The Visa Saga Continues

I never guessed before starting the visa process that it would absorb so much of my time and be such an ordeal. I even considered just going and seeing what could be accomplished once I was in South Africa. But a friend of mine who left for the mission field about a year ago tried this strategy. He left for a country where its pretty easy to get a visa and planned on sorting it out once he was there. Then discovered that it has to get done in your home country. So he ended up having to fly back home after a few months and work out the visa. This is a great story for me. Helps me remember why its better to just deal with all of this now rather than later.
So the next episode in my visa saga is actually a testimony to how great God is....
The RSA embassy called my parents' house on friday of last week. I gave the embassy their info for a permanent address, etc. My mom calls to say there is a message but she simply cannot understand the accent, but she did manage to get the phone number. By this time it is after work hours friday so there was nothing I could do over the weekend. But during the weekend I had two opportunities to share with groups about everything in South Africa. Both groups were a small gathering of people that friends of mine know. In the first group there were 17 of us in total but out of this small group people gave $885 towards the work in South Africa while we were all together that day. The second group was another round of blessings...but the finances given so generously by the first group is the key to my story here :) Anyway, when monday rolled around I called the embassy to see what was happening with my visa. Through the whole application process there was this one requirement for certain types of visas but it was not required for other visas but it never was completely clear when it was required and when not. I thought I had made a correct assessment that it was not a requirement for me. I was wrong. I did need this one requirement...I needed to send the embassy $800 immediately before they could process my application. Apparently they return it when you return home. If I get the opportunity to stay in RSA for many years to come and continue renewing my visa each time, then there is a chance I may never see this money again. So at the end of the day, this may be a donation to the South African government. But, this does not change the fact that it is a requirment or there will be no visa for me. So....as I stated before, the first group this weekend gave more than enough so that this money could be sent. I had no idea what the embassy was calling about friday but God did. Even before I knew the money needed to be sent, God provided. Wow. He's so good! What a blessing. I was genuinely amazed by the large amount of money that came in from people who had never even met me before during the gatherings this weekend. Amazing!! But now I know God had a very specific purpose for providing so generously this weekend.
I've been reading about the life of David lately. When David sinned by killing Bathsheba's husband and taking her as his own wife, God asked David if He had not already provided enough for David that he would take more from another man. Then, God tells David that if it was not enough, then all David needed to do was ask and God would have given him even more. Isn't that amazing. Someone as well taken care of as David only needed to ask the Father and God would have given him even more than he already had. I am so amazed at how God has provided for everything in Africa so far. God has provided enough people committed to monthly gifts that the monthly expenses of living in RSA will be covered now. He has provided enough to purchase a safe, dependable car. It seems like more than I could ever ask for already. But you know what. There is more I would like to do and if I ask He will provide. Even though I feel like He has already done more than I could ever think or image....He will still provide more. And He demonstrated that to me by providing for this visa expense before I even knew to ask! That is how great our God is. He guides us and protects us. He heals us and makes a way for us to succeed at everything we put our hands to....and He gives us every good gift on top of all of this. So, now I'm asking God.....for money to be able to pay income taxes, for money to buy furniture for the house I'll rent, for money to cover the expenses of traveling into other parts of Africa a few times per year to do leadership trainings, for money to help with the costs of programs and outreaches in Cape Town, for South African friends to laugh with, for supernatural opportunities to touch people's lives that I normally would not get the opportunity to share the love of Jesus with, for the opportunity to partner with Him in order to see people all over Africa rise up into the destiny He has for them.....and I may ask Him for even more :) That Psalm 67 is fulfilled "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us that His ways may be know upon the earth, His salvation amoung the nations." Amen!

The Visa is in The Mail!!!

I finally got to put the visa application for my South Africa Charitable Worker Visa in the mail today!!!! I've been trying to do this for 6 months. Now, I've got my international health insurance in place, required letters from hosts, medical exams, airline tickets, etc, etc. Its all in place. The embassy claims they process visa applications in 10 days. Assuming that they mean 10 working days and that they receive the application tomorrow....I hope to hear from them before March 5!

Pink Ladies' Valentines Night

So on Valentine's some friends and I got together for a fabulous night of games, chocolate, and lots of laughter. This was honestly one of the funniest nights I've had in my life. I have no idea why we laughed so much but we laughed and laughed all night. It was a great memory before leaving for Africa but it also left me praying for two things: 1. to find people in S.Africa that I can laugh this hard with. 2. To find a way to get these girls all in Africa at the same time for some great laughter.

January Newsletter

Just wanted to share my newsletter from January. Check out the housing option.....I've got more news that I will share soon about housing!

About the visa....

