Emanuel’s Mom Denied Entrance to the US

Emanuel’s mom, Vicki, had her appointment with the US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez on June 3 and the officer denied her immediate entrance to the US.  She will have to apply for a pardon.  US law states that when a person is in the US illegally he or she has to go back to their country of origin for 10 years.  The pardon is from the 10 year ban.  What is hard to believe in this case is that Vicki has already been out of the country for 10 ½ years.  Why does she need to be forgiven the requirement?

This decision means several things.  It means that the family will have to continue to suffer a difficult separation for another 4-6 months.  Emanuel was devastated when he learned that his mom would not be coming for another few months.  He has never been away from his mom or his siblings.  He and his dad are living with people he never met before (our daughter and her husband).  They have been separated now for almost a year and a half.

The decision also means that it will cost us another $2,350 in application and lawyer’s fees.  It has already cost about $850 more in transportation as Vicki and the children had to fly back to Oaxaca to wait for the pardon to come through.  It will probably cost yet another $2,000 more in travel and staying in Ciudad Juarez again.  That is over $5,000 of extra expense just for a pardon that seems unnecessary.  If you would like to help with these expenses you can send a tax deductible donation to: ICDV, PO Box 240, Jefferson, OR   97352.  Designate the gift to Benevolent Fund.  Do not put Emanuel or any other name on the check as we cannot give a tax receipt for any gift to a specific person, only a ministry.  When we see Benevolent Fund, we will know what it is for.

The decision also means that Jerilyn and I will have to continue to transport Emanuel to his dialysis 3 times a week for several more months.  When we first brought Emanuel from Mexico to save his life we thought that his mother would be granted an emergency visa to care for her son and that our involvement (and that of Luis and Jessie) would only last a couple of months.  Yet, here we are a year and a half later looking at another 4-6 months.  If you would like to help take Emanuel to dialysis from time to time or on a regular basis please call me at 541-905-5255.  We are now finally getting mileage reimbursement so at least there is no cost involved.  Whenever we cannot take Emanuel to dialysis his father has to lose a day of work.  When he misses a day it really hurts the already stretched family finances.

Thank you for praying for this situation and thank you for your help.  Side note: Emanuel's birthday is this coming Friday.

- Jon

Emanuel’s Mom is in Juarez

Last December we posted a financial need to help Emanuel’s mother and siblings to come to the US.  For over a year we have been taking Emanuel to Portland 3 times a week for dialysis.  He and his dad have been living with our daughter Jessie and son-in-law Luis.  We have been doing this because someone needs to care for Emanuel.  If his dad had to take him to dialysis, how could he earn enough money to care for his family?  If they lived alone in an apartment, who would care for Emanuel while Dad is working?  The Bible says we need to love others as we do ourselves.  That is what we have been doing here.

Right now they need prayer.  After applying for legal residency in 2001 and waiting over 15 years Emanuel’s mom (Vicki) is now in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso.  Tomorrow, June 3, she has an appointment with the US Consulate.  Please pray for her to get permission to legally come to the US.

We believe that we have everything in order.  We hired a lawyer to make sure everything was done right.  We recruited someone to sponsor her.  As required by law, Vicki has stayed out of the US for more than 10 years (after her father brought her here illegally as a teenager). 

In spite of all this, everything depends on who is sitting across the desk from her in the Consul’s office.  He could grant entry; he could deny entry; or he could decide that Vicky must request a pardon, which our lawyer says could take another 6 months.  The “pardon” would be a pardon from having to spend 10 years out of the country – which, of course, she has already done.  She will be taking several proofs that she was out of the country this whole time but the person could still ignore them.  So PRAY that the family will be able to come up to Oregon right away!  They could be here as early as a few days from now if things go well.

We want to thank everyone who has prayed for Emanuel’s situation and for those who have so generously donated to the cause of both saving Emanuel’s life and bringing his family up here legally.  In all, we have received and spent over $6,000 in donations.  This includes bringing Emanuel up here in February of last year, the lawyer’s fees, application fees, and now the cost of getting the family to Juarez and home.  If Vicki and her other two children can come up now, we believe that we have enough money on hand to finish the job.  Pray for a happy ending!

