No more mountain!

February 7, 2013 / edebock / 4 Comments

We have our visas!

After the panic that I was thrown into three weeks ago when we learned that we had to have complete medicals done before we could apply for our work visas, our trip to the Chinese visa application centre was quite anticlimactic. We drove to Calgary on Monday, going directly to the centre when we arrived in the city. Though there were nine spaces at the counter for serving customers, we were the only ones there. After carefully checking all of our documents, the representative took our passports and told us to return on Thursday. It was that simple.

When we went back this morning, there were a few people there but we didn’t have to wait. Within minutes, we had our passports with the visas in them. We checked them carefully, paid the required fees and were on our way. The mountain had moved!

In spite of the unexpected stress involved in getting our visas, there’s also been a bit of humour involved. Carefully following the instructions provided by our employer in China, when we completed our visa application forms we entered “employment” as my main reason for going to China but “to accompany my wife” as Richard’s! His is also a work visa but apparently it was faster for them to acquire a single invitation letter and work permit for the two of us than it would have been to treat us as two entirely separate entities.

With the exception of the Mosuo tribe, a small ethnic group living in Yunnan province, China is not a matriarchal society. The only reason we can think of that I appear as the head of the family on our documents is that I’m the one who has done most of the communicating with our employer. Whatever the reason, I’ve definitely had fun calling Richard my consort and teasing him that he’s only going along as my companion!

No more mountain! Thank you for your prayers!

Our mountain is moving!

January 18, 2013 / edebock / 10 Comments

If you read yesterday’s post, you know that we were thrown into a sudden panic when we learned that we can’t apply for our work visas until we can present physical examination records with the myriad of other forms and documents that are required. It often takes three weeks or more to get in to see our family doctor and we’re supposed to leave for China a month from tomorrow! What were we going to do?

The problem seemed insurmountable but nothing is impossible with God! (Luke 1:37) After temporarily freaking out, I calmed down and realized that if God wants us in China nothing will stop us from getting there.

We don’t climb our mountains alone. Within hours, people around the world, including a blogging friend I’ve never met, were praying for us and the mountain began to move.

Last night I learned that there’s a new doctor in the area. So new, in fact, that his clinic isn’t even ready for use yet and he’s only seeing walk ins at the hospital outpatients department. We spent two hours there this morning. Dr. O was efficient and personable; definitely a positive addition to our medical community. By lunch time, all of the required procedures had been done. We’d undergone everything from eye examinations to chest x-rays and ECGs and blood had been taken. My blood pressure was a little high but that came as no surprise after the stress of the past 24 hours!

The only hitch now is that the results of the required AIDS test usually take about two weeks to come back. As long as they don’t take any longer than that, we’ll still have enough time to make our trip to Calgary to get our visas but I’m praying that they come back sooner. After all, our God can move mountains!

photo: Nate DeBock

Lord, move this mountain!

January 17, 2013January 18, 2013 / edebock / 9 Comments

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!