In order to be able to enter Brazil, as a Canadian I need to have a Visa. In order to obtain a visa within Barbados, I needed my full student visa here and letter which still has not been approved. The students that had managed to get all their information in back in August found them receiving the visa very quickly, which was a miracle in itself as the gov't here changed in the last couple of years and it has become much harder to obtain. That changed for the second batch that got sent in back in September, which included mine and 2 other Canadians and 2 other Americans.
As this was the case, we were then told we would have to Fed-Ex our passports back to our parents in Canada, who would then send them to the Consulate of Brazil there and then once processed back to our parents and then Fed-Ex'd back to us. Not only was this a headache but rather costly as well. Thankfully Gods provision was already with us as we were able to send our stuff back to Canada along with our speaker Dave 2 weeks ago, so that cut down on one side of the cost.
So we had exactly 2 weeks and a day for everything to be processed before we headed out to South America. Come last Wednesday, I thankfully found an email in my junk mail from the Consulate stating that they did not accept self-addressed Fed-Ex envelopes, only Purolator or Courier and that they had put the process on hold till they received the proper self-addressed envelope. YIKES!! So quickly I got on skype, got a hold of mom and had her quickly mail out a Purolator envelope within a Purolator envelope. I immediately emailed the Consulate back stating this process.
So a week goes by and once in a while I think about things but on the whole not worried because I knew that God would allow everything to work but I knew that it would all be last minute. I had heard many stories of similar events and knew that I was going to have my own personal story.
Unfortunately, my poor mother got caught in a bit of the crossfire as she was on the waiting end of receiving everything back to immediately send it out to get to me on time. Mom trusted in God as well...but her body seemed to disagree ever so slightly when it came to trying to sleep which didn't seem to want to happen for a few nights in a row. Then on Wednesday morning of this week (Dec 2), she opened the mailbox to find a large envelope addressed to me and jumped up and down...to only realize it was not my passport but rather something else, which she immediately exclaimed, "I still trust, I still trust in you God". When she told me this story that evening I could just picture her and had a huge smile on my face. I love my mom so much. I was sad to hear though, that this process had added some stress into her life and spoke words of encouragement and to not worry as I wasn't. There is no point to worrying until 2 minutes after I absolutely need to have it because God will provide it exactly 2 minutes before I do and not any sooner :)
That evening though Celina (my leader) advised that I should email the Consulate again to see where the process was as I needed them to send my passport back by the end of Thursday in order for it to arrive by Monday, the day before I would leave to Venezuela. I hadn't been thinking. I was thinking Friday was the day I had to start taking action and was thinking oh, if it doesn't arrive on time, mom could just send it to where I'd be staying there....kind of forgetting that I needed my passport to travel to Venezuela and if it didn't arrive, I wouldn't be going anywhere.
So I wrote up an email kindly asking them to rush the process, which would be a very big rush as I had originally thought it was suppose to only take 5 business days to process but just checked then on their site and discovered it was actually 10 business days and since the earlier mayhem of the wrong envelope at that point it had only been 5 days! and I was pretty much asking them to be done by the next day, day 6. The Consulate is only open from 9am - 1pm and so during class break Thursday morning, I ran up to the office to see if there were any emails and since there was not, Celina and I spent the next 40 minutes trying to call the Consulate but NOBODY would pick up the phone!! Honestly, that was rather annoying...but I should mention, all during this time I never lost faith. I had such a sense of peace about it....but that doesn't meant the process wasn't still rather annoying at times. So since I had already missed about 30 min of class, I headed back as Celina would continue to try and grab me when need be. I don't think I was in class more than a minute or two when I saw her walking down, so I quickly excused myself again and went to see what was up.
Celina exclaimed..."YOU GOT YOUR VISA!!" We jumped up and down and exclaimed with glee and then I asked how she found that out. Apparently, I had accidentally left my hotmail account open on her computer and when she went to the inbox to just check there was an email stating in response to the one I had sent that night before, that they had processed the Visa through and would I like them to mail it or would someone pick it up.
Well, initially we were going to have them mail it back to my parents and then back to here but discovered that that process was actually 3 days, not 2! So it would be too late. God then provided again for my needs when I didn't even realize what I needed. Samuel (director) was in the office and made the suggestion of contacting our YWAM connections in Toronto, who just so happened to be the wonderful dutch Sue (who is also Rodneys friend and someone I plan on chatting a fair bit with when I get back home - but that's another blog). Poor Sue (but the amazingly wonderful Sue), was in the process of studying for her last final big exam that very evening. We had to make sure that the Consulate would for sure release my passport to her when she came and so quickly wrote up a letter, signed it, included my drivers ID and emailed it back off to her. So she kindly put her studying on hold (with the promise that we would intercede in prayer for her and her exam) and headed on over to the Consulate. They gave her NO trouble at all!! She grabbed it, headed over to FedEx and had it sent off that very afternoon! This litterly all happened within 2 hours!
The best part....it ARRIVED HERE YESTERDAY!! YEAHHH :)
I just love it. I love that God gave me this mahem to show me once again his amazing grace in ALL things - big and small. He loves us so and everything about us is important to him. He uses our struggles to teach us and remind us to continually trust in him. Somethings he reveals to us very quickly and some things take a touch longer (like even a few years) but God is always there watching over us.
Trust and Obey
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Refrain
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
Refrain
But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.
Refrain
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.
AMEN!
Thanks to all those who kept me in your prayers during this time. I greatly appreciated them!!
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