Tuesday, July 29, 2008

July 28, 2008 Update

Dear Friends,I wanted to let you know of a major answer to prayer as well as give you another prayer request. With regard to our renewal status to stay in Ireland, I rang the Department of Justice to see if I could find out any information on our situation as August 3rd, our expiry date, draws near. That did receive our paper work and request to remain. They also acknowledged a failure to dispense information to all those involved as missionaries and volunteers in the country that upon three years they must leave. So, as a result the man on the phone said that they intended to grant a one year extension, and we needed to wait for the papers granting permission to come back to us to take to our immigration officer. I mentioned that we needed our in haste. The papers did not arrive as of Wednesday last week, and we had to see our officer that day due to his going on holidays for five weeks. We went in and told him what the Department of Justice told us and he then said that he would give us a 90 day extension in our passport. He also mentioned that he would give us a 90 day immigration card but that would be 200 Euro for the two of us. I said well I guess that we will take the 90 day passport stamp since it does not cost. Our officer then asked if we would be traveling out of the country at all. I said yes. He then asked us to tell him once again what the Department of Justice had said. Part way through telling him again the second time he threw up his hands and said "Say no more-Dublin bureaucracy". He then proceeded to type on his computer and then handed Lisa and me immigration cards good for another whole year! We very kindly told him thank you, paid the annual fee and left rejoicing (this is the first time I left rejoicing after having paid the fee!) The next day the letter came from the Department of Justice verifying what they had told us on the phone. The letter did include the words "HOWEVER" though in it. The "HOWEVER" is the prayer request side of things. Yes, we do get another year but to remain after that they tell us now that we need a work permit. I am not sure why we need a work permit and what all of this means at this point, but this is something that we have a year to work out and be praying about as well. Thank you for your prayers these past couple of weeks concerning us being able to stay in Ireland. The immediate pressure is off but we are still on out of the woods yet so to speak concerning the long term.

Have a great day.

Don and Lisa Thatcher and family

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