I do like to write... you may or may not concur, depending on whether
you judge by the scarcity of my updates, or by their often-manuscript
length! I try to be
interesting and creative... so I draft and edit and revert to old habits
of taking months trying to say things to my satisfaction until I wear
myself out and in the end just send it to you half-polished... In the
process life gets ahead of me and I neglect to keep you current on our
whereabouts, future plans, and other perhaps important information. (If
you are interested in staying current on those things, you may have
better luck following us on facebook!) But, to take advantage of the
current missive, we are right now enjoying a couple more weeks here at my parents house near Oroville, California before
flying back on Feb 12 for another school year in Bolivia! We were so
blessed to get the tickets we did, they come with a return flight to
Mexico so we can visit Lyli's family next December, Lord willing! God's
timing was impeccable as always! Classes will start in mid March this
year. We are praying God will send the right people to fill the openings
for boys and girls deans, math teacher, an additional primary school
teacher, and somebody to help us get the agriculture really going... so
if you know anyone... or perhaps hear the call... we should talk! We are
pleased that Dr. Neal
Spiva, a retired physician and skilled construction worker/
equipment operator/ electrician etc. will be accompanying us and will
stay for about a month to help us improve our electrical system!
Lyli
and I have been so blessed to have a few days of work and also
opportunities to visit a couple of elementary schools, hang out with the
kids, show pictures and share stories. This year I didn't pursue any
speaking engagements, in part because I don't have my car anymore and in
part because I just wanted a break. Well, just last week I was thinking
that perhaps that was selfish on my part and feeling the need to repent
of my reticence to speak. So I prayed about it and told God I am
willing now, and if He gave me an opportunity I wouldn't turn it down.
Well, just a piece of advice: don't ever pray something like that if you
don't mean it! The next day was Friday and Dad came down with the flu
and asked me to preach for him Sabbath! Not only that, but I'm scheduled
to share again for the next two weekends! (If any of you are
interested, I am happy to send you the PowerPoints). Andy Landis, one of
our church brothers agreed to teach me the basics of welding...
I have zero experience with welding, but I am excited to have a chance to learn a little. Especially after seeing all the gizmos and tractor attachments and different things that Mr. Darren Greenfield has manufacture for the farm over at Wiemar College! I also have a job pruning grapes and
roses and splitting and stacking wood for the physical therapist who is helping my wife. God opened
that door this break for Lyli to get some help for her chronic back and leg
pain. She was in an airplane accident back in 2008* and suffered
fractures to the L5, S1, and S2 and the nerve that runs through that
region down to the sole of her left food was nearly severed. Well, a
kind physical therapist donated some time to work with Lyli and show her
some exercises to do and also gave us a TENS unit (Trans-electric
neural stimulator). It is an external device with electrodes that mask
the pain signals from the damaged nerve with mild electric stimulus. A
dear friend also introduced us to an herbal blend (largely white willow
bark) and the combination of these various simple methods has given Lyli
a surprising amount of relief. She is still not pain-free, but it has
been a great help and blessing. We are still pursuing the possibility of
finding a neurosurgeon who can order some scans and see exactly what is
going on with her back now so we can be sure there is nothing else that
needs to be done.
As always, we appreciate all of you who support us in your thoughts
and prayers and with your donations and words of encouragement! May you
all be so blessed!
*If you're interested in hearing the story of the plane crash you can watch it at http://boliviamissions.org
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
A little bit of last year's garden...
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| Green beans |
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| Lettuce |
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| Add caption |
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| squash |
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| Plantain and banana |
Monday, January 14, 2013
Another old story...
I used to think I was a patient person until I became a missionary in Bolivia. One of the most frustrating trials has consistently been doing the paperwork for our residency visas. The following story some of you have already heard, but I wrote it up for those who didn’t get a chance to hear me tell it while I was home last year.
11-17-2011. Passport problems: a precious lesson.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8, 9.
