We received a call at 10am Tuesday morning while I was happily eating morning tea at the language school. Bad news. My work permit had not come through yet so Lisa and the children's visas could not be renewed. It expires on Monday I was told. We would have to leave the country the next day for Penang, Malaysia to get a new visa for them.
I was a bit stunned but there was no time to lose. I went home and started looking at airline websites to try to book a ticket. I booked a flight through Air Asia but wasn't sure whether my booking was confirmed as my credit card payment was "pending". I returned to the language school at 11am for my next class and shifted a language check due for Thursday to that afternoon as we were going on Holidays for 2 weeks on Sunday in Chiang Mai. I did well in the reading and writing section, but failed miserably in the comprehension section. I will do the check again after our holidays. We were up to 1am packing and then were up again at 6am to drive down to Bangkok to pick up some documents for the visa application at the OMF headquarters. By 2pm we were on the plane headed for Penang.
Anyway, we are in Penang now. I submitted the visa applications this morning and pray that when we return tomorrow to the embassy at 2pm everything will be in order. Our flight back to Thailand is at 5pm so there won't be much time to fix things up if something is wrong.
It's funny how last minute situations like this have become more common for me since becoming a missionary. Back in Australia I would be planning things at least weeks in advance to make sure everything would go according to plan. But now life is a lot more uncertain. Hopefully this will help me to rely more on God than I have in my life.
(Sorry, there are no photos for once. I left the camera cable back in Lopburi in our rushed packing)
I was a bit stunned but there was no time to lose. I went home and started looking at airline websites to try to book a ticket. I booked a flight through Air Asia but wasn't sure whether my booking was confirmed as my credit card payment was "pending". I returned to the language school at 11am for my next class and shifted a language check due for Thursday to that afternoon as we were going on Holidays for 2 weeks on Sunday in Chiang Mai. I did well in the reading and writing section, but failed miserably in the comprehension section. I will do the check again after our holidays. We were up to 1am packing and then were up again at 6am to drive down to Bangkok to pick up some documents for the visa application at the OMF headquarters. By 2pm we were on the plane headed for Penang.
Anyway, we are in Penang now. I submitted the visa applications this morning and pray that when we return tomorrow to the embassy at 2pm everything will be in order. Our flight back to Thailand is at 5pm so there won't be much time to fix things up if something is wrong.
It's funny how last minute situations like this have become more common for me since becoming a missionary. Back in Australia I would be planning things at least weeks in advance to make sure everything would go according to plan. But now life is a lot more uncertain. Hopefully this will help me to rely more on God than I have in my life.
(Sorry, there are no photos for once. I left the camera cable back in Lopburi in our rushed packing)
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