Yesterday the paperwork that we’d been waiting for arrived; the invitation letter and working permit that would allow us to go to China to teach. Today we filled out our visa application forms and the supplementary forms required for a Z (working) visa. I gathered together the mountain of paperwork that we’d need then decided that I should phone the Visa Application Service Center in Calgary to make sure that we had everything we needed before we made the four hour trip to Calgary on Monday. Thank goodness I did!

When you phone the service center, you get a recording telling you that all the information you need is on their website. I knew that but I’m anal. I wanted to talk to a real person just to be sure. After pressing one for English then listening to a lengthy menu, I finally pressed 0 and was connected to Peter. That’s when I learned that the website is actually out of date!

According to the website, which I first checked several weeks ago, people who are going to China to work for less than 6 months do not need to present a physical examination record with their visa application. Wrong! Peter told me that that requirement changed a couple of months ago and yes, we would need to present completed medical forms!

Yikes! We live in rural Alberta where there’s a doctor shortage. It can take weeks just to get an appointment! We’re supposed to have a complete check-up, a chest x-ray, an ECG and even an AIDS test, for goodness sake!

Panic immediately set in. I’m sure my blood pressure went through the roof! How in the world are we supposed to climb this mountain in the limited amount of time we have to get our visas?

That’s when Matthew 17:20 came to mind. “I assure you, even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

For a moment, my eye was only on the mountain; the problem. When we focus on the problem, everything else including God seems small but when we focus on God, the problem seems small. Right now, I’m trying very hard to focus on God and not to worry. As our friend Ilef likes to say, I’m waiting to see how God’s going to get us out of this mess. I believe that if God wants us in China, we’ll be on the plane with visas in hand!

Lord, move this mountain, I pray!