Dear friends,

This precious little one is Hala Fara, from Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. Next week she'll turn five months old. Hala was born with multiple holes in the wall between the ventricles of her heart, and as a consequence still weighs only 10 pounds.

Today we sent her and her mother to Israel for evaluation by echocardiogram. Dr. Tamir, the pediatric cardiologist at the Wolfson Medical Center, called us shortly after noontime to ask for our help to hospitalize her immediately. While her condition is not yet critical, he said that things could start to fall apart at any time. He wishes to take her to the operating room on Sunday for banding of her pulmonary arteries, which will protect her from developing hypertension which would soon leave her untreatable. Later, after she has grown, Hala will need further intervention to close the holes in her heart.

Hala is in the hospital in Israel tonight waiting for her surgery. Because the banding is a closed heart procedure, they've asked us for a contribution of only $1100 for this first step toward saving her life. If you are able to share with us in redeeming her life, please let me know by return e-mail or at the mailing address below. If we receive more funds than are needed for Hala, we will use them toward heart surgeries for other Palestinian children in Israel.

Yours sincerely for Jesus' sake,

Jonathan Miles
Coordinator
Light to the Nations
POB 7012
Holon 58170
Israel

Non-profit organization 58 025 750 9.