“Those who exercise but little faith now, are in the greatest danger of falling under the power of satanic delusions and the decree to compel the conscience. And even if they endure the test they will be plunged into deeper distress and anguish in the time of trouble, because they have never made it a habit to trust in God. The lessons of faith which they have neglected they will be forced to learn under a terrible pressure of discouragement. {GC 622.1}
Thirty-three more days, Lord willing! My fiancée Lyli and I left the internado the morning of November 15. Graduation ceremonies were over, we had turned in our students’ grades and the end-of-the year paperwork, packed our bags, and were on our way to the Guayaramerin airport where we would fly with the mission plane as far as Santa Cruz where we would catch our commercial flight to Lima, then Miami, and finally Cancun, in route to my soon-to-be in-laws’ house in southern Mexico where the pending wedding was in desperate want of on-site preparation.
Originally, our plan had been to leave the school by the end of October and have a month and a half to get things ready. But there was a small problem: we didn’t have our passports. Upon returning to Bolivia in February we had surrendered them for the continued processing of our two-year residency visa. During the early part of the year, my application was flagged at least twice on paperwork complications. I fixed the problems as quickly as possible and resubmitted to the local immigration offices in Guayaramerin.
Unfortunately, when my application was finally ready to be resubmitted, the director of the local immigration office wrote the wrong number on my form and so when she sent it off to Trinidad (1) it was rejected again! In the meantime, she was relieved from her post for overall shoddy performance. The new director, Don (2) Armando, inherited all of the previous director’s problems. He quickly became frustrated with my situation because he didn’t know how to fix the mistake on my form, and also, I am sure, because of my regular visits. (3) In the end he wrote a letter explaining my case and sent it off along with my application and passports, requesting that the department headquarters in Trinidad provide the solution.
I knew that my passports could sit in Trinidad for months if I simply waited for them, so I began to call Trinidad every couple of days trying to speed along the process. However, the folks in Trinidad didn’t know what to do either, and decided to send my application on to the highest authorities in La Paz. (4). It was now nearly September.
While all this was going on, we were also concerned about Lyli’s passport, because we hadn’t seen it at all since we had submitted it in February! All our inquiries at the local immigration offices in Guayara were fruitless. They didn’t know anything as usual. I called Trinidad, and they couldn’t tell me anything about it either. I called La Paz and they told me I must provide the application numbers in order for them to check and see if the passport was there. Well, I didn’t have said number, and when I asked for it in Guayara they told me they didn’t have it either! It would seem we had no way of tracking down the passport unless we went to La Paz in person, a two-day trip by bus.
Providentially around this time Jeff Sutton, the project coordinator for GMI in South Amercia, put me touch with an Adventist lawyer in La Paz and after I provided her with all our of our information and she was able to go to the immigration offices and confirm that our passports were there. Lyli’s had been there all along apparently, simply awaiting the signature of the proper authority. We made a document with the public notary giving our new lawyer friend power of attorney and air-mailed it to her and she was able to expedite the signature on Lyli’s visa and submit a request that my residency application be put on hold until and my passport sent back to me so I could travel.
October was already well gone by this point, and we were nearly two weeks into November. It was the day before graduation when the lawyer called me with the good news that both of our passports had been sent! About this time, Mr. Deon, a short-term missionary who had been helping out at the school, told us that the mission plane would be making a flight to take him back to Santa Cruz, and there would be room for us onboard. I knew our passports would still take awhile getting to us, so I called Herman the pilot and asked if we could land in Trinidad to pick them up en route to Santa Cruz. Next I called the immigration office in Trinidad.
“Have the passports arrived?” I asked.
“Yes, they are here!”
“Can we pick them up there the day after tomorrow?”
“Of course.”
So that is how we found ourselves finally beginning our trip to Mexico on the 15th of November, planning to pick up our passports in Trinidad. As we rode in the truck to the airport I was reading for my morning devotions when one vivid paragraph really got my attention.
“Hey Lyli! Listen to this! ‘The Lord does not always make everything plain before His servants. He sometimes tries the confidence of His people by having them move in faith. Often He brings them into straight and trying places, bidding them go forward when their feet seem to be touching the waters of the Red Sea. It is at such times, when the prayers of His servants ascend to Him in earnest faith, that He opens the way before them, and brings them out into a large place.’” {LLM 271.3}
Somehow I felt distinctly impressed that this message had special relevance for me that day. Perhaps things would not go smoothly at the immigration office, and we would have the opportunity to put our trust in the Lord.
