The approval process is supposed to take about a month, but when we checked back a few months later, they couldn't find the file. The people from Maranatha kept following up, but nothing was happening. I had to get a 3 months visitors visa while I was waiting, and then had to renew the visitors one for another three months as we waited. When the visitor's visa expired in December, they still hadn't found the file. Last week I received a call that I was needed urgently in Nairobi, so I took the night bus on Saturday night after we had finisehd our tournament in Mbita.
I asked a lot of people to pray for favour with the immigration department and I spent a lot of time in prayer. In my mind, I thought that since God has called me here, wants me to be here and I had committed the issue to Him in prayer that I would go down to Immigration offices in the 20 story tall Nyayo house, talk to a few people who would quickly find the file, approve it and I would be on a bus headed back to Mbita by the afternoon at the latest.
As usual in Kenya, it didn't go that way. All of the government employees I found weren't very ready to help. Actually they didn't seem to care at all. One of them simply asked me when I was leaving the country. They sent me from one office to another, up to the 5th floor, then to the 2nd floor, then the 20th floor, then back down to the ground level, back up to 5th floor and on and on. No one could find my file and they wouldn't give me a temporary visa. They said that I couldn't even re apply for a new one. The only solution was for them to find my missing file. I offered to start looking through the thousands and thousands of files myself, but they didn't seem to like that idea. After a few unsuccessful hours going from office to office, I finally found a nice lady named Alice who actually seemed to sympathize with me, though she didn't have any success either.
After beating my head against the wall (and climbing up and down the stairs at least a dozen times), I decided to call the minister for immigration who happens to be the Member of Parliament from Mbita. Since he knows me well, I thought maybe he could help. His personal assistant came down immediately and tried to offer assistance with no avail.
I was told to come back in an hour so I ran out to the bus stage to see if I could get a bus back to Mbita anytime before Christmas. The bus drivers in the country were threatening to go on strike during the peak season. Everyone was trying to leave Nairobi to go to their upcountry homes for Christmas, but there were no buses. The bus stage was packed with people who had been waiting for over 24 hours to get a bus out of town. They didn't have any seats available for that day or the next day until 8:00 pm the next night, and on top of that, they didn't know if they buses would even be moving because of the strike. So I booked that ticket for the following night, hoping that the buses would start moving soon.
As I headed back to the Nyayo house, I started questioning God. I was asking him why he wasn't answering my prayers and wandering how long this process would take, and if I would have to leave the country, and even if things did work out, would I be able to get back to Mbita before Christmas?
Once I returned, nothing changed much; except I was doing less walking from office to office and up and down stairs, and now it was a lot more waiting. At least Alice and these personal assistants of the minister were concerned and trying to help. After nine hours of no progress, I was told to go home and they would continue to look for the file. I was a little concerned that if I left town, everything would stall again.
At this point I had spent the entire day, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, trying to sort out this issue. I was tired and frustrated. I had booked a room at a guesthouse for the night, but before going there I decided to check the bus stage again. All of the same people were there waiting and a few more had joined them. I found a few friends from Mbita who had spent over 30 hours waiting for a bus to come. As I started to leave, one of the buses pulled in. People quickly boarded and I asked one of the employees if they had any extra seat. Within ten minutes I was on the bus headed back to Mbita at 6:00 pm. Somebody had booked a ticket but had given up hope and left just before the bus had arrived and that is what opened up the space for me to travel. Even though I hadn't succeeded with immigration at least I was able to get a bus and return to Mbita which seemed very unlikely a few minutes earlier.
We reached Homa Bay by 1:00 am and I slept on the bus for a few hours before getting another vehicle to take me down the dirt road to Mbita. I reached Mbita by 6:30 am, showered, changed and by 7:30 I was leaving the house to go pick up our football girls to play in a tournament in Sindo. By 10:00 am I received a call from Alice, the one nice lady I met in the whole 20 story building in Nairobi. She had gone down to the registry and personally found the file herself. It has been misfiled among the tens of thousands of files (a needle in the haystack). She promised to put it in front of the committee by the beginning of the new year and see if it can get approved quickly. I will still need to go to the border and get a new visitors visa while they finish the process, but praise God the file was found.
Later that evening I was reflecting on all that had happened. Sometimes when we pray we think that God should answer our prayer the way that we want it done. We think it should be done a certain way and when it isn't we start to blame God or question him. Yet He is all-knowing. He sees things and understands things in ways that we can't even comprehend. He knew exactly where the file was and how He was going to answer my prayer. But I think he was trying to teach me a few things through the process such as patience and how to trust in him. I was putting a lot of faith in other humans such as the Minister of Immigration and his assistants.
God was ready and able all along. He answered my prayer (and many others) in His perfect timing and in His perfect way for His glory and honor! Much better than my way!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment