Visa miracle

Up to now, which means for the last five years, I have managed to get visa renewals from Immigration. But recently, I hit a roadblock.

The language school I was working at, Edugate, closed its doors, and I was left with a visa expiring in March of this year. A month in advance of the expiration, this is what happened. There is a Chinese restaurant close to the Kingdom Hall called Lao Tangren that is owned by a Chinese man and his Congolese wife. The wife is studying the Bible with a sister in the French congregation. She comes to the French meetings and is progressing well spiritually. After hearing about my visa plight and appreciating what I am doing here in Rwanda, this lady came up with the idea that I could become the manager of the restaurant, but only on paper in the form of a work contract.

Well, Immigration sent three representatives out to interview the lady and me at the restaurant. No, they finally concluded, we don't need a foreigner to do this job, we can get a local person. I asked, you mean a Rwandan who can speak Chinese? Yes. So they denied my visa.

Then, I found another language school called Wibena Language Center, where I got a work contract to teach Chinese. The visa for this, too, was denied, on the basis that Wibena is not certificated with the Ministry of Education. Well, Edugate wasn't either, and they approved that one, but that just shows that you can't figure Immigration out, no matter how hard you try.

Then, an elder in the Chinese congregation who owns several companies for his electrical contracting business offered to put me on as a shareholder of one of his companies. We had to go through the involved process of creating minutes of shareholders' meeting (although he is actually the only shareholder) to add me as a 30% shareholder, change the name of his company to show that its purpose is the acquisition and leasing of real estate (in harmony with my field of "expertise"), and get all these documents notarized. For the notarization, I had to produce my passport, which, you should realize, was still being held captive at Immigration. This required a trip there in the pouring rain and some convincing, but they were willing to let me have it if I promised to return it by no later than the next morning.

I had another interview with Immigration in the brother's office. They asked the brother, if you are intending to have this foreigner train others in the processes of real estate acquisition and leasing, where is your training center? And moreover, as a shareholder, has he invested any money in the business?

The brother was actually willing to open a "training" center and also deposit a sizable amount of money into an account just to satisfy Immigration, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway because at the end of the interview, Immigration said they could not approve my visa for this purpose. In case you are counting, this is now the third denial.

Finally, in a fit of frustration, I went to Bethel and spoke with a member of the Branch Committee. They said, well, we can provide a letter on branch letterhead stating what you have been doing here for the last five years. However, it is not strictly speaking an endorsement because I am not in special full-time service and so the organization is not "sponsoring" me or taking responsibility for my support. (This is the situation of all "need-greaters" who serve at their own expense anywhere in the world.) However, because I have been here for quite a while, the branch was willing to send this letter along with a brother in the Legal Department to speak to Immigration.

Well, it was a two-hour interview with Immigration. Their basic message was: Okay, you've done private teaching, and you've worked at a language school, and then you're a shareholder in this real estate company, and now you come in here with a letter from Watchtower stating that you teach the Bible to Chinese people. So...what are you really doing here?

I pointed to the letter and said, this is what I'm really doing here. But because our organization doesn't sponsor or support people in my situation, I have had to pay for my own plane ticket, my own rent, and my own food, and since I don't make any money teaching the Bible, I have to get secular work to support myself. So, I added, I haven't deceived you (Immigration) in any way; I really did do private teaching, and I really did work at a language school.

The immigration officer was nice, but she said, sorry, we can't approve this. Normally, we give people in your situation a week to get out of the country, but since you've been here for years, we'll give you two weeks to wrap up your affairs. But you really have to leave then. And, if you ever come back to visit, just be aware that you're in our computer system and so if you stay, say, longer than a month, we'll come looking for you. We know how to find people. (How comforting.)

Four denials....

I went back to Bethel highly discouraged. A brother invited me to his room for lunch. And then, something amazing happened....

My phone rang, and it was Immigration again. The officer said, Do you have a work contract with Wibena? I said yes, you should have it in your file (which, by now, must be several inches thick). He said, well, we're considering giving you a visa for that employer. If we gave you a year, would you be happy with that? I replied, yes, yes, indeed!! Okay, he said, we're still considering this, and we'll call you back to confirm. I said, can't you confirm right here and now, over the phone? No, he said, we'll get back to you.

Well, this is one thing that Immigration almost never does: get back to you. So, with a glimmer of hope, I waited a week and then went to Immigration and asked about my visa. The officer returned from the back room and said, "You've been approved." I looked in the passport and, what do you know, the visa was not for Wibena, but for the Chinese restaurant manager position that was the first denial. On top of that, it was for two years! More than I expected! Jehovah performed a miracle!

So the upshot is that I'm now a restaurant manager. Of course, I don't really have to manage the restaurant; the only thing I am required to do is teach the owner and his wife's 8-year-old daughter piano (per the father's request) for a half-hour a week and conduct a Bible study with her (per the mother's request) for a half-hour a week. Also, as "manager," I would have restaurant privileges, which means I get to eat at the restaurant for free anytime I want.

By the way, the father is in his seventies, and the mother in her forties. How these two got together in the first place is beyond me, but it is quite hilarious to see them try to communicate, the father speaking only Chinese (and with a heavy northern accent) and the mother in her broken, Congolese-accented Chinese. And their daughter can understand French, English, and Chinese!

You may remember that most of the year I also stay in a mansion in Kibagabaga, which is managed by my friend Jacques while the family who owns it lives in Belgium. The only time I have to vacate is during the months of June through August, when family members come back for summer holiday. But otherwise, it's free rent!

Free rent, free food....

Can't beat that! Jehovah really takes care of his servants!

First Memorial as a congregation!

I don't know how your Memorial campaign was, but ours was beyond expectation! The previous year, when we were a group that was part of a congregation, we distributed around 100-150 invitations. So this year, we printed about the same number, and they ran out in the first week. Then, we printed another 100, and those lasted another week. The bottom line is, we distributed over 300 invitations!

I was to give the Memorial talk, which was to be held under a big white tent erected in the Kingdom Hall parking lot. (The English and French congregations had the upstairs and downstairs Halls.) Unfortunately, the previous week I had gotten a bad cold, with coughing, from a house guest from Congo who arrived at our place sick from day one. So, on the day of Memorial, my main concern was getting through the talk without having a coughing spell. I fell back on my experience in Colombia when I had to give two public talks in the same day while recovering from the flu. Then, I prayed not to cough, and it worked! That is, until I got off the stage.

Also, my thought was, maybe one Chinese person will come...okay, at the most five. I'd say five was being pretty liberal, eh?

Well, when the meeting started, it was a bit sparse. But then, they came...and came. The final tally: 14 Chinese persons! (Some count me as the 15th, but I would tend to dispute that.) Including our 24 publishers—none of whom, thankfully, defected to another language Memorial—the total was 38!

One of the Chinese guys actually ate the bread, but didn't take the wine. (I would have thought the wine would be the bigger draw...) Of course, we didn't count him as a partaker. The Chinese sang the songs enthusiastically, probably because we projected only characters on the screen and not pinyin.

Afterward, we got a number of WeChat contacts, and they are all being followed up. One of them, Mr. Zhou (same as my surname), also came to our meeting last Saturday. He has expressed interest in knowing more. We helped him to download the Bible, as well as the study edition of The Watchtower.

Everyone was ecstatic about the turnout! This experience motivates us to persevere in our work of preaching to Chinese people!