Bummer

 

Beautiful sunset during riverboat tour in Chicago


I need to begin by apologizing. I sent this out an email after my appointment at the consulate in Chicago on July 17th, but forgot to post it here (you'll notice I've back-dated this post). If you're not on my distribution list, you haven't received an update since June. So, here's an unashamed plug to be added to my distribution list. Just click here. (Any contact information you provide will be for my use only.)

Without further ado, the email from July 17, 2023:

Today, I presented my paperwork at the Spanish consulate in Chicago, hoping for a quick approval, but they didn't even accept the paperwork. One document was too old, another didn't have the correct seal, etc. I was sent away with a sense of "thanks for playing, try again".

To be honest, I was very disappointed. But, I know that God is in control of my visa process not the Spanish consulate and if he didn't allow for it to be processed yet, it's because he's working in a way I'm not seeing yet.

I want to thank people who were checking in with me today and shared words of encouragement. I have been uplifted more as a result of this "not yet" than I can remember. Steve and Priscilla Dye reminded me that we knew there would be opposition along the way, but this is just a bump in the road. God has not withdrawn his call for me to go work in Tenerife.

So, my next steps are:

Tomorrow, I'm going to run my fingerprints again for a new background check. Then I will send it to Washington DC to get the apostille seal in accordance with the Hague convention of 1961, even though it's an 8 week process according to the Department of State website.

I will contact the organization in Spain that got my sponsorship letter processed earlier in the year and see if we can update the letter or if we need to resubmit an initial request and pay the processing fee again.

I will get a photocopy not only of my passport photo page but of every. single. page. 

I will take an actual book with me next time, so I have something to read when they confiscate my phone when I sign in and have me wait 90 minutes.

Fortunately, I now have the "official" list of required documents for a religious volunteer visa that they insisted was on their website, but couldn't find when I sweetly asked them to show me. After 15 minutes of searching, they photocopied the paper they had been checking my documents against because they couldn't find the information on their website either and there was no other copy in their office. 

Debbie was a single missionary in Chile when my parents arrived there in 1977.

After all that, I met up with old friends from Chile, Debbie and Miguel Amigo, who fed me Chicago style deep dish pizza and in the evening my cousin took his wife and me on an architecture riverboat cruise of downtown Chicago. I felt well-cared for by friends and family. God is responsible for putting those people in my life and lining up those activities knowing they would bring me JOY when I felt discouraged.

Haley and me walking the streets of Chicago



Thank you for your continued prayers. Pray for safe travels home tomorrow, that I can get all my paperwork together in the next 90 days and time my visa request so that all the paperwork would be valid. And that God would guide me in how to get my Ecuadorian background check with a more current date (I flew to Los Angeles last time).

I would be a mess without all your loving words and support. May God continue to fill you with his Peace, Joy, and Love.


My Hope is in Christ,

Erin












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