Well, we didn’t see that coming:
We knew we would need to make a trip back to the U.S. sooner than later, but we recently had a string of events that caused it to happen even sooner than we anticipated. As we shared last month, we had a scheduled appointment on September 10th with Israel’s immigration for our visa extensions. This was supposed to be a routine visit that would renew our volunteer visa for a longer stay in Israel. Along with this extension, we applied for a re-entry visa to allow us to make a trip back to the U.S. to visit Catherine’s father and family.  We had special letters of explanation of the loss of a loved one, and two letters from the organizations where we serve, explaining our role and value as volunteers.
What happened next completely caught us off guard. In Jewish culture, the loss of a loved one takes precedence over every other aspect of life. Work is set aside and there is a period of time to mourn and receive condolences from family and friends. While our thoughts were to get our immigration paperwork in order and then make a trip to visit Catherine’s father and family, the thoughts of the official at our immigration appointment were to return to the U.S. and deal with the mourning process and give proper respect to her mother. After about a 25-minute interview, she simply looked at Catherine and said, “You need to go home. We can deal with your volunteer visa when you are ready to return to Israel.” So, here we are! We were able to get reasonable flights by September 14th and we returned to the U.S. on September 15. This quick change of direction has God’s hands written all over it, we can share in more detail in the future.
Our plans are to spend the next six weeks traveling visiting family in Iowa, Missouri, and Kentucky. Even as we write this, we are visiting Catherine’s father and siblings in Missouri. We appreciate your prayers for travel mercies!!
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