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Dear friends and family, We have been really excited by all the growth that happened while we were gone. More men are attending services and taking an active part in the service, (singing, leading a prayer, bringing their Bibles). Before we left we had at most 8 Bibles brought to church. The other night I counted 18 Bibles. Emilio and Santos are starting new Bible studies/services. They have grown in their preaching and teaching abilities. Martin, Yami's husband, has been sharing his faith with family members. Three of his cousins have accepted Christ and may be a part of the nucleus of the new La Union church. My clinic workers did an excellent job while we were gone. They followed my instructions exactly. Clinic has been going very well. We have had so much rain though that some days are slow since people do not want to ride in the back of a truck for hours and get soaked. Recently a 8 month old baby came with severe asthma. After three treatments he still was not responding well so we took him to the hospital in the city where they treated him. The doctor told us the baby needed four treatments every day. The mother has had to walk one hour to get to the closest place which had electricity to give him his breathing treatments. She made this walk several times a day during cold and wet weather to make sure her son was OK. He is now doing great. We also had a little girl come to the clinic with severe diarrhea. Toby took this girl back home after we had seen her at the clinic and her father held her the whole hour and half ride home while she continued to have episodes of diarrhea. By the time they reached their village he was covered and when the father got out of the truck it ran off of him like a river. Thanks to FAME we were able to provide her with antibiotics, anti-diarrheals, and dehydration mix. She is now doing much better. Some of you may have read about our truck problems. For the first 3 weeks we were home, Toby was continually in the city repairing the truck. It has been so frustrating wanting to do ministry but not being able to since our truck is at the age where everything is breaking down on it. He had almost everything fixed when he had to go up to La Union. Someone guided him wrong when he was going over a river to nearby Rio Frio. The truck fell into a hole and the water was sucked up into the engine. Tomorrow is one week since it broke down. We received the report today that it will be at least 10 more days until we can get the truck back running. The mechanic said that by the time they are done repairing the engine it will almost all be new. The estimate at this point is $2,000 with the possibility of more. We desperately need a new vehicle so that Toby can do ministry instead of always repairing the truck. The truck that would do, but not last long, would cost approximately $20,000. The truck that is made for mountain roads and rivers cost around $40,000. There have been some blessings in the engine being ruined. One is that many of the people in La Union came together to help get the car out of the river. A makeshift winch was made so that the truck could be pulled 20 yards out of the river. A truck of a friend pushed our truck, and people came to push it 1/4 of a mile back into La Union so that no one would steal it at night. Some of you may remember last year a baby was born 3 months early and was turning blue from problems. Toby searched for someone to take the baby down. One of the men said that people in Tomola were only Catholics on the outside not on the inside when he explained why no one would help. This baby, Santos, died 4 hours later just minutes after we arrived at the hospital. Well, Don Samuel, who never helps anyone, brought Toby home from La Union which was a 4 hour round trip for him. Toby thought he had not given me keys to the house since it was to be a quick trip. Thankfully he had. He was frantic to get home to make sure that I was OK since there are some safety issues for a female alone. It has been the talk of La Union that Don Samuel actually helped someone. It was a year to the day from when he refused to bring the baby down to the hospital. Isn't it amazing how God works? Because of his being stuck in La Union to work on the truck Toby was able to talk to several people in La Union about Jesus and the Bible. A Catholic delegate came to talk to Toby. Ricardo is really searching and had some serious questions for Toby. It is almost unheard of for a Catholic to do this, especially a delegate. Valentino and Martin's brother are also leaders in the church who have been coming to Toby's classes. Please pray for these men that they will be willing to hear and accept what the Bible says. Please be in prayer for me as I have been sick for the last week or so. It started as a sore throat went to a cold and then a sinus infection. I didn't have my voice for 4 days and had not been able to get a good night's sleep until last night due to all the coughing. Just as I was getting over that I received second degree burns on my hand when I was lighting our new gas oven and it had a small explosion. I am grateful that only two fingers were hurt and not anything else. It was only God's protection, for I was told they heard the boom for about 1/4 of mile or so in the Aldea behind our home. The stove/oven is fine thankfully also. On top of this, after four months of treatment, we found out that we
are PS I talked to Toby Thursday afternoon the 8th and it looks like
the truck |