar Rodas does surgeries out of a converted "surgically equiped" motor home, and also uses a river barge which has a surgical suite. 

He travels to remote villages and reaches people with no access to medical care.  Using laproscopic surgery enables him to do minimally invasive surgery and thus less recovery time for his patients.  Rich Thurman faithfully has given us many laproscopic supplies and until I met Dr. Rodas, we had given almost all of the supplies to the Philippines, (except for staplers which are used by many doctors.) 

How exciting to be able to share these with yet another surgeon!  I am assuming his trip into the Amazon jungle will be done by using the river boat. He is an amazing man that Jill Townsend & I met last April when both he and his wife Delores were inducted into the Mission Hall of Fame for their many years of service to the people of Ecuador. 

He was the  recipient of the Surgical Humanitarian Award by the American College of Surgeons in 2009, and was the Minister of Public Health in Ecuador for 2 years.  His son lives in Florida, and helps us send the supplies on, utilizing visitors traveling to Ecuador to assist in the Rodas's ministry there.  His note upon receiving the goods is below.  Thank you for helping make this possible. Janice