In the airplane we started addressing and stuffing envelopes for our wedding invitations. The plan was to send them with Mr. Deon who would be in the states within a few days and had agreed to mail them for us. That was our only hope that they would arrive at least a week or two before the big day. When we touched down in Trinidad, we shared a taxi to the main plaza with the pilot and the other passenger.
“How long do we have?” I asked the pilot.
“We have to leave by 4:00 if we are going to make it to El Trompillo before they close the runway at dark. So if you can be back to the airport by 3:30 at the latest that would be ideal.”
“Okay. Perfect.” It was only about 10:30 in the morning. Yet although I felt pretty optimistic about making the deadline, Lyli and I wasted no time but went directly to the immigration office a few blocks down the road.
When I stepped into the office and introduced Lyli and myself and what we had come for, the lady just stared at us blankly for a few seconds.
“Oh yes, you called.” It seemed to come back to her. She stood and walked over to a filing cabinet and began to thumb through a drawer of files. “Your passports are here.” She pulled a folder. “But it looks like Lyli’s passport hasn’t arrived.”
What? I thought
“I thought you called ahead of time to make sure they were here!” Lyli exclaimed.
“I did!” Then the realization hit me. “Oh no! I don’t think I asked her specifically if your passport was here. I just asked if our passports had arrived. And since I have two passports after I renewed last year, she probably thought I was just asking about my own!”
Lyli was crestfallen.
“Are you sure it is not here?” I asked.
She looked through the file a moment longer.
“It isn’t here. You will have to come back tomorrow. The courier has already come with the mail for today, and he only comes once a day.” She sat down again and looked at my folder. “And we have a problem here too. Your residency has not been completed and there is still a problem with the paperwork.”
“Yes, I know. But I need to travel so I will just be borrowing the passport temporarily and when I return will finish the application.”
“Well, you cannot do that.”
“Really? I had to borrow my passport last year and it was in the middle of the one-year residency process and there was no problem!”
“Well, the law has changed and you cannot just take the passport back whenever you need it anymore. There is a special process.” She informed me. Oh boy. Here we go! I thought. The law would change like that wouldn’t it. Typical. I should have known this wasn’t going to be simple.
“But my lawyer in La Paz told me there would be no problem, she made all the arrangements and that is why the passport has been sent back from La Paz even though they haven’t concluded the residency.”
“Well, I still can’t just give it to you. You have to present the right paperwork.”
“Everything should be in order” I protested. “I asked my lawyer to get my passport from immigration so that I could travel, and she confirmed that it was taken care of. I can call her if you want.”
At that the lady opened the folder to look things over.
“Oh! Here is the document that you need. Everything looks good. I just need you to sign here.” And just like that I had my passport! Thank you Lord. That’s one down, but what about Lyli’s? I wondered. If it’s not here, what will we do?
“Are you sure Lyli’s passport is not here?” I asked again.
“I’ve looked through the whole file of applications, it’s not there.”
“The lawyer told us that our passports were sent out from La Paz the same day, so Lyli’s should be here too. Isn’t there anywhere else it could be?”
“Well, there is the director’s office. Sometimes there are some folders that get taken in there. But she isn’t here today and her office is locked.”
“Doesn’t she leave a key with anyone in case of emergencies like this?” I pressed. The lady hesitated.
“Well, yes. I’ll go check.” She left the office. Another lady at her desk on the other side of the room looked over at us and smiled sympathetically and I realized she had been listening in on the entire conversation. In about ten minutes our immigration officer returned. “There were some folders in there, but Lyli’s isn’t here. Like I said, the courier has already come today too, so it won’t get her today. There’s nothing I can do. You’ll have to check back tomorrow.”
“Let’s go” Lyli tugged at my arm. “You’ll just have to go to Mexico without me.”
“Come on, don’t be silly. Just be patient! I think we should wait this out a little bit longer.” I whispered in English. I remembered the quote I had read that morning and the impression that it made on me, and somehow I felt at peace. Maybe everything wouldn’t work out like I thought it should, but right now I felt we just needed to be patient and persevere.
