Visas

Last Monday, the British Consulate in LA received our visa applications. This Tuesday, I got a call asking me to fax a couple more documents. Thirty minutes later I got this email from the Consulate: "Your application has been approved and the visa has been issued." We now have them in hand.

Wow!

We loved our time in Greece, but the visa/residency permit process was such a hassle. We had to go to various offices many times over a period of many months to obtain our first residency permit, and when we got it, it was only good for 30 days before we had to apply again. Our last application had been pending 18 months when we left the country.

We are now legal through July 2012.

Thank you for praying. God is good!!

Warning to Rough Sleepers in London!!

We read this sobering statistic in a report recently: "The death rate among rough sleepers in London aged between 45 and 62 is 25 times that of the general population of this age group."

Julie will testify that Mike sleeps very, very soundly, but there is occasionally a great deal of racket going on while he sleeps. Does that make him a "rough sleeper."

If so, what can Mike do to prepare himself for the day he finally reaches the 45 to 62 age bracket?

Jumping off the Cliff

Mom used to say, "If everybody else was jumping off the cliff, would you jump, too?" Well, here we are, jumping off the blog cliff with everyone else. We used to laugh at bloggers. As we prepare to head back overseas, it is time to jump off.

Here is our schedule:
May 5 and 6--Crate furniture for shipment to UK (Mike finds a reason to leave town)
May 5--Move to MLC
May 9-16 St Simon's Island
June 15--Fly to UK
June 19--AGM in Greece

Our friends in UK have found us a home in Horsham, which is in West Sussex. We will live right across from the big park in the center of Horsham. Check it out on Google Earth. We are all very pleased.

Sam will continue his studies at Liberty University. Ben will attend Black Forest Academy in Germany for his senior year of high school. Caleb will study at the high school in Horsham. Julie and Mike will focus on teaching the Brits to speak proper (i.e., Redneck) English.

We are submitting our visa applications this week. Please pray that we will be patient and will trust God to provide them in His timing and that we will remember that "God is never late, but rarely early."