Update - May 2010

This is our first official “newsletter” updating you with our ministry plans. We believe the Lord is leading us to start a church in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia, and are heading in that direction.
We've decided to call the church "The Refuge," though we remain committed to the theology, philosophy, and ministry of Calvary Chapel. We're merely utilizing the name (the refuge) to emphasize the 'personality' of the ministry to the people whom God is calling us to.

In preparing for this new season of life and ministry the first big obstacle is selling our house. Once the house sells, we're mobile. If you’re interested in seeing our home go to: http://www.buyahomeonmaui.com/, click on properties and scroll down to the May 18th listings, we are MLS#343246.

The next obstacle is obtaining visas to live in the country. In summary, it boils down to three options; a religious worker visa, a student visa, or a tourist visa.

1. A Religious Worker Visa can only be obtained from an established Australian ministry, which must show it HAS to hire a foreigner (as opposed to national) and that it could provide a fulltime salary (though it doesn’t actually have to provide this salary, it must show the govt it can). At this time there are no open doors in this direction.

2. A Student Visa is fairly simple and straight forward, and it allows me to work for 20hrs a week. It is expensive for a foreigner though, about $12,000 for me to attend. I can enroll in a program that starts in third week of July, but this depends upon the sale of our house.

3. A Tourist Visa is a 3 month visa that gets us into the country, but does not allow me to work. We will go this route as a last option, then hope to obtain something more permanent once in the country.

Prayer requests: God sells the house; obtaining visas; remaining in the center of God’s will, the only place of permanence.

Thank you for your prayers,
Brad Hall