It’s a very strange place to be indeed. On the eve of our departure for Ethiopia, I don't know whether I am more like Job about to lose a couple thousand sheep or like Shadrack about to be let out of the fire.
Some of you have received our knee-mails this week telling the "skinny" version of our tale of woes in securing a visa in time for tomorrow night's flight. I'll spare you ALL the details apart from this simple timeline.
1) Our passports were in Los Angeles from March 13th onward.
2) New regulations were brought to our attention March 24th, resolved on our side by March 27th.
3) The visas were issued on Wednesday April 1, praise God we have permission to return to Ethiopia!
Except when I received the news of their approval, I wasn't at all happy. Why not? Well, we had sent in the passports with LOTS of time and therefore we provided only a Priority Mail envelope for returning, that is a 2 or 3 day delivery instead of the 1-day Priority Express. If mailed on Wednesday afternoon (April 1) they should arrive on Friday (April 3) or Saturday (April 4), with enough time to get to our 10:15pm flight on the evening of that Saturday. EXCEPT, when I was told Thursday morning that the envelope had been dropped in the drop box on Wednesday afternoon at 4:30pm and I HADN'T seen the tracking number hit the USPS website, I knew we were in trouble. And sure enough, that priority envelope sat irretrievably in that secure drop box for 24 hours until 5:40pm on Thursday, thus making the expected delivery to Michigan either Saturday (that's good, we make our flight!) or Monday (that's BAD!).
And so here I am, wearing out my mouse by refreshing the USPS tracking page way more than necessary, especially since I've signed up for both text and email tracking updates. Last I know is that it departed Los Angeles almost 17 hours ago. Where is it now? Only God knows. God allowed Job's sheep to be "burned up by fire from heaven" (Job 1:16), just as he MAY allow the airline we are flying to strike our pocketbook with a similar plague. Yet the same God of Scripture saw Shadrack and his buddies undergoing a major test and mercifully intervened so that they walked away unharmed. Which will it be? Tonight will tell…but either way, I've resolved in belief that God is God and he allows, plans, orchestrates, and intervenes only in ways he sees fit. And yet, quite perplexing to me, he asks us to make requests of him. And so that I do. I am asking God that my phone will soon ping me a text message announcing our passports/visas arrival in Michigan. If you are awake still tonight, will you make that request with me?
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