A New Name for our Salem Church

After praying and talking and brainstorming and narrowing down our choices for over a year, our church in Salem decided last fall on a new name for our church.  Just this month it has become completely official.  We are now Esperanza de Vida, which means: Hope for Life.  Thank you to Linda Van Voorst for the suggestion during the brainstorming faze.  We have registered with the state, received our EIN from the IRS, and opened a new bank account with our new name.

Our old name did not convey that we are wanting to present ourselves to Hispanics as a non-denominational (neutral) church.  Below is our new logo that emphasizes seeking God together.  On our business cards and other material we also add Jerimiah 29:13 which says, “And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart."

Pray for Esperanza de Vida as we begin to reach out to the community to let them know that there is Hope for Life.

Pray for our continuing efforts to help Emanuel

As you know, last February we helped to bring Emanuel from Mexico to Oregon to save his life.  He was very close to death when Jon brought him over the boarder at Tijuana and took him to an emergency room.  After three days in intensive care and another week in the hospital he and his father Juan went to live with Luis and Jessie Zavala (our daughter and son in law).  Since March we have been transporting Emanuel to Portland three times every week for dialysis.

We thought in the beginning that it would be no problem getting special permission for Emanuel’s mother to come up from Mexico to be with him and care for him.  Unfortunately, such permission is only granted for very short periods of time and her history as a former illegal alien made it impossible.  Fortunately, Emanuel’s father, Juan, had applied for his wife to get legal papers almost 15 years ago and her long wait in line is finally over.  The law also says that in order to get legal papers, an illegal alien must be out of the U.S. for 10 years.  Vicki’s 10 years are now over and she can come legally to the U.S.

The problem is that it costs a lot of money to do so.  Please click on the following link to read more of this story and pray that God would help us raise the necessary funds.  Ask God what he would have you do to help.  Please post the link to your Facebook page.  Another think you can do is Email the link to your friends, allowing them the opportunity to participate as well.  As of this writing, we only have 10% of the necessary funds to bring Emanuel’s mother and siblings to the U.S.

The link is: https://www.gofundme.com/x4cwnrdc

New Evangelistic Home Bible Studies

This weekend we just completed a 3 day training seminar on how to use Bible Storying in evangelistic home Bible studies.  Jon did the teaching and our primary students were three couples from our churches in Jefferson and Salem.  Our plan is for Jon to teach three Bible studies – one in Salem, one in Jefferson, and one in Albany – with one of the three couples involved in each one.  The idea is that after teaching them how, they could watch him do it in a real life situation.  As weeks pass they will have opportunity to teach parts of the Bible study until, by the end of a 37 week progression of Bible stories they will be well equipped to lead Bible studies on their own.

Our goal is to teach the same seminar in 10 months, next time with each of these three couples having their own learners watch them as they lead new Bible studies.  Hopefully, next year we will be able to identify 6 new couples that want to teach Bible studies.  We can take three couples and our current three couples can take one couple each under their wings.  That is the plan now.  We will see how God leads and blesses.

Right now we are in the process of finding homes to have these new Bible studies.  Two new studies are on the calendar.  On Wednesdays we will be in Albany with co-leaders Juan and Remedios.  On Sunday evenings we will be in Jefferson with co-leaders Baltazar and Herlinda.  We want to find two more homes to have Bible studies in.  We want one in Salem with co-leaders Luis and Jessie.  We also want one more in Albany or Lebanon that Juan and Remedios will teach on their own.  Juan and Remedios were in a Bible study Jon taught for a year and a half in Lebanon and Juan also taught that Bible study when Jon was not available.  So… we actually want 4 new Bible studies.  Jon will teach three and Juan will teach one.

In the next few days, Juan will be visiting prospects in Lebanon and Albany and Jon will be visiting prospects in Salem.  Pray that we can arrange these two Bible studies quickly.  Pray for us as we teach them; and pray for the people that are going to be attending these studies.  If you would like to pray for these people by name Email Jon at sousaj@bauercom.net as we do not want to share their names here for privacy reasons.

