Love from South Africa

With all the visa drama, it’s easy to questions at times what God is trying to accomplish or why he is allowing certain things to happen. We’ve all done it. We may not say it out loud or admit it to ourselves but we somehow think that we have a better way of doing things and if things had just gone according to our plans, everything would be peachy. But the fact is God’s God and we’re not and it turns out that nothing he does is without purpose. About a week and a half ago, I had a breakfast meeting to share my ministry with someone. I had arranged to borrow a car from someone and was all set to pick up the keys from her at her office before taking off for my meeting. I got to her office that morning at the time we had planned and walked in to an empty office. I tried calling and messaging her but couldn’t get a hold of her. I thought to myself, “maybe she just stepped out of her office for a minute…she’ll be here soon”. I stepped across the hall to ask the lady sitting at her desk ...

Two days ago, I went to the South African embassy feeling pretty confident that I had everything I needed for a successful trip to submit my visa application. Things, however, did not quite go as I had planned. As I spoke with the lady taking applications at the front desk, I soon discovered that this trip was not going to be as successful as I had thought. She informed me, first of all, that I needed a few more documents and then proceeded to tell me that I probably shouldn’t even bother applying for a volunteer visa since most volunteer applications had been rejected as of late. However, she was very helpful and gave me a waiver, which if approved, would make me eligible to apply for a work visa of sorts that she strongly believed they would be more likely to accept. I must say, it was quite a lot to take in in one trip knowing that this meant more paperwork and most likely more weeks before I could expect to receive a visa. Though my visit was a bit disappointing, I was enco...