Mack, Urgent Prayer Request - 11/27/08

This is a note asking for your specific prayer help on a rather urgent situation on behalf of our ministry in South Africa.

We have been trying to get our visa renewed and are having some problems. We have prepared all the materials that the Home Affairs Hot Line said we should. We went to the Home Affairs in Pretoria on Wednesday and the line was so long that we decided to come back early on Thursday. We did. We arrived at 6:45 AM, stood in line, presented the application with all the supporting Data and were summarily turned down. At this point we don't know what to do. Our present visa runs out at the end of December. At the end of December if they will not renew our visa we will, I suppose, be in the country illegally and if we don't get it renewed I probably would not be able to, ministry teach at Grace School of Ministry or fulfill other teaching opportunities that I have for 2009. We had no idea that renewing our visa would present a problem. We got the first three year visa back in the USA with no problem. So we thought it would be no problem now and thought we had no reason for concern, !
but apparently we were wrong. At present we are receiving our support from the USA and Grace Missionary International has given us a letter saying that they would provide fully support and that they would make sure we had the money for tickets to return. We also have a letter stating essentially the same thing from Grace School of Ministry here in South Africa. That was for some reason confusing to the men we encountered at Home Affairs and they just flat out said that the people who gave us our first visa were wrong in giving it to us. That was confusing to us in that we are here on a volunteer basis - costs the country here nothing - and we are helping train pastors, doing orphan work and helping the poor.

God has a way through. He can open that no man open and shut doors that no man can shut. The hearts of government officials are in his hand and he can turn them however He chooses. So we wait on Him with Romans 8:28 confidence. But, if you would, please pray for us that God would move whomever to grant us a visa to minister here.

Thank you for any prayer assistance you might give us in this matter.