Monday, February 5, 2007

Blessing

He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.--Psalm 91:15

In 2003, Dei applied for her and my two kids' passport in preparation for their visa application for Australia. I was already in Newcastle studying. It was quite hard for her as she was pregnant with Nel during that time. So, her father assisted her.

What happened during that application, I believe, was a test of faith. The day was very humid and the queue was long. She had to go somewhere, my father-in-law was keeping the line for her. Then after riding tricycle to the application center, she realized that she lost her passport application forms along with other important documents and a large amount of money.

She was crying as she immediately made a long distance call to me. She was frantic and said that she left everything in the tricycle, I calmed her and said that she should report it to the police. Imagine a pregnant woman, walking under the heat of the sun going to the police station, crying with two children in tow--I could only imagine and wish that it was just a dream. I was in the library, researching online. I stopped everything and just made a simple prayer.

Lord, help my wife

Believe it or not, but just under five minutes after I said the prayer--the tricycle driver came back and returned the documents to my wife--everything was intact, the document and the money! My wife was overfilled with joy and gratefulness. Well, the rest was history as they say.

2007. Today we submitted our visa application. I believe God showed that He's still in control. Everything was smooth from our travel to the Australian Visa Application Centre to the actual submission. After malling a bit (well, some details in between are here) we headed home.

For some reason or another, we were caught in this traffic gridlock for about an hour and we barely 700 meters from our point of origin. Out of the blue, I looked for the envelope where we have the visa application receipt (without it, we'll not be able get our pre-visa assessment), all our passports and other important documents! "how dare me to forget that!" I told my self.

We frantically looked for it in the taxi and when we realized that we left it somewhere in the mall we weaved through cars and buses in the street to cross to the other side and run back to Central Chidlom. In Central Chidlom, I instructed Dei to ask the information and I raced to the toilet and the toy department to see if I left the envelope in either of the two places.

God's grace was really working, I saw the envelope untouched, not in the toilet but in plain view of the public--on the chair in the play place where my kids hang out. We were really grateful that God, again!, protected not only us but our stakes.

My wife was ultimately worried as she's already burdened whether we would be approved to go together--well, it's just the financial issue for a family going Down Under. But this incident made us realize--God is in control! No worries!

No comments: