We’re still on holiday until Monday, but I thought this news was definitely worth sharing. As you probably know, the Cottrell family are coming to join our team. Brian is a British citizen, but he was having difficulty getting visas for Christine and the children. We got this e-mail through from Brian earlier today:

Hi Everyone,

Just an update on our visas. WE HAVE TODAY RECEIVED OUR VISAS, PRAISE GOD. We emailed last time to let you know they had been denied due to, what seemed to us, a clerical error... or two! Since that time we have been waiting on a review of the decision. After 2 agonising weeks of waiting and many phone calls that took us in circles and ended at brick walls, we finally made progress yesterday. We were advised that the only course of action left open to us was to write a letter to the British Ambassador in Athens and mark it urgent. We decided that would take too long, so Brian rang the Ambassador's secretary to make an appointment to see him urgently. We didn't get an appointment (no surprise there!) but his secretary requested that we forward our correspondence to her and she would look at it and take it to the Ambassador. That was yesterday (Thursday) morning. This morning as we hadn't heard anything else we decided to phone the secretary again to find out what had eventuated. She informed us there was a meeting yesterday and several people from the Embassy in Athens and in Cyprus (where the applications are processed) had been involved and we needed to wait until someone phoned us. In about half an hour we received a call from Cyprus and within another half hour the rejection had been overturned, apologies made to us for the mistake and the inconvenience to us etc and every effort made to get the visas to us asap. We were granted the special privildege of receiving emergency hand written visas in Athens (instead of waiting for our passports to be taken to Cyprus and returned) that have now been placed into our passports. Phone calls have been made by the Embassy here to the Airline we're travelling with and to the airport we will arrive at in London to make sure there are no problems either end for us. We have also been given the official to contact if there is still a problem at either end. So every effort has now been made to make things happen quickly and smooth the way for us. Praise God.

We are flying to London tomorrow night (Sat 7th) and will take the girls to their camp on Monday morning after which Brian, Harry & I will continue on to Glasgow. We need to achieve a lot in the one week left to us before school starts. We have appointments on Tuesday to view a few rental properties and an appointment at a school. Pray that we can sign a lease on a house, have the kids enrolled in school and everything ready for them to start school, in their uniforms, on Monday morning 16th August. It's going to be a busy week!!

Thanks for supporting us with prayer during this very difficult time. We praise God for this outcome and the speed at which things have transpired today.

Love Brian & Christine