Atkisson Visas - Saturday, January 19, 2002

Dear friends and family,

Thank you so much for your prayers for the visas....David arrived back home on Wednesday morning with 5 visas in hand. He felt that the whole process went very smoothly and he said he could feel the prayers of God's people. In addition to obtaining the visas another big blessing came out of this trip. My mother has had a fear of heights and flying all her life and had never been on a plane. She had decided to take a big step of faith and fly with David to Miami...because ultimately she would like to come and see us in Brazil. The Lord strengthened her and gave her courage to get on the plane and even sit by the window. She is so thankful for the way in which the Lord has strengthened her and she is giving Him all the glory. It has been such an encouragement to all of us to see how God is using our situation to help others step out in faith as well. Our God is so awesome!!

The last couple of days we have been working with the travel agent to arrange our tickets to Brazil. Another amazing thing happened.....we thought we would need to drive to Atlanta to get the best rate but SOMEHOW (only God knows, ha!) it turns out that the tickets from Tri-Cities are $40/per person cheaper....what a blessing..now we don't have to rent a truck and haul all our 24 boxes to Atlanta to catch the plane. As I said before, Our God is so awesome!!! We have reservations to fly out of Tri Cities in the afternoon of Feb. 4th to Atlanta...the non-stop, red-eye express from Atlanta to Sao Paulo leaves Atlanta at 8:30pm and arrives around 8:30am their time.

Our Brazilian friends from seminary are moving to Sao Paulo next week and they will greet us at the airport. The city where we are going to language school is a couple of hours away so we will be hiring a truck and driver to get us and our stuff to our apartment. The head of the language school has set up our lease agreement and signed it so the apartment will be ready when we arrive. Again, our God is so awesome!!!

Now that we are finally going we have a lot of loose ends to tie up.....we would ask that you continue to pray for us during this time. Here are some specific ways you can pray for us:

1. final packing and organizing of things we are leaving here for HMA (home mission assignment - when we come back)
2. details of getting boxes to airport on Feb. 4th and that they will all be within the weight restrictions (we are weighing them on bathroom scales)
3. saying good-byes to family and friends - especially pray for the children as this is very traumatic for them....also continue to pray for our mothers, both widows
4. the sale of our old blue van and a few pieces of furniture before we leave
5. that all of our boxes would make it to Sao Paulo by the time we arrive there
6. the arrangement of a truck and driver at the airport to get us to our apartment on Feb. 5th.
7. health during these last days as stress levels are high and there is a lot of sickness "in the air".
8. safety in travel
9. initial adjustment and culture shock (we will be more specific about this when we get there and know more)
10. that God would give each of our children a friend in Brazil soon after we arrive
11. that we would always be faithful to God's purposes and depend on Him for all these things.

Rua Sao Pedro 328, Apto. 44
Cambui, Campinas - SP 13025-350
BRASIL

email: datkisson@mtwla.org

Thank you for your loving support for us. May God bless you richly with His love and grace! Lynn for the whole Atkisson gang

- Saturday, January 19, 2002

 
Visas - Saturday, January 19, 2002

Dear friends and family,

I am sending this to you again, as it did not go through the first time, and you will then receive the response to this note...so even though you were not able to pray specifically for us on this matter, our Lord knew and responded according to His perfect will. Amen

GREETINGS IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!!!

I am writing to inform you that we finally received our final paperwork from Brazil this week and and spent the last few days (and some nights) packing up 24 boxes so that we could formulate a packing list and translate it into Portuguese. Yesterday afternoon David drove down to Atlanta and this morning he flew to Miami to meet with the Brazilian Consulate. As I am writing this note, he is on his way to the consulate's office. The paperwork is to be delivered between 10am-12pm. If all goes well, the VISAs will be granted and David will pick them up on Tuesday between 3-4pm. Also, the packing lists must be approved for customs and the dog's health records. If the Visas are obtained we are planning to move to Brazil the end of this month. We are asking you to pray for God's grace in this situation - that all the paperwork will be acceptable and that the Visas will be granted.

As always, we thank you for your prayers and know that none of this would be possible without the support of God's people.

We will certainly let you know what happens later on this week.

MAY THE PEACE OF GOD BE WITH YOU!!!

Lynn Atkisson

- Saturday, January 19, 2002