Dear friends and family,
The ministry is going well. Toby has the possibility of six students for January for the Bible Institute which will begin in January or February. Right now he is leading studies on the book of Romans. He is also meeting with the Penitas minister for mentoring and study.
We have a red alert here for flooding. The flooding has been compared to the damage of hurricane Mitch. Many have lost homes throughout Honduras. We have had approximately 6 weeks of rain. Our water for our home comes from a spring up in the mountain. Last night I looked at the water in the washer and found the water was pretty dark brown from all the rain. Please pray that we will get a break from the rain. There have been a lot of landslides in the mountain. We have a location picked out to begin a new church plant but it has been pretty much closed off because of the rain. Leonel will be starting the new church plant as soon as he can get through the flooded area.
We have had so much rain for the last month. The patients that come to the clinic are generally very ill. Dry clothes are hard to find for most of the families here since the rain is constant. With the rain comes dysentery, sinusitis, asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia. The government hospitals are usually on strike so it is hard to know what to do for those who are seriously ill. The mothers usually don’t want to stay at the clinic with their children so that the children can be nebulized for 5 days. There is so much work for them to do in their families in one day let alone five days. Also, if a woman has other children it makes it difficult to stay with the one. As the rainy season approached, I gave a lot of teaching on preventive care. It is hard for the people to come down to the clinic because the coffee season has started. Truck beds that are normally full of passengers wanting to come down the mountain are now full of coffee. The good thing is that the women took the preventative information I provided to heart.
We will be having a medical brigade November 15 through the 18th. The people who own vehicles will take a day away from coffee harvesting to bring people to the clinic when there is a medical brigade so almost entire villages will come. I am looking forward to the two general physicians that will be coming as well as an ob/gyn. I have many patients who have medical conditions beyond my expertise and it will be good to have the physicians treat them. Monday, a local organization will to do pap smears so the ob/gyn will have the results when he gets here. The ob/gyn has also sent an ultrasound down (if we can get it out of customs which is another prayer requestJ. The women in the mountain are extremely excited to have someone come to answer their health questions and be able to do some basic exams. I am looking forward to learning more. clinic.
Alexis weighs 26 pounds. He has had diarrhea for 6 months. The mother has taken him to various doctors but nothing has helped. I told her we would take him to one of our doctors who provides free care for my patients. The doctor wanted to admit him but the hospital was on strike. The family was going to take Alexis to the hospital on a day when they were not on strike. They live about 3 hours from us so I haven’t heard anything from them. Please keep Alexis in your prayers.
As always, we deeply appreciate your prayers and support.
May God bless you,
Toby, Amy, Cassandra, Sarah, and Jonathan Hill
I will try to give you a condense version of our lives lately. Sarah has been to see 3 doctors since she got out of the hospital(and has 3 more appointments with 3 doctors in the next 3 weeks). She has a sinus infection and is pretty congested(nasally). The ENT switched her to two new antibiotics so hopefully they will work. Please be praying that she gets rid of all infections.
When Sarah got out of the hospital we had a bad storm. The storm killed the radio for our internet service and our computer. Last week we were able to get a new computer(on Wednesday) and the internet fixed on Friday. The internet has been down again for the last two days so that is why I haven´t been able to respond to emails.
The clinic is keeping me busy. We have had lots of bronchitis and pneumonia. Anything respiratory related and we are seeing it. I sent a 14 day old baby to the hospital. I was shocked to find no one was waiting. Within 2 minutes, they were admitting the baby. I was really relieved. This was basically a miracle. I have never seen the hospital empty. It may have to do with the fact that the doctors and nurses have been on strike for so long that people probably think the ER is shut down. Whatever the reason I was very grateful that this baby could get help so quickly. Coffee season is starting so I have also had several wounds to stitch up.
Toby is working with Leonel, one of our ministers, on developing worksheets to help ministers teach other important doctrines and believes of other faiths. There are not a lot of books and information for the ministers in Spanish. We try to encourage reading as much as possible.
I am at a internet cafe so I need to close. We appreciate your prayers and support.
God bless,
Amy Hill