As some of you know, I’m in the process of getting my permanent visa for Mexico. Well, good news! The paperwork is almost ready, and next week – Lord willing – I will be able to go to do the finger-printing-and-document-signing to finish the process.
So – we’re very thankful!
The theory is that once I have all my paperwork, I will actually be able to get license plates for our van. As you may recall, we haven’t been able to drive the van since late January, due to the paperwork complications. So yes, it will be nice to have the van again, especially before the teams start coming! (We actually had a couple of teams in March, and it did make things compicated!)
Anyway, just wanted to give you a bit of an update. Still no visa, still no van – but I’m hoping that in a week or two, after a long line or two, I’ll have some more concrete news for you. 🙂
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!
Yesterday I joined the long line, almost an hour before opening time. Within a couple of hours, I had reached the front door, and Mayra joined me.
Before actually getting into the line to request the plates, we talked to the man at the information desk. He looked at our papers, and told us that we could use a couple copies. Also, we needed to go to a stationary store, get a magical form, fill it out, and the magical form would allow us to get the plates.
So, playing a little real-life Frogger, we dashed across the highway, got the magical form, dashed back across, filled it out, and were permitted to take a number and join the indoor line, where we could wait in cushy seats.
Finally we spoke to the man with the power, who shuffled through our paperwork and entered the information about the van into the computer.Oh dear! It appears that we won’t be able to help you today, sir.
Hmmmmm…. can’t give you plates today. You see…. [a) excuse about the computer system] and [b) excuse about personnel available today]. But come back Thursday, and everything will be rainbows, tulips and unicorns.
So we left – me, feeling very bad for Mayra who had spent all this time on a process that wasn’t hers – to no avail.
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.
Anyway, 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!
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.
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!
I’ve been wondering how exactly I was going to cart around all these team members with a van that had … well, problems.
Yes, it’s been about a month we’ve been trying to get some things fixed. The adventures have involved visits to mechanics and parts stores, hours of driving around and walking around … I can’t believe it’s been a month.
Anyway, as of a few minutes ago, the repairs are finally done!
So we’re looking forward to the arrival of the team from Mt Calvary Church on Friday.
Some of the upcoming activities (things you can pray about!) include:
Giving wheelchairs to people in need
Soccer tournament outreach
Ministry at the church
Various other evangelistic activities
That’s all in the space of a week and a day. So thanks in advance for praying for this team!
As some of you know, I’m in the process of getting my permanent visa for Mexico. Well, good news! The paperwork is almost ready, and next week – Lord willing – I will be able to go to do the finger-printing-and-document-signing to finish the process.
Anyway, 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.
