Dear friends and family,
We have had some encouraging things happening lately that we would like to share with you. If you remember reading about Noe, the man who the doctors thought had pancreatitis, he is doing much better. He came out of the hospital the Tuesday before Christmas. His is now determined to no longer drink. Usually for Christmas he spends a lot of money of alcohol. This Christmas he took the money he would have spent on alcohol and gave out food to friends and family. Before he thought Americans were just horrible people. Now he at least tolerates us if not likes us. Now we have a good relationship with all of his family. The best thing of all is that he wants to have a personal relationship with Christ.
Most of you know that we have been sending Santos Paz to the Bible Institute. He has grown leaps and bounds in his faith. He has been doing an excellent job in his preaching. We are so proud of his growth. The people here really enjoy his preaching so much so that the closed off Catholic community has asked him to come and preach in their church. This is a miracle. When we first arrived, our attendance ran around 30 people. Today (2/1/00) we had 85 in church including children. Another exciting thing is that the people in the church have made up a schedule to clean the church and are keeping to it. Everyone takes turns cleaning the church. When we were first here it was a rare thing for them to clean the church. I think they are really excited about having a nice place to worship.
The clinic was very slow in the month December as this is the first time that it has been open in its history (at least that was what I was told). We had 189 patients. That was ok though because Lita and I were able to build our relationship a lot stronger. I was also able to teach her a lot. She is really trying to give God her live and as any Christian struggles with the daily surrender of her life to God. I am so grateful for that time. At the beginning of the month, we had two heart patients. One was a little boy I diagnosed with a heart murmur. I am thankful that he does not need surgery. We will go back in May to see what else needs to be done with him. Yeni Escobar does need surgery. It can be done at the government hospital. This allows the family to take responsibility and control for the surgery. This family does not have a very high self-esteem so it will be very good for them to provide for their daughter. I of course will be at the hospital with them whenever the surgery happens. I may even be able to go in with her. I will find out more about the surgery in January or February as the doctor had to work out some of the details. Overall this last year has been a great year for the clinic. We saw 4,915 patients this year in comparison to 2,810 in 1998(a difference of 2,105). We look forward to this year and all the new possibilities are ahead of us.
I have been wanting to attain my nursing license here for a long time. I was told I would need to work in the government hospital for four weeks and take an exam in Spanish. I recently talked with the Ministry of Health. They informed me all I need is a description of what I studied in my nursing courses and my transcripts. I have to take it to Tegucigalpa(the capital) to the Nursing Board. After looking over everything they should grant me a license here. For my American nursing license I have to have 24 hours of courses approved by the Nursing Board in Ohio. I was really concerned how I could get that all in while home. Kevin Dooley, the president of FAME, highly recommended we attend a mission course in October when we are home on furlough. We thought the course was a great course but we were concerned about the money issues since we are going through infertility testing and treatment. Toby said that if Cincinnati Bible College would approve the course for credit we would attend the course. If an accredited college approves something for credit the Nursing Board will accept the course toward the 24 hours necessary for my license. I recently received word from Cincinnati Bible College that they will accept the course for credit that will meet my hours for my license. The Lord really takes care of us. He has blessed us over and over again. These two things relieved me of a huge burden.
We have been really encouraged by people looking at our web page. One of our friends is keeping everything updated for us free. What a blessing for Paul Redwine to create and maintain a web page for us. Thank you Paul! I think there has been some confusion on the address. It is: www.merendon.net The end is not .com but .net. Let me or my father know if you are having difficulties with getting on our web page. I have recently had problems sending e-mails to people I previously had no trouble sending e-mails to. If you are not receiving e-mails from me please let me know.
We are continually amazed to see how the Lord is working. We are so blessed
God bless,
Toby and Amy Hill