So we continued to sit there. Lyli got out our wedding invitations and continued labeling the envelopes. The lady, seeing she wasn’t going to get rid of us began to ask us questions about what we were doing and where we were going. When she found out we are volunteer missionaries and were on our way to our wedding she softened a little.
“I was just really hoping to get those passports today” I said. “We have a flight waiting for us at 3:30 this afternoon to Santa Cruz.”
“What! You shouldn’t have gotten flights yet until you had your passports in hand!” She shook her head clicked her tongue against her teeth.
By this time the office was closing up for lunch break and we had no choice but to leave. “Try again tomorrow” the lady told us.
We went back to the plaza to meet up with Mr. Deon and Herman.
“Well, we have one passport, we still need the other!” I greeted them. “Keep praying!” After lunch we went straight back to immigration. They weren’t open yet, so we sat on the front steps and kept working on wedding invitation. About two o’clock, someone showed up and opened the offices. The immigration lady wasn’t back from lunch yet, so we sat down inside to wait some more and continued to work on invitations. About two twenty she showed up looking quite surprised to see us again.
“Look, I just want to be sure that there is no way it the passport could be around here somewhere because if we can we still want to take our flight this afternoon.”
“You just don’t get it do you?” she asked. “I told you to check back tomorrow.”
She went into her office and we continued to sit on the bench outside. What should we do now? Should we get hotel rooms here in Trinidad until Lyli’s passport gets here and then take the bus to Santa Cruz? How many days would that take? What if her passport was lost for real this time? But again I had the impression that I wasn’t to give up just yet. With a prayer to summon up my nerve, I entered the office.
“I don’t mean to be a nuisance, but I just want to be certain the passport is not here already. The lawyer told us that both Lyli and my passports were sent from La Paz at the same time, and since mine was here it seems really strange that Lyli’s passport isn’t!”
“It’s not here! I’m not lying to you!” she seemed quite frustrated with me by this point. “Why would I be lying, I have no reason to hide it from you!”
“Of course not! I don’t think you’re lying to us,” I responded. “I just know sometimes there can be an honest mistake! Things can get lost or misplaced.” I sat silently for a few more minutes, hoping she would have compassion and at least take another look around the office.
It was now three o’clock and we only had fifteen minutes before we needed to head to the airport if we were going to catch the flight. Lyli had stowed the invitation in the backpack and was at my elbow. I could tell she was ready to leave. “You need to call Herman and let him know we aren’t going to make it.”
I eyed a stack of folder on her desk. “What about all these, could it be in any of these folders?” I lifted the corner of the top folder.
“Oh no, those are all my local cases from here in Trinidad. It won’t be in there.”
“Okay. I just want to be sure that there’s no way it could be around here anywhere.” I repeated myself yet again.”
“Alright, just so you can see that I’m not lying to you, I’ll show you that it’s not here” she said, grabbing the first folder from the stack on her desk. As soon as she opened it, Lyli and I both spotted a familiar name and relief flooded through me. The lady gasped in surprise. “Here it is! I can’t believe it! It shouldn’t be in here, how could have gotten in these folders? I have no idea how it got in here! I’m so sorry!” she blushed and babbled.
“Never mind, we don’t blame you at all. I’m sure it just got misplaced by accident” we consoled her as Lyli signed for and received the long-lost document. In that moment God impressed my mind that this was a perfect opportunity to give Him the glory.
“Actually I believe that God lets us pass through difficult situations like this where it things come down to the last minute just to test us and see if we are going to trust him or if we will become angry and frustrated.” We were able to say a few more words and I left her with a piece of literature before we hurried out to catch a taxi to the airport.
“Bring me some of the wedding cake!” she called out after us.
Out on the street there were no taxi’s in sight, so we began to walk toward the plaza while I texted Herman with the good news and to let him know we were on our way. Suddenly I remembered we had forgotten something important.
“Sweetie, let’s stop for a minute and thank the Lord for what He just did for us back there.”
“I was about to suggest the same thing” Lyli responded. We prayed and praised the Lord for His goodness to us and for teaching us a lesson in patience and giving us an opportunity to testify of his love and power.
