Visas and Health Insurance

The last few months have been a journey, and we thought we give you guys an update. (We apologize for the long blogging hiatus...) I'll do my best to keep the story compact, because I feel like it could get away from me.

Recently, I had heard from some other field leaders and workers here that visas were becoming more complicated. There were questions about health insurance and coverage and needing to provide additional documentation. We knew of people still waiting on their visa renewal applications to be processed, and it seemed like we could also face these challenges. We took a "we'll see" sort of attitude because living in the "land of worry and what-ifs" is not a great place to be.

Last fall, we had our first new worker come to Austria since we have arrived. We were so excited to have her here and get her settled in. She started German classes, found an apartment (something needed for her visa) and started to figure out cross-cultural life. We started to get an idea that things could get complicated when she received a letter asking for more documents. One of the issues mentioned in this letter was about health insurance. Bureaucracy is a regular part of life here, and so gathering documents and submitting them has become a normal part of our life. First, we made sure we were reading the documents correctly, because legal German is a whole other language. After that, we gathered the necessary documents and brought them back to the office.

In the meantime, we also were facing a visa renewal. We now live half a mile from the Vienna city limits, which places us in a different province. We went to drop off our documents at a local office and received similar questions about our health insurance coverage and the need for more documents. We submitted everything and waited for a response from the office. 

Serious Pictures, Happy Faces

Today is a very exciting day.

Today is the day that we were handed our visa cards to live in Austria.  

Today it is completely legal for us to live here, and we are so excited for God's provision. Today is a day of rejoicing at what God has done on our behalf. But today was also a day where we breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Yesterday, however, was challenging. Yesterday we weren't sure what would happen. Yesterday was a heavy day of stress.

The first reason had more to do with the situation at hand and the importance of our visas being processed. There is a special quality to an experience like this, knowing that it "isn't real until it is real." Even though things had gone along as best as we could hope for up until yesterday, we still hadn't finished the process. We still didn't have the visas in our hands. For me (Nate), this added an undercurrent of stress. Before this trip to Vienna, as we set up meetings to view apartments and evaluated online listings, there was this nagging fear or doubt in the back of my mind, because the visas weren't in our hands. We were doing our best to plan for a future that still wasn't 100% certain.

The second reason yesterday was stressful was a bit more challenging. In our meeting at the visa office Thursday morning, there were new questions being asked and a new document that needed to be provided up before we could receive our visas. As we rushed to find the needed parties and get the signed pieces of paper, there were serious questions about whether or not we would be able to receive our visas or if we would have to wait until next year to start the process again. This is why this morning was so heavy for us...why we walked out of the visa office with so much adrenaline in our veins and our hearts pounding. Because there is always the possibility that they will say, "sorry, you did this wrong" or "you broke that rule and we can't give you the visa." 

These last few days have been a roller coaster of emotions. I think this was a reminder to us that we are not in control, but we serve the One who is. We can think we are in control sometimes, but the reality is that we are only stewards of what we have.

I read a prayer last night I read a prayer from the Valley of Vision. A few of the last lines cut me to the core:

I do not crouch at thy feet as a slave before a tyrant,
but exult before thee as a son with a father.
...
Preserve me from the intoxication that come of prosperity;
Sober me when I am glad with a joy that comes not from thee.
Lead me safely on to the eternal kingdom,
not asking whether the road be rough or smooth.
I request only to see the face of him I love,

That last line caught me most of all. Any time we hold onto something more than our desire for Christ, it needs to be pushed back into its place. The question I asked myself last night, as we wondered what today would look like, was "is Jesus enough? If this dream or desire I have goes on hold or even goes away, is He still enough?" It is a question we all must continually ask and one that is not as easily answered.Even if we know what the answer should be, we need to examine our hearts to see if it's what we truly believe.

Thank you for celebrating with us and praising our great God! Thank you for praying for us! Now on to the next stage...

I Can't Catch Myself

This last weekend I got back from a climbing trip up to Devil's Lake. It was pretty spectacular. If you don't believe me, there are pictures on facebook to prove how amazing it was. We got to hike and climb. The weather was perfect and the climbing was great.

There were several times when I was climbing that I was began thinking about the concept of trust. The first was when I finished my first climb, probably a 60 or 70 foot route. I got to the top, checked all the gear on the anchor and leaned back into the harness. Now if you have never experienced this sensation it is similar to sitting back into a chair. The harness grabs you around the waist and across your thighs and you sit or lean into it. As the rope tightened and the harness caught, the thought flashed through my mind, "I can't catch myself." If something were to go wrong, I wouldn't be able to catch myself. The rocks were too far away, and I was completely at the mercy of my equipment and the person holding the other end of the rope.

There was a second time I had this thought. I wanted a picture of me from the top of the rampart. So I clipped into the anchor point, leaned over the edge and had Bethany snap a few shots of me. It was completely safe (I was clipped to webbing that can hold thousands of pounds), but the thought crossed my mind, "There is no way I could catch myself if the anchor gave way." It is a sobering thought.

The challenge for me is that I don't live my faith this way. I think the call to Christ is a call to trust him in such a way that we have no second option, we have not way out. We trust Him and Him alone, and if he lets go we have nothing else. Everyone knows what it is to feel something give way under pressure. To grab a tree branch and feel it break as you pull on it or to feel your foot slide as you try to walk up a slippery incline. And yet God has promised that he will not let go of us.

But here comes the tricky part. There are times in our life where it will feel like the anchor breaks. There are times when it will feel like God is asleep at the wheel of eternity. But it is in those times, those times where it feels like we are free falling, those times when it feels like we are no longer connected to the anchor, that he catches us. It is a beautiful and painful mystery.