Door Two, Information, Door Two, Information, Door Two, Etc.

I spent half of my day yesterday getting a signed paper from the associate director of the Central American Churches. Today at 7:30AM I asked Woody to sit down with me to go over all the papers I'd pulled together for my immigration appointment. We compared my papers to the list of requisites I'd gotten from the official immigration phone hotline. We read that the letter I'd worked so hard to get needed to be notarized. I quickly called Olga, a lawyer friend, who said she'd be glad to notarize it. But she lives on the other side of the valley and she told me that her house is very hard to find. I quickly showered and headed out. Thankfully, traffic was light and I had no trouble following her directions... to the Hipermas store, turn on the highway, go 500 meters and turn right after the sports field. Go about a kilometer and turn at the little store called "La Favorita." Go another kilometer or so to the bus stop for an area called "Los Mojados." (Stop and ask someone where Los Mojados is.) From the bus stop go 50 meters south and 100 meters west. It's an apartment buidling that's three stories high.

I got there quickly and easily and proudly I thought to myself, "I deserve my residency here!" Olga not only notarized the Central American Church letter, but also the ITeams one and my slip from the clinic in town. I didn't have much time to make it to my appointment, but traffic again was light, so I had 15 minutes to spare!

I remembered Door Two from my last visa renewal, so I found an employee there who looked at my appointment slip and told me, "Oh, that appointment was canceled. We canceled a number of appointments and told some of the people that they were canceled. You need to go to the information desk to schedule one through the Banco de Costa Rica." Obviously, I was one of the people they decided not to inform about the cancelation.

I waited through the Information line. The lady there said, "Go to Door Two."

The man at door two said, "Why did she send you here again? Listen, mi reina (my queen), I'll walk you back over there."

We cut to the front of the Information line. There she gave me the phone number to call to reschedule an appointment. I asked her about a sign posted in the window that stated that all transactions require a delinquency report. "Yes, you must have that."

"Why didn't they tell me that when I called about the requisites? I went over them all with them on the toll phone line and they said nothing about a delinquency report."

"That requirement just went into effect last week. You need to go to the court to get it."

"What about the deposits I paid? Will they still be right for my rescheduled appointment?"

To make a long story short, I was told that the hotline deposit information was wrong. I cannot get a five year renewal and the deposits were for the wrong amount and cannot be applied to the new appointment. I asked about getting my money back, and she said I had to get it back from the treasury office around the corner, but first needed to go back to Door Two. She then painstakingly wrote out explanations on the back of each of my three deposit slips.

I went back to my friend at Door Two, who disappeared with my deposit slips. "Reina, you need to take these to the treasurer's office."

The woman working at the treasurer's office looked at me with great pity before she told me, "The system is down. You need to come back on Monday to get your money back." I'm sure she saw my crestfallen expression as I asked, "Isn't there anything I can do? I really don't want to come back on Monday!"

"You can go back to Door Two and ask them to apply it as a credit to an appointment at our offices rather than the bank."

So, I went back to my friend at door two. He said, "I'm so sorry, reina, I can only do that if you go back to information and get an appointment there."

I knew that the lady at the information desk, unlike Mr. Door Two, was not my friend. Each time I had returned she glared at me a little more. So, I asked my friend, "If you were me, what would you do?"

"I'd skip the information booth, forget about your deposit for now, go home, call the appointment number, do the paperwork at the Banco de Costa Rica, and come back here some other day to get your money back."

I thanked him, thanked God that I hadn't lost my patience, and headed home with a long list of things to do before I might possibly get my residency renewed.

There's got to be a good spiritual application to all this. If anyone thinks of one, let me know. Meanwhile, I'm going to call it a day!!

A Soldier is Never Laid Aside!

No soldier on service is ever "laid aside," he is only given another commission, sometimes just to suffer (we are not told the use of that), sometimes, when pain and weakness lessen a little, to fight among the unseen forces of the field... the soldier must let his Captain say where and for what... A wise [captain] never wastes his [soldier's] time - there is great comfort in remembering that.
Taken from the book Rose from Brier by Amy Carmichael

Pouring What?

Sometimes it's hard to describe exactly what our ministry entails. For those of you who've followed our "knee-mails" for years, you have a pretty good idea. For those who haven't quite figured us out yet, this knee-mail states clearly what we are all about.

The Lord Jesus Christ.

That's it!

We are so privileged to be reminded again and again of the centrality of the message of Jesus and the hope He offers to our world... the US, Latin America, and the rest of the globe. Recently Woody passed on to me an article by Leonard Sweet that put it well.

Christians have made the gospel about so many things—things other than Christ. But Jesus Christ is the gravitational pull that brings everything together and gives it meaning. Without Him, all things lose their value. They are but detached pieces floating around in space. That includes your life. It is all too possible to emphasize a spiritual truth, value, virtue, or gift, yet miss Christ, who is Himself the embodiment and incarnation of all of these things.

What is Christianity? It is Christ. Nothing more. Nothing less. Christianity is not an ideology or a philosophy. Neither is it a new type of morality, social ethic, or worldview. Christianity is the “good news” that beauty, truth, and goodness are found in a person. And true humanity and community are founded on and experienced by connection to that person.

This global, Google world needs a meta-narrative more than ever, and the Jesus Story is the interpreting system of all other systems.

In this hour, the testimony that we feel God has called us to bear revolves around the primacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Specifically, we need to decide how we are going to answer one question: “Who do you say that I am?”

This week we've had the privilege of pouring into four men from Minnesota who came down to partner in our ministry. While they have dug out dirt and rock and poured concrete to extend our road at the Latin America Multiplication Center , we have poured in to them our vision for being true disciples of Jesus who are committed to making disciples. It's been a great week with them, and I think we all love the Lord Jesus even more than last week!