From January to April, Maarten did his first module entitled, “Theological Foundations One,” he finished with a B+ and was very happy. Presently he has just completed “Theological Foundations Two” and the results are not yet known, although his first 2 assignments were returned with ten out of ten! Maarten enjoyed this module but found it challenging because the subjects were about topics he really had to think about and form an opinion!
I have been taking singing lessons, which I have loved and I am singing in a Christmas Choir. I may sing with this choir in the spring when Paul Wilbur comes to Holland. We will sing with him! How exciting is that?
This year we had a horrible experience flying to Canada with KLM, or should I say Delta! I tried to book seats for people with disabilities, and that caused a lot of problems! KLM Cares looks after only KLM flights (meanwhile we paid KLM our money for our tickets!) They told me to phone Delta Cares, the answering machine said "press '1' if you are a funeral director, press '2' if you are shipping human remains!" No mention of if you have a disability! It turns out Delta Cares only cares for those corpses who have already departed! Needless to say, that caused problems in Minneapolis, we were detained by the border security, because we weren't on the flight manifesto! After 30 minutes they allowed us to go to the next gate, and they were already boarding and the lady at the gate couldn't get us boarding passes! We did make our flight (they held it for us!)I was in tears and finally we arrived in Canada!!!
Our annual visit to Canada didn't really feel like a vacation, it felt more like work. Although we had the chance to go boating somewhere in the Whiteshell! That was beautiful to be on the lake! We had great weather!
Three amigos, Maarten, Richard and George!
We attended the wedding of Hope & Steve (that was why we came in August and not in September like we normally do).
Our first week in Winnipeg we went house shopping thanks to 2 friends, Esther and her daughter Bev. It was a real learning experience. It was a disappointing week, I didn't think finding a place would be that difficult.
We went to Thompson for a week and stayed with my mom! We visited a lot of friends, it is always a joy to be home, although it seems we are always eating!
We visited 3 banks and got valuable information. Then we headed West with Via Rail to Saskatoon, and visited with Jenny & Claude and Geoff & Judy, what a blessed time that was! After a couple of days we went to Moose Jaw, spent a couple of nights at Dr. Penner’s and then returned back to Saskatoon, from there we flew to Winnipeg. We stayed with George & Bessie and finished getting our paperwork ready for Canadian Immigration and posted them and on August 22nd, they received them.
On our way back to Holland we had a 2 night stopover in Toronto where we were guests on 100 Huntley Street. The following link will help you find the program. http://www.100huntley.com/video?id=uvctxbsLsEA
You can also just Google 100 Huntley Street and when you have found the “interview” page, enter our last name in the search bar.
We were also blessed during this time as friends, Kate & Richard drove three hours to visit us! We had a lovely time together!
A friend from Canada flew with us from Toronto back to Holland. She spent 17 days with us and it was wonderful to be able to show her around.
Now that the paperwork had been sent in, the waiting had begun. Surprisingly, miracles started to happen... Maarten wrote the following to explain on his Facebook: "It giet oan........." Remember the post from the 6th of October?
Today is a happy day. It is the day we received an e-mail, telling us that Linda is allowed to be my sponsor for the Immigration process. What it means? Well the Immigration service in Mississauga has sent my information forward to Vienna. So phase 1 has been approved, one more to go. I guess that it is going to happen.... ;-) As the people from Friesland would say "It giet oan" or someone from my home town would probably say "het goat gebeure......" ;-)
Well, on the 22nd of October we received a letter from the Canadian Embassy in Vienna, that they received my application package. They also mentioned that it would probably take them 11 months to process it and that contacting them within the first 3 months was useless... Needless to say, Linda and I felt quite sad about it and we were re-arranging plans in our head.... Can you understand that my heart leaped for joy, when last Saturday on the Client Status Page of the Immigration service my status had changed from 'Application Received' to 'Decision Made'!!! Kind of scary at first too.... BUT...... At the moment I am looking at VERY official looking papers! The top line reads "Confirmation of Permanent Residence"!!!!! No 11 months, no 6-9 months, but three weeks it took them to process my papers and come to the conclusion that All is well...
IT GIET OAN!!!! It is really going to happen!!! The Lord willing, June next year I will be officially a Landed Immigrant. I need to start practising that Anthem.. ;-))
Well, as you can see, we will be moving.
Seeing that the paper work went so quickly and we are now able to move to Canada a few prayer requests come to mind.
-Where are we going to live? We need a home or a wheelchair accessible apartment.
-A job for Linda as Maarten hopes to study at Providence College & Seminary.
-Which church will we attend?
-We will need a car, one that a wheelchair can be loaded into.
-All of our electric appliances and small appliances cannot come to Canada so we will have need of these also.
Thank you for standing with us in prayer as we make this move. Now comes the huge job of sorting through things, selling things and packing things...
Blessings to you & your family this Christmas and for 2013!
One final note: I had won a helicopter flight, so on December 1st, I had the opportunity to fly over our village! It was overcast and a rather small helicopter, I'm glad I had the opportunity but I shall never have to do it again!
1 comment:
Happy New Year 2013
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