“You know, there’s just one thing that bothers me” I told Lyli after we prayed. “I just realized that all that time that we were sitting there waiting, all I was thinking about was our problem and what we could do if the passport wasn’t there. I never stopped to consider what God might be trying to accomplish through us, that he wanted to use us to share His love and goodness with that immigration officer. How selfish I have been, and faithless to be worried about what we were going to do instead of looking for a greater purpose in all of this! I feel like I owe God an apology!”
“Yeah, you and me both.”
*******************************************************************
I found this quote later and thought it gives a good reason for sharing this story with you even though it is already an old one. :)
“When the Lord has answered our prayers, and proved himself better to us than our fears, we should not fail to express our gratitude for his mercies. Like the Hebrew host, we should praise him for his wonderful works. Here many fail to glorify God. They do not tell of his goodness, making known to all around them that the Lord is to them a present help in every time of need.
We should praise God for every blessing we enjoy, and above all else should we express our gratitude for the provisions of his grace. What compassion, what matchless love, hath God shown to us, lost sinners, in connecting us with himself to be to him a peculiar treasure! What an infinite sacrifice has been made by our Redeemer, that we may be called children of God! And what a tribute of love and gratitude should it call forth!
If the heart be given to God in earnest, sincere affection, we shall love those for whom Christ died, and thus may we reflect back glory to God. By meditating upon his word and drawing nigh to him in the simplicity of faith we may behold his excellency and his glory, and thus be changed into the same image. We should offer unto God the sacrifice of praise continually, giving thanks unto his name.” {ST, March 10, 1881 par. 10-12}
1. Trinidad is the department capital of Beni. (The equivalent of a state capital in the US)
2. Synonymous with señor, the Spanish equivalent of Mr.
3. Here in Bolivia I often find myself reminded of the story of the unjust judge of Luke 18. Persistence to the point of making yourself a nuisance is practically necessary in many cases if you expect any results. Although the majority of the officials couldn’t care less about you, if you are incessantly insistent, they will eventually give you what you need just to get rid of you.
4. La Paz is the capital of Bolivia
11-17-2011. Passport problems: a precious lesson.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8, 9.
“Those who exercise but little faith now, are in the greatest danger of falling under the power of satanic delusions and the decree to compel the conscience. And even if they endure the test they will be plunged into deeper distress and anguish in the time of trouble, because they have never made it a habit to trust in God. The lessons of faith which they have neglected they will be forced to learn under a terrible pressure of discouragement. {GC 622.1}
Thirty-three more days, Lord willing! My fiancée Lyli and I left the internado the morning of November 15. Graduation ceremonies were over, we had turned in our students’ grades and the end-of-the year paperwork, packed our bags, and were on our way to the Guayaramerin airport where we would fly with the mission plane as far as Santa Cruz where we would catch our commercial flight to Lima, then Miami, and finally Cancun, in route to my soon-to-be in-laws’ house in southern Mexico where the pending wedding was in desperate want of on-site preparation.
Originally, our plan had been to leave the school by the end of October and have a month and a half to get things ready. But there was a small problem: we didn’t have our passports. Upon returning to Bolivia in February we had surrendered them for the continued processing of our two-year residency visa. During the early part of the year, my application was flagged at least twice on paperwork complications. I fixed the problems as quickly as possible and resubmitted to the local immigration offices in Guayaramerin.
Unfortunately, when my application was finally ready to be resubmitted, the director of the local immigration office wrote the wrong number on my form and so when she sent it off to Trinidad (1) it was rejected again! In the meantime, she was relieved from her post for overall shoddy performance. The new director, Don (2) Armando, inherited all of the previous director’s problems. He quickly became frustrated with my situation because he didn’t know how to fix the mistake on my form, and also, I am sure, because of my regular visits. (3) In the end he wrote a letter explaining my case and sent it off along with my application and passports, requesting that the department headquarters in Trinidad provide the solution.
I knew that my passports could sit in Trinidad for months if I simply waited for them, so I began to call Trinidad every couple of days trying to speed along the process. However, the folks in Trinidad didn’t know what to do either, and decided to send my application on to the highest authorities in La Paz. (4). It was now nearly September.
