Discouraged
Our visa deadline was Friday. When Tom went in, the immigration officials were very discouraging and unfriendly. They warned him that if we fail to meet their expectations a second time and our application is rejected, we could be blacklisted (permanently expelled) from Thailand. This was really sobering for us and we and the team feel like we cannot risk having to leave permanently when we have no assurance that our application will be approved. We are not sure what this means for the foundation at this point, and will keep posting regarding that situation. For our family, it means we need to go back on tourist visas. Tom made the trip to Cambodia yesterday to get another week's time in Thailand prior to leaving for a conference in Indonesia in early October. I will travel to Laos on my own tomorrow- Wednesday to apply for a tourist visa that will give me another 60 days. At this point, we will just try to patch together enough days to make it to our home assignment this Spring and then reapply for a type O visa while we are in the States. This has been a big disappointment to us and it's hard not to feel angry and disillusioned with the roadblocks in front of us. Tom has put a lot of time and energy into getting his work permit, establishing the foundation and attempting to obtain visas. It's very frustrating to be stopped at this point in the process. Thanks for your prayers for our travels. We believe that God's greater purposes for Thailand will happen no matter what kind of obstacles we face.