Well, let me do a quick rundown of our past three months...
1. Early February--submitted our passports, as usual, anticipating a quick and fairly painless renewal of our residency permits.
2. Mid February--Found out our renewal request was denied.
3. Late February -- We were promised that our permit would be given and that the paperwork would be completed before our current permit expired on the 28th of February.
4. Feb 28 -- we were given a 14 day extension on our permit and assured that everything would be done by March 13, at which time we could go out of country for a day, get our new permit, and return.
5. March 3 --DEILgirl celebrates her birthday at school with her friends...yeah!
6. Mach 13 -- Our paperwork is not complete and we are forced to leave the country. For 12 days in another country we are promised everyday that our paperwork is complete and will be sent the following day. It never comes. DEILmom celebrates her birthday.
7. March 25 -- We return home on a 30 day tourist visa with promised continuing to come that the paperwork is near completion. During this time we try to catch up on work missed and other responsibilities. The kids try and
catch up from their 12 missed days of school.
8. April 5 -- The owner of our house begins asking us if we want to renew our contract, but given our residency status we cannot commit to anything.
9. April 10 -- Our friend, W, that we shared about during our last home assignment declines rapidly in her fight against cancer.
10. April 11 -- A friend who visits our house has a reaction to some kind of bug in our house. This a new thing. A day or two later we begin to notice the tiny little bugs--fleas--biting our toes. By the following day we have a full-fledged flea infestation, probably caused by a family of cats that gave birth in our ceiling several days earlier.
11. April 12 -- DEILdad's Uncle dies after more than two years battling cancer.
12. April 13 -- The father a good friend of our here died following a very short battle with cancer.
13. April 18 -- We receive word that one of our groups has been forced to close. This was not a governmental closure but the result of a community movement that determined to force the closure of as many groups as possible in their area.
14. April 19 -- Two rats fall down from the roof into the recess in our ceiling where a skylight sits. It's a 2 meter recess so it's impossible to reach down and pull the rats out. The only real choice is to wait until they die, remove the plastic from below and remove the rats. So, we have a few nights of watching our rat friends sleep and play...all from the comfort of our own bedroom! Yeah...gross.
15. April 23 -- one day before Easter we must leave the country again as our tourist visa is finished.
16. April 25 -- Finally some progress! We got the paperwork we needed and were able to submit our application for a new residency permit! A week later we had our new permits! But that's not the end...
17. May 2 -- We return home for two days and then drive 20 hours round-trip to submit our new permits to the local office. We are able to spend a day or two with our friends and colleagues on our Bible College campus and then return home so the kids can get back to school. Although we have our permits we must wait for the local office to give us our ID cards before we can considered truly "legal" residents.
18. During this time an international news event (the killing of Osama by the US Military) caused great danger for our Brothers and Sisters here, a country where it was not uncommon to see the face of this terrorist painted on the sides of buses or imprinted on t-shirts. We kept a very low profile for several days.
19. May 5 -- The owner of our house demands that we make a commitment to stay in the house for another year or move out. We tell her we want to stay but she tells us it will cost us an extra $1000 this year. On the day, right after talking with the owner, we found out that when the worker climbed up into our roof to get the rats he found extensive water damage, mold, and other problems. He said, "pity the people living in this house when this roof falls apart." So we decided to find a new house.
20. May 7-8 -- We get a call from our colleague that the local office is ready to take our photos and fingerprints so we drive 20 hours round trip again for a 20 minute meeting with the local official. Not only that we have some lovely photos taken...not really.
21. May 9-10 -- Still catching up, DEILdad teaches a "super-intensive" class to four university students at our home. Following the class he spends a full day sleeping. While he was teaching, DEILmom was frantically searching for a new home close to the kids school (if possible).
22. May 14 -- We signed a two year contract to rent a house not far from the one we are in now. It's a bit larger than we wanted and a bit more expensive, but was one of very few options that would not disrupt our kids education and other things. The economic crisis and decreased giving means that we have to pay for part of this contract from our personal ministry funds for the first time. But we praise God because of the faithful giving of many people during our last home assignment we had enough to cover this very unexpected expense.