While all this was going on, we were also concerned about Lyli’s passport, because we hadn’t seen it at all since we had submitted it in February! All our inquiries at the local immigration offices in Guayara were fruitless. They didn’t know anything as usual. I called Trinidad, and they couldn’t tell me anything about it either. I called La Paz and they told me I must provide the application numbers in order for them to check and see if the passport was there. Well, I didn’t have said number, and when I asked for it in Guayara they told me they didn’t have it either! It would seem we had no way of tracking down the passport unless we went to La Paz in person, a two-day trip by bus.
Providentially around this time Jeff Sutton, the project coordinator for GMI in South Amercia, put me touch with an Adventist lawyer in La Paz and after I provided her with all our of our information and she was able to go to the immigration offices and confirm that our passports were there. Lyli’s had been there all along apparently, simply awaiting the signature of the proper authority. We made a document with the public notary giving our new lawyer friend power of attorney and air-mailed it to her and she was able to expedite the signature on Lyli’s visa and submit a request that my residency application be put on hold until and my passport sent back to me so I could travel.
October was already well gone by this point, and we were nearly two weeks into November. It was the day before graduation when the lawyer called me with the good news that both of our passports had been sent! About this time, Mr. Deon, a short-term missionary who had been helping out at the school, told us that the mission plane would be making a flight to take him back to Santa Cruz, and there would be room for us onboard. I knew our passports would still take awhile getting to us, so I called Herman the pilot and asked if we could land in Trinidad to pick them up en route to Santa Cruz. Next I called the immigration office in Trinidad.
“Have the passports arrived?” I asked.
“Yes, they are here!”
“Can we pick them up there the day after tomorrow?”
“Of course.”
So that is how we found ourselves finally beginning our trip to Mexico on the 15th of November, planning to pick up our passports in Trinidad. As we rode in the truck to the airport I was reading for my morning devotions when one vivid paragraph really got my attention.
“Hey Lyli! Listen to this! ‘The Lord does not always make everything plain before His servants. He sometimes tries the confidence of His people by having them move in faith. Often He brings them into straight and trying places, bidding them go forward when their feet seem to be touching the waters of the Red Sea. It is at such times, when the prayers of His servants ascend to Him in earnest faith, that He opens the way before them, and brings them out into a large place.’” {LLM 271.3}
Somehow I felt distinctly impressed that this message had special relevance for me that day. Perhaps things would not go smoothly at the immigration office, and we would have the opportunity to put our trust in the Lord.
In the airplane we started addressing and stuffing envelopes for our wedding invitations. The plan was to send them with Mr. Deon who would be in the states within a few days and had agreed to mail them for us. That was our only hope that they would arrive at least a week or two before the big day. When we touched down in Trinidad, we shared a taxi to the main plaza with the pilot and the other passenger.
“How long do we have?” I asked the pilot.
“We have to leave by 4:00 if we are going to make it to El Trompillo before they close the runway at dark. So if you can be back to the airport by 3:30 at the latest that would be ideal.”
“Okay. Perfect.” It was only about 10:30 in the morning. Yet although I felt pretty optimistic about making the deadline, Lyli and I wasted no time but went directly to the immigration office a few blocks down the road.
When I stepped into the office and introduced Lyli and myself and what we had come for, the lady just stared at us blankly for a few seconds.
“Oh yes, you called.” It seemed to come back to her. She stood and walked over to a filing cabinet and began to thumb through a drawer of files. “Your passports are here.” She pulled a folder. “But it looks like Lyli’s passport hasn’t arrived.”
What? I thought
“I thought you called ahead of time to make sure they were here!” Lyli exclaimed.
“I did!” Then the realization hit me. “Oh no! I don’t think I asked her specifically if your passport was here. I just asked if our passports had arrived. And since I have two passports after I renewed last year, she probably thought I was just asking about my own!”
Lyli was crestfallen.
“Are you sure it is not here?” I asked.
She looked through the file a moment longer.
“It isn’t here. You will have to come back tomorrow. The courier has already come with the mail for today, and he only comes once a day.” She sat down again and looked at my folder. “And we have a problem here too. Your residency has not been completed and there is still a problem with the paperwork.”
“Yes, I know. But I need to travel so I will just be borrowing the passport temporarily and when I return will finish the application.”
“Well, you cannot do that.”