Just a brief note on Emanuel’s condition (see previous posts):  We have been taking Emanuel to dialysis three times a week.  He is slowly getting better as he is learning to eat the right kinds of foods.  Emanuel has had to spend a night in the hospital from time to time because of high blood pressure.

Latest Update on Emanuel

Things have moved along with Emanuel’s care that we can now give you a full update.  Emanuel spent three days in ICU in San Diego and another three days in a regular room.  He received another blood transfusion and 5 dialysis treatments in 5 days.  On Thursday afternoon, I took Juan and Emanuel to the San Diego airport.  They flew directly to Portland, Oregon where our daughter Julie picked them up and took them to OHSU where Emanuel was direct admitted to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.  

At Doernbecher doctors are continuing to monitor Emanuel’s situation.  He is now on a schedule of receiving dialysis Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Meanwhile, on Sunday at our Salem church we discussed Juan and Emanuel’s situation.  They needed a place to stay where Emanuel can be monitored while Juan goes to work.  Emanuel needs transportation to Portland (the only place where pediatric dialysis is available in Oregon) three times a week.  In the end, Luis and Jessie (our son-in-law and daughter) decided that they could host Juan and Emanuel for now.  Jon, Jerilyn, and Esperanza are available for transportation to Portland.  The doctor and social worker at Doernbecher agreed to the arrangements and so Emanuel will be released from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon after his dialysis treatment.

There are still two other arrangements we have to make and then the hard work of Emanuel’s regular care begins.  I am already in communication with an immigration lawyer looking into what it will take to bring Emanuel’s mother and sister and brother up here.  Having mom as a caregiver is much preferred to anyone else.  A few years ago Juan applied for legal papers for Vicki so she is already in the process.  What we need to do now is hurry up that process.  Pray that Vicki can come up sooner rather than later. 

The final detail is schooling.  How does a straight-A student continue his education when he can only attend school Tuesdays and Thursdays?  On Thursday I will be taking Juan to the local middle school and seeing what they have to offer.  Fortunately, there are tutors available during dialysis to help students with their school work.

Thank you very much for praying.  If it were not for quick action by everyone involved this BLOG would be about a memorial service rather than a medical treatment plan.  God is good.  Pray for Emanuel’s extended family.  They do not know Jesus and they believe that the saints are punishing Juan and Vicki for leaving the worship of the saints.  Juan’s faith is very strong.  He has been through a lot since he gave his life to Jesus.

Update on Emanuel

God is certainly taking care of Emanuel and answering your prayers.  The boarder crossing was faster than I ever thought possible.  I called ahead and talked to two supervisors who later met me at the door and led me into the facility.  When we got word that Juan and Emanuel were close I went out to meet them and brought them past the extremely long line to the supervisors who took us to the exit and passed us through so fast that I was amazed that we didn't get a speeding ticket.  They also had a wheelchair waiting for them and both supervisors stood with them while I went to get my car.  Talk about VIP treatment.  The President doesn't get over the boarder faster than that. 

Emanuel's doctor in Portland had called me and strongly urged me to take him immediately to an emergency room in San Diego.  We are very thankful that we did that.  From the emergency room at UCSD he was transported by ambulance to Rady’s Children’s Hospital where he spent the night in the Intensive Care Unit.  This morning the nephrologist (kidney doctor) told us that he was in very serious condition.  While he looked pretty good on the outside his blood was so messed up on the inside that he literally could have dropped dead of a heart failure at any moment.

Emanuel has received a blood transfusion and other treatments.  Today he will have surgery to put a catheter (not a port) in his chest to facilitate dialysis.  When he gets to Portland they will start looking for a transplant donor.

Speaking of donors, today we received the good news that someone is donating the money to fly Juan and Emanuel to Portland so that they will arrive quickly at OHSU and so that they will not have to suffer my driving for two days.  I and my car, unfortunately, still have to suffer my driving.

Pray for the ability to fly to Portland sooner rather than later.

Pray for Emanuel’s health and eventual kidney transplant.

Pray that Emanuel’s mother will be able to get a visa to come and care for her son while dad gets back to work.