Beautiful Feet: October 13, 2015

Don’t bank on it. We opened an account at the Juayua Credit Union in August after we got our residency cards and before we left for our visit to the States. While we were trying to work out the transfer of money we found out that the credit union did not have a swift code (a bank identification number which made transfers of money from other banks safer and easier). So I went by the Scotia Bank to see if they had one and they said they did. We were told to bring our Passports, NTE cards and our residency cards as well as someone with us who lived in Juayua (Cesar does now). So we went to the bank with all this and Cesar and they said that any money that was deposited would not be available for withdrawal for 6 months even if it is cash!!!! So we thought we would just make a $100 deposit to get the process started and keep the rest of the money in the credit union for now. Then the lady asked for proof of where our money came from so we went back home and got copies of our letters from Central as well as the notarized Spanish statements of our financial support. Well, then she said the copies had to be originals not copies (immigration kept all originals). We tried to tell her that but we got the impression that for some reason she was determined not to let us open an account so we did not. We have made three smaller deposits in the credit union so we went by and asked if we made a larger deposit when would the money be available for us to use. They said if it was cash we could put it in one day and take it out the next. They also said they could accept a check from the states but that it could be up to 6 weeks before the funds would be available from a check deposit. Well, anyway, they give you a little book when you open an account and it is machine stamped every time a deposit or withdrawal is made so we will just have to hope that record of our deposits and withdrawals if sufficient for immigration. Hopefully it will be since they already accepted our statements of support and issued the residency cards. After lunch, Cesar, Regina, Arnoldo, Charlotte and I went to visit a family in Salcoatitan. The older lady (she will be 100 in Jan) and her daughter are Christians and the older lady is a long time friend of Regina. We visited for about 1 ½ hrs. and told them of the plans for a church planting in Salcoatitan. When we started to leave both ladies walked back out to the car with us which was parked at least 50 yards away. One negative note was that two members of the family were recovering from Dingy Fever and Charlotte said she thought she got bitten a couple of times. After we got back we finished preparing dinner and went to pick up Dona Mercedes who had helped us several times in looking for a place to live in Juayua. She literally brought wine and roses. We wanted to be gracious and have the wine for dinner. We had no cork screw and she did not bring hers. I must have spent 20 minutes getting that cork out but finally did and we each a glass of wine. Charlotte was only able to drink about 1/3 of her glass and I drank about ½ of mine but it tasted terrible and almost ruined an otherwise delicious meal. Before we took her home we asked if Charlotte could come and study the Bible with her and she said that would be fine and they are going to start Monday. For not too great a start we had blessings in the end of the day.