GROWTH

So today I went in to my appointment with immigration and my stomach did flip flops when Herbert told me that my application had been processed and I could go downstairs to pick up the letter that explained my long awaited results!

I went downstairs to the appropriate office and explained who I was. The woman gave me a stack of letters and I flipped through them looking for my name. What I was were lots of letters, each representing a person who wanted to immigrate to Zimbabwe and use their skills in this place. Some were approved, others were denied. There was never an explanation for either response…. Just yes or no.

But my name wasn’t there.

I asked the woman and she looked up my file number. My file was sent to the board THIS WEEK. It will be reviewed on Tuesday. Then she said, “You know that you are not allowed to be in the country now.”

I explained to her that I understood, and asked her when I could return to get my results. She said next Friday. But then she dropped a bomb,
“I review the files as part of the board. I can assure you that you have a 95% chance of getting denied.”

She wanted to know what I would want to work in Zimbabwe, and I tried to explain it to her. She said, “I believe you have ulterior motives.” I asked her if she was a Christian. She got offended but said that she was. I explained that my story only makes sense if you know God and believe He calls people to certain places.

Now, I know that my God LOVES to work with those kind of odds. My heart knows that, my spirit knows it… but I am having to do a little convincing with my head.

So I sat down in shock and tried not to cry. She went about her business with other people in her office and chatted with her friends for a bit. The she looked at me and told me that the office was closing and I would have to leave.

Here is my internal conversation:
“Ok God, what now?”
DON’T GO.
So I sit

Then she says, “Ma’am, I am closing. You will have to go.”

“Ok God, what now?”
DON’T GO, ASK HER TO PRAY FOR YOU.

Oh come on… are you kidding me?

So I stood up and said, “I know that this might seem crazy, and that as an immigration official it might be out of the question, but since I know you are a Christian, as my sister will you pray for me? I can’t go out there and face the world, walk down the street, get on a bus and go home without prayer. My world is crumbling.”

She called another woman into the office and I got on my knees and she prayed for me.

The same woman that said she was doubtful I would get a permit that she was in a position to approve started her prayer like this,

“God, You know that you have called this woman to work in Zimbabwe.”

I believe in the power of prayer. I believe that as the three of us prayed in her office that the Spirit was moving, in all of us.

I also know that on Tuesday, my permit will sit in a file with a whole lot of others. That a group of 10 people will look at it. They will all have preconceived notions regarding American women, NGO’s, social workers, Christians and however else they see me in those papers.

I need you to pray with me.

I am in a position that I have heard others call a “crisis of belief”. I say that prayer changes things. I pray for others, I ask people to pray for me. Today I stand here having to really determine if I buy that or not.

There is a song that we sing at Celebration Church that goes like this:

Let us pray
Let our thunder pierce the darkness
To rearrange the world around us for the Lord
Let us pray