It was tempting to me to tell you about my strange week…but then I got to thinking about it, and I decided that really this week is quite normal! What would be abnormal would be a week where we are all home, all our classes are taught by the correct teacher, and everything goes as planned.

This is what happened…Jason left on Sunday for his evil visa run. This is an important run for him since he is officially leaving “tourist” status, and joining the  “O” visa people. Yes, we are all insanely jealous. So, I drove with him to town, deposited him at the bus station, and then went home. Since Jason is my right hand man with the little girls, I knew that I would miss him a lot, but I also was certain that he will not waste any time getting back to us! So, we all went about our day as normally as possible even though I am so sick and the little girls have so much energy! Believe it or not, things went pretty well considering all the factors.

Then, 5 a.m. the next morning I get a phone call…never a good sign. Jason called to say that his precious bank card was not working. He had tried numerous ATM machines, numerous amounts, and had prayed like crazy already. He was on the border of Lao with not near enough money. What to do…. Roy and I talked about it and decided that Roy could go on his visa run one week early, and take some money to Jason. So, he quickly threw his things together and hopped on the next bus.

Life then resumed normal. The little girls and I went out and washed all the laundry…which is fun since hot season is starting now. I then made them each a bath sarong, which was enough to make them extremely happy! They were so excited that they both went out and took another bath!

Today started out normal enough also, but during Karen class, I got a call from Jason. He had found his dad, and he was able to get his visa OK….but the bad news was that the embassy would not give Roy another visa! So, Roy is in Lao, and he has no visa for Thailand.

At first I was so shocked that I had no idea of what to do. Tears ran down my cheeks as I told Ben and Travis the news. We talked about it for a while, then we called Jon and Natalie and talked about it. We found out that the only way to get a year visa for us at this point is to fly  to America and get one, then fly back. Sounds easy enough…unless you don’t have the money for that! I called Roy back and told him all my depressing news, and he decided to go to Cambodia, and try the embassy there. If it doesn’t work, he can stay with Andrew at least.

I read during my worship this morning about how we deny Christ by borrowing trouble, talking discouragement, and stuff like that. So, I will not even get concerned about my own visa run in two weeks! (not that I won’t have to remind myself not to get concerned every 10 seconds or so….I am still a little weak in faith)

What is keeping me going at this point is the knowledge that #1. God has never let us down in the past. #2 God specializes in impossible situations. #3. God loves our little girls, and our students even more than we do. #4. I know why this is all happening now. Last week Roy was sick, so he spent his down time listening to sermons. He was so inspired that he started sharing what he was learning with everyone at worship times. The kids were really excited about what he was sharing with them about the nearness of Jesus second coming. I can clearly see why Satan is so worried about this.

So, what do we do now? Pray! If God doesn’t want us to stay here, then we don’t want to stay here anyway. But if God wants us here, the powers of hell cannot prevail against us. I know that God has the ways and means of helping us through this crisis so that very soon we can look back on it and use it as one of our growing list of  examples of how good God is.