A Very Important Update

God is faithful.

Most of the time, we start with a simple "hello" or other greetings, but we’re overwhelmingly grateful for this update in particular, and it feels like the perfect way to begin.

We officially have an apartment booked, and it’s ready for us to move in on Thursday, April 17. This is a monumental step.

The first challenge when we arrived was making sure our visa application was on the right path and that we would be able to get our national ID cards.

The second challenge was finding a place to live.

Once we arrived, it only took a couple of weeks to get an appointment scheduled to submit our fingerprints and officially turn in all our documentation for the visas.

There were a couple of delays and small hurdles, but overall, in hindsight, the process was very smooth.

The challenge of finding a place to live proved to be more difficult. I’ve struggled to send out more updates through this newsletter, mostly because I wanted to share each major step as it happened.

The elephant in the room has been finding an apartment.

We inquired about dozens of places and often heard back that the apartment was either no longer available (the most common response), the owners wanted someone who would stay longer, or they simply rejected our application profile.

We’re still waiting to get our down payment back from one rental agency, but that’s another story.

In all transparency, this process has been difficult and discouraging. But ultimately, we knew it was in God’s hands and in His timing.

Finally, we inquired about and applied for an apartment in the neighborhood right next to where we’re currently staying.

Once we applied, we weren’t sure how long the process would take. We had to submit several documents, and it’s common here for owners to do background checks on each applicant.

We submitted the application on Tuesday morning (April 15), and just a few hours later, we were approved and received confirmation with our move-in details. Thank you, Jesus!

The location is perfect for our needs. It’s centrally located, close to everything we need, and within easy reach of the church, the training center where we’ll be working, and the other missionaries. We are incredibly thankful!

We are grateful we have been able to stay in the training center dorms this entire time.

Now that we have our apartment, this will provide stability for our family as we enroll in language school and all of our future endeavors.

Even in our times of waiting, He is faithful.

“The one who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:24