Praying Friends,
This morning I received an email from our lawyer down under. He informed us that we have passed the first of two stages in our visa application. The first step was the nomination from Grace Baptist Church in Watsonia, Victoria. It seems that we have been approved to work for the church in this step as well. Though the lawyer did not specify what the second step would be, he did say that we are well into the second step already. Our co-worker asked him through an email if we should purchase tickets and order a shipping container, and the lawyer responded with not yet, but to start itemizing our things for the container.
This is wonderful news!! To actually hear something from the immigration office about our visa after having so much "dead time" is such an encouragement. Also, to know that we are on the final step of the process and that the Lord is working out all the details is a real praise. Please pray that this does complete before January. In January Australia goes into the "summer schedule" and there is a potential that things can shut down and we would have to wait until February before the process is finished.
Thank you so much for your prayers! The Lord is working. Blessed be the name of the Lord!
In Christ,
Mark Pitts and Family
Monday, December 3, 2012
Praying Friends,
We have just passed the Thanksgiving holiday and now we turn our sights toward Christmas holiday. We give thanks to God for you. Your prayers on our behalf are such a blessing, and even though we are not on the field yet we see God's hand of blessing.
Soon we will reach the 5 month mark on our application for the permanent resident visa. The immigration officer told me that the permanent residence visas were taking 5 to 8 months to be processed. Our application date was early July, so we are praying that we would hear from Australia soon.
While we have been waiting the Lord has put us to work in Danville, Illinois. If we are not visiting a supporting church we are serving in our sending church. The Lord has blessed and we are seeing spiritual growth in the youth group, and in those we are discipling. God has us here for a work to be done before we leave. Though we have enjoyed the privilege to serve at First Baptist Church in Danville, we are more than "chomping at the bit" to get to Australia.
If we hear of anything from our lawyer or the immigration office we will post it immediately. It is tough to wait, and it kind of feels like when I was a kid and had to wait to open presents at Christmas. Please pray that the Lord would have our visa as a Christmas present this year, and if not we still can rejoice for the greatest gift ever given, Jesus Christ! Thank you so much for your prayers.
In Christ,
Mark Pitts and Family
We have just passed the Thanksgiving holiday and now we turn our sights toward Christmas holiday. We give thanks to God for you. Your prayers on our behalf are such a blessing, and even though we are not on the field yet we see God's hand of blessing.
Soon we will reach the 5 month mark on our application for the permanent resident visa. The immigration officer told me that the permanent residence visas were taking 5 to 8 months to be processed. Our application date was early July, so we are praying that we would hear from Australia soon.
While we have been waiting the Lord has put us to work in Danville, Illinois. If we are not visiting a supporting church we are serving in our sending church. The Lord has blessed and we are seeing spiritual growth in the youth group, and in those we are discipling. God has us here for a work to be done before we leave. Though we have enjoyed the privilege to serve at First Baptist Church in Danville, we are more than "chomping at the bit" to get to Australia.
If we hear of anything from our lawyer or the immigration office we will post it immediately. It is tough to wait, and it kind of feels like when I was a kid and had to wait to open presents at Christmas. Please pray that the Lord would have our visa as a Christmas present this year, and if not we still can rejoice for the greatest gift ever given, Jesus Christ! Thank you so much for your prayers.
In Christ,
Mark Pitts and Family
Friday, October 26, 2012
Praying Friends,
Since my last post, the Lord has been ironing out some of the problems that we have had. The gentleman that I spoke with from Washington DC sent me an email with two links. One link was a formal enquiry form, the other was a form to remove my legal assistance from my application. I have waited on the enquiry form because of the information that the gentleman told me about the length of time it is taking these visas to be approved. The other form I have been praying about. Should I remove my legal assistance all together.
For those who may not know we have had some problems recently with our lawyer leaving the company and going elsewhere. The company had not dealt with the departure and the lawyers assistant was of no help when it came to information. Recently I have sent many emails to the legal office with no response until yesterday. There is now another person assigned to our file there at the legal office, and this new individual emailed me. She said that our lawyer that left will still be supervising our application and that as of right now they have not received any questions from immigration about our application. She said that any questions that may come in will be directed to Andrew, our lawyer that left, and he would still be helping.
This may not sound like much, but it is a big relief for me. At one point I had three different options of what to do with my legal assistance on our application and I really did not know which one was best. I prayed that God would solve this issue, and He has. God is so good!
Now we still wait to hear from the Australian immigration office. Please pray with us that we would be approved for our visas before Christmas so that we could leave in January of next year. Thank you so much for your prayer support, may God bless you.
In Christ,
Mark Pitts and Family
Since my last post, the Lord has been ironing out some of the problems that we have had. The gentleman that I spoke with from Washington DC sent me an email with two links. One link was a formal enquiry form, the other was a form to remove my legal assistance from my application. I have waited on the enquiry form because of the information that the gentleman told me about the length of time it is taking these visas to be approved. The other form I have been praying about. Should I remove my legal assistance all together.
For those who may not know we have had some problems recently with our lawyer leaving the company and going elsewhere. The company had not dealt with the departure and the lawyers assistant was of no help when it came to information. Recently I have sent many emails to the legal office with no response until yesterday. There is now another person assigned to our file there at the legal office, and this new individual emailed me. She said that our lawyer that left will still be supervising our application and that as of right now they have not received any questions from immigration about our application. She said that any questions that may come in will be directed to Andrew, our lawyer that left, and he would still be helping.
This may not sound like much, but it is a big relief for me. At one point I had three different options of what to do with my legal assistance on our application and I really did not know which one was best. I prayed that God would solve this issue, and He has. God is so good!
Now we still wait to hear from the Australian immigration office. Please pray with us that we would be approved for our visas before Christmas so that we could leave in January of next year. Thank you so much for your prayer support, may God bless you.
In Christ,
Mark Pitts and Family
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)