In one hour or so I leave for a trip to Long Island, New York where myself and four other staff here will be taking a three day training course to prepare us for the Discipleship Training School we'll be running in September. So I'm sitting on my laptop and writing this blog instead of fighting with my the server I'm trying to create.
So it's been a crazy past two weeks. I did not leave myself near enough time to do all that I wanted to do. I did get to go to my 24/7 small group, and I sang in a concert for the retirement of the conductor of the choir I was in a long time ago. An old friend of mine came to church with me on Sunday. It was his first time coming to church in four years. He had some bad experiences with judgmental Christians. He was shocked and overwhelmed at the welcome he received while he was there. The only person that brought up the sin in his life was him. Everyone else was just glad he decided to come. Another old friend drove three hours to visit me. I was extremely blessed. The whole time I just felt blessed to be at home. Though busy. I wasn't able to meet with Pastor Kip as I had hoped to. There were some other things that I also wasn't able to do. I didn't secure as many supporters as I was hoping to either. But it was a good trip overall.
Until the flight home.
So I get to Pearson, fill out my customs form and go talk to a customs officer. He wanted someone else to look over my paperwork so I got sent to the back room. I then sat for two hours waiting for them as the officers sat around talking about their office party and who was going to go buy the paper plates for the meal. It was extremely unprofessional. Finally, as I watched people walk in, go see an officer and then walk out, I see an officer pull my file out. He'd look over it, sit at his computer for a bit, then go talk to someone about something irrelevant to my situation (it's a small room. I can hear everything). 20 minutes before my flight leaves he calls me up and tells me I won't be allowed into the States. He never asked me any questions or anything. I asked him why, and what was different about this time then all the other times. He said "Now we know about it". It wasn't until later that I realized that he had assumed I was being paid by YWAM (which would require a different visa then the one I was asking for, and I would have to have done paperwork beforehand). He told me I could talk with his supervisor if I wasn't satisfied, which I wasn't. She came in and asked me one question "How are you being supported?". By friends and family in Canada, not by Youth With A Mission. She stamps my passport and says have a nice flight. Which left me 10 minutes to clear security and get to my plane which is about a km away. There is a sign after security that says the gate I was leaving from was a 7 minute walk away. I tore a shoelace running. But I made it. Stressfully, but I made it.
Anywho, now I'm back in Lebanon. I might apply for an R class visa (which is $325) so I don't have this problem again. The TESOL course is halfway done. The students all seem to be really enjoying it. The ESL finishes on Thursday. I just said goodbye to the two students since they won't be here when I return from New York.
DTS in September is down to two, possibly three, interested students, so pray that we'll have more come our way. We're praying for 10-12.
I think that's all for now. Yeah.
God Bless,
Christopher
No comments:
Post a Comment