January 1998, Prayer Letter
Dear Brethren,
I know everyone thought we would be in Honduras by now but we had to delay our departure because our son, Tony, was in the hospital but we will be leaving Pensacola on January 23rd and arriving in Puerto Cortez on the 28th. Tony was taken to the emergency room with severe pain in his head and when they did a spinal tap they found blood in his spinal fluid and admitted him to intensive care. They thought he had a brain aneurysm and was scheduling emergency brain surgery until the MRI showed he didn't have one. We praise the Lord for that. They had difficulty with the spinal tap and had to puncture him 8 times before they succeeded and he had to stay in bed for 3 weeks until he was able to stand without pain or nausea. His wife had to run the store he manages so we had to take care of him and our granddaughters. We think he might have a pinched nerve in his neck and we would appreciate your prayers for him.
We take our belongings to New Orleans to be shipped to Honduras on Jan. 23rd and then we go on to Brownsville, Texas and our ship is scheduled to leave on the 25th and arrive in Honduras on the 28th. Right now the ship we are sailing on is broke down and they are working on it. They think they will have it ready by the 25th but if not we will leave on Feb. 1st and arrive in Honduras on the 4th. Our belongings are scheduled to arrive on Feb. 7th so if we do not arrive until the 4th we will only have 3 days to find a house in La Ceiba and get back to Puerto Cortez to meet the ship. Please pray the ship will be ready to sail by Jan. 25th. All letters and packages should be sent to Bible Baptist Missions and they will see that we get them. We would also like to assure our supporters that we receive 100% of the money you send us. The mission board does not keep any of it. Just make the check out to Bible Baptist Missions and write our name on the memo line and all of it will be deposited to our account.
Please pray for us in the next 3 weeks so everything will go smoothly and the ships will arrive on time and that we will have no trouble getting our belongings into the country.
Sincerely in Christ,
Santos Ortiz
