Early in public high school, I was privileged to see the Lord work miraculously by answering prayers in ways that would increase my faith and even begin preparation for missions later in life. During this time, I firmly believed that Crown College was the next step in God’s direction for my life, but simply visiting the college was a hurdle unto itself as my unsaved parents hesitated to send me to a private Bible college that was out-of-state, rather than to a successful, accredited college nearby. As the months went on, my father eventually set his eyes on a liberal college nearby in honor of a friend’s devout daughter who had unexpectedly passed away while attending the college just a few months prior. On the morning of our visit, however, the Lord used an elderly gentleman seated behind us at Bob Evans- nearly a hundred miles from our home, by the way!- to sternly warn my father about the college’s immense shortcomings! By the time we left the college that day, my father was not only firmly against this particular school, but he was finally ready to visit Crown, with one stipulation in mind: I had to do the leg-work for planning the trip.
Truly, the entire situation at Bob Evans was an answer to prayer, a solid pillar in my life that I could look back on to remember God working through the impossible, but the Lord used it for significantly more later on. While I probably looked like a deer-in-headlights from my father’s purposefully limited guidance in planning the trip to Tennessee, this one life-lesson provided me with the knowledge and experience to break down a major trip into manageably-sized potions. By the time my husband and I were preparing for our Zambia trip a decade later, that seemingly minuscule folder of lists for the Crown trip evolved into organized binders, an expandable file folder, multiple envelopes to carry pertinent documents, and computer files where the folders had folders, and even the lists had lists! Zambia made the Crown trip look like a cake-walk, but the Lord used it to prepare us for navigating through passports, visas, medical authorizations, complications with necessary immunizations, packing for our young family, and infinitely more. Through it all, when we became overwhelmed or discouraged, the Lord continually reminded us of His goodness in the past, and that “The future is as bright as the promises of God.”
**Names marked with an asterisk (*) have been changed for the privacy of individuals and their families**
Passport Blessings
Back in 2014, before Douglas Stauffer had a significant influence, we were astonished when Pastor Andrew Ray had graciously offered for Antioch Baptist Church to pay for our passports to assist us in completing our survey trip before starting deputation! Our tentative trip that year did not come together, but around the time we bought the airline tickets two years later, we continued to count it a blessing that we only needed to apply for Annabelle’s* passport, saving us hundreds of dollars. We were even more excited to learn that we only needed to get two extra passport photos each to send with our visa applications. Imagine our relief to learn that Walgreens was still issuing regulation-approved passport photos considering we needed 2inx2in photos, with head sizes between 1-3/4 inches, white backgrounds, and neutral expressions, not just for ourselves, but for an eight month old infant and a high-energy two-year-old boy! The ways that God worked in the little things were ever a reminder of the goodness and greatness of God.
Strict Government Documentation
After receiving Annabelle’s* passport in the mail and confirming with the missionaries that we needed to apply for four tourist visas, we finished-up the two completed visa applications per family member, with a signed, recently-taken passport photo attached to each individual application, as per instructions on the Embassy website. The Zambian Embassy also required our physical passports, individual copies of the confirmed airline ticket/itinerary, and separate money orders/cashier’s checks for each set of applications! As we prepared to send off the documents, praying they were filled out correctly/entirely and attempting to trust the Lord to keep these sensitive documents safe in the mail, we learned that the Zambian embassy FURTHER required the paperwork to include a pre-paid return-envelope that was completely filled out. Any mistake in paperwork, documentation, or mailing information could not only delay the approval of our visas, but significantly increase the amount of time it would take to receive them back.
After calling around to the United States Postal Service (USPS) and the United Postal Service (UPS) without success for the service we needed, we were finally directed to Fed-Ex, a company that had already established a process for providing tracking numbers with the initial and return envelopes, as well as the ability to charge an account later on for the return shipping cost. Within a few short weeks, the Lord came through once again as the Embassy notified us that our visas were approved without complications, and we later praised the Lord for returning our sensitive documents in a safe and timely manner!
Planning for the Unexpected
Per my father’s advice, we placed our passports in our recently-purchased passport holders to go around our necks during travel for safe-keeping, and we made copies of our passports and other important documents in case anything became misplaced on the trip. After that, while researching about passing through customs, we learned that misplacing our passports could result in our children being stopped and held in a country overseas until we could provide official documents- in this case, birth certificates- to prove to the government that we were not transporting someone else’s children out of the country illegally! In general, presenting birth certificates would have been considered sufficient, but as a married woman, several governments required a marriage license as well as proof of a change in surname! After making multiple copies, we placed these pertinent documents with the other papers for the trip.
Thankfully, we never lost our passports and never had to show proof of rightful guardianship, but we were grateful for the advice to prepare ahead of time. Imagine our surprise, however, to learn of our next bump in the road: immunizations. The local health department already greatly hesitated to give us the yellow-fever vaccination required by the Zambian Embassy because Annabelle* was a nursing infant, but then they further informed us that they were restricted from administering it to us because of conflicting information between the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations, and the Zambian Embassy website’s requirements for entering the country.
In this series I share my thoughts and opinions concerning these ministers and the events which led to my departure. Click here to continue reading: “Blindsided: Medical Mazes (Part One)” or click on the link below.
For a list of the complete series, click here.
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