“Really? I had to borrow my passport last year and it was in the middle of the one-year residency process and there was no problem!”
“Well, the law has changed and you cannot just take the passport back whenever you need it anymore. There is a special process.” She informed me. Oh boy. Here we go! I thought. The law would change like that wouldn’t it. Typical. I should have known this wasn’t going to be simple.
“But my lawyer in La Paz told me there would be no problem, she made all the arrangements and that is why the passport has been sent back from La Paz even though they haven’t concluded the residency.”
“Well, I still can’t just give it to you. You have to present the right paperwork.”
“Everything should be in order” I protested. “I asked my lawyer to get my passport from immigration so that I could travel, and she confirmed that it was taken care of. I can call her if you want.”
At that the lady opened the folder to look things over.
“Oh! Here is the document that you need. Everything looks good. I just need you to sign here.” And just like that I had my passport! Thank you Lord. That’s one down, but what about Lyli’s? I wondered. If it’s not here, what will we do?
“Are you sure Lyli’s passport is not here?” I asked again.
“I’ve looked through the whole file of applications, it’s not there.”
“The lawyer told us that our passports were sent out from La Paz the same day, so Lyli’s should be here too. Isn’t there anywhere else it could be?”
“Well, there is the director’s office. Sometimes there are some folders that get taken in there. But she isn’t here today and her office is locked.”
“Doesn’t she leave a key with anyone in case of emergencies like this?” I pressed. The lady hesitated.
“Well, yes. I’ll go check.” She left the office. Another lady at her desk on the other side of the room looked over at us and smiled sympathetically and I realized she had been listening in on the entire conversation. In about ten minutes our immigration officer returned. “There were some folders in there, but Lyli’s isn’t here. Like I said, the courier has already come today too, so it won’t get her today. There’s nothing I can do. You’ll have to check back tomorrow.”
“Let’s go” Lyli tugged at my arm. “You’ll just have to go to Mexico without me.”
“Come on, don’t be silly. Just be patient! I think we should wait this out a little bit longer.” I whispered in English. I remembered the quote I had read that morning and the impression that it made on me, and somehow I felt at peace. Maybe everything wouldn’t work out like I thought it should, but right now I felt we just needed to be patient and persevere.
So we continued to sit there. Lyli got out our wedding invitations and continued labeling the envelopes. The lady, seeing she wasn’t going to get rid of us began to ask us questions about what we were doing and where we were going. When she found out we are volunteer missionaries and were on our way to our wedding she softened a little.
“I was just really hoping to get those passports today” I said. “We have a flight waiting for us at 3:30 this afternoon to Santa Cruz.”
“What! You shouldn’t have gotten flights yet until you had your passports in hand!” She shook her head clicked her tongue against her teeth.
By this time the office was closing up for lunch break and we had no choice but to leave. “Try again tomorrow” the lady told us.
We went back to the plaza to meet up with Mr. Deon and Herman.
“Well, we have one passport, we still need the other!” I greeted them. “Keep praying!” After lunch we went straight back to immigration. They weren’t open yet, so we sat on the front steps and kept working on wedding invitation. About two o’clock, someone showed up and opened the offices. The immigration lady wasn’t back from lunch yet, so we sat down inside to wait some more and continued to work on invitations. About two twenty she showed up looking quite surprised to see us again.
“Look, I just want to be sure that there is no way it the passport could be around here somewhere because if we can we still want to take our flight this afternoon.”
“You just don’t get it do you?” she asked. “I told you to check back tomorrow.”
She went into her office and we continued to sit on the bench outside. What should we do now? Should we get hotel rooms here in Trinidad until Lyli’s passport gets here and then take the bus to Santa Cruz? How many days would that take? What if her passport was lost for real this time? But again I had the impression that I wasn’t to give up just yet. With a prayer to summon up my nerve, I entered the office.
“I don’t mean to be a nuisance, but I just want to be certain the passport is not here already. The lawyer told us that both Lyli and my passports were sent from La Paz at the same time, and since mine was here it seems really strange that Lyli’s passport isn’t!”
“It’s not here! I’m not lying to you!” she seemed quite frustrated with me by this point. “Why would I be lying, I have no reason to hide it from you!”
