A Lot has Happened!
As November and December came to a close, we immediately hit the road in January and have not stopped since! Due to the nature of the busyness we were unable to add a blog post, but have continued to update via email & our Facebook page! We are always available as well if you need prayer or want to drop us a phone call! Below is all of the latest news of the past few weeks!
We spent the month of January and part of the month of February in North Carolina at The Center for Intercultural Training in preparation to our overseas move! This time was essential to our long term success in mission work overseas. We really did not know what to expect when we left home to drive to NC, we had some anxiousness of navigating it with all the kids and how they would do, but in the end it was highly beneficial to each person in different ways.
While we were in NC, it also snowed! It was a lot of snow, upwards of 18″+ and stuck around for a very long time! We were so busy during the week, and then on the weekends so tired we really didn’t sightsee much. After NC, we trekked back home and began the process of clearing out the excess, packing up the items heading to storage, and sorting out what is going overseas. It’s a process, because even though we have ideas of what we will take with us it continually changes and refines as things are added and others are taken away.
In February, we were invited to Highpoint Fellowship near Austin, TX to speak. They were so gracious and rolled out the red carpet for us. There’s a video from that Sunday if you would like to check it out. The sermon was entitled, “Why do we participate in missions?” so spent time sharing our story while also sharing why missions are important to us all. If you are interested please check it out!
We’ve continued to serve our community here in Waller as well as we complete this chapter in our life. Our time in Waller has been great, and have had the opportunity to be a part of this great community over the past year. We’ve made friends here in Waller at our apartments, at the local resale shop, at Bucees, at the shops and more. It’s been awesome living less than a mile from the gigantic Bucees gas station, which is something we will all miss when we move.
Big Things Happen!
We began our Visa applications in February! It is a process with several stages, and it has all been new territory for us. The first stage was submitting several documents and attaining our sponsoring organizations approval and certificate number so that we could apply with the UK government for our visas. The next stage was an almost seven hour process of filling out online applications, lots of printing, gathering more documents, and then paying a lot of money! Stage three was making our in person appointments for our biometrics and submission of our visa documents and applications.
The only problem was when we did our applications and printed them it gave us three separate days of appointments! These appointments were close to downtown Houston. We all loaded up and went down into Houston for the first set of appointments, praying they would see us all in one day but not really knowing what to expect.
We arrived and as things go in a bigger city, the parking was a parking garage, which our van does not fit into most of the time. Though with some asking, we were given this great spot right in front of the building right near the front door! Upon arrival we were taken back for security checks before we were escorted to a UK themed room. It had a UK flag carpet and pillows, posters and more. The lady working was very nice, and she took the paperwork for all six of us, not just the four that day, and after reviewing it all, submitted it all digitally. We then had our fingerprints and photos done and after that…we were done! One hour! One hour, later we walked out with all of our Visa applications scanned, reviewed and submitted!
We are now in the waiting process to hear back! Prayers we hear soon. Once our visas arrive, we will purchase our one way plane tickets and share our official moving date with everyone!
We also found out there is a new Stellhorn on the way later this summer! No details yet!
Prayer Requests
We appreciate all who have been on this journey with us and helping send us to do the work God is doing in Scotland. We appreciate prayers for the following:
- Smooth process of acceptance with our visas.
- Safety for the newest Stellhorn as he or she is growing and developing.
- For God to provide the last of our monthly support and the one time start up costs for our move.
- For setting up a bank account and that process to work itself out.
- For a rental house situation to work out easily in Oldmeldrum or Inverurie which would make for a smoother transition for our family.
