This morning we made our way to the Darmstadt City Hall to (hopefully) get a start on our driver's licenses. The other day when we went, we found we had gone to the wrong office. We got right into the office - a real blessing. We got our our paper work, passports, translation of our Wisconsin licenses - all looked good...until the woman at the desk discovered that we don't have our work visas from Germany yet. We are still in country on a "tourist visa" that has been extended while we wait for the longer work visa.
It has been about 7 weeks since we turned in our paperwork for the visa, so we decided to stop in at the office where we filed for them - just to see if there was any problem. We waited for a few minutes and were able to see the woman who assisted us with the process. She checked the file, confirmed that everything was processed, and let us know that she would call us when the visas arrived. Would you pray for us that this process will continue smoothly? Our extended visas are good until 16 February.
But God was at work - even in the "fruitless" trip to city hall. While we were waiting in the hall to see the visa processor, we met up with a Chinese woman named Lu Nah. We had first met Lu Nah 7 weeks ago when we were doing our application for the visas. She was waiting in the same hallway to take care of immigration paperwork, too. She speaks some English, but not much German.
She recognized us and came and talked to us - she asked if we were going to be having English classes. She said that she had wanted to get in touch with us, but had lost our business card - you can bet we gave her another one immediately...we are so excited to connect with her, her husband and fellow Chinese students at the Technical University!
When we got home, we stopped in and visited with Orhan and Saladin for a while - such a joy to be cultivating the friendship with them.
This evening we had William & Kathleen Busch over for dinner and fellowship. They are the missionary couple who pastor Bible Baptist Church here in Darmstadt. Kathleen's dad was the pastor for many years, while she and William worked in churches in Augsburg and Dresden. We are excited about the opportunity to partner with them in reaching the international community of Darmstadt. William asked Bob to fill the pulpit at Bible Baptist on 19 February. We look forward to worshiping with them again.
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