Things didn’t go as originally planned when I returned to Guatemala a couple weeks ago. Instead of having some time to settle back in and prep for my classes, I found myself in Canilla, seeing patients for our rehabilitation promoter that would be out of town and interviewing candidates for the training. We had ten applicants with room for eight in the class. Flying back, I felt the stress rising. How would I get it all done? Honestly, I was angry at myself for overfilling my schedule again.

My travel back to Chichi went smoothly, and getting to Canilla the next day went well, but there was still a lot of work to do. I started interviewing people and thinking about our first class on Saturday. I was still waiting for the Spanish translation to arrive to get handouts, etc. ready. We thought it would arrive Wednesday afternoon. Thursday afternoon my computer started acting funny, but to my surprise, instead of being stressed out, I had a deep peace. I turned the computer off and decided to leave it alone until the morning. I’d get more rest that night than I thought.

Friday morning I hoped for a working computer, but now it wouldn’t even turn on. It had crashed, along with access to the videos, pictures, and more I had hoped to test out from our new curriculum. On top of that, I had six patients to see that day, two more interviews to do, phone calls to make, and I needed time to prep for the class. I should have been stressed, but, once again, I had such a peace. I knew things weren’t going to go as I had originally planned, but I knew that God was in control.

That morning some patients cancelled so I was able to use another computer to get some things written up and printed out for the course. I finished my interviews and decided all ten applicants should be allowed to study and started making calls to let them know. I wish you could have been there to hear the delight as I shared with each person they would be able to study with us.

Saturday morning at 7am I received the Spanish translation. It arrived too late for some of the things I wanted to prepare for our 8 am start, but just in time to help with a few things. Instead of being anxious, I was excited about what God was going to do in this first class.

As the students arrived, I felt the energy increase. The last student was surprised to see so many students. I told her I couldn’t decide who not to let study, so I chose instead to let everyone come. Again, they were all delighted.

Our class didn’t go as I had originally planned and I couldn’t test out some of the new things Shes and I have created in our new curriculum, but we covered all we needed to the first day. I had more rest the days before than expected, and I was reminded again that He holds all things in His hands.

We didn’t have class July 28 because of the Maripositas annual fun run. This week, August 4th and following, I will be in the city, picking up Erin, so Haider, our rehabilitation promoter, will be teaching. We’ll be continuing to look at disability and how it affects people by watching a couple of movies and interviewing someone with a disability. Then I’ll be back out there for classes on August 11, with my new laptop and our Spanish translation this time, I hope. I can’t wait to see what He has planned for this group of students as we study every Saturday through November.