We made it back home to South Africa! Dan and the kids bounced back into the proper time zone with great finesse and this time jet lag has seriously been a struggle for me. Dan was already serving at our church conference just hours after landing and having fun reconnecting with friends and ministry partners from all over Southern Africa who were in town whom we haven’t seen for 20 months. Copious amounts of coffee and Jesus have kept me going through the “I feel like a zombie” stage this week and last night I was finally able to sleep all the way through. This morning, I finally feel human again. Since I was up at 4am on Wednesday morning, I was able to attend the zoom meeting for my Uncle Roger’s memorial service which was a tremendous blessing.
Please can you join us in prayer for a couple things in this upcoming week:
– We are driving to Bethlehem after church on Sunday to do a walkthrough on a home that we hope to rent. At this point, the owners are hesitant to rent to foreigners so we look forward to meeting them and hopefully putting them at ease. This is currently our best option and we are really hoping it works out.
– Secondly – in November of 2019 we submitted a fat file of documents to apply for Permanent Residency in South Africa. We have been given permission to live and work in South Africa with temporary visa permits since 2006 and it has worked out just fine. Having PR would eliminate the hassle and expense of renewing a temporary visa every 3-5 years and we would have some permanency and more options. In March of 2021, we got a rejection letter saying that our PR was declined. We were disappointed, but we have the option of submitting an appeal within 10 days, so Dan wrote an amazing appeal letter…and then the office accepting appeals has been closed. We were told that we need to check their website daily, so when it opens up then we have 10 days to make an appointment to submit an appeal letter in person. We were packing up in the states so when we saw it was open, so we are 12 days, rather than 10 in booking the appointment. We are asking that you pray with us for favor! We would love it if those 2 days weren’t counted against us and for our appeal to be accepted and considered. We would love to get Permanent Residency! If we don’t get it, we do have the option to continue applying for temporary visas. Dan will submit the appeal letter on Thursday morning our time, so if you are in the states, please pray with us on Wednesday.
If this rental home doesn’t work out, there will be another one. If our PR is rejected again, we still have options. We are just moving forward with trust knowing that He has a plan for us as we transition and we are looking forward to seeing how things unfold in the coming weeks. We will let you know how everything goes! Thank you.
Blessings,
Janell and Dan |
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