Yesterday we were able to submit the completed paperwork for our residence visas at Immigration here in La Paz, Bolivia.
When we announced at our evening Bible class that we had gotten all the needed documents and that we had succeeded in submitting them at Immigration, the pastor of the congregation was shocked. He told us that the week before both he and the president of the national church had gone to the State department to see if the document that FIEL had to supply was ready. The document needed the signature of a particular government representative. A secretary there showed them a huge stack of papers all needing to be reviewed and signed by that same representative. Some of the documents in the stack had already been waiting for over two months to get the needed signature. Our document was on the bottom of the stack. She indicated that the government representative who was in charge of signing the documents did not want to do so because most of them were from church groups. What’s more, the man had been out of town for several days and she did not know when he would be back. She said that even after he got back we would probably have to wait two to three months to get our document signed.
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| Missionary Philip & Francisco |
That is why the pastor of the congregation was so surprised when we told him that we had gotten all the documents and had been able to submit them to Immigration that very afternoon. Today we found out how it happened. Francisco, the member of the congregation who has been helping us with our documents, told us that since the former government representative at the State department was not fulfilling his obligations very well, they had appointed a different man to take care of the backlog of paperwork. This new representative had gone through the entire stack of papers and signed all the ones needing signing all in one day! Sometimes the powerful hand of God works in very visible and even spectacular ways for the benefit of His children who are also His servants! We have now been told that our visas should be ready in about a week and a half.
Thank you Lord, for your undeserved kindness and goodness!
