Dear Family & Friends,

 

This will be more a praise update than those of recent past!  During this past week of unrest in the country, we have truly seen the Lord work marvelously on our behalf such that we can now report we have both our passports (with approved permanent visas) and tickets in hand!  Two and a half weeks ago, we were told our visas were approved; however, two of them had arrived with mistakes and had to be returned to La Paz for correction.  The following Monday, marches and protests began in La Paz ... the very day those two visas arrived there for corrections.  The anti-government demonstrations escalated in the next ten days until finally all roads into La Paz were blocked.  That day, we had still heard no word of the two visas; however, late that night, we received an email that the man bringing them to Cochabamba (where our main mission office is) had managed to get out of La Paz before the road blocks had begun -- Praise the Lord!!  This past Friday, our mission legal representative advised us to come to Cochabamba right away as he finally had all our passports in hand with the approved visas.  He recommended traveling right away, as there were threats of blocking the roads to Cochabamba this week.  So we traveled to Cochabamba on Saturday night, encountering no problems.  However, the day we were to go to the Immigration office to complete the visa process, there were marches in Cochabamba, shutting down the main roads.  Our appointment was in the afternoon, and "conveniently", the marches ended at lunchtime and we were able to complete everything as scheduled that afternoon!  We were also able, at short notice, to purchase our tickets at very reasonable prices to travel home to Canada! -- PTL!!  Finally, we were advised we might not be able to travel back to Santa Cruz (from where we travel to Canada) for several days due to road blocks that were to start today; HOWEVER, the news this morning was that the road blocks were delayed one day and will begin tomorrow instead!--Yea!!  So here we are back in Santa Cruz with our passports and visas .... and with very grateful hearts!

 

Our main prayer request now is for this very unsettled country.  Without going into detail, the issues are serious enough that there have been threats of a civil war.  Please pray for wisdom for the President and others in leadership here that peace could return to Bolivia, and ministry could continue as normal.  Right now, most of the tribal missionaries have been ordered into the cities due to the threats of road blocks and violence.  We trust that things will remain settled here in Santa Cruz that we'll be able to travel as scheduled on June 17th.  We are to arrive in Calgary the following day, and should be home in BEAUTIFUL BRITISH COLUMBIA the following week!  We can hardly wait to see family and friends again, and hope to be able to visit many of you in the year ahead.

 

Thanks so much for your many prayers on our behalf, especially recently through this time of much uncertainty.  We are looking forward to seeing many of you very soon!

 

With His Unfailing Love, 

 

Bill & Kathleen (& boys)