ahhh... it's 16th of July...and Mrs Ison had naively thought that 10 months would be long enough for the visa to come through...but ok...we are hitting 11 months on 26th July..... and this morning, we received one of the most aggravating correspondence from the National Visa Centre yet...
first, some head and tail.... we had first applied for a spouse visa on 26th August 2013 and had submitted all the documents they asked for...it was a very tedious and repetitive...and mostly handled by my meticulous and long suffering husband.. and in June, I received a letter stating that I would have to send a copy of my passport and a police clearance check... and my husband needed to send evidence of support (his bank statement and employment history and all that jazz) and birth certificate...it was stated that no online submission was allowed and everything had to be done through snail mail...(which didn't make a lot of sense cos there were a couple of payments which we noticed and paid up promptly in April only to receive notification via snail mail in Singapore in May to please pay those bills BUT only online please....but we had already paid them a month ago...)
But ok, we send those documents via registered mail and thought that the next thing would be the letter informing me about the medical check up and interview at the US embassy in Singapore...because..in April we had also received noticed that the petition for the spousal visa has been approved...(Are you confused yet? Or just bored reading? Don't worry, I share similar feelings..) So the petition has been approved...is distinct from having the visa in my passport.... (at this point, friends would usually ask..'can't you go to the US on a tourist visa first?' Sure, I can but I need to come back for the interview and I do not want to delay things by being there when that letter arrives..and also, I am here so long that friends have asked me if I am already back from the US for a visit.....AND!! when people ask me for any prayer requests, I am always rather embarrassed when they suggest praying for the visa...cos it's been approved...so I thought that it's sorta waste of time / energy to pray about it when there are other much more meaningful stuff to pray about.... it's approved already...why bother praying right...?? WRONG.)
SO!
One week ago, the Keeper emailed the National Visa Centre on the status of the applicant.. (basically they just need to bundle all of the documents we have sent them so far and send them to Singapore for the interview here..) and the reply was essentially the same as the letter in early June and they stated that they have not received the documents they had asked for.......so we doubled checked and tracked the mail...my police clearance was delivered to the National Visa Centre on 25th June.........
I read the email first thing in the morning and was so angry that I jumped out of bed immediately and had breakfast... (what was for breakfast? Durian and mangosteens..) and turbulent thoughts whirled through my mind...
"Man! Do they not know how tedious it is to get a police check?! That's another $60 down the drain and another couple of weeks of delay at least?!!"
"Haven't I already done everything and sent everything they asked for?? And why couldn't they ask for everything in one shot??"
"This is such a waste of time!!! And I can't go anywhere!!!"
"And how inefficient this whole thing is!!!! This would not happen in Singapore!!" (but ok, I haven't applied for a visa in Singapore before so maybe I take this sentence back..)
As I was chomping down on the durians, the story of Moses hitting the rock when God told him to just speak to the rock came to mind...
I think the message is somewhere along the lines of 'in your anger, do not sin..'
then it was time for the daily skype with my darling husband and I was greeted with a very morose face...he looked like he had been crying or was about to cry, so I asked him if everything is alright...
He looked very surprised and said, "Haven't you received the email?"
I sure did as well...
We talked about the matter..and I must say that I was rather impressed by my tender husband...I read somewhere that anger is essentially a secondary feeling and in my case, I have bypassed sadness directly but my husband was able to accurately express the primary emotion.... and he was still very gentle and polite as seen by the civil email he had just drafted to the national visa centre which included screen shots of evidence of our documents being delivered to them...
I told him about how I had been reminded of the story of Moses..so we read it together and numbers 20:12 stood out...that Moses had struck the rock because he has not trusted the Lord...
and then we had our usual chat and I asked him what he had for dinner (occupational hazard and possible Singaporean/ Asian/ chinese thing) and he said that he was so upset that he didn't eat anything... and was planning to fast and pray tomorrow too... (the wife on the other hand, was planning to eat even more durians later in the day..)
and he also said something really endearing...previously I had said something to the effect of maybe I'm still in Singapore 'cos God wants to use me to minister to some people or heal me of some stuff.... or just basically prepare/ equip me, he wondered aloud if there's anything that God needs to do to prepare him before I go over too....
We ended off with praying and blessing the NVC and the postal services in Singapore and US and also reaffirming our trust in God and resting in the knowledge that yeah, He is in control and there are usually good reasons for unexpected delays...
and...now...please kindly release your extremely fervent prayers for us because we need all the prayers we can get and it does look like celebrating our first year wedding anniversary on 2nd August together in the US will take a major miracle..... (we both know we've got the rest of our lives together..what's a few more weeks, or gasp, months!!! At this point in time, we really just wanna start the next chapter of our lives instead of being in limbo....)
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Just like you...
This is a friend's response to a story about the Keeper.... how I thank God for a godly husband and how extremely happy and grateful I feel...
The man that my friend is seeing and intending to walk down the aisle with is a Christian but does not act out his faith in a tangible way and she feels that it will do him good to return to church..she loves him very much and almost seems to feel as though that she has to choose between God and her boyfriend..
Ask me about the issue of being 'equally yoked' last year and I will tell you very clearly that "yes, it is in God's word to not to be yoked with unbelievers".... and that being with a person who does not love or know God is not a wise thing to do...
