Hey everybody, this is unfortunately not the kind of update we pictured writing, however an urgent matter has come up that needs telling.
I’ll just get straight into it -Dec 4th, (just two days after arriving back home) we received a letter in the post declaring that Sebastian’s visa to stay in the country had been denied and that we both “should make arrangements to leave the state”. We didn't want to believe it.. There is no reason except for what the law states.. and since 2011, they have gotten more strict about people residing here under the stamp 3 “religious volunteer visa”. You are allowed only three years as what they call “Lay Volunteers”, then on the fourth year, you must apply for an extension by post to Dublin.
However for whatever reason, our application didn't qualify for an extension of stay.
We met with immigration a week later, and found that there really isn’t any other option. Even after sending an email to ask for an extension of some sort, all we got back was a very terse response that we must leave. So we are sad to say we must abide by the laws rules and leave the country. They gave us a month to get things in order and to leave by January 11th, 2017. This information came as a complete shock, with confusion, anger and sadness.
Though now, since we were told face to face and not just with a letter, it is becoming more real that we have to move. After the shock of all of this, all we could do was pray and ask God for His direction.
As of right now, we don’t know exactly what we are going to do or where we are going, but since we are still set up with support, there may be options to stay in Europe and serve in other Churches and/or coffee shops. It’s hard knowing where the Lord wants you at times, but we know and have hope that God is leading us. After our initial shock we are starting to see Gods plan become more clear in all of this and hope to have better news in the next couple of weeks. We ask that you would pray for us in our future that God would continue to lead us and more importantly that the ministry here in Ireland would go forward with out a hitch.
Thank you all so much for being such faithful supporters of us and the ministry we’ve come to love. We will update you as soon as we know more. We know that in all of this we are in Gods plan, and we also know that if God wanted us to stay in Ireland he would have made a way for that to happen. He however did not, so that must mean that there is another door open for us to serve elsewhere. Pray for us as we seek His will and the next open door.
