The Passport and Visa Saga
In order to go to Paraguay, a visa is required. So, I got online and printed off my applicationfor my visa, only to find that I cannot get a visa until I have a passport that is valid for 6 months AFTER I enter Paraguay. Unfortunately, my current passport expired in May of this year . . a problem seeing how I’m making my trek down there in March. . .So, I decided to not only expadite my passport, but to drive to Detroit to do it super fast and get it moving. I called up Katie, my sis-in-law, to see if her and the girls wanted to go with me. So, we went and got it all done. I was surprised, however, at how locked-down everything was. I felt like I was going on a flight. They scanned all my bags, and I walked through one of those body checkers JUST like you do when you are at the airport. I talked to 4 security officers before I actually even got to talk to anyone about my passport! It wasn’t awful or anything, I just wasn’t expecting to have to go through all of that. It was a pretty uneventful trip, but it was lovely getting to spend a bit of time with Katie and the girls. 🙂 Then my passport came 2 days later!! It was such a fast and efficient way to do it – I’m so thankful that our government allows us to do things like that.
Next came my visa application. I don’t know if any of you have applied for a visa before, but they ask some questions on there that I wasn’t qute sure how to answer. Like, what was the purpose of my trip?? How do you write, “to visit some different tribal locations and learn Paraguayan language and culture” in a 1″ x 1/2″ box?? So, I ended up just writing “visiting/travel” . . . hopefully that’s a good enough answer for them! So, I shipped of my application, along with my new passport on Wednesday. I put one of those things on it from the post office so you can get an update on where your mail is(forgive me, I don’t know what the real name for it is!) and I checked on Friday and it had made it to the Consulate. Could you please be praying with me that my visa application to go through quickly and without any problems??
This past week, I got the bulk of my newsletters all mailed out and emailed to people. A lovely lady from my church, Sue, sat with me for a good hunk of time folding, stuffing, labeling, and stamping all of them. And, she just happens to work at the post office, so she even mailed them out for me the next day! If you’d like to keep up with me through newsletters, please go to the “Get My Newsletters
” link on the main page here and sign up! I’d love to put you on my mailing list!!
I got to share a little bit this morning and tonight at my awesome church, Graham Community Church, about my upcoming adventure. I was so encouraged by people and their excitement about me going. So many people have told me they would be praying for me and supporting me as I go — I’m so thankful to know such an awesome group of people! The Lord has definetly blessed me with my church family.
And I know I said it in my last post, but seriously, I am so excited. I serve a great, big, awesome God and I’m looking forward to all He’s going to teach me, show me, and grow me though this trip. 🙂