This just in...our residency permits have been APPROVED! We are now legally permitted to live and work in Africa. We were concernced that our application might not make it through. The documents required are extensive...copies of passports, shot records, birth certificates, our marriage licence, college and high school diplomas, and more. The problem was that many of those documents were already in storage because of our extended RV trip. When we put them into storage we had no idea that we'd need to quickly get our hands on them, so we didn't clearly mark which box, or even which storage unit (we have 2) they were in. We have no idea where they are! (I think there's a lesson in organization here somewhere.) Trying to find them would literally be like digging for a needle in a haystack. Instead, we got copies of most of the necessary documents from state or federal agencies. All except one. My high school does not re-issue diplomas, only copies of your transcript. I thought that would be sufficient. It says right on the bottom of the document when the diploma was awarded, but there was some question as to whether it would work in Africa. In the end, all we could do was pray. And thankfully prayer is enough. We appreciate all of you who prayed our paperwork through. This is a major victory and we thank God for tending to even the smallest details!

Now, time to buy plane tickets. Please pray that we are able to get through our last minute "to-do" lists and that we find a good deal on airfare. Pray also that we will keep our eyes on the task that God has set before us, not looking back, but resting in the fact that He will equip those He has called.