2014...We know that this will be a year of change - and lots of it! And we are excited about what the Lord has in store for us!

We are frantically working to prepare a place for all the visitors coming this year. At the end of the month we will have 25 guests coming from all over and staying for various amounts of time. The "back house" is coming along...just not as quickly as we would like. Things like windows and cabinets have to all be made by hand - can't just run to Home Depot! Duane is usually up and out working by 5am. Once that is even semi-livable, we will move our family back there in order to give guests our home. The doctors who come will get a feel for living here with their small children, learn some Spanish, and hopefully will hear from the Lord!

The school opening has been delayed by government bureaucracy but we are hoping for a resolution today. The teachers have arrived and are helping in clinics and in preparation of the physical structure until the government releases the curriculum to us. Please pray that all the road blocks would be removed quickly! Along with the nursing school, we will begin to teach English classes. When we began to talk about the school, we realized that many people had a desire learn English and at the same time, the Lord sent three young women who have a desire to teach! Amazing how His timing is always perfect!

The hospital plans have been submitted to the government. There are 4 stages of approval that we must pass.... 1 down, and 3 to go. Nothing happens within government offices for pretty much the entire month of December but things are up and running again, so we are hoping that the process will speed up. One never knows with the government however - here or anywhere. So we wait, trusting again that His timing is perfect.

Amid all the change, clinics continue to be busy. Many of the men have left to work on the coast so women struggle alone to care for and provide food for their children. They come with their sick little ones or their complicated pregnancies. Those who need to go to the hospital in Quiche will not go now because they cannot without their husbands approval. Who will care for the other children? And how will they pay for the trip there? So we place each one into the hands of the only One who can ultimately heal and save, and we trust....

So trust seems to be the recurring theme as we enter into this new year. I am sure that it is the same in your life as well. We trust in His provision - financially, spiritually...in all ways.
Isaiah 26:3 says "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." May your mind (and ours) be securely fixed upon Him!