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Prayer and Praise

More on Visas and Licence Plates

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So far this week has been dominated by paperwork. But every once in a while, that’s just the way it has to be.

Most of it has been a matter of getting documents together for my visa process. That has meant a lot of emailing, printing, signing, packages being sent here and there, talks on the phone, visits to banks to take out money and pay this and that.

In fact, this morning I visited 6 bank machines before I found one that (sort of) worked.

No calls from the licence plate place yet, but it’s kind of irrelevant at the moment, because I don’t have the documents I would need – they’re all tied up in the visa process now.

In spite of some issues, I think the paperwork is ready to be submitted, and we can pray that the process will be finished quickly! Then we can get back to the licence plates, and have a bit of a reprieve before the rest of the family starts their visa paperwork in later in the year.

Weekend Report: Children’s Ministry and More

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This weekend we had the privilege of having Shelli (Corina) Neufeld in Ixtapaluca for a few days. Shelli and her family have served for many years as missionaries in Hermosillo, Mexico. But in fact, during our first visit to Mexico, Shelli was with us – a part of our team that served in Mexico City and Apatzingan many years ago.

Children's ministry conference
Practical teaching at the children’s ministry conference
On Saturday the church in Jesús María hosted a children’s ministry seminar, with Shelli as the conference speaker. Four churches were represented. Shari (don’t get mixed up, now – I realize we’ve got a Shari and a Shelli in the same post!) went to a lot of work organizing the conference.

Well, Shelli’s teaching was pure gold – so many tips for teaching children (and, in fact, teens and adults too)! We heard some excellent feedback from those who attended. So after all the hard work, we’re very encouraged that there will be a positive impact on the method of teaching God’s Word in several churches.

On Sunday, at our church in Las Palmas, Shelli worked with several of those who normally teach. They put into practice much of what they learned on Saturday on Sunday.

Speaking of which, here’s Hannah teaching the craft of the day.

Hannah teaching a craftShelli also shared her testimony on Sunday morning.

So, it was a good weekend. We struggled a little because – well, we thought we were getting over whatever bug it was that we had, but apparently we either got a new one or the other one wasn’t quite finished. So Shari and I were working at significantly lower-than-normal energy. But God worked in spite of that all.

So, thanks, Shelli, for joining us! And thanks to everyone who was praying for the weekend. To God be the glory!

Shelli on Sunday

If You Don’t Want Another “Licence Plate Update”, Click Away, Baby…

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Seriously, if you don’t want another update on our quest to get licence plates, just move along.

You’re still here? It’s a short story anyway. I went today for my fourth visit to the applicable office, and spoke to four people there, including one new person who took some of the paperwork that I had brought, made some copies, and took my phone number. “We’ll call you in one to two weeks.”

So, what else could I do but walk home.

One to two weeks may be optimistic, depending on where our visa paperwork is at by then, so – the bottom line is, we will continue to have no vehicle to drive for a while.

As always, these things are a part of God’s good plan, as frustrating as they may seem at the time. And I look forward to having some time in which I’m not waiting in line yet again at the same place!

Keep Participating.

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I must say, I haven’t been this sick (with non-migraine related symptoms – although now I have those too!) for a long time. Which, strangely enough, is something to be very thankful for. Ah, it’s just a cold or some kind of a bug, but a nasty one.

On top of that, Shari and I had the bad sense to both get sick at the same time. Silly us.

Sigue participandoAnyway, it is rather frustrating when you’re still trying to catch up after being away. But when I’m not in bed (which I’ve had to be more than usual), I try to follow the wise advice hidden under this Coke cap. Where in English it would say “Please try again” (why, thank you for the kind invitation!), in Spanish it says “sigue Participando” – keep on participating.

Yesterday I managed to lead our morning service (I was actually doing worse health-wise than I thought I would be, but God was gracious). Other than the fogginess of the man leading, it was a good service. We’re going to run out of chairs one day soon – a good problem to have.

Tomorrow, Lord willing, I’m going to go again to the license-plate-getting-place (I’ve gone over there a few times now) to hopefully complete the paperwork (with the help of our friend Mayra – I need the extra help because of our visa status, as I mentioned before), so we’ll see how that goes.

Other than all the other normal things, I’m trying to DRINK LOTS and get the rest I need. Bad bug, begone!

Plates and Visas – ¿por favor?

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We’re still working on getting license plates for our van, which means that we’ve had no vehicle for the majority of the week, and won’t have one until we get some paperwork done.

License Plate - Por FavorWe’re hoping to get that done soon, but it’s a bit of a challenge. Essentially, once you get your permanent resident visa, you can’t drive a vehicle that has not been nationalized. Which means you need to nationalize your vehicle (which means driving to the border) before you get your permanent resident visa.

However, you can’t get plates for your vehicle until you have a permanent resident visa. Which means … well, think about it, you’ll get the idea.

Anyway, there are some possible ways around this, none of them super-easy, of course. And according to a friend of mine, it involves lining up at 5am, 4 hours before the office opens, in order to get in before the day is over ….

Thanks to a ride from Rod Fry, who was dropping his kids off in Puebla for the day, I was able to meet up with someone to get some documents signed for our visas. So that’s a step forward. We’re getting everything finalized to be submitted, so that I can get my visa as soon as possible. If things go really smoothly, I might have it in a couple of months. Hey! Stop laughing! Just because things went that way last time doesn’t mean it will be that way this time!

Anyway, we appreciate – VERY much – your prayers as we continue to walk through the tangled web that will allow us to get our visas, and maybe even drive!

Let the Visa Adventures Begin (again)!

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We all knew this time would come. And yes, it is here at last.

Some of you may remember our exciting visa adventures from the past. No – not the credit card – the documents that allow us to live in Mexico. Through great trials and tribulations (and thousands of dollars spent), we finally had our temporary resident visas.

Monarch butterfly
Another visitor from Canada…
If you were really paying attention, you might have known that you can only have those for so long – then you need to get out of the country, or apply for permanent resident visas.

Permanent resident visas are beautiful glittering documents that are – well – permanent. At least in the sense that you don’t have to get anything else after a certain time, and you don’t have to renew them for thousands of pesos every year or whenever. So we want those. So this is the year.

We’ve actually been working on the details for all this since last year, but this past week we really began in earnest with a trip to the MX/US border.

If you get permanent visas, you may not drive a vehicle with foreign plates. So to begin the process of getting Mexican license plates, we had to go to the border and do some dashing in and out (at different locations even), paying large sums of money, and doing a whole lotta paperwork. It took us three days at the border (plus a day to shop and some travel – almost a week in away), but we now have a Mexican vehicle (and a Mexican cargo trailer). Special thanks to Luis and Brock for their help.

But – hold on – no Mexican license plates yet. That’s a whole other issue.

So as we continue the month of January (boy, it’s going fast, isn’t it??) we’re going to attempt to get license plates, and get some more paperwork done for my visa (which expires before the visas of the rest of the family), which will likely mean lots of waiting in line, travel to another city, and there’s always money involved (and it’s never money we get – why is that?).

Seriously, though, we do appreciate your prayers. Our trip was good, God went before us, but we are exhausted (and came home to a pipe leaking water in the bathroom – I guess we’d better add that to the “to do list”…) and trying to make sure we get all the “urgent” stuff done. You don’t want to forget that one document and find that everything has expired and you missed a whole procedure.

But for now, visa issues aside, we’re preparing materials for kids’ Sunday school tomorrow (Shari is teaching), and I’m working on my sermon. I had a good talk with someone today who is thinking of checking out our Sunday service – as always, I’m sure it will be an interesting day!

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