Change of Plan for Licensure!

We have run into a slight change of plans, which, Primero Dios, will be a good change of plans. On Tuesday while in Nebaj, Lisa was notified that she needed to be in Guatemala City on Thursday morning for a meeting with the Director of the licesure program at University of San Carlos. The reason for the meeting as presented was to discuss the study that would be performed by the students in the Nebaj area.

We left for Chichi Wednesday afternoon to get halfway to the city and then on Thursday left early to go to Guatemala City for a 11am meeting. Once there we found out the meeting was not until 2pm, so we got to have lunch at Chili's. The burger was great but the blue cheese dressing must have been bad as Kemmel suffered the rest of the day and night and part of Friday. The cost you pay for a good burger!

Anyway, back on point. During the meeting at 2pm, Lisa and the other students serving their year of service were informed that they were being pulled out of the Nebaj area. Apparenty, some kind of disagreement ocurred between the University of San Carlos and the Director of the Health Department in Nebaj which due to the circumstances caused the University to pull all of the students out of Nebaj. This is kind of sad for the area as this pulls out all of the physicians minus the 10 Cuban physicians who run the hospital. Hard to understand the hows and whys...

Most of the students will be sent to other areas such as Chimaltenango (1 hour from Guatemala City), El Progresso (2.5 hours from GC), Solola (Lake Atitlan and area), and Izabal (4 hours from GC). For some reason, the director is treating Lisa extremely well and is allowing her to stay in the Chichicastenango area. So, once again God is Good! Lisa is to present to the Director of the Santa Cruz Area on Monday to see about her assignment. It may be in the Centro de Salud
(Health Clinic) in Chichi or in one of the Puesto de Saluds (Rural Health Clinic) in the municipality of Chichi. We will not have a solid answer until at least Monday.

The only complication so far is there are no other students in this area; thus, Lisa will report to the physician over the area of Solola. Solola is about 1.5 hours away, so Lisa may have to attend meetings with the physician there and also be a part of the combined study they do with all of the students in that area.

So, our plans are up in the air again, but we know that she will be closer to Chichi which is positive for us in many ways, so there is no room to complain. We just thank God for the way he is taking care of us and continue to pray that we will have the faith to trust in him. Our church, Eastside Church of Christ, is using the scripture of Psalm 27:13-14

13 I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the LORD.

as there focus for mission Sunday. In our current situation, it is also a great encouragement to us.