This week in one word was “Eventful”. Waking up at 2:00 AM, I, Jessie Beal, Cassia Beal, and Nathan Day started
our eight hour trip to Poland to attain our long term visas. The entire trip to the Polish border, we were praying that all would go well, and that we would get across the border quickly and uneventfully. Those prayers were answered, as we were rushed along through the Ukrainian, and then the Polish borders. The rest of the trip, to Krakow, Poland was also uneventful.
On the second day in Poland we went to the Ukrainian consulate and applied for our extended visas. The preparation
for this application had been going on for months by Nathan Day and the ETO lawyer. Thank God all I had to do was
go to the Ukrainian consulate and hand them an application. Again, thank God, this too went perfectly. The amount
of time we spent at the consulate equated to 45 minutes, instead of the four or five hours I had been told to expect.
We spent the rest of the day picking up items not attainable in Ukraine, and left for home the next morning. By thisbtime I was confident that the entire trip would go just as smoothly as it had for the most part…Oh how wrong I was.
Once we hit the Polish border, they looked over our passports and had us pull to the side. An armed guard walked
right up to me and asked, “Where did you enter the European Union?” I told her that I had entered at this same
border crossing two days prior. Pulling out my passport, she showed that I had not received a stamp in it as I had
crossed the border, officially making me an illegal alien on EU soil. They proceeded to lead the others and myself to a building where we were questioned and directed to give statements. Later, we found that none of our passports
had been stamped, and that the van we were driving had not be reported either. Mine was the first noticed, as I had
not previously been to the EU, unlike the others. After the three or four hours of sitting around, signing papers and answering questions, we were let go.
Finally crossing to the Ukrainian side, we thought our troubles were over. Soon we found out again how wrong we
were. On the Ukrainian side, we were again asked to pull over, where again we waited due to some issue with the
papers for Jessie’s van. After that was all sorted we headed home as fast as we could.
That covered Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday was an eventful day as well. On Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday, we received over 50 requested for our starter pack of Bible First. Each one has the Gospel plan and
takes the student through the book of Genesis, while showing them all the pictures of Christ and salvation that are
found there. This is a particularly useful tool for a largely Catholic or Orthodox country such as Ukraine. It is always a blessing to see so many people asking for the Gospel.
Thank you for your continued prayers, and specifically those toward our visas. Please keep the over 650 students of
our course in your prayers, that they all may come to know Christ.