Just like that...

I got an SMS from Candace at 3am this morning. I woke up and was AMAZED by how wonderful the news was! But let's back-track a bit...

Candace and I are in the process of applying for a US spousal visa, so that I can live in the USA with my lovely wife. We have been on different continents since early November, as we wait on our paperwork. We applied in April last year, so we'd been waiting for quite a while. But we both really felt led this week to be direct in our prayers and not limit God with our requests. We knew that if He wanted to, He could move our case forward. Just like that. And so we were praying that we would hear back from USCIS on our case status before it reached this coming weekend.

I spent time in prayer and reading my Bible, and was feeling quite peaceful yesterday morning. I was reading Jeremiah. There's a well-known passage (Jeremiah 29: 10b - 11) there that states:

"But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

This is a letter from God (through Jeremiah) to the exiles in Babylon. They were far away from their homes. But God gave them a promise and brought them home again. I'm separated from Candace by a vast ocean. When I'm finally with her, I'll be home. And God is putting the steps into motion for our reunion.

And as I thought about these words and the plans that God has in store for Candace and I, I knew deep down that God was at work. Candace had the same feeling too. She sent me an SMS yesterday morning saying, "I believe God is moving today." At her Bible Study group that morning, she had a vision spoken over her of angel's wings carrying our paperwork forward. I shared this with my ship family at supper yesterday evening. I told them that we believed God was working on our case that very day. That we'd get word soon on our case status. But I didn't think it would happen so quickly!

And so at a little after 3am this morning we got the news that our paperwork is moving on to the National Visa Center. Just like that step one with the USCIS is now complete! The National Visa Center will now process the visa and will determine which embassy I will go to for my visa interview. This process may still take some time, but we have seen how God has moved mountains for us. We know that He is with us through it all! :-) Our God is an awesome, faithful God!

We have a huge community both on the ship and abroad praying for us. Thanks must go to all of them for continuing to lift our marriage and our paperwork up at this time. Thanks again for your prayers and thanks be to God! Please keep praying for this next step in our paperwork!

Much love, Murray and Candace