Wherever it takes you, the future takes Visa

But without a visa you cant get anywhere and at the moment I am visa'less here in Colombia. Of course I am not talking about the credit card for which that was the slogan but rather my visa to enable me to stay in Colombia. My visa expired on Jan 10th so on December 10th I started the process of getting all the papers I needed together in order to renew it and it all seemed, and indeed should have been very simple, just an application form, 2 letters from the NGO, signed by the legal representative stating what I do here, how long I am planning to stay and that they will pay my return flight if for any reason they-the government decide I should leave and a document to show the legal status of the NGO.

Simple, however, Rosa is the legal representative of El Refugio so the first lot of papers were not acceptable as she hadn't signed them, that was ok as we have letterheads with her signature on, but then they need to be "Authenticated" here in Colombia, Rosa thought her signature was registered at the office where this is done but it wasn't, the only other option was to get her to get it authenticated in France, however this would only be acceptable if it was done at the Colombian Embassy in Paris, the other side of France to where they are. So door closed there and a month wasted, so it was off to the immigration dept to apply for a 30 day extension and then go through what should be the easier route of applying through YWAM rather than El Refugio, the legal representative of YWAM being here in Colombia. So I emailed the papers to the girl at the base in charge of visa papers and asked her to change the name to Markus and change El Refugio for YWAM, she however ignored this and merely printed out and authenticated the papers she in her wisdom thought I needed, these were close but not right, so I sent her the papers again and she left EL Refugio in, so I took it upon myself to do it, and also got it a bit wrong. At the same time the legal document for YWAM that I was given was not up to date so was told to ask them for a more up to date one, the girl at the office told me that this was the most up to date one as it is renewed every year, this discussion has been on going until today when she decided she had had enough and passed me on to another girl, together we googled, rang and spoke to leaders to find out the process to do this and eventually found out that it can be done but in Bogotá, but YWAM Bogotá has someone who can do this for me, so with 3 weeks left of my extension I have asked for this paper to be taken out for me then I will be able to apply for the visa.... the only problem is it takes around 4 WEEKS to get!!!! 

Please pray with me, we believe in a God of miracles and he can work bureaucracy and get things done as quick or as slow as he wants!! I know he wants me to stay here in Colombia I am only just beginning his calling for me here!

Thanks All

Petra

PS after joining the gym it is proving a great escape from the stress of the visa :)