Of Visas and Missionaries

Yesterday we drove all the way to the other side of the city (only about 2 hours, thanks to a newer highway that takes us around the southern part) to do some more visa paperwork.

As we waited in our third line-up, a woman behind us asked how long it was taking us to get our visas. “Well, we’re just renewing,” we answered. She was getting her visa for the first time, and it was taking weeks and weeks.

But then we told her the bad news that we had started working on these renewals at the beginning of August. And then I tried to soften the blow by telling her that she is “not alone”!

Thousands and thousands of more pesos later, our paperwork is – as far as I can tell – done! Except that three of us still don’t have visas. Lord willing they will be in our hands next week.

Talking with our lawyer afterwards, we got some good news – and bad news. The good news is that, for once, we timed things right. We should all have three year visas, good until 2017. But the bad news is that we almost didn’t.

It sounds like the government is going to continue making things very difficult for those who are serving the Lord in Mexico. As many of you know, the cost has skyrocketed, and shows no signs of dropping. But from the sounds of it, it’s going to be even more difficult in the future.

In the last 20 years there has been an unprecedented openness in Mexico. But please pray for, and encourage, missionaries that you know who are here. Pray that we would make the most of the time we have. And pray that more workers would come to this strategic area where so many unreached and little-reached peoples live.