Well we had a single lady and a young couple who have been accepted to the mission and we were thinking they all would come this year, 2010. 

Not only is it a waiting game but not everyone who starts the process actually arrives.

The single lady, Krishana, has been raising support for about three years.  She has applied for her visa two times and been declined and she flew over this January to start the process again.  We got word last week that she does have a place reserved and she just needs to hand in a few more documents.  What a long process she has  had with her visa.

Well after she applied for her visa this January she went back to the states to receive one last bit of training and then pack to come back to Austria.  It was exciting.  A little over a week into her training she went to the doctors to get something checked out.  The visit revealed that she had a tumor and needed to get it checked out more thoroughly. She decided to have the procedure done at home where her parents were, that was two weeks ago.

It turns out she has type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma called Follicular Lymphoma.  She is undergoing chemotherapy at the moment. 

I, and the whole team here in Austria, get her updates from her website and she is a writer and is journaling about her process. It remains to be seen how the treatment will go but the doctor is thinking that it might go into remission and even coming to Austria isn’t still out of the question.

All I know is this all happened so fast and Krishana is reacting with tremendious trust in God even when she doesn’t understand why.  If you think of it today, please pray for Krishana, that her treatment would work, the cancer would go quickly into remission and that her body will cope with the chemicals in as much of a positive way as possible.  And that she will be encouraged through this by her friends, family and her faith in God would be strengthened.

you can follow her story and progress at www.tandemliving.org

Christy and I need to go in on Dec. 29th to talk it over but right now it looks as if we have lost our visa status and need to reapply on January 4th 2010.

Apparently some law changed in 2007 and the worker who processed our application said I had the wrong form (which I guess I did) and processed it with the correct form but checked the wrong choice for which type of visa we were to receive.  Ignorantly we have been under this title since then.

This year I find the correct form and asked for a renewal but with the correct status.  This is where it goes south.  They have informed me that it is not a renewal but a reapplication.  I will go in on the 29th with Christy and see if we can find a good solution to this.  Our visa expires on January 5th 2010 and we don’t want to be without a visa.  That would just cause a lot of problems.

If we have to reapply we will be waiting outside the Government office before 6am so we are one of the first to apply for the new year.  There are only 60 spots open each year under the type of visa that we need! I had better start ordering all the paperwork from the states just in case it comes to that.  Apostilleized Birth certificate, Police Record to show we have not committed any crimes, bank records, medical insurance……and the list goes on.  It is thinks like this, and our former land lord, that make living overseas stressful.

If you remember to pray that this would be resolved so we can have a visa we would appreciate it!

There were over 10,000 prayers offered up for Europe on the 23rd. GEM has an interactive map of Europe that people can go to, click on a country and see 10 pictures and specific things to pray for that country for.

I just checked and there is a total of about 11,500 total with 274 prayers offered up for Austria.

Tags: Europe, Prayer

They have made an interactive site that includes all European countries that you can click on.  It takes you to a country profile and then also has 10 points of prayer with pictures.  After you have prayed for Austria and other countries you can click a button that says you have prayed and it shows you all the countries and how many people have prayed for them today.

Please take time to visit their website and spend a few moments in prayer for Europe.

Tags: Europe, Pray, Austria

Greater Europe Mission is gearing up for a day of prayer that focuses on Europe.

On October 23rd anyone can visit this website and will be able to select any European country and see pictures with specific prayer requests. If you go there now you can sign up to be reminded on the 23rd via an email to visit the page.

For Austria we have put together 6 different areas that we others to also be praying for.

I have gotten to see a mock up of this and it is not only really neat and cool looking it will help get an idea of what to better pray for.

I encourage you to stop by check it out and pray. And since we know God hears our prayers and is able to do anything according to His pleasing will I am eager to see what we can report back in the next weeks, months and years what we witness God doing here to give Him the glory that is rightfully his.

Tags: Europe