07 June 2009

Visas, life in Ipswich, and my family

I have much faith in the things that God can and will do, but for some reason the thought of applying for visas to live in Australia brings a great wave of tension and fear over me. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it freaks me out pretty bad! There are a few reasons I get worried about visas; one is that they take a long time to get passed and we haven't applied for them yet (because we don't have all our financial support), another is that they're super expensive and if you mess up and have to reapply you don't get your money back (we're talking over a thousand bucks for mine alone), and the last is that I feel like nothing else can really move forward until we have visas. It wouldn't make much sense to sell our house and all our stuff without visas...what if they don't go through for a while and we don't have a place to live? Okay, so the homeless thing is a bit extreme, but I'm the kind of person who looks about sixty steps ahead and imagines the possibilities as reality. I guess there's nothing wrong with that, as long as I imagine the possibilities in God's world. Anything could happen for our team, the rest of our money could come in in two weeks and our visas could go through in six months with no flaws. We could not have our money by January and be here for six more extra months (which I'm not really hoping for!) Either way, as long as it's the schedule and journey God wants us on I guess I can't complain. To be in His will is the best place to be, even though it might really stink at the time.
This weekend my dad and stepmom visited us from Corpus Christi. On Saturday we did a little shopping (I got a pair of Levi's for $4.40!), saw Star Trek, and ate dinner with my parents and my in-laws. We had a blast! Star Trek was pretty cool, and I'm not even a Trekkie. This morning Jenica ate breakfast with us, so she got to meet and get to know my parents a little. It was a great weekend.
If you've never checked out the links to the right of my blog, I really encourage you to go to the Ipswich Queensland Times website. I was reading the day's new on Friday, and I found something out that really troubled me. Fighting among students in schools is becoming a really big problem there. Last week I read about a student who was knocked unconscious by some kid in a fight, and then on Friday I read about a video of a bunch of girls fighting in a school that got posted to youtube for a few days before it was removed. These kids are getting in really intense fights, and are proud of it! It breaks my heart, and makes me want to show kids and teens in Ipswich that there's more to live for than the hate, judgement, and anger that goes along with fighting. I think God has much healing in store for the families of Ipswich, and while I don't think it's all going to come by my hand I do think He wants our team to be a small part of what He is now and will do through us there.

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