This is not a sentimental post!

Over one month ago we sent all our paperwork, visas, passports, and money to the Peruvian Christian law firm that helps us with our visas.  To get all our kids documents there on time, we had to pay expedited fees and enlist the help of my brother, Sam, who happens to live in Austin, TX to  get all our kids apostilled birth certificates to Lima urgently.  We got it all there, and we felt good thinking the renewal of our visas would proceed without problems. Little did we know that all this paperwork would just sit in the lawyers office for one month as if it had never arrived.  Earlier this week we received an email from the lawyers saying that they had not received the birth certificates or money to proceed through the renewal process, and so they had not scheduled an appointment to renew our visas. (This email came despite the fact that they had called us one month ago telling us the birth certificates had arrived and that they had been translated to Spanish successfully.) This is one week before we are supposed fly out of the country, and our passports are sitting in an office in Lima, Peru.  And in addition, they stated there was one more paper that we needed to sign explaining why we were leaving the country.  So they sent us this paper by email, I signed it, then sent it by taxi to the airport where it was put on a plane to arrive in Lima early the following morning.  As of now, there is an appointment scheduled in Lima on Monday at 8 AM.  If all the paperwork is approved, then a German volunteer who is flying from Lima to Cuzco on Monday afternoon will be bringing our passports and visas.  Then we will leave on Tuesday from Curahuasi to begin our journey home, arriving to Dallas on early Thursday morning.

Am I worried?  A little, but I keep reminding myself that as a Christian and a follower of God, I know who is in control.  So I put my trust in God, knowing that things will work out one way or another.  Why worry about things I cannot control?  Peru is often like a training camp for learning how to let go of control, to trust God, and to stop worrying.  With that said, please pray that these meetings and connections will go well, so that by Monday night we will have our passports and visas in hand ready to travel on Tuesday.  And we will see our American friends soon!

Do Not Worry (Matthew 6:25-34)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.