Here I am again, standing in a line of about 30 foreigners waiting for the China embassy to open. I am feeling tired, cold, and just keeping praying that my teammates and I are able to get in this time. Just a week prior, my team and I where standing in the same spot and only four of my teammates were able to get in.
As 12pm started to approach, the hope of us getting in to the embassy starts to grow dim. The thought of having to redo this process for a fourth time was becoming real. The embassy stops taking people at noon and knowing that the embassy was only taking two foreigners at a time every 20min there was little to no hope that all nine of us would get in. On top of the nine of us needing to get through, the people behind us, where starting to budge and cut in front of our team. It was 11:30 when the guard asked for two people to enter and Laura, stepping out in boldness, asked the guard if all nine of us could enter.
And just like that God became the hero of the day. Three of us were sent in, through the metal detectors , past the sign up sheet, and then placed into lines to get our paperwork looked at. The clerk asked Laura to come forward, she handed her paper work to the clerk. The clerk looked over the paperwork, she looked up and saw the line of foreigners there. She asked Laura if we were all traveling in a group and then asked how many were traveling with her. The clerked learned that there was nine of us and she asked us to gather all the passports. I ran around gathering all the passports, realizing that some of my teammates were still standing outside, I had to tell the guard. The guard went outside and grabbed our last teammate. Within ten minutes of entering the embassy all nine of us received our pre-certification for our visas.
In the last month I have spent three days and about 18 hours standing outside the China Embassy and in just 10 minutes nine of us were able to get in and out. Trying to piece together what just happened, my teammates and I walked away in “awh” and literally no words to explain what just happened. God is so GOOD!
Prayer Request:
This is our last week of ministry in UB. Pray for us, as we intentionally engage with the locals and pour out Jesus in our community. Pray for sweet goodbyes. After this week our squad is meeting in UB for a couple of days of debrief, to talk about our first month on the field. Pray for safe travels!
