A beginning and an end...

Beginning...
Yesterday evening was our first home group! Banana nut muffins filled the air and God's sweet Spirit of fellowship filled the room! We talked about God's word in our lives, looked at scripture, shared prayer concerns and came together to lift those concerns to God. It was a very sweet time together and Friday will be one of my favorite days of the week!

An End...
Our visas will come to an end on May 5th and we need your prayers. We applied for a long term visa in the beginning of April and last week received the results that it was not approved. The application needs to be submitted with more documentation. At first glance we noticed everything they requested was paperwork we brought with us from the States and was only concerned with a new law that would require us to have a Bulgarian bank account with $3,000 Leva per person in the home. This amount for us would mean $12,000 Leva which is the equivalent to around $11,500 dollars. In addition we were told if the paperwork and bank account could not be acquired before our visa ended, we would have to leave the country. The next day we met with the consulate that makes the final decisions and brought the paperwork we had with us. She said we would not accept our paperwork but would require it to all be new originals with apostils and legalized and translated here. The good news is that she will accept a letter from our organization showing financial support and will allow us to stay in the country until the documents are received. Our concern is that when phone calls were made to the States, the FBI said a new back ground check will take 6 weeks to acquire and this does not include the time of mailing things back and forth for apostils once they are acquired. Our prayer is that this amount of time will not change the status of us being allowed to stay.
Here is how you can pray:
1. We need the paper work from the States to be miraculously fast and for the postal system to be very quick.

2. We need a background check showing we are not criminals and have no warrants for our arrest from the FBI and from the general police department. These documents will need an apostil and a stamp from the departments showing authenticity.

3. Pray the length of time it takes to acquire the documents, will not jeopardize our permission to remain in the country.

4. Pray that the new law requiring such large amount of money will have a permanent loop hole with it. Providing proof of income by a company will hopefully be enough for us in the future and for others who apply after us. Unfortunately this law would force a lot of people to have to leave the country if such amounts could not be obtained.

And finally pray for our hearts to never stop following God. It's easy to come to the place God has called us and start calling it "home" but our home is not of this world. Heaven is our destination and life here is just our journey. When we heard that we may have to leave the country by May 5th I started wondering "what if” What if our visa isn't approved after we give them everything!? "What if".... And then I heard God's voice ask me, "When did I give you permission to stop following me?"
This world is not our home and we never have permission to stop following God where He beckons our feet. I pray we don't have to ever leave Bulgaria but I pray even more that I never settle so much in this world that I hesitate if He whispers "GO" in my ear.