On Wednesday night April 4th US time I called our lawyer again. He said that as of the beginning of April the Australian Immigration office had changed some of the application paperwork for the permanent residency visa. The lawyer mentioned that it would change again in July. He seemed to indicate that now is the time to proceed with lodging the application with the Immigration office. The lawyer mentioned that perhaps the first week of June would be the time frame we were looking at. This is good news. The last phone call I had with him, he did not give anything concrete to me.
While we have been waiting we have been busy doing many things. We have been helping out at our sending church, First Baptist Church in Danville, IL. Right now I am considered the "staff assistant" at our church. I have been working on many different projects around the church, but the major project has been to set up our VBS for this summer. Other areas of work have been organizing and working in the visitation program, helping in bus ministry, discipleship class development, and writing a policy for our missions program at church. These things are helping our new Pastor as he puts into place the vision for First Baptist that God has given to him.
Also, I have had opportunity to preach. It has been a blessing to be able to fill pulpit at supporting churches. The Lord has been keeping us busy while we eagerly anticipate our visa to Australia.
Thank you so much for your prayer support. The Lord is working in mighty ways!
In Christ,
Mark Pitts and Family
