Visa progress

It is so exciting to finally have some news to report! Marcia (our visa case handler) finally returned from an extended hospital/recovery stay in Brazil. She called us on Wednesday at 8:00pm to discuss our application. (I almost hung up on her thinking she was a telemarketer) She was very happy with the last bit of paperwork that we had sent her in December, our paperwork portfolio was now complete and she was very happy with everything. She says that she is going to rush the paperwork thru as quickly as possible and even including a letter of recommendation for the acceptance of our visa. They are on there way to Brazil right now! She believes by the end of this month that we will have our visas.
What does this mean? I will continue to work at he hanger on Edgar’s floats (more on them later) until I get our visas and we’ll begin to work on a time line for our departure. We have to be in Brazil within three months of the visas being stamped. We have friends, family and church’s to visit. We need to raise some additional monthly and start-up funds. Lots of packing and then away we go! Sounds like a whirl wind summer.
As for Edgar’s floats, I’m going to work double hard and overtime to get them finished before I leave. They are coming along nicely and would be ready to paint next week except I am chasing down various leaks. The thought of the parable about new wine in old wine skins comes to mind. The leaks are nothing major, just a delay. After paint will come assembly and rigging. I have finally posted some pictures you can see them by clicking here.
Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and words of encouragement. It has been very tough over the last 10 months believing that one day we will actually go, we’ve had many difficult points along the way. The running joke at MMS was that God was keeping me there so I could finish the floats and it is beginning to look like that might have been the case. Please continue to pray for our visa application as it goes to Brazil. Also pray that Edgar’s floats come together without any delays and also for us as we deal with the stress and excitement of all the preparations for moving to a new country.

God bless and thank you,
Josh

P.S. We’ve posted some pictures of our family also, use the album link on the right to see them. I’ll try to add to them monthly.