April 6, God Makes a Way Forward…

“I will say that Patrise urged me to have faith, to turn this one over to God, since clearly we could not see a way forward.”

For regular blog readers, you will recognize that this is the line that closed yesterday’s installment. As we were beginning our morning, Patrise received this text message from her law partner and our dear friend, Ronald Freeman. Now Ronald knew nothing about our situation with my lost passport– still doesn’t, as far as either of knows – but he had sent an inspirational text message to all of the law firm’s employees this morning: (something he and Patrise do regularly.) This was the text message…

“Good morning.

Stay focused.

Give Him some time.

Leaders…the Scripture says that God will work all things together for our good,

including the closed doors, the breakups, and the failures. That’s how awesome our

God is. Don’t live sour because of what didn’t work out…Let it go. God has beauty

for the ashes and joy for the mourning. He just needs some time. Now, while you’re waiting

stay in faith…Keep speaking victory in the face of defeat…”

There could not have been a better lesson for me today than this: to be reminded that there are times when all of your efforts, all of your thinking, all of your worrying changes nothing. You have to be still and continue life in faith that things will work out.

This morning, we received an email from Rashad that he had gotten our message and he indicated that he was trying to contact some of the U.S. consular staff here in Auckland to see what might be possible. Meanwhile, Patrise decided that we were not going to stay in our room and mope. Or more accurately, she decided that she was not going to allow ME to stay in the room and mope. As we discussed the options she thought about all night, we decided if we could not or did not find the whereabouts of my lost passport, we would cancel the plans for heading to Melbourne and to Cairns (Great Barrier Reef): that we would mail the passport renewal paperwork to the consulate, even though it was a 10-minute walk away from the hotel, and we would get out and about for awhile. Then we would return to the hotel in time for the planned tour that was due to pick us up at 12:15.

We had breakfast at the hotel, then we left to find the nearest post office and see some more of the wharf area and CBD while we were out. We found the post office; it was in a “Britomart” store, kind of a convenience store. It would be the equivalent of our U.S. post office having small service branches in 7Eleven stores. We paid the postage, addressed the package, then placed it in the mail. on our way back to the hotel, we stopped and bought some ice cream, while watching people as we were enjoying the ice cream,

Patrise’s brother, Josh, called. While she was speaking with him, I walked the few feet over to the Harbor Information desk. Auckland has a very vigorous fleet of ferries that convey people about the various islands off of its coast. Most people are ferrying to and from for work and commercial purposes. However, there are a number of tourist destinations on some of these islands, so I went to the desk to get more information about some of them. After all, since it looked like we were going to be here longer than planned, we should take advantage of the extra time and plan to see more of the city and its surrounding places.

Patrise finished her call about the same time I finished getting information at the ferry desk. We continued walking back to the hotel at a leisurely pace. When we arrived, we both went to the 1st floor restrooms. As we were splitting up, she said, “When you get out of the bathroom, check your email to see if there are any updated messages.” Well, when I sat down to wait for her, you could have bowled me over with a feather. I looked at my email and what was there? A series of email messages from Rashad, sent about 45 minutes earlier saying he had spoken with folks at the consultate and they were prepared to give me an interview for a replacement, emergency passport, but that I had to get over there right away. In addition, the final message said I had to go by myself; Patrise could not go with me, as they would not permit her to enter the office.

I shared the messages with her, and hurried to get a taxi. Now if I had known exactly where I was going, I could have walked there faster than the taxi ride, (which is exactly the same thing the taxi driver said to me when I told him the address.) However, I did not know exactly where I was going. The driver hurried as best he could through the traffic to get to the location; he pointed me to the building. I gave him a very generous tip – the actual fare was less than $5 – for his time and emotional support. (“Good luck, mate with that passport business.” ) After a miscue and passing the building, I found out where the Consulate office was and went up the elevator to the appropriate floor.

Meanwhile, Patrise was picked up by our scheduled tour guide and proceeded to enjoy the tour of the tropical jungle on the westside of the Auckland Peninsula. I am so glad she did. As she later stated, if she had stayed at the hotel, she would have had nothing to do other than to worry about how things were going with me. And we both were aware that once inside the Consulate’s office, you have to turn your cellphone power off and leave the phone with the security guard. Even if she had called, she would not have been able to reach me. So she proceeded to experience the afternoon, keeping the faith and saying many prayers that all would work out.

I saw the email from Rashad at 11:45/11:50. Shortly after 1pm, I was walking out of the Consulate with a newly issued, emergency passport. It is only good for one year, but that was all I needed to be able to continue our journey.

Needless to say, I returned to the hotel feeling so much better. While Patrise was on the tour, I rescheduled our flights for Friday (Auckland to Melbourne) and for Sunday (Melbourne to Cairns). We would not be given refunds for the flights we had cancelled that morning, but the lost money was of no concern, relative to the peace of mind I had been given.

I will leave you with some photos of the day, but they had little to do with the central events of our day. Still, they are a good reminder that in the bigger scheme of things, our troubles are indeed very small, and the world keeps turning.

“Now, while you’re waiting, stay in faith…Keep speaking victory in the face of defeat…”