Posted: 6/24/05
| Joel Gomez-Bossio (left) of Colombia is pictured with fellow Baptist University of the Americas graduates (left to right) Alberto Guzman, a Cuban national now a pastor in Homestead, Fla.; Angelica Hernandez, a Mexican national whose husband now is pastor in Bandera; and Juan Hilario, a Mexican national now a church planter in Johnson City, Tenn. (Photo by Allan Escobar/BUA) |
BUA graduate marks
milestone, but wife's visa denied
By Craig Bird
Special to the Baptist Standard
SAN ANTONIO–Joel Gomez-Bossio has no doubt God called him to prepare for ministry and led him into marriage. He even has faith that someday he can be involved in both simultaneously.
But for most of the past three years, he has pursued a degree in pastoral ministries at Baptist University of the Americas while his bride stayed behind in Colombia.
Because of tighter guidelines spawned by the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Gabriella Gomez-Bossio repeatedly has been denied a student visa to join her husband in San Antonio. Last month, she even was turned down for a tourist visa to attend her husband's graduation ceremony.
The U.S. consulate said she was a risk to stay in the country illegally, so she wasn't on hand to see him receive one of the 26 bachelor's degrees the BGCT school awarded along with 45 two-year diplomas, he explained.
And while none of the other graduates had to suffer the marital separation that has marked Gomez-Bossio's academic trek, all have stirring stories of call and commitment, BUA President Albert Reyes said.
“Graduation was a wonderful testimony of dreams fulfilled,” Reyes said. “Our students are already taking key leadership roles in cross-cultural settings in Texas and across the nation. The joy seen on the faces of our graduates and their families is the blessing we look forward to each year.”
Now the Gomez-Bossios are watching the clock tick as they decide what happens next.
His student visa expires at the end of June. He has been offered a scholarship to do graduate work at Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon School of Theology in Abilene, but if he applies for another student visa, Gomez-Bossio feels his wife will continue to be turned down for her own.
If he can obtain a religious worker's visa, then any dependents automatically are issued visas too. But that will require him working full time for a church. Logsdon officials are seeking churches in the Abilene area that need a well-educated, highly motivated Hispanic staff member, and he also has been contacted by churches in Indiana and Kentucky.
But he'd rather attend Logsdon–which would require a church near Abi-lene–since his ultimate educational goal is a doctorate in systematic theology.
“We never expected to have to be apart this much. So, whatever we do next, we intend–if it's God's will–to do it together,” he said. “So, I'll go home when my visa expires and see where he will lead us. We'll have to make some decisions in the next couple of months.”
Gomez-Bossio was studying to be a civil engineer when he felt God calling him to full-time ministry in 1999. The evangelical Christian seminary in Cali, Colombia was not accredited and very expensive, so he was interested when a cousin who was attending BUA told him about the San Antonio school. But then he found out it wasn't accredited at that time, either. And while it was inexpensive by American standards, it still was beyond his economic means.
“But my mom reminded me that if it was from the Lord, then he would make it possible,” he recalled. Sure enough, he received a full scholarship for two years at BUA. And in December 2003, the school was accredited to offer bachelor's degrees.
Meanwhile, he met his future wife in church, and they fell in love. When he received his student visa two weeks after 9/11, they felt everything was lining up the way they wanted.
“I thought because of the terrorist attacks, I wouldn't get in, but all they asked me was to name the first five books of the Bible” to demonstrate the truth of his claim that he was studying for the ministry, he said. “When I did, they gave me the visa.”
Gomez-Bossio started school in spring 2002, and that summer, he returned to Colombia for their wedding.
Although his wife also received a BUA scholarship–and knows the first five books of the Bible–she repeatedly has been denied entry, even though her husband legally studied in the United States. She even moved back to her home country of Venezuela and unsuccessfully tried to get a tourist visa to attend graduation.
Despite the enforced separation, Gomez-Bossio has nothing but praise for BUA. “I don't know where all God will lead us, but I have no doubt that someday he will allow me to return here to teach,” he explained. “BUA gave me the opportunity to get a great start on my education, and I want to be part of helping others. I love this place.”
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