Today was a day of clearing some hurdles.
We walked down to the Stadthaus, or city hall. We have an appointment there on December 6 to continue work on our visa, but our tourist visa expires just a couple of days later, on December 9. We were concerned that it might be too close for comfort. So we went there to see if we could get an extension on the tourist visa. We ended up waiting in a hall for over an hour with other people who had similar "auslander" (foreigner) issues. One young woman who was there was Chinese, and did not speak any German, but spoke English pretty well. Her husband is a student at the Technical University. She asked what brought us to Germany, and when we told her, she seemed genuinely interested. We gave her our business card, and she indicated that she would be getting in touch with us.
When we got to meet with a city official, we were told we could not get an extension on our tourist visa, but the woman gave us an application for the visa, and stamped it effective yesterday, which, she told us, will prevent any problems with the tourist visa expiring. Praise the Lord!
After that meeting, we walked down to the local car insurance office that has been recommended to us. We had previously met Herr Beck, a 30-something gentleman who is an agent there. He is a great guy. Speaks very good English to Carol, but because he knows I am trying to get better at my German, he speaks only German to me, and will only let me speak German to him. He's been to the US a few times, most recently in San Francisco last month. He also speaks French. He lives in Wiesbaden, about 45 minutes from Darmstadt, but we have an IBC church there - so perhaps we can encourage him to attend one day. We had a very nice visit, and got the car insured, which now allows us to change over the registration at the city hall - another appointment there!
We continued our daily walk to the St Ludwig's church in Darmstadt, which we had not visited previously. It was a familiar design as we walked in, and then Carol picked up an English brochure and read that the church is designed after the Pantheon in Rome - which was just around the corner from our flat there. There are a couple of holiday concerts coming up at the church, and we may take advantage of those.
Upon our arrival back home, we checked our email, and found that our shipment from the US has cleared German Customs and will be delivered to our apartment in Darmstadt next Wednesday! That is a huge blessing, as the weather is getting cooler each day, and our winter clothing is in those boxes. We will be able to put our familiar wall hangings up, and make the apartment more like home in the weeks to come. Carol and I have usually decorated for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, which is next Friday, so some of those boxes will get immediate use!
We then printed up copies of a Family Advent Devotional that we can distribute that include information about the new church efforts in Darmstadt. Later in the day we took another walk to the local Staples for supplies, and stopped at the Golden Arches Coffee Bistro for a Latte (well, Carol had a McFlurry, I had a Latte!)
In the evening we Skyped with Nicole and Asher - always a blessing.
Pray for Loo Nah - the Chinese woman we met today, and for Herr Beck - the car insurance agent. We want to build friendships leading to evangelism with all the people God brings across our path.
Thanks for your prayers!
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