We have a praise report and are asking for continued prayer.

We received word today that Christina’s work permit has been approved.  Praise God!

Unfortunately, this does not mean we have the visas in hand yet and is something like Step 1 out of 7.  As we add up all the time it is supposed to take, we realize that we are totally at God’s mercy here.  Please pray that He will grant us the grace to receive these visas much faster than “normal”.  The Bible says 1 day is like 1000 years and 1000 years are like 1 day to God.  We have about 17 days left, so that must be about 17,000 years in God’s eyes!  That’s a lot of time for Him to make something miraculous happen, especially when He created the whole universe in just 6 days.

Here are the steps:

-Step 1: Mail application for work permit to PNG: Completed
-Step 2: Work permit approval (a work permit is required to apply for a visa): Completed
-Step 3: Submit paperwork for the visa to the PNG Immigration Office in PNG: In Progress, but the earliest possible time for submission is supposed to be this week Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.  Please pray for this to happen even quicker.
-Step 4: Overnight Christina and Timothy’s passports to Washington, D.C.
-Step 5: Visa approval: This is supposed to take 3-4 weeks after submitting the visa paperwork in Step 3.  Please pray for this to go much faster!
-Step 6: Have visas entered in passports: This normally happens 1-2 weeks after the visa is approved in Step 5.  Again, please pray for this to happen much more quickly.
-Step 7: Have passports with new visas overnighted to us before April 3.

Thanks for your continued prayers.  The verse from James 5:16b comes to mind when we think about your prayers in this: “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

In Him,

James and Christina