Dear Praying Friends,
Thank you so much for your faithfulness in prayer on our behalf. God is answering! Today I spoke with a man from the Australian immigration office in Washington DC. He answered many of my questions that our lawyer could not answer.
First was the fact that I was allowed to communicate with them. The lawyer's office told me that I was not to communicate with the immigration office because I had hired a lawyer to represent me. Also, they told me that I would anger the immigration workers and that would cause a slow down on my application. I was told that none of that was true, and I can check in any time on my application.
Second, I was told by the lawyer's office that they did not and could not know how long it would take for the visa application to go through. The gentleman I spoke with said that the visa I applied for was taking between 5 to 8 months to be processed. Our application was lodged on July 5 or 6 of this year, so we could have our visa by Christmas time at the earliest.
This is such great news! Now we at least know what is going on. I did not know what to believe with our lawyers and now I know that our application has been applied for and it is being processed. The next thing that the gentleman at the office asked was if I wanted to "cut out the middle man" and I emphatically said YES. He will be communicating with me early next week with more details of our application.
Please pray that all goes well with the application. Pray that our application would be complete and that we would not have any snags. Thank you so much for checking up on this process by reading this blog. May God bless you!
In Christ,
Mark Pitts and Family
Monday, September 3, 2012
Dear Praying Friends,
Last night I received an email from one of our missionary co-workers in Australia. He told me that he spoke with our lawyer, Andrew, and that the lawyer told him some interesting information. Andrew said that all applications that were filed before July 1 have a one year waiting period. He then said that all applications filed after July 1 were in process right now. Our application was filed on July 5. Andrew also told our missionary friend that one of the applications that he filed after the July 1 date has already been approved.
To me this is encouraging news. The Lord's timing is always perfect, and this situation is no different. Our application was delayed until after the July 1 date and we did not know why at the time, but the Lord had a perfect plan for us. Praise the Lord for His great wisdom!
We still do not know when we will hear anything about the visa, but our prayer is that we will hear something soon. It is nice to be involved while we wait, but our heart is in Australia. Please continue to pray, the Lord is answering!
In Christ,
Mark Pitts and Family
Last night I received an email from one of our missionary co-workers in Australia. He told me that he spoke with our lawyer, Andrew, and that the lawyer told him some interesting information. Andrew said that all applications that were filed before July 1 have a one year waiting period. He then said that all applications filed after July 1 were in process right now. Our application was filed on July 5. Andrew also told our missionary friend that one of the applications that he filed after the July 1 date has already been approved.
To me this is encouraging news. The Lord's timing is always perfect, and this situation is no different. Our application was delayed until after the July 1 date and we did not know why at the time, but the Lord had a perfect plan for us. Praise the Lord for His great wisdom!
We still do not know when we will hear anything about the visa, but our prayer is that we will hear something soon. It is nice to be involved while we wait, but our heart is in Australia. Please continue to pray, the Lord is answering!
In Christ,
Mark Pitts and Family
Friday, August 24, 2012
Dear Praying Friends,
Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our visa situation. So far we know that we do have a case worker that has looked at the nomination by the church plant we will be working at, Grace Baptist Church. Other than that we have not heard anything from the immigration office. I am in hopes that no news is good news. Please continue to pray that the Lord would provide these visas soon. We are waiting on the Lord, but we are excited about serving Him in Australia.
Recently I emailed my lawyer Andrew to find out if he had heard anything from the immigration office to which he said no, and then he told me that he would be leaving the company. This is just one more wrinkle in the whole process. So to iron out the wrinkle we had to choose to either stay with Andrew or let him go and be appointed another lawyer with the legal firm we started with. We have chosen to stay with the company and let Andrew focus on his new clients at his new place of employment. It seems to me that we should not need the lawyer to do much more if our application has been completed properly. My prayer is that the Lord would provide the visa and this decision will not really matter.
We have been busy serving in our local church. The Lord has opened doors where we can fill in while we wait. Also, God has provided meetings at some of our supporting churches which has been an extra special blessing. It is so good to see familiar faces and to be encouraged by folks telling you they are praying for the visas.
Thank you for your prayers and for taking the time to check this blog. May God bless you.
In Christ,
Mark Pitts and Family
Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our visa situation. So far we know that we do have a case worker that has looked at the nomination by the church plant we will be working at, Grace Baptist Church. Other than that we have not heard anything from the immigration office. I am in hopes that no news is good news. Please continue to pray that the Lord would provide these visas soon. We are waiting on the Lord, but we are excited about serving Him in Australia.
Recently I emailed my lawyer Andrew to find out if he had heard anything from the immigration office to which he said no, and then he told me that he would be leaving the company. This is just one more wrinkle in the whole process. So to iron out the wrinkle we had to choose to either stay with Andrew or let him go and be appointed another lawyer with the legal firm we started with. We have chosen to stay with the company and let Andrew focus on his new clients at his new place of employment. It seems to me that we should not need the lawyer to do much more if our application has been completed properly. My prayer is that the Lord would provide the visa and this decision will not really matter.
We have been busy serving in our local church. The Lord has opened doors where we can fill in while we wait. Also, God has provided meetings at some of our supporting churches which has been an extra special blessing. It is so good to see familiar faces and to be encouraged by folks telling you they are praying for the visas.
Thank you for your prayers and for taking the time to check this blog. May God bless you.
In Christ,
Mark Pitts and Family
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