Our friend Noemí Balla has breast cancer. She’s the one in the back row with a stocking cap. My name is Dean Davis. My wife Gail and I met Pedro Balla and his wife Ana when we moved to Ecuador in 1984. We had gone there, as had Pedro and Ana, to share the Good News of Jesus and help people living in the Andes Mountains know and follow Christ. Pedro and Ana are Quichuas who met the Lord as young people growing up in the mountains three provinces north of Saraguro.

Our backgrounds were very different, but we all longed to effectively communicate the love of Christ in word and deed. It wasn't easy. There was so much misunderstanding. I just about quit and came home. But Pedro and Ana's patience and faithfulness, their persistent love, and their faith that people with all sorts of physical, relational, and spiritual struggles would experience the goodness of God kept them going. And frankly, if it hadn't been for their example, I doubt if I would be a missionary today. The crazy thing is, all of Pedro and Ana's kids call Gail and me their spiritual parents; we feel so unworthy and so honored whenever they say it.

Years have passed since 1984, but Pedro and Ana and their children keep following Jesus, keep sharing the Good News, keep making disciples. Now their youngest daughter Noemí is battling breast cancer. For a little over a year, we’ve been helping her with expenses related to treatment. She has had three rounds of chemotherapy but is still not clear. After a lot of logistical challenges, Noemí is finally scheduled for radiation therapy. Even though the bureaucracy moves very slowly, most of the medical expenses are covered by the Ecuadorian health system, provided that medicine and medical supplies are available. And they are now. She has 30 days of radiation therapy scheduled in Quito. But she has to make the four-hour trip to Quito and stay there 30 days straight. Because of so many prior expenses, including those related to Ana’s recovery from a wound to her foot, the family is tapped out.

So I’m asking for your help to raise $5,000 to provide transportation, food, and lodging in Quito for Noemí and her sister while she gets radiation therapy and to help with medical and logistical costs after the treatment.

Pedro, Ana, their kids, and grandkids are a great family. Your help would mean the world to them and to Gail and me.