April, 2004

Dear friends,

I have been putting off writing this letter so that we would have some definite news to share. But as of today we are still waiting for a definite answer about our visas so I will write now and then again when we know more news. THIS IS A LONG LETTER BUT WORTH READING UNTIL THE END.

We are, as most of you know, in the States. Not because we want to be but because we were sent by the Brazilian government. It is a long story but I am going to try to tell you with the least possible words. In 1999 we applied for and got our one-year temporary missionary visa and moved to Brazil on June 4th. Then on May 4th of 2000 we applied for our second year temporary missions visa (you see, you must have two years temporary to be able to apply for your permanent visa). When we made this application the Federal Police had opened a new office nearer to where we lived and so we had all new people handling our process. The head man there looked at our passports and said "You all have been in Brazil enough time (because of the many visits to Alpha and Omega) that you should just go ahead and apply for your permanent visas. Well, we were ecstatic, so we changed our application to ask for permanent and paid the fees and sent in the application. After six weeks of waiting for a reply we went back to the Federal Police to check things out. We were then told that our application had been returned because we had to have the two years temporary before we could apply for the permanent. So we filled out the papers for the second year temporary again and paid the different fees and sent in the application. Again we waited for word, and when we heard nothing we returned to the Federal Police and were told that our application had been returned because it had been sent after the deadline and now we must pay a fine for it to be processed. We paid the fine and re-submitted our applications. Are you confused yet?!? Well, the people in the processing office were, and because of this our papers were sent up to the main office, where they got lost. Well, about eight months went by and there was no word from our visas. But we were told not to worry by the Federal Police because there had been a strike and everything was delayed. So when May 2001 rolled around we were in a panic, it was time to apply for our permanent visa but we still had not gotten the cards for 2000 temporary yet. Back to the Federal Police we went and asked for advice. We were then told that our papers were lost but for us to avoid that fee for filling late we should just go ahead and apply for our permanent missionary visa. So we did. We have later been told that this just complicated the process because we now had two applications in process for two different things. This confusion has now been going on for five years and we have been here not on a visa but a protocol. This means that we have to go to the Federal Police every three to six months to get their permission to keep waiting a decision on our visas. Finally we got a decision-they could not decide what to do with us because of all the confusion, so we continued to stay in Brazil on the protocols until they could make a decision.

After all of this we finally decided that we could not handle the waiting any longer so we looked for help. God put in our lives a good Christian woman (Mari) who has spent 32 years of her life helping missionaries get visas to Brazil. In two days she had found our applications and had them sent on the next leg of their journey, the Minister of Justice. She told him about our case and he started looking into the situation. On November18th he called and said that there had been so many mistakes made with our applications that there was nothing he could do for us.   His only recourse was to ask us to go back to the States and start aver again. We were given until the 16th of January to leave Brazil. We took this time to get all the paperwork that we needed from Brazil ready for our new application.

We arrived in the States on the 12th and spent that day getting the rest of the paperwork ready and then headed to Washington to the Brazilian Embassy to start the process again. We were told to go back home and wait about a month for the response. On February 11 th we called and were told that our application had been denied and there was no explanation. We immediately called Brazil and talked to Mari and she was told us that she had just been on the phone with the man in Sao Paulo and he had told her that he was working on getting us our visas. For about three weeks we were constantly in touch with Brazil, then came the day that we were told to return to Washington and resubmit our papers.

We arrived at the Brazilian Embassy on Monday, March 1st and handed our application to the receptionist and were asked to wait . Feeling confident that we were about to get our visas we were happy to wait just a few more minutes. But, we were summoned by a woman from a side door and knew immediately that something was wrong. Her words of greeting were these: "You have already submitted these papers and they have been denied, what makes you think that you can submit them again?" We tried to explain that we had been sent by people in high places in Brazil but she just kept getting more and more agitated. So AJ asked her when we could reapply for this visa and she told us that she did not know, but probably in three to six years.

Well as you can imagine we walked back to our room dejected and broken. We spent several hours in prayer waiting the specified time for us to call Mari to tell her what had happened. When we finally got to talk to her she said "God has not said no yet, don't despair." She had just talked with the Minister of Justice in the Capitol and he had now agreed to help us because he had found out that we had been denied because the government had been told that we had been in Brazil for five years illegally and he had done his research and found that this was not true. Mari asked me to call him because he had some dates that he needed from us. When I called and said who I was he said   "Mrs. Barbara, I know who you are.   Over the weekend I have had people at my Church telling me about you." Just to show you how God is looking out for us all the time, this man and woman were teenagers when we first started visiting Brazil and God put them in the capital city of Brazil in the same Church as the Minister of Justice to plead our case.

The Minister of Justice needed three dates and he asked for three days to work on our case. He needed to contact a colleague of his that is in charge of all visas in Brazil. Needless to say these three days have stretched out to seventeen days due to classes and travel. So today we are waiting for the appointed time to call to see what will be our next step on the quest for our visas. Hopefully it will be go back to Washington to get our passports stamped with our visas.

Many have asked us why we don't just give up and stay in the States. Our answer remains the same, "God sent us to Brazil and until He sends us somewhere else there is where we want to stay.” Continue to Pray for Gods will in our lives.

In His service,

Barbara and Aj