“Of course not! I don’t think you’re lying to us,” I responded. “I just know sometimes there can be an honest mistake! Things can get lost or misplaced.” I sat silently for a few more minutes, hoping she would have compassion and at least take another look around the office.
It was now three o’clock and we only had fifteen minutes before we needed to head to the airport if we were going to catch the flight. Lyli had stowed the invitation in the backpack and was at my elbow. I could tell she was ready to leave. “You need to call Herman and let him know we aren’t going to make it.”
I eyed a stack of folder on her desk. “What about all these, could it be in any of these folders?” I lifted the corner of the top folder.
“Oh no, those are all my local cases from here in Trinidad. It won’t be in there.”
“Okay. I just want to be sure that there’s no way it could be around here anywhere.” I repeated myself yet again.”
“Alright, just so you can see that I’m not lying to you, I’ll show you that it’s not here” she said, grabbing the first folder from the stack on her desk. As soon as she opened it, Lyli and I both spotted a familiar name and relief flooded through me. The lady gasped in surprise. “Here it is! I can’t believe it! It shouldn’t be in here, how could have gotten in these folders? I have no idea how it got in here! I’m so sorry!” she blushed and babbled.
“Never mind, we don’t blame you at all. I’m sure it just got misplaced by accident” we consoled her as Lyli signed for and received the long-lost document. In that moment God impressed my mind that this was a perfect opportunity to give Him the glory.
“Actually I believe that God lets us pass through difficult situations like this where it things come down to the last minute just to test us and see if we are going to trust him or if we will become angry and frustrated.” We were able to say a few more words and I left her with a piece of literature before we hurried out to catch a taxi to the airport.
“Bring me some of the wedding cake!” she called out after us.
Out on the street there were no taxi’s in sight, so we began to walk toward the plaza while I texted Herman with the good news and to let him know we were on our way. Suddenly I remembered we had forgotten something important.
“Sweetie, let’s stop for a minute and thank the Lord for what He just did for us back there.”
“I was about to suggest the same thing” Lyli responded. We prayed and praised the Lord for His goodness to us and for teaching us a lesson in patience and giving us an opportunity to testify of his love and power.
“You know, there’s just one thing that bothers me” I told Lyli after we prayed. “I just realized that all that time that we were sitting there waiting, all I was thinking about was our problem and what we could do if the passport wasn’t there. I never stopped to consider what God might be trying to accomplish through us, that he wanted to use us to share His love and goodness with that immigration officer. How selfish I have been, and faithless to be worried about what we were going to do instead of looking for a greater purpose in all of this! I feel like I owe God an apology!”
“Yeah, you and me both.”
*******************************************************************
I found this quote later and thought it gives a good reason for sharing this story with you even though it is already an old one. :)
“When the Lord has answered our prayers, and proved himself better to us than our fears, we should not fail to express our gratitude for his mercies. Like the Hebrew host, we should praise him for his wonderful works. Here many fail to glorify God. They do not tell of his goodness, making known to all around them that the Lord is to them a present help in every time of need.
We should praise God for every blessing we enjoy, and above all else should we express our gratitude for the provisions of his grace. What compassion, what matchless love, hath God shown to us, lost sinners, in connecting us with himself to be to him a peculiar treasure! What an infinite sacrifice has been made by our Redeemer, that we may be called children of God! And what a tribute of love and gratitude should it call forth!
If the heart be given to God in earnest, sincere affection, we shall love those for whom Christ died, and thus may we reflect back glory to God. By meditating upon his word and drawing nigh to him in the simplicity of faith we may behold his excellency and his glory, and thus be changed into the same image. We should offer unto God the sacrifice of praise continually, giving thanks unto his name.” {ST, March 10, 1881 par. 10-12}
1. Trinidad is the department capital of Beni. (The equivalent of a state capital in the US)
2. Synonymous with señor, the Spanish equivalent of Mr.
3. Here in Bolivia I often find myself reminded of the story of the unjust judge of Luke 18. Persistence to the point of making yourself a nuisance is practically necessary in many cases if you expect any results. Although the majority of the officials couldn’t care less about you, if you are incessantly insistent, they will eventually give you what you need just to get rid of you.
4. La Paz is the capital of Bolivia
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