As you may have already deducted upon reading my previous blog post, I brought a Ukrainian couple (Lena and Igor Ryazanov) to the USA with me to attend the practicum/training at SIFAT (Servants in Faith and Technology) in Alabama, USA. It had been an adventurous and faith-building experience since the beginning.
When I agreed to try out SIFAT, I thought of bringing local church leaders with me. I prayed and asked God who among the church leaders in Donetsk should I bring with me to SIFAT. As I prayed, the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart to ask Lena.
When I asked Lena about it, she said she didn’t know. I advised her to pray about it and she had about a year to soak this matter in prayers. She then told me then that, she couldn’t go without her husband Igor. I told her to pray about it, too, and let me know the soonest time possible since I had to ask the SIFAT people if it would be okay to bring a Ukrainian couple with me for the SIFAT community development course.
Months had passed and I was praying for funds as well as guidance concerning Lena and Igor. I sent in my application and asked SIFAT if I could bring a couple from Ukraine to attend the course (note: from what I knew, SIFAT doesn’t usually admit couples; only one person per country). The coordinator told me to just send the couple’s application and SIFAT’s board of directors would then decide their special case. So I did what I was told to do, and let God do all the rest.
After several months, I received an email from SIFAT informing me that I was approved to attend the practicum/training. I got partial scholarship (I had to pay only one percent of the total course amount). I was elated to hear this good news, and started praying and raising funds for it. Truth be told, I really didn’t know how I could come up with the money to pay for the course and for the round-trip airfare; I just trusted God for His provisions. I knew that if He wanted me to be in this SIFAT training, He would provide.
I was then in Sweden when I received an e-mail from SIFAT stating that the couple’s application for scholarship was approved (partial scholarship, that is; like me, they also needed to pay one percent of the total amount, plus the airfare).
When I got back to Ukraine, I told Lena and Igor about this piece of news, and they got so excited. I briefed them on the expenses to be covered. They then told me that the had been saving for a year ever since I first asked Lena about SIFAT. That was when I learned that even though they were not sure yet about the fate of their SIFAT application back then, they started saving for the trip just the same. In short, by the time their SIFAT acceptance letter arrived, they had the funds to cover their plane tickets and SIFAT tuition fee. Praise the Lord!
US Visa
Us getting the US visa is another proof of God’s favor. It is widely known that the US Embassy is very strict in giving visas to Ukrainians because of the fact that once they set foot in the US, they don’t usually go back to Ukraine and instead stay in the US illegally.
The couple and I prayed for the date of the visa interview. We then gathered all the documents needed for the visa application and paid for the interview and visa processing.
The US Embassy in Ukraine always has a very long queue. Even if the first appointment is set at 8 a.m., visa applicants line up two hours ahead of the scheduled time. As for us, we got there and we lined up for the time that we are supposed to be interviewed. My and the couple’s appointment for interview was set at different times. And so, I thought of asking the person in-charge of the queue if I could go with the Ukrainian couple since we were together and going to the same US destination. And the answer was “yes,” PTL! That was another favor from God.
We were sitting near the first window where the interview was being made. We noticed that all the visa applicants that went to that first window were denied a visa. We could hear everything due to the proximity of our seats to that window. The Ukrainian couple prayed for us not to end up having to be interviewed by the visa officer behind that now dreaded window; they logically thought that we would be denied a visa there as well, given the pattern we saw.
When it was our turn to be interviewed, we were called to approach the first window. But contrary to what the Ukrainian couple feared, the interview went well. The visa officer was really nice. He mainly directed his questions to me since I was the one who could speak English. Upon seeing that my Philippine passport was stamped by visas from many different countries, he told me that he had no issue granting me a US visa. But he was hesitant to give Lena and Igor their visas.
Since he knew that I was going to be with the Ukrainian couple, he then said that he would give the Ukrainian couple a single-entry visa, and instructed them to pay him a visit at the embassy once they are back from their US trip. Lena and Igor had to fill out some return papers and see him again after the trip. He then asked us to pay for the courrier service, as they would send us our passports with the US visas stamped on them after one week. It was really a PTL moment (as I mentioned as a praise report P.S. blog note here).
A Note of Thanks
Thank you once again to all of you who extended prayer and financial support to make this SIFAT training possible for us. Without your partnership, I/we couldn’t have made it on our own — really.
I translated for the Ukrainian couple the entire time we were there at the SIFAT training since both Lena and Igor don’t speak nor understand any English. It was a challenging assignment, but God’s grace allowed me to do the job at hand. I just thank God for all the favor (wisdom, knowledge, strength, contacts, etc.) He bestowed upon us from start to finish.
There were 80 applicants who applied for last year’s fall practicum at SIFAT, but only 16 made it to the course. It was truly a blessing to be part of that selected few.
God’s timing is always perfect, and His ways are always higher than ours.
Note: Here’s the link of the article about us posted on the SIFAT website.
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SARITA 