A visa update.

As some of you know, Jack and I have spent the last two months searching for an alternative visa solution in order to stay in Romania, now that Romanian laws have changed and no longer permit long-term volunteers to renew their visas for more than a year.  Thankfully, with a quick trip out of the country and lots of conversations with our church here, we've found a solution: a religious workers visa, which could be good for up to five years.

Basically, receiving this visa would mean we are technically in Romania under the auspices of Centrul Crestin Betel, the small Gypsy Pentecostal church we attend here in Lupeni -- not through New Horizons Foundation.  Practically, we are already doing activities with the youth and community of the church in addition to our work at NHF, so little would change, except that perhaps we would try to increase that work a bit.  The church is really hungry for Christian education and discipleship training for its youth, so involving them in the work of New Horizons is a great fit anyway -- and through our CRWM connections and otherwise, we're doing our best to help the church network with Romanian ministries that might have tools that meet this congregation's needs.  It's exciting, and deepens the relationship with this local church, which is something we've been hoping and praying for for a long time.

But the process is on a pretty strict timeline.  On Monday we finished collecting our documents and sent them up to Oradea, where the denominational headquarters sits, via the Romanian postal service.  As I write this on Friday morning, we haven't yet heard that the documents have arrived.  Hopefully today.  Then, the denominational head needs to write a formal request to the Ministry of Religious Affairs for us to be volunteers with the church, and that request (plus the other documents) needs to be sent on to Bucuresti.  Once the Ministry of Religious Affairs receives the pile, they need to approve the request and send it all back with a formal declaration of approval.  Once we finally get all that (hopefully by the 25th of May!), then we can head to the county seat in Deva and the immigration authorities there to file through the normal process -- proving we don't have contagious diseases, paying many fees and taxes, showing proof of insurance and housing and volunteer activities, etc., etc. 

The tricky thing is that you are supposed to head to the county seat on your 60th day in the country, so that you can receive your visa by day 90 (the last day to legally stay in Romania without a visa).  For Jack, May 25th is day 60.  (For me, it's a little later since I was gone in Haiti longer.)  But before Jack can head up to Deva to file with immigration, he has to receive the documents back from the Ministry of Religious Affairs... and so it's a waiting game while we hope and pray, crossing our fingers that the post moves quickly, that the piles on desks are short, and that the Holy Spirit works mightily even within the Romanian bureaucracy.

We should be fine, so there's no need for any of you to worry on our behalf.  Everything is perfectly above-board and legal, and there is no real need for concern.  But I can be a control freak sometimes, and trusting what feels like our fate to the hands of the Romanian postal service and some unknown bureaucrats makes me a little nervous.  But we've been praying that God would make it clear to us, eventually, whether He wants us to stay in Romania longer... so I guess this could be a pretty clear sign!  Just kidding.  Really, though, the reason I wanted to explain this whole process is because we really would love to have you praying.  Please pray for speedy returns, for easy approvals, for all the necessary documents to be where they need to be in their proper forms (there aren't really clear lists of what documents are necessary, so...).  Pray for the whole visa process, that it would go smoothly and in a timely manner.  And in the meantime, please pray that we would be present here, thankful for the chance to serve with this church and this organization, and making the most of every day.

Thanks.