God Will Take Us Through What We struggle Through Till We Get The Lesson

by MUKUKA

Hi My Name is Natalie, I want to share a very inspiring message about freindship. I won't mention this person's name but he knows himself.

Recently i was nominated HR champion at my place of work. We had been notified well in advance of the trip and I was so excited to be travelling to RSA, in my sinful heart I was just thinking this is the beginning of travels, wow my dad's family will be so jealous and I will do so well in my job.

Just a little explanation, I was raised by my mum and I carried a huge grudge and chip on the shoulder for a number of years - in all honesty it revealed that I still have issues with that.

So anyway we got all our documentation for the trip ready and I even asked a freind to sit in for me as a temp. I did my handover notes and I was all set to go, the trip was set for Sunday and this was a Friday.

So I called my mum to tell her that I was leaving and she ought to pray for me to have a safe trip - then she dropped a bombshell "Kuka (that's my home name)don't you know that your passport expired?" shock on me! as in Sho- KED.

My heart fell to pieces. At the time my freind who was helping me temp was trying to explain something to me but my head had gone into negative overdrive. I couldn't hear anything she was saying. I thought of the money we had borrowed from the company to go and spend, the taxi fare we had gotten, the hotel bookings, the ticket which could be cancelled at a 50% cancellation fee

My head froze. As depressed as can be I packed up my stuff at the office and headed out of the building to the car where my friend sat. I explained the whole thing to him and told him I could not bear to be hopeful or even waste my time to push for any kind of document. I just had given up. He said NO.

He called his friend who was well connected to see if I could travel on an expired document and his freind said yes, Zambian immigration would allow it and SA authorities would have no choice but to accept me in. So my heart fluttered a little bit and I was excited again with a bit of apprehension.

Just on my way home to be dropped my mother called and told me how careless I was and I should go and get an extension on my passport. So there were several fields of possibilities and I was getting positive again.

So we planned to go to the passport office the next day. My freind told me not to give up I was going to leave on the Sunday flight to SA. I could not imagine how on earth we would get that done on Saturday seeing as how the passport office is only open half day.

So the next day very early we left for the passport office. Turns out there is no such thing as an extension on the passport.I had to apply for a travel document, believe me I was so negative and just wanted to dump the whole issue - and even be at the risk of being fired or getting a bad review.

The lady working at the passport office was very helpful and she told us we could get one before day end. Then she asked for my NRC. Drum roll please...now I had lost my NRC in Kenya - long story - but at the end of it all my journey to SA had come to an end, she looked at me and shook her head very slowly "you can not get a TD without an NRC" she said.

My heart fell again and again i threw in the towel and wanted to just crawl under a rock and weep. Negative self bashing thoughts came into my mind. Then my freind said to me "dont worry we'll get you NRC on Monday within an hour."

I looked at him and I really wanted to hug him for being so supportive and positive and also to scream at him at the same time. He was just too hopeful and too faithful that it would work out.

So with so much enthusiasm and hope my friend took me to the airport on the same Saturday for to try at the immigration office there. Maybe I could leave today and get an extension from there(the officers at the airport said to him that taking a chance would be too risky and not worth it - they would allow me to go but the SA authorities were unpredictable and very rough - I imagined myself in a torn prison garment being led away in chains).

Again my heart fell, the part that really got me going was that I was so scared of being optimistic that I was literally stressed over my friends optimism. So that day went by like that and so did the Sunday on which I was supposed to travel.

I re-booked my ticket for Monday 1300hours. Monday came and we hit the road to NRC office (I had packed all my clothes just in case it worked out). So for sure we got to the NRC in an hour but the offices only started working at 0930. We only only got to the passport office at past ten, then my friend rushed to the bus stop to buy a bus ticket coz he was travelling to Zimbabwe that day too!!

He left me with his wallet to pay for the TD and he got enough to buy his ticket for the 12.30 afternoon bus. After 30 minutes he came back to see how I was doing and then we started to harrass the officers for the document.

We waited and we got so stressed. I think it tested our relationship a lot coz I was really leaning on him for support and yet he was also rushing to get his bus to Zim. unfortunately 12.30 came and went and he missed his bus. We started pushing for that document like a nonsense.

I have never felt such a swarm of butterflies in my stomach and wanting to give up every second of the way - so finally when the aircraft was 45 minutes to leaving we got the document, then we rushed to the bus stop to push his trip forward, the ticket agent said the bus had gone and my freind could not get a refund.

Unfortunately we used all the money we had and I needed to get to the bank to withdraw money so we could buy him another ticket for the 2pm bus. I went into my handbag only to realise that I had left my ATM card.

What a mess. Now we had to rush to Woodlands to get the card so I could withdraw the money and we could buy a ticket for him. Again there were only few minutes for me to get to the airport but I was consoled because I had a TD. We finally got home, I got the ATM card and we sent him off on the bus.

So I drove to the airport and I rushed to the SA office only to find it locked up. so I rushed to where a freind worked and called SA intecon office I told them I needed to get on the 1800hours flight...guess what it was fully booked.

I ran outside, I had a big lump in my throat and I started to cry. I called my freinds and told him I couldn't go on fighting and he told me this - "dont allow yourself to accept failure, you are being tested on the very things you struggle with. never give up easily. It's not you, continue being positive and shame the devil."

Mwana, I got on the phone with 4 freinds plus one at the airport and I was put on standby both by Voyagers and SAA. I cried out to the ticketing agent and told him of my ordeal(HOME ALONE TYPE WITH VIOLINS).

He told me "you are getting on that plane today madam." I succeeded. I was told to walk right through without being put on standby as others were put on standby. I thank God, and I thank my good friend Paul whom I love for his faith in God and never giving up even when it seemed like I was not going to make it.