{"id":8489,"date":"2017-05-24T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=8489"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:28","slug":"not-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=8489","title":{"rendered":"“NOT YET”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many thanks to all who prayed for visas recently for our Haitian friends.<\/p>\n\n\n

I am sad to report that our trip to Port-au-Prince did not\nyield the visas we had hoped for. Ruysdael, Johnny and Mikken were disappointed\nby the results, but they remain optimistic about the future and PATIENT<\/i> in the present. \u00a0They know that sometimes God answers our\nprayers with a \u201cYes\u201d, sometimes with a \u201cNo\u201d and often with a \u201cNot Yet\u201d. We are\nhoping this is simply a \u201cNot Yet\u201d and we trust the Lord\u2019s timing.<\/p>\n\n\n

That\u2019s not to say we aren\u2019t frustrated. We took the 2 am bus\nto Port early Friday and it was BRUTAL. But we made it into town in plenty of\ntime to reach the embassy. Outside the embassy, some dishonest men tried to\nscam us out of $60, telling us we needed to complete a step on-line before our\nappointment. We did not believe them and saved our money. At the front door of\nthe embassy, I was told I could accompany my three friends to the interview but\nwhen we actually headed to the door, I was stopped and prohibited from joining\nthem. I sat outside and prayed.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/
A selfie outside of the embassy – I'm praying, eating cashews and looking irritated…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

The biggest frustration, though, was the sole reason\nRuysdael, Johnny and Mikken are forbidden from entering the States: the U.S.\ngovernment distrusts their desire only to visit the U.S. for a few weeks and\nthen gladly return to Haiti. These three young men are followers of Christ and\nas honest as they come. The embassy official did not know them; if she did, she\nwould have had no hesitation in granting the visas.<\/p>\n\n\n

These three young men had two hopes in visiting the U.S.:<\/p>\n\n\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\nTo raise funds for continued construction at\nCowman<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\nTo visit FRIENDS<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Lunch from a local "restaurant" – rice and bean sauce with okra and a bit of beef.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

They do not care about walking through giant grocery stores,\neating at fancy restaurants, or riding a roller coaster. It\u2019s not about driving\non smooth roads, gazing up at skyscrapers, or visiting a zoo. They have FRIENDS<\/i>\nin Iowa and Indiana and Pennsylvania and elsewhere and they would love the\nopportunity to visit those friends in their homes. It\u2019s all about\nrelationships.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n

The four of us spent the night in Port-au-Prince at Mikken\u2019s\ncousin\u2019s apartment before catching a bus back to Cap Haitien the next day. That\nevening we sat out on the street and chatted through the sunset. At one point,\nJohnny said, \u201cI don\u2019t really like Port-au-Prince.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cOh, yeah?\u201d I responded. \u201cWhy is that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cToo many people. And they are people I DON\u2019T KNOW<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

It\u2019s all about relationships with these guys. And we serve a\nGod who also happens to be \u201call about the relationships\u201d. I feel pretty\nconfident that someday these three will get to visit their friends in the U.S. (and\nmake some new ones there while they are at it, undoubtedly). We will continue to pray, and\nseek, and wait for God\u2019s timing.<\/p>\n\n\n

Until then, if you want to meet Ruysdael, Mikken and Johnny\n(and you really ought to!), you\u2019ll have to come to Haiti to do it. And that\u2019s\nnot such a bad thing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Perfect hair takes a lot of effort,\nespecially when the power is out.\nI thought we were going to be late for the bus back to Cap Haitian!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

P.S. \u00a0We need to give a big shout out and huge Thank You to Phil and Connie Dicks and all the wonderful folks at Grundy Center United Methodist Church for your generosity and efforts toward getting us to the appointment in Port-au-Prince. You all are the best!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to all who prayed for visas recently for our Haitian friends. I am sad to report that our trip to Port-au-Prince did not yield the visas we had hoped for. Ruysdael, Johnny and Mikken were disappointed by the results, but they remain optimistic about the future and PATIENT in the present. \u00a0They know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8495,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8489\/revisions\/8495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}