OSI & ANNIA

Shalom friends and family! 

We want to give a quick update on what the Lord has been doing in our lives over the past couple of months.  

We flew to Cyprus the day after our wedding, as we had initially planned to spend a couple of weeks there while we waited for Annía’s tourist visa into Australia to be processed.  After a week on the island, we found out that the visa had been refused.  This means we’re unable to go to Australia until we get a spouse visa, which can take 18-24 months to process, and requires almost $10,000 in order to apply!

It was a challenging situation to find ourselves in, and it pushed us to press heavily into God, to understand what His plans were for us in this new season.  Thankfully the Lord blessed us with a wonderful community of like minded believers who encouraged us to continue trusting in Him for His perfect will and timing.  

Our new friends Jack & Debbie provided us with accommodation, fellowship and weekly torah studies, while David & Diane invited us around for wonderful shabbat meals.

The day after we got the news about the visa, the Lord gave us Proverbs 24:27.  We knew this meant it was not His will for us to go to Australia at this time and that he wanted to send us elsewhere.  

After almost a month in Cyprus, the Lord opened the door for us to go to Canada. A few days later on October 7th, we boarded the plane and set off toward what we thought was going to be our home for the next six months.

Home church In Cyprus

On arrival to Canada, we were thrown another curve ball.  Instead of being allowed to stay for six months, immigration put a 30 day condition on our visas. This was another big challenge for us to overcome, and we found ourselves once again asking the Lord what His plans and purposes are in all of this.  

Our number one priority at this stage was to obtain a legal marriage certificate, which was not possible in Cyprus due to the documents they required.  Thankfully, we were able to get legally married in Canada with just our passports and the 30 day visitor record we received from immigration. 

It turned out that being given this 30 day visitor record was actually a blessing in disguise, as without it we would not have been able to get our marriage license!  

Once we had our license, we needed to book an appointment at City Hall to conduct the ceremony. Usually the wait time is a couple of months, however when we went there the lady told us they had a last minute cancellation and we could have the ceremony the following morning! Once again we saw the Lord working all things together for our good.

Signing our marriage documents