23. Today, we continue to wait for our ID cards to be issued. Though we don't need to worry about having to leave the country again, we can't really do much of anything until we get these cards.
23. June 8 -- is the date we have to be out of our current house.
Now, it would be easy to think that the past three months have been all trial.
Yes, it's been difficult and stressful. But that's no surprise, Jesus promised
us that "in this life there will be many troubles" and that those who follow
him would "face many trials."
We have no doubt that God is working and that these trials are nothing more
than rocks trying to trip us up. Look at what God has been doing over the past
three months...click through to keep reading...
1. Early February--submitted our passports, as usual, anticipating a quick and fairly painless renewal of our residency permits.
2. Mid February--Found out our renewal request was denied.
3. Late February -- We were promised that our permit would be given and that the paperwork would be completed before our current permit expired on the 28th of February.
4. Feb 28 -- we were given a 14 day extension on our permit and assured that everything would be done by March 13, at which time we could go out of country for a day, get our new permit, and return.
5. March 3 --DEILgirl celebrates her birthday at school with her friends...yeah!
6. Mach 13 -- Our paperwork is not complete and we are forced to leave the country. For 12 days in another country we are promised everyday that our paperwork is complete and will be sent the following day. It never comes. DEILmom celebrates her birthday.
7. March 25 -- We return home on a 30 day tourist visa with promised continuing to come that the paperwork is near completion. During this time we try to catch up on work missed and other responsibilities. The kids try and
catch up from their 12 missed days of school.
8. April 5 -- The owner of our house begins asking us if we want to renew our contract, but given our residency status we cannot commit to anything.
9. April 10 -- Our friend, W, that we shared about during our last home assignment declines rapidly in her fight against cancer.
10. April 11 -- A friend who visits our house has a reaction to some kind of bug in our house. This a new thing. A day or two later we begin to notice the tiny little bugs--fleas--biting our toes. By the following day we have a full-fledged flea infestation, probably caused by a family of cats that gave birth in our ceiling several days earlier.
11. April 12 -- DEILdad's Uncle dies after more than two years battling cancer.
12. April 13 -- The father a good friend of our here died following a very short battle with cancer.
13. April 18 -- We receive word that one of our groups has been forced to close. This was not a governmental closure but the result of a community movement that determined to force the closure of as many groups as possible in their area.
14. April 19 -- Two rats fall down from the roof into the recess in our ceiling where a skylight sits. It's a 2 meter recess so it's impossible to reach down and pull the rats out. The only real choice is to wait until they die, remove the plastic from below and remove the rats. So, we have a few nights of watching our rat friends sleep and play...all from the comfort of our own bedroom! Yeah...gross.
15. April 23 -- one day before Easter we must leave the country again as our tourist visa is finished.
16. April 25 -- Finally some progress! We got the paperwork we needed and were able to submit our application for a new residency permit! A week later we had our new permits! But that's not the end...
17. May 2 -- We return home for two days and then drive 20 hours round-trip to submit our new permits to the local office. We are able to spend a day or two with our friends and colleagues on our Bible College campus and then return home so the kids can get back to school. Although we have our permits we must wait for the local office to give us our ID cards before we can considered truly "legal" residents.
18. During this time an international news event (the killing of Osama by the US Military) caused great danger for our Brothers and Sisters here, a country where it was not uncommon to see the face of this terrorist painted on the sides of buses or imprinted on t-shirts. We kept a very low profile for several days.
19. May 5 -- The owner of our house demands that we make a commitment to stay in the house for another year or move out. We tell her we want to stay but she tells us it will cost us an extra $1000 this year. On the day, right after talking with the owner, we found out that when the worker climbed up into our roof to get the rats he found extensive water damage, mold, and other problems. He said, "pity the people living in this house when this roof falls apart." So we decided to find a new house.
