Dear friends and family, We have had
some exciting news lately that we would like to share with you.
Yesterday we took Emilio Aldana, one of our ministers, to the
hospital. He has had
back-related problems for several years.
Because of those problems he has not remarried.
Dr. Pastor one of the best orthopedics in the city told us he
needed surgery and scheduled it for Friday the 14th.
We are so grateful. Emilio
will have some of the best surgeons working on his herniated disk, which
means the complication rate should be lower.
We still ask your prayer for Emilio until he has completely
recovered. He is very
concerned about missing classes although he will only miss three at the
Bible Institute. He will be
admitted into the hospital Monday morning for a battery of exams and
dismissed if all goes well on Monday morning. The other
great news that we found out yesterday is that Daniel will be able to have
all his kidney/bladder exams done here in San Pedro about 5 minutes from
the foot of the mountain. I
am preparing to go for his first battery of exams in a hour or two.
We thought we would have to take him back to the states, which
would have involved a lot of paper work and funds.
We are definitely praising the Lord. Toby has
been busy going to various villages for two purposes.
The first purpose is where we can help out an existing church or
plant a church. The men
studying at the Institute have an obligation to be active in church
activities on the weekend to prepare them for the ministry. The second
purpose is to look for new men to send to the Bible Institute.
The majority of the men Toby has talked to though have large
families (5-7 children). This
also needs a lot of prayer since financially and logistically getting them
all to the Institute will be very difficult. We have been
very encouraged that our men and families are doing great at the
Institute. The Hoff ‘s have
commented that the guys have great hearts, are hard workers, and dedicated
students. There are a couple
of students who are struggle with the studies since they have not had much
schooling. Please pray for
Sergio and Otilio that the Lord will enable them to learn and remember
what they are studying. Sergio
just learned to read in the last 6 months so he could use prayers for his
reading and comprehension skills. Pray
the same for the other students as well.
We are excited about the testimony their lives are already having.
Bill has told us that within a year people will probably try to
snatch them away to work in their ministries.
That is quite a compliment although we do need them for the work
here in the mountains. Continue
to pray that the students and their families would continue to live godly
lives. Sometimes
things happen here that just don’t happen in the states.
On Tuesday, Toby went into Yamaha to check on our motorcycle (that
Juan uses) to see if it was ready. He
heard and saw a young man revving up the motorcycle.
He turned his back since he had Cassandra with him and did not want
to hurt her ears with all the noise.
He was separated from the guy by a wall made of 2 by 4’s and
plywood. All of a sudden,
Toby felt and heard a big BOOM. You
guest it! The employee ran our motorcycle into a wall right in front of
Toby-the owner. Of course,
the guy did not know Toby was the owner at first but when he figured it
out, he walked back to a back room laughing about it.
After that, no one would look or talk to Toby. The clinic
work has been keeping me busy. Last
month I saw 244 patients with many of the patients being complicated cases
for a nurse. On Monday there
were 33 patients. I am
praising God that he allowed the government hospital to give me referral
documents so now all I have to do is refer patients that need more
extensive care. Those
referral documents have been put to great use in the two weeks that I have
had them. Thank you so
much for your prayers without them the ministry would not go forward. May God
bless you, Toby,
Amy, and Cassandra Hill |
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