January Newsletter

Happy New Year from Honduras!
Happy 2008 from the Brownings!! As most of you know, we finished off 2007 with the arrival of our beautiful daughter, Hadley Sue, on December 21st. She is now six weeks old, and between her and Guildy, there is never a dull moment at our house! Guildy is doing a good job of being a big sister, and we think we have resolved all the questions she had about the arrival of the new baby. For example, she wanted to know if our baby was going to be white or brown like the Honduran babies. And with having the baby at Christmastime, there was some confusion about whether or not it was Baby Jesus in mom's belly:o)

We are very thankful, after several weeks and many trips to the civil registry office, to have finally gotten the correct form of her Honduran birth certificate. The next step is to go to the embassy in Tegucigalpa next week to get her registered and apply for her passport. Please pray for our safe travels (Teguc boasts the most dangerous airport in the Americas) and an expedient passport process. Below is Hadley in her classic wrist sucking pose.

The Folks We Work With We have been blessed beyond words to live in and work with an amazing missionary community. In 2007, nearly 1,000 patients per month came through the doors of Hospital Loma de Luz (http://www.crstone.org/ – Check out their newsletters. They’re a lot more exciting than ours!). All of them had the opportunity to hear the gospel, and over 350 received Christ as savior. Countless others were saved and discipled though outreaches outside the hospital ministry. Only when Christ and His Kingdom are central can approximately 60 people from all different cultural (yes, there are lots of different cultures among Americans), denominational, and experiential backgrounds be so humbly used to achieve such amazing results. Below is the annual Loma de Luz missionary community photo.

Construction
The biggest news on the construction front is the completion of the Children’s Center roof. This huge, open-beam roof took nearly 5 months of steady work to complete, all during unpredictable rainy season weather. The remaining finish work, which includes doors, windows, tiling, and a loft, will be completed when funding becomes available. For now, Iain and Liz McKenzie operate a scaled down version of the Children’s Center ministry out of their home, which is right next door to us. They currently have 3 Honduran children needing care for medical or social reasons, in addition to their own son. Fortunately the new building is just up the road, so we won’t have to miss them too much when they move!

Browning Briefs
As we move into 2008, we are preparing for our return to Montana in May. When we came to Honduras in May of 2006, we planned to stay for only a year. Now, at the end of two years, we’re not sure how that time went by so quickly. We’re excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in the next chapter!

Prayer Requests
A few specific things to be praying for:
1. 2007 ended violently in our area with murders and robberies that impacted several of our Honduran friends. Please pray that forgiveness and reconciliation would replace vengeance and violence in this culture.
2. Bob Lillard, an 81-year-old missionary here at Loma de Luz, suffered a heart attack several weeks ago and has basically been in a coma ever since. Please pray for his family (his wife, daughter, and son-in-law are missionaries here as well) and for God’s provision of staff necessary to care for him.
3. Several missionary families are planning to return to the states in the coming year, so please pray for God’s provision of people to continue the work here. This includes an IT person and several doctors.
4. Health, safety, and protection for us and the other missionaries here.

In Closing
Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.” Wherever you are in your relationship with Christ, we pray that you will be seeking Him with a whole heart.
In Him,
Josh, Linzy, Guildy, and Hadley