Hip Hip Hooray!...Our container's on its way!! That's right, we received the go-ahead for our container to board the train in Constanza (the port city in Romania) and arrive in Bucharest by next week. After traversing the city several times and speaking to numerous customs officials the latest information we've received confirms that we have all the paperwork in order and we WON'T need to wait for our visas in order to obtain our container. Could we please get that in writing?!! Hopefully they won't change their minds by next week! Especially since our application for a visa was just denied AGAIN!! The gal who is helping us with this whole process was dumbfounded. She said she'd never seen the visa denied twice! So we're getting the feeling that they don't really want us here....at least SOMEONE doesn't want us here! Well they can't get rid of us that easy. We have 90 days that we can remain in the country without a visa. If we don't get the visa before then we will need to cross the border into Bulgaria, have our passports stamped, re-enter Romania and then we'll have another 90 days to try again for our visas.

One may wondering why the double denial. When we first applied for the visa, a Christian clinic sponsored our application but the very fact that it was a clinic rather than a church, and even though it was also registered for religious activities with the Ministry of Cults (a.k.a. Ministry of Religious Denominations), the request was quickly denied and we were asked to re-direct our request to the Ministry of Health. Knowing that the Ministry of Health only gives 6-month visas, we obtained a second sponsorship from the International Church in Bucharest and resubmitted. Unfortunately, the person remembered our name and denied it again. So, we thought, why not go talk to him in person. We explained what we are about to do, we invoked the support of the clinic and the church, and we argued that our activities are spiritually-rooted. But to no success. At one point he said that he could not approve the visa on the base of the letter from the International Church because 'they (the ministry of cults) did not really know what this church is about and if they were respectable (even though they were approved by this very Ministry).

Needless to say, the man turned out to be an arrogant bureaucrat with a contemptous attitude who could care less if any good was being done in the country. His demeanor brought to mind memories of the die-hard communists that once roamed free about the country, and of whom few survive to this day.

So, what's the next step? We're now going to try to obtain a letter of sponsorship from a larger denomination. Our motto is Jehovah Jireh - HE will provide!