I'm learning a lot right now in the visa process. When I started I didn't know anyone who had obtained a visa to South Africa for any reason other than a student visa (which I've gotten before :)
Here's what I've learned....just call the embassy and ask all your questions. Even if they act annoyed they have to answer your questions and you don't have to give your name so they won't be frustrated with you when they receive the application.
Also, you cannot apply very early. I've wasted a lot of time trying to apply early. I actually started trying to apply in October of last year. But at the end of the day there is no international health insurance that will approve you more than 30 days ahead of time and you can't get a visa without the health insurance. So basically you can fill out all the paper work and gather everything early, but you can't apply until 30 days before departure. Even the guy I asked at the embassy admitted its pretty crazy that you have to go ahead and buy a plane ticket and arrange everything and then just hope you get your visa in time. But people apparently do this all the time. At least I can pray and trust God with it.
So that's the visa thing, it is contrary to everything in me that wants to work on things ahead of time but it is a great faith builder :)
Oh, and all the stress over the boxes I cleaned out of my closet.....well, a great friend came over and helped me throw things away. Yeah! That was a huge breakthrough. Hope is restored and I'm no longer stressed about dealing with everything I need to trash, store, pack, or sell!!!!

Its just time for a blog

Well, I've been thinking about how I needed to blog again for the past couple of weeks. And then today I actually got a request for more blogs about what it is actually like to prepare for moving to another country (thanks Susan). So, here goes a little "journal" blogging about the process....sorry to all those who I've heard say that they don't like people who use a blog as a journal :)

I'm down to less than 6 weeks before I leave the country, 5 weeks before I leave Lubbock, and less than 4 weeks before I move out of my apartment. That means I have less than four weeks to organize everything I own. If you've talked to me anytime lately you have probably already heard this. But do you have any idea how hard it is to actually sort through every last detail of what you own. Have you ever thought about the junk drawer in your kitchen. Everyone has one of those right. What do you actually do with that stuff? I've actually settled into Goodwill or the trash for most of mine because I don't think it is worth the dime I would I have to argue with someone about for 10 minutes at a garage sale. Then, there's that box under my bed that I truly have no idea what to do with. I finally survived the four boxes in my closet where I found random CD's of old work documents, the magazine that once belonged to a roommate back in Abilene and somehow I ended up with it (I know I'm anal, but she loved that article about Bryan White and I will probably actually put this into the mail to send back to her), I also have 20 fantastic sermons on cassette tape (anyone want to transfer those to CD for me so they're actually useful again:), I have three pairs of headphones, an old pack of AAA batteries, a pack of index cards, old pictures on CD, the videos from my mission trip to Haiti, great pictures I was going to use for collages back in my artsy days in San Antonio (what happened to the artistic me?), 3 spiral notebooks of notes from my Bible minor at Hardin-Simmons, a lint roller, a small scrap booking paper cutter, a box of band-aids, the birthday card I bought for my friend Nikki last year, two sheets of stickers, 5 floppy disks (I no longer have any form of computer that will even open them), a charger that goes to some techno something around my apt, and the extra buttons from a shirt I bought about a year ago. This was all in the last closet box. I'm pretty sure the thing about this box is that someone was coming to visit and just threw a bunch of stuff in a box. Then, I put that box neatly in my closet as if it held important things and its been sitting there in the closet ever since. So, I survived pulling everything out of that box, but I still have all these things sitting in my living room. Why is it hard for me to just trash this stuff? Obviously I have not missed it in a year, yet I can't get over the thought that there may be important things on those floppy disk and that charger probably goes to something very important, also.

And if I can ever get this randomness cleared out of my living room, then I can move on to the all-important box under my bed. Now this box under my bed got put there several months ago when I first started to clean out the closet boxes. The things that I looked at and thought I would make a decision about later are inside this under the bed box. This box has things like the covers to all my music CDs. I took the CD's and put them in a CD holder book, but should I waste storage space or packing space on the covers? What if I want to give the CD to someone in South Africa and they could have a great CD but there is no cover for them to have to go with the great CD. And that is as far as I remember of what is in that box because I pulled this box out friday night so that I could finally get through all my stuff. I looked through it and thought I don't want to face it any more today than I did a few months ago. I saw the CD covers and then walked away from box and left it laying right in the middle of my bedroom. Then, saturday I proudly declared that I have now pulled out every box in my apartment and am almost through them all!

This sorting through absolutely everything I own business has left me telling God that a small fire just to burn the stuff that won't be missed would help a lot right now. But so far, no fire. I guess God wants me to endure this process. Its good though, I'm breaking off the bondage of carrying around "stuff". Woohoo!

Well, I think I've written long enough for the moment. I'll write again soon...I want to tell you about my visa. So, until I write again.....