Navigating the process...

A recent conversation has sparked an idea for a blog. Growing up in church I heard many missionaries over the years share on what God had called them to do, but it never occurred to me the process they had to go through in order to do it.  

I know this blog may not interest everyone, as it is quite different from my usual writing. With all the stuff going on in the USA over legally being in the country, I thought I would share how much struggle and cost we have for just wanting to share Christ in other countries. We could probably do things less ethically, that just isn’t an option as our integrity is very important to us.  

As missionaries in our second foreign nation, I have experienced first-hand what the process can look like. So much of this process had to be learned by trial and error, as independent missionaries there is no large organization to lead us in how to do everything required.  

When we arrive in a new country we go through immigration and customs just like everyone else on the plane. The difference starts at the end of the first month (or however long we are given), when the stamp in our passport expires (each country has its own standard for this stamp). This starts our relationship with Immigration. We have a combination of things to handle at this point, paying for a passport stamp for another month and beginning the process to register our ministry in the nation so we can get work visas.  

Immigration in Ghana requires paperwork and money, easy. In Belize we show up at Immigration and wait in the heat for hours for our turn to turn in a bunch of required documents to pay large sums of money ($200 Belizean per person) to get a stamp that forbids us from serving/working even in a volunteer way. I will include a picture of our passport stamp as proof of this strange requirement. 

In Ghana filing for our ministry was a simple process of filling out paperwork and submitting it to the government with the required fees, it was a super quick process. In Belize, we have been working on this with an attorney for over a month now, finding the attorney was a process all its own. We had to pay the attorney here over $4000 Belizean to facilitate the whole thing. As I was posting this on our webpage, our attorney let us know that we are now a registered business in Belize, now our Non-profit filing begins.

Once we get the ministry registration then we can file for our work visas (even though we don’t ever take any money in the countries where we serve). In Ghana, only John must have a work visa, and we have completed the process of residency there, which is a whole lot more forms, money and John needs to have blood work. Here in Belize, all three of us must have work permits, since Zeke is 18. We have proof of his diagnosis, but immigration here won’t accept his disability unless we have a doctor here diagnose him. It will be cheaper in the long run to just get him his work permit.  

We are currently facing a challenge I was not ready for; we are fast running out of pages in our passports. I didn't realize how much space these governments would use up. In Ghana residency is a full page and here our monthly stickers require a half page (see pics). As soon as we have our work permits here, we will make an appointment at our Embassy here to get new passports, the bigger ones with more pages. With upcoming travel needs, we don't just want to add pages (yes, the Embassy can do that) we will start fresh. We will have to carry old and new with us for a while, that way we can use the documents in the old ones until time comes for new ones. Zeke passport was renewed last year and he has the thicker one!

I never thought about how much it would cost to be a missionary; how much is just spent on being able to stay in the country God called us to. I’m not complaining by any means, just sharing the day-to-day life of a missionary. We feel honored that God trusts us to do this His way, for His Glory. He is never surprised at the delays & the push back from the enemy, although I am often surprised at how the enemy uses government bureaucracy to try to delay or even stop the Gospel. 

Thanks for joining us on our journey. We need and covet your prayers and support as we continue to follow where He leads. Nigeria has its first campus now and prayerfully; Kenya and Pakistan are next!  Love you all...till next time!  

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below this blog and I will try to answer them as quickly as possible 

PS I marked through some of the numbers on the pictures so no one could photocopy and try to use them.