Colombia Up Date

I just wanted to share a quick up date as to what's going on with our up-coming Colombia adventure. We have sent out our support letters and are praying that all our money comes in. I've emailed our sending organization but haven't heard anything back yet about if we've had anything come in. We are working on getting everything ready for our visas. This could be a little tricky. The Colombian Embassy is in Toronto and it takes 4-5 business days to go through the process. We can mail it in but obviously it takes longer that way because of the mail delivery. We are planning a trip to Ontario to visit family and friends (and speak at Matt's home church) but we arrive on a Monday and leave the next Monday (not quite enough days to hand deliver the visa application). ECA has told us that we should receive documents from them on or before June 15th. We leave June 27th (not quite enough time to mail things in since we need our passports to travel to the States to fly East). We get back on July 4th and are suppose to be in Colombia before the 25th. Talk about a tight schedule. If we wait till we get back then we can't cross the boarder to climb any mountains in Washington like we have planned. So we are praying that we'll get our documents really early so we can get it all sorted out before we go to Ontario or we just pay some fees and get our flights extended for a couple days and hand deliver them. I personally would prefer to hand deliver them that way if we are missing something we can get it sorted out right away instead of them mailing it back and us having to go through it all again. It's all in God's hands and it'll get sorted out.

We also need to figure out what type of insurance we are going to have. Currently we are partnering with two different organizations (one in Canada and one in the States). However, the one in the States requires a specific type of insurance (somewhere in the $300 a month range). We have been trying to figure out if it is worth it to take on a significantly higher cost in insurance if we are not really sure how much money will come in from our American donors. They also want a specific budget and I have no clue how I would set that up if I don't know how much is coming in. I mean I'm thinking $20-50 a month. Which in my opinion is not worth the increase of around $100 a month for insurance. So we are trying to figure out if we want to pay around $200 a month and keep on our Canadian insurance and apply for a leave from the country policy for 2 years or go with Colombian insurance. That's something that Matt and I need to just sit down and talk about.

We are also participating in Northview's Missions Weekend May 14th and 15th. We'll have a little table set up with information on what we're doing. Also, we are being commissioned that weekend. So we'll be speaking for a few minutes in each service. It's going to be a busy weekend!!!!! The Friday before we have a big youth Wild West night and there is a dinner/meeting/theology teaching event on the Sunday night. Lord give us strength!

So for those of you who read this... that's our up date. Here is a summary so you know how to pray:
-Pray that we get all our documents filled out properly for our Visa applications and that we get approved. Also, for peace about the process and for us to figure out how it's all going to work with timing and traveling.
-Pray that we figure out what type of insurance to have while we're away.
-Pray that we'll take advantage of opportunities to spend time with family and friends.
-Pray that we both get lots of work before we leave.
-Pray that all our money comes in for our monthly budget as well as money to cover all our start up costs.
-Pray that we wil have a successful missions weekend with lots of people willing to pray and donate!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. May the Joy of the Lord fill your life with a love that can only come from Him!