20. May 7-8 -- We get a call from our colleague that the local office is ready to take our photos and fingerprints so we drive 20 hours round trip again for a 20 minute meeting with the local official. Not only that we have some lovely photos taken...not really.
21. May 9-10 -- Still catching up, DEILdad teaches a "super-intensive" class to four university students at our home. Following the class he spends a full day sleeping. While he was teaching, DEILmom was frantically searching for a new home close to the kids school (if possible).
22. May 14 -- We signed a two year contract to rent a house not far from the one we are in now. It's a bit larger than we wanted and a bit more expensive, but was one of very few options that would not disrupt our kids education and other things. The economic crisis and decreased giving means that we have to pay for part of this contract from our personal ministry funds for the first time. But we praise God because of the faithful giving of many people during our last home assignment we had enough to cover this very unexpected expense.
23. Today, we continue to wait for our ID cards to be issued. Though we don't need to worry about having to leave the country again, we can't really do much of anything until we get these cards.
23. June 8 -- is the date we have to be out of our current house.
Now, it would be easy to think that the past three months have been all trial.
Yes, it's been difficult and stressful. But that's no surprise, Jesus promised
us that "in this life there will be many troubles" and that those who follow
him would "face many trials."
We have no doubt that God is working and that these trials are nothing more
than rocks trying to trip us up. Look at what God has been doing over the past
three months...click through to keep reading...
1. We have had the opportunity train and mentor two young ladies (M&M, we'll call them) who have a vision to reach out to Friends and Neighbors. They have grown tremendously during there time here and have blessed us greatly in their desire to love and care for people of which many of their friends and family are scared and have feelings of distrust, dislike, and even hatred.
2. As a result of M&M's work, three young ladies in their boarding house have become students of our Teacher. They are learning and growing and we hope that they will become faithful students and later will begin to teach others.
3. Following the death of his father, our friend (Musa) returned home for several days to care for his sick mother and to make preparations for burial, which occurs with 24 hours of the death. After returning he came by to see me and shared about the struggle he had in dealing with feelings of guilt for not being physically able to have been with his father continually during his last few days. We had opportunity to pray together and used some of the precious ministry funds you give so generously to us to help with the great expenses incurred by the death of a family member.
4. DEILdad attended a powerful conference in which many men and women shared amazing testimonies of what God is doing. We had the opportunity to give a gift of a set of Injil (Gospels), Zabur (Psalms), and Taurat (Pentateuch) to be used in a Muslim boarding school. If you are interested in giving such a gift, contact us.
5. DEILboy and DEIL girl (our kids) have been memorizing verses and growing in their understanding of Scripture. We try to remember that those two little ones are our first responsibility and our very own house group! They have recently memorized Mark 12:30-31, 1 Kings 2:3, Psalm 37:4, and Proverbs 3:5-6.
6. We are so thankful for the rats in our roof! If the worker had not gone up there to get them we might never have known about the condition of the roof.
7. DEILmom has befriended a beggar lady that digs through our trash every morning. As we are moving we have large box of stuff that we don't use anymore and is not worth keeping. So, every morning she takes a little something out and gives it to the lady. She will either use it or sell it.
8. Just this morning as we were walking DEILboy to school a vintage Volkswagon Bug drove by us and promptly crashed in the gate of the house we had just passed (at very low speed). Two of the ladies inside were teachers at a nearby school and one was pregnant. We were the only one's there at first so tried to help them. The car stalled at the top of a hill and when that happened the steering wheel locked and the brakes either didn't work or the driver panicked and forgot to use the brakes. Anyway, everyone was okay, but we were happy to be there to help them during these first few moments. In the process we met several neighbors in the area that we hadn't previously had opportunity to meet.
So, there you have it. There are many others who face more difficult trials, more difficult situations and we are so thankful for God's care and protection over them. But this is our story and we want to thank you for your prayers and support. God is working....and He is good.
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