How about now?
Actually...my views have changed slightly... a guy who is totally devoted to the Lord and to you can still stumble down the road... there are stories of famous Christian leaders who have fallen... As much as I hate to think about it, there is no certainty in life...and so what if you marry a really godly man? Does it mean that your life will be a bed of roses from this point on..? Most probably not...BUT.... having been there, done that and dated my share of swamp things (nobody to blame but myself for fishing in swamps), I can assure you that it will be a much less ardourous journey...to have someone on your team who shares the same values and beliefs...it's almost like playing a game with a person who abides by the same rules...it's just so much easier...
So what am I saying?
It's ok to be yoked unequally?!!
Sure, as long as you know that it's not your job to change him, that you might have a tremendous amount of guilt that can feels overwhelming at times and that conflicts and arguments might be more frequent and you might not be as spiritually and emotionally intimate as you like...
But but..this sounds so callous..!!
yeah. And before you stomp off angrily, also let me assure that God loves that person even more than you love him and that He will also do all it takes to bring him back to Him and it is our responsibility to stay close to Him and to listen to Him and allow Him to love us... He's already forgiven you for everything you've done....Jesus has died on the cross for our sins...everything you have done in the past, present and future...all forgiven...so please, walk under that banner of grace and know that your loving Father is not angry at you and longs to spend time with you daily, to comfort you when you are down and He lights up with joy when you are happy....
Bottom line: it's fine if you want to remain with your boyfriend and it's also ok if you choose to break up with him....God will take care of the BOTH of you... Your boyfriend is not the 'bad' guy.... He's also God's precious child, just like you.....
(But!! I do not believe that God tells people to date or marry non-believers...I believe it's something He allows 'cos He gives free will and I will be rather leery of any voice which tell a person anything contrary to what has already been communicated in the scriptures...)
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
The Jewel
Now that I am very happily married to a wonderful man, she reckons that the story of my journey might encourage other women...
Backtrack to August 2013...the following is a status update which I posted on Facebook a couple weeks after the wedding...
Looking back at my notes...I came across a single sentence written more than a year ago...God had told me, rather clearly... "Until you start to see yourself as a jewel, I cannot give you away...."
At that time, I was not attached...(but very anxious to be!)..and I didn't know what He meant...and was quite annoyed..."Can't You just send me someone first and fix me later?!"
But now, I think I finally get what He was trying to say.....if a woman sees herself as a pearl of great worth....and believes that she is a priceless asset to her husband, she will expect and elicit tenderness, love and respect from him and in the process, bringing out the best in him as well....
***
Actually the analogy of the jewel was fleshed out further.... God showed me that I was selling myself at a flea market as if I was a worthless trinket and was allowing random passers by to manhandle the jewel...and when they beat down the price just for fun, my confidence was further diminished and thought, "yup, I'm really not worth that much.."
God told me that, no, I am such a precious and beautiful jewel in His eyes that He wants me to be kept in the safety box of a top jeweler...till there is a genuine buyer and only when the jeweler knows that the buyer is sincere and has the means to pay the price...that He will take the gem out from the secret hiding place with gloved hands and show it proudly to the buyer who would be bedazzled and more than willing to pay the astronomical price for the privilege of owing the treasure.
So there.
Backtrack to August 2013...the following is a status update which I posted on Facebook a couple weeks after the wedding...
Looking back at my notes...I came across a single sentence written more than a year ago...God had told me, rather clearly... "Until you start to see yourself as a jewel, I cannot give you away...."
At that time, I was not attached...(but very anxious to be!)..and I didn't know what He meant...and was quite annoyed..."Can't You just send me someone first and fix me later?!"
But now, I think I finally get what He was trying to say.....if a woman sees herself as a pearl of great worth....and believes that she is a priceless asset to her husband, she will expect and elicit tenderness, love and respect from him and in the process, bringing out the best in him as well....
***
Actually the analogy of the jewel was fleshed out further.... God showed me that I was selling myself at a flea market as if I was a worthless trinket and was allowing random passers by to manhandle the jewel...and when they beat down the price just for fun, my confidence was further diminished and thought, "yup, I'm really not worth that much.."
God told me that, no, I am such a precious and beautiful jewel in His eyes that He wants me to be kept in the safety box of a top jeweler...till there is a genuine buyer and only when the jeweler knows that the buyer is sincere and has the means to pay the price...that He will take the gem out from the secret hiding place with gloved hands and show it proudly to the buyer who would be bedazzled and more than willing to pay the astronomical price for the privilege of owing the treasure.
So there.
This is the best advice I can offer every single girl...
Beloved daughter of God, until you are secure in your identity as a priceless jewel belonging to the King of Kings and believe that you are worthy of love and respect....He will keep you close to His bosom and sing over you till your heart is fully restored so that your beauty can shine...
Beloved daughter of God, until you are secure in your identity as a priceless jewel belonging to the King of Kings and believe that you are worthy of love and respect....He will keep you close to His bosom and sing over you till your heart is fully restored so that your beauty can shine...
Then and only then, will He present you to the man of His dreams who will love Him and love you and gladly lay down his life for you.
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