March 8, 2010
Dear
Pastors, Prayer Partners, Family & Friends,
This will be the last letter we will be writing from Wales for
the next year. This causes such mixed emotions because we will
miss the people and ministry here in Llanfairfechan, but are
looking forward to seeing so many of you again as we come and
report all that God has been doing the past 5 years. There are
so many exciting things happening in the ministry right now with
our growing Friday evening teen outreach, our Ladies Bible
Study, growth in our Wednesday evening study and prayer time,
and several new people that have recently started attending our
Sunday morning services. However, we know that this is God’s
ministry, and that He will watch over them and our family during
this time!
About three weeks ago, we were informed that we were eligible to
apply for a Residency Visa. This required us to take a “Life In
The UK” test which is the same test to apply for Citizenship. We
have spent the past couple of weeks reading and studying for
this test and are happy to inform you that we passed the test
and just returned from putting the paperwork for our Residency
Visa into the post!! This was unexpected because so many rules
had changed within the UK Border Agency and they had required us
to reapply for a three year visa just last year. With the new
rules and us leaving for furlough, we felt it would be wise to
go ahead and apply even though it is a large unexpected expense
on top of all the upcoming expenses relating to furlough. Taking
the test and application for Indefinite Leave to Remain has cost
us 1,040 pounds or roughly $1,600 with the current exchange
rate. All of this is non-refundable even if they deny our
application. Please pray that our application will be accepted
and that the process will go quickly so that our passports and
visas will be available for our travel back to the states in
May.
This test and Residency Visa application has taken a lot of time
and attention that we were not expecting, so please pray that
with the remaining time we will be able to complete the many
other things that need accomplished before our furlough. We ask
you to continue to pray for Greg & Collene Kent. Their departure
from the Dominican Republic was delayed for a couple of weeks
due to all that has been going on in Haiti, which is delaying
their application for a visa into the UK because they need their
passports for both situations. This is causing a real time
crunch situation! Please pray that once they arrive in the US
and are able to apply for their visa into the UK that it will go
smoothly, so that they can get here in plenty of time to allow
for a smooth transition of their arrival and our departure.
In
our last letter we asked you to pray for a new Ladies Bible
Study that was starting the end of January. We wanted to let you
know that God is really blessing and that there are 8-10 ladies
that attend faithfully each week. It has been so encouraging to
see these ladies so excited about God’s Word and desiring to
apply all that they are learning!! Pray that our men would be
willing to do the same!!!
As we end this letter, we ask that you continue to pray for our
two youngest daughters, Lindsay and Chloe. This upcoming
furlough is causing them some real anxiety and we are praying
that through all of this they will really draw close to God and
learn to trust Him with their lives and the things that concern
them. Also, we ask for prayer concerning the cost of our airline
tickets and the expense of the Residency Visa. We hate to ask,
but if you are able to help, it would be much appreciated!
In His Service,
Kevin & Kim Davis
