Dear Friends,

I wanted to let you know that I have had some problem obtaining my Peruvian medical license which is affecting my ability to work. I was so completely sure that I had everything that I needed when I went to Lima last week to present my documents to the university that is going to review everything to give me a license in Peru that I may have felt even a little cocky about being so prepared. That overconfidence should have been a warning to me. Of course when I arrived they told me that I was missing some papers which others of our hospital had not had to present. A different document that had an explanation that they needed about my medical training they wanted in a different format. I had it, they just did not like the wording. My original diploma which I had been waiting for from the States because Dr. Ari Cale was told she needed the original . . . well they told me they did not need it and that the certified copy which I had had for some time already was sufficient even though it had not been sufficient for Ari. There were some test scores they wanted which were not on the list of things that they required. They mentioned as we were talking that “Hmm, yes we should probably add it to the list.” Others working in our hospital had not had to present those scores. The short of it is that my application for a license was rejected for even consideration, and I am in the process of obtaining the documents that they told me would complete my application and of having them sent to Peru. Then I will have everything translated officially here in Peru (again), and I will present them again to the university, which means another trip to Lima. So that being the case, I cannot work in direct patient care in the hospital currently as my temporary license has expired. So while I cannot do patient care I am going to do some things I really look forward to doing which include going on visitations with the pastor of our church and possibly the hospital pastor as he visits people in the rural communities who have passed through our hospital and expressed an interest in Jesus. I will be working on some medical protocols for different medical situations in the hospital, doing some evangelistic outreaches with some of the community oriented ministries in town. I plan to keep busy, but my work will be more evangelistic and administrative instead of direct patient care for probably the next month until all the paperwork makes it to Peru. In truth I feel like it is a blessing from God, a chance to know Curahuasi and Peru and the people in a way that I have not been able to know them in the past. All I have really known is sick people coming to the hospital, but now I can know people in their normal situation away from the desperation of illness and the hospital. It also gives me a chance to pray a bit more and think about what our future holds for Peru and our kids education. So that is the state of things currently, and we are thankful to God for his blessings in this unexpected short term change in work circumstances.

Your friend in Christ,

Will