Well it’s been longer than I intended between updates, but that doesn’t mean that nothing has been happening. Noreen and I are in the US now, doing promotion and fundraising for the school. With all of the changes that have been happening in our ministry since we decided to commit to the development of a Christian College, we will be spending more time in the US for this purpose.
In part, we came to the US to attend an INS appointment with our daughter, Niki. Our hope was that we would finally be able to transmit citizenship to our granddaughter, Jessica. This turned out to be a pipe dream. Prior to the appointment we were informed by the INS that Jessica did not need to be present for the interview in San Antonio; upon arriving we were informed (rather rudely) that this was not the case and were told that it would be necessary to make a new appointment. I’m not going to enter into any detail regarding this issue, but the labyrinth of incompetence that we have encountered in our experience with the US Immigration/Homeland Security Service has been both expensive and frustrating. I only ask that you would be in prayer for us regarding this matter.
On a more positive note, in late August Noreen and I met with Dr. Dan Fredericks, the Provost of Belhaven College in Jackson, MS. Our goal was to initiate some kind of dialogue with Belhaven concerning the possibility of a future partnership with them. Frankly, I expected this discussion to be the first of a long series of interviews that might eventually lead to some further meetings to “study the possibility” of such a project. Much to our surprise, about five minutes into our discussion, Dr. Fredericks said, “Let’s do it!”
After I picked my lower jaw up off the floor, we began to discuss some of the ways in which this relationship could develop. Because I was not expecting this particular meeting to be anything more than a “get to know you” type of thing, I really didn’t have a plan to actually “do” anything. So… when Dr. Fredericks asked us what we thought we should do to start getting things moving, I really didn’t have an answer.
As I began to recover from my surprise, I suggested that maybe we could try to get a couple of his staff members down to Mérida during Spring Break 2007. His response to this was… “if we wait that long, we’ll lose this school year.” Once again, I was dumbfounded… not only was he interested, he was anxious to get started! At the end of the day, we decided that it would be best if Dr. Fredericks (and his wife) were to come to visit us and meet with our Staff. This is going to happen this November!
Please be in prayer with us about this meeting. Hopefully, we will be able to come away from this with a number of specific project ideas and some kind of time line to begin moving forward in this partnership. At this point, Belhaven has satellite campuses in Orlando and Houston… I’m hoping that we will be able to take advantage of their experience in this type of thing as we explore the possibilities for this relationship. Stay tuned, we’ll keep you posted.
