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The young woman in the picture is Agness Kapesa. She lost both her parents to disease before she was a teenager. Three years ago in a tiny town in the furthest reaches of Zambia she dreamt aloud about studying in the United States of America. She graduated high school, took a job twelve hours a day, six days a week at a bakery in the capital city, Lusaka, worked and waited. Over Easter 2006, she was greated at work with the news that Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, Wisconsin had offered her a full scholarship, room and board, expenses, and tutoring. The picture above shares that moment with everyone. In the summer of 2007, after a year of working on the paperwork with the faithful and generous Franciscan Sisters at Silver Lake and an incredible team in the admissions department, I returned to Zambia to help Agness with the application for a student Visa to the United States. It is here that the real story began.
The United States declares "every alien...shall be presumed to be an immigrant until he establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer, at the time of application for a visa,and the immigration officers, at the time of application for admission, that he is entitled to a nonimmigrant status..." Herein lies the difficulty. Agness is an orphan. She has been provided for by the Salesian nuns of Zambia, has a bank account grounded in substantial donations from American sponsors, but she does not own a home, she has no parents, and the family she does have in Zambia was not enough to convince the Consular Officer that she would return to her loved ones. She was rejected. Twice. A year later Agness has been working based upon the recommendations of the American Consulate. She intends to return to Zambia to employ the fruits of a degree in Information Science Technology. Agness is a woman of serious integrity who has fought through stigmatization of orphans, and hopes to set an example for the younger girls that follow her. It is up to her, and those of us who know her, convince the American Consulate that Agness Kapesa will do something most of us take for granted...go home.
Hundreds of letters flooded the Consulate last year. It did not work. The poetry of Emma Lazarus that sits at the feet of our Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" We do not have the luxury of Lady Liberty's silence. So many of you sent letters on behalf of Agness that she marveled at how big America must be. Members of the State Department, young women and men on the staff of Congress, and others all intervened. The size of America can scarcely make us proud, but the size of your heart that day should.
This year Meghan and I return with some backing from the State Department, some new intricacies in the paperwork, and a wing and a prayer. We ask that all of you follow this blog. Spread this story to your friends and family. If you are smarter, holier, or more influential, than your humble blog hosts please write us with your suggestions or offer comments. Pray for Agness and the heart of the Consulate Officer that sits in Lusaka as you read this. That woman or man will arbitrate the immediate future of Agness Kapesa. Meghan and I depart for Zambia after the celebration of the 4th of July. The days to come will hopefully bear out the fruits of a year of tears, effort, on prayers by Agness and on her behalf. We invite you to "share the cup" in this and other stories to come.
Pietas,
Luke
