A big thank you to all who upheld us in prayer. We know of several who were praying at or around the specific time we were turning in the application and it was evident that the Lord was in control of the situation.

When dealing with documents, nothing is ever as smooth or as simple as it seems. After arriving at the immigration office yesterday (May 15) at 9:15am with all of our paperwork in-hand, we were informed that our in-hand notary translation of Kara’s birth certificate was not acceptable. Instead, they wanted a copy of the original birth certificate with a new original notary translation. Normally, this would not be a problem. We would just have to go to our notary and explain what they wanted. She has the translation saved from the previous time, so it’s just a matter of printing it off and getting a new signature and stamp.

Unfortunately, our notary translator was working in another city and would not be back until the end of the month. So, what should have been a fairly easy fix, turned into an all-day affair as we hunted down a new translator, waited for the translation and then had to take it to be notarized afterwards. We were finally able to return to the immigration office around 4:30pm and submitted the full application packet without any further difficulties.

Today, however, I received phone call from the inspector who received the application, and was informed that they needed an additional supporting document from our bank. So again, after another few hours of waiting at the bank, I had the needed document in hand and returned to the office and submitted what should be the final piece needed to complete the application packet.

Praise the Lord, that throughout the entire process, the inspector was very helpful and professional and we should expect to receive Kara’s residency permit sometime in November. Although the application has been accepted, it still has to go through the 6-month approval process, so it is still not a done deal until we receive the permit in hand. As the Lord brings it to your mind, we would still appreciate your prayers while we wait for the duration of the process.

With all of that in mind, we are going ahead with our plans for furlough from December 2014 – May 2015, knowing full well that these plans may still be subject to change, pending the issuance of Kara’s residency permit. We will be sending out more details about our furlough in the next prayer letter, but we are going to start scheduling our meetings now, so if you are interested in having us in for a meeting while we are back, please contact me ASAP so that we can schedule accordingly. Our furlough time is short due to the parameters of our residency permits, so we want to make the best use of our time while back in the States.

Thank you again, to all who prayed specifically for us and for Kara’s application. We are truly honored to be laborers together in Christ.