Visa Update

One of the big themes we have been learning about while on training is putting our trust in God. As we step out in obedience to His calling, we will find ourselves in situations where we don't have the strength or ability to do it on our own. In these moments, we can no longer rely on ourselves but must depend on God to pull through for us. God wants us to live our lives like this, not depending on our own strength but trusting in God's provision.

During training, there haven't been many opportunities to really exercise this kind of faith in a big way, as I am anticipating there will be in the Philippines. I have been praying that God would show me how to place my trust in Him.

If you read my last blog, I asked for prayer about our visas. When we went to Vancouver on Tuesday to apply, the consulate told us we would need a letter from our host in the Philippines before our visas could be processed. Doing this would take an extra four days, which would make the timing really tight for our departure on March 4. I was already worried about getting the visas on time before this, so I found myself quite stressed out about it. As I prayed, I felt that God was telling me that this was something I would need to trust Him with, since it was out of my hands. He wanted to teach me a lesson on faith and His provision. Realizing this made me feel better, and I gave the visas to God and put my trust in Him.

The next day (Wednesday), Nate, one of the TREK interns, told me he looked into the issue more. Requiring a letter seemed unusual, so after some digging, he found out that we don't actually need to apply for visas beforehand. We can simply get a 21 day tourist visa when entering the country and then apply for an extension while there. This is a common way of doing it in many countries. We think that there was some confusion due to going through an organization that led to the requirement of the letter, which we now know is unnecessary.

So it turns out that in one day, God completely answered our prayers in a way that was totally unexpected. God taught me a huge lesson in trusting Him, as I far too often rely on my own ability or worry about things that are out of my control.