Dear Friends,
We are excited to report that this morning, after over four months of waiting, we finally were able to receive our Portuguese driver's licenses!
This may not sound all that exciting, but it represents for us, not just the full, legal privilege of driving in Europe (we had been driving on U.S. licenses with an International Driving Permit, which is kind of a stopgap measure), but the potential to save ourselves, the mission, and our supporters a great deal of money.
It's a long story, but as U.S. citizens, we would ordinarily need to attend driving school in Spain in order to get our licenses there. It's a lengthy (four months at least) and expensive (a minimum of 3,000 Euros, or about $4,000 as of this writing) process. In Portugal (where our visas are from and, for the time being, where we are), however, U.S. citizens can essentially trade in their U.S. licenses for Portuguese ones, much as one would in moving between states. It's not expensive at all, but the lengthy part does come into play once one applies--delays, bureaucracy, slow mail, etc. But that's finally over! Praise God!
In other news, the Santa Marta church had six people (four adults, two children) give their lives to Christ this past Tuesday. The week before, there were another four adults who did so. We are seeing significant opposition, but also great results for the kingdom of God!
Please keep us in your prayers as tomorrow we and other church members will be participating in an evangelism outreach in the Santa Marta neighborhood, and then in the evening a special youth event. We're praying for a big turnout!
Blessings,
Michael and Carrie (Caty) Hamley
Yea! Did Caty get her license too? Or just Michael?
Posted by: Leah Book-Satterlee | February 03, 2009 at 01:53 AM