UPDATE!!!

Hello friends,
As most of you know, I have been preparing and waiting for my visa for four months to go to Brazil through the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. It has been a time of frustration, but of intense growth as well. I've been able to spend time with friends and family and I've learned how to live in the present and I've learned a great deal of patience.

Last week, a decision was made that if my visa didn't arrive by Friday, I was going to cancel the process and go to another country. Well, it didn't arrive. Although I felt peace about the decision to cancel while it was just an idea, it was a really emotional ordeal when it actually happened. I'd been preparing mentally and spiritually to go to Brazil, where I have friends and am familiar with the project. I'd been studying Portuguese and buying things according to Brazilian culture and climate. My heart is in Brazil. For those of you who know me well, you know how true this is. All of a sudden, on Friday afternoon, all of that was gone. It was devastating.

But also on Friday, my supervisor at GBGM told me that they were considering putting me in Chile, in a place called Iquique. It's almost directly west of Nova Almeida on the map, on the Pacific coast. Follow the 20 degree latitude line across from Vitoria, Brazil, and you will find Iquique, Chile. A placement was proposed to me on Friday as well, and I was given the weekend for discernment.
Today is Monday and I've decided that yes, I'm going to Iquique, Chile. I will be leaving very soon, as long as a few technicalities are worked out: January 22nd! I will be flying out of National in DC to Miami, then La Paz, Bolivia, then Iquique. I will be going on a tourist visa and going into Peru and back every 90 days to renew the visa. Iquique is very dry, only getting one and a half inches of rain every 12 years. It's next to the Atacama desert and the Pacific Ocean. I'm told that it's a city of 250 to 300,000 people.

I will be working under Becky Harrell. Her Mission Biography is at: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/work/missionaries/biographies/index.cfm?action=details&id=1134
I'll have the option of three programs. I'll be able to spend time with each and decide which I would like to focus on. The first is called "Serenity." It's an after-school tutoring and lunch program. The second is EMANA. I would be a liaison between U.S. medical teams and the communities. And the third one is called CAF and it's a family violence center.

So, although I am heartbroken, I am excited too. I feel a peace but I'm definitely not done with Brazil, so there must be a good reason for me to have this experience in Chile at this point in my life.

Thank you for prayers and support.