Waiting

One of my tasks for this past week has been to get my student visa extended to the end of the year (it expires in August). So far the process has gone pretty well, but as with most official business matters, it has involved a bit of waiting time.

Last Tuesday, I boarded the tram and made my way downtown - a 45 minute trip. By the time I finally found the place where I needed to be (called the Préfecture), it was late morning. When I arrived, I learned that they only let people into the line in the first few hours of the working day. I also learned later from other people that it is a good idea to come before the 8:30 opening time.

I returned to the Préfecture on Thursday morning, arriving at about 7:50 - 40 minutes before opening time. My hopes of getting near the front of the line quickly vanished: there were already about 100 people waiting in line! I guess everyone else had also heard how long the lines are! When the door finally opened at 8:30, it was a 2 hour wait before I finally made it to the window and received ... a ticket to sit in the waiting room! At least the waiting room had chairs, bathrooms, and vending machines. About 45 minutes after I got to the waiting room, my number was finally called. And the result? I will eventually receive a "carte de sejour" which will allow me to continue studying in France until the end of the year ... but first, a little more waiting is necessary. There were a few required documents that I didn't know I needed to have with me on Thursday morning, so this morning I made a third trip to the Préfecture to drop off that last bit of paperwork. Thankfully, I didn't need to wait in any long lines this time; in fact, I probably spent less than a minute inside the Préfecture today. Now all the paperwork should be done, and I just need to wait to receive the carte de sejour. Please pray with me that there will be no further problems with this.

Quite frankly, visas are something that I've always found rather stressful, and usually a real headache too. Even though I grew up on the mission field, I never needed a visa when I was growing up because I have always been a dual citizen and could therefore travel freely between the two countries. Since joining BI, however, I've needed visas on multiple occasions for trips to Africa, Asia, and now Europe. The paperwork and red tape is always a nuisance of course, but besides that, a visa (or rather, the lack of a visa) has the potential of overturning the best of carefully-laid plans for an important missions trip. Little by little though, I am learning that my plans are in the hands of the Almighty God, not in the hands of those who approve visas, and it is just one more thing that the Lord uses to teach me to be patient and to trust in Him.