Dear friends and family,                         

    We thank you for your prayer and support and prayers over the last year.  We hope you will continue in your prayers for the ministry here in the Merendon Mountains.  Please pray for us to receive a vehicle (4 by 4 truck).  We are contemplating our goals for this next year.  There is so much that we want to do but are really constrained by only having one vehicle.  We have been asking the Lord and publicizing our need for a new vehicle for a couple of years now.  We are at the point where we could really use 3 vehicles for the mission,  one for the work in the La Union, one for Toby's work, and one for the clinic/errands.  It is exciting to see what God is doing but we cannot reach out any more than we are with the one vehicle that we have.
    We would also ask you to pray with us for another situation.  Last April, I was helping with a medical brigade at Tomala.  A baby was brought in that had many internal problems.  After praying about the situation and seeking help to see if the surgery could be done here we were told that it could not be done in Honduras.  After much prayer and advice Toby and I believed that God wanted us to help this child.  Work was undertaken to see if we could have his problems surgically corrected in the States.  Many have by now heard the story of Jose Daniel.  Last month we received word that Children's Hospital in Cincinnati would perform the surgery if I could accompany the child.  We first thought it would be three weeks in the States.  Now we learn that it will be seven weeks.  This seven week period comes at a time when there are a lot of ministry and personal things going on.  Toby has a lot of work to do to prepare the young men before they go to the Bible Institute as well as other obligations so he can't join me.  The government adoption agency has also told us that we probably will receive Cassandra during this time. Now that the rainy and coffee season are coming to the end more people will be able to come to the clinic. 
We would ask you to join us in prayer for several things.  One, that the paper work for Jose Daniel would go through smoothly as we have had many problems since his parents do not have the appropriate documents and they can't travel to America with their son.  Two, that Jose Daniel would become accustomed to me so that the transition will go smoothly (he and his parents will stay with us for two weeks before we leave).  Three, his surgery will go exceptionally well and the time be reduced so that I can return promptly to the work here.  We also need funds for tickets and living expenses.  Five, that Toby would be able to come to the states during part of that time.  We are partners in this ministry and our strengths complement each other greatly to make this ministry work.  It will be a great strain for us and the ministry to be apart.  Six, we would ask you to pray that the adoption will be complete or that we would receive special permission to take Cassandra to the States. Seven, that I can find some doctors or nurses who would be willing to maintain the clinic while I am gone.  I have developed several contacts with people here in Honduras.  I am hoping one or several of them will help cover the clinic while I am gone whether they can give one day or a week.  We thank you for your prayers and your support.
    On Monday we had our first sunny and nice day in a long long time.  I had 45 patients that day at the clinic.  That normally would not be bad but several of my patients had serious problems and needed much more time.  One young lady is expecting but she did not look like she should for being 7 months along.  I could not find the baby's heart beat.  Another lady, also expecting, had very high blood pressure and had hemorrhaged three weeks earlier possibly due to taking a medicine.  She did not want to go to the hospital.  I knew Madonna would know her so I called her and said "help"!!!.  Madonna told her to get herself to the hospital immediately and she listened, praise the Lord!!!.  Another pregnancy presented a possible prolapsed cord.  I had a little girl who has a severe heart murmur that needs surgery.  Another lady's husband had died from alcoholism on December 10th.  All she had to eat was corn to make tortillas.  She and her little boy where very anemic and the mother was in a deep depression.  We bought them food for a week and are going to have Santos, the minister closest to where they live, go talk to her to see what can be done. That's just a few of them.  The exciting thing was I had the chance to pray individually with these people.  I have been trying to pray individually with each of my patients as a part of this ministry.  I can talk with them about their health problems and they understand me perfectly.  When it comes time to pray with them they typically just walk out of  the room like they do not understand me.  I pray at the end so we can pray about their specific needs.  It's frustrating sometimes but awesome to be able to pray with these patients in their time in need and have a good response.

This week things are kind of quiet with the ministry.  About 20 of our youth and sponsors went to the Christ in Youth Conference in Tegucigalpa (a three hour drive from San Pedro Sula.  We are excited and praying for the changes it could make in the lives of these young people.  We are looking forward to have a report for you next week on their experience.

We thank you for your support and prayers for this ministry as they are what makes the difference.

God bless,

Toby and Amy Hill