Learning to Patiently Wait

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Dear Friend,

Many people have been asking about the progress in our grandgirls’ request for US Citizenship. We received an email about ten days after our legal team’s response stating that the USCIS had received their response to the Notice of Intent to Deny. The short note simply stated, “We are reviewing your response.” So, we are waiting to see how the Lord will work among those who are given the authority to make a decision in our grandgirls’ case.

I’m reminded that in Hebrew there are two words translated as either “hope” or “wait” in the Scriptures. They both point to the choice of how to respond in circumstances beyond our control, portraying an attitude of confidence in the goodness and faithfulness of our God to care for those who are His. We have been and are still waiting. But the Lord has already provided a miraculous intervention.

Immigration is a sensitive political issue in the United States today and senior political officials are very focused on it. Our grandgirls’ case seems to fall in an untested area of the law. Our legal team provided the USCIS with an argument for why the law should be interpreted to grant them US citizenship. But can a junior official be expected to exercise the authority to make a precedent setting decision?

The night we returned home to Israel I received an email from a friend who’d spent a year working with us almost two decades ago, asking me to call him. He had written more than a week earlier and asked for more information regarding our case. He hoped to bring our case to the attention of a friend of his who is a senior official in the Department of Homeland Security. In our phone call he informed me that His friend had taken the time to review our documents, that he was sympathetic to our case and had issued instructions to freeze final decision making!

What an answer to prayer! While this does not mean that the grandgirls will ultimately be granted US citizenship, it does mean that senior decision makers will weigh in on their case. Seeing the Lord bring this to the attention of such decision makers gives hope that He will lead them to accept our legal team's arguments. The Lord saw our situation and intervened.

On September 14th we received an email stating that a notice had been mailed to us informing us of action that USCIS intends to take on our case. The email said we are to follow the coming letter’s instructions and submit requested materials. It indicated that we should visit their Contact page if we didn’t receive the letter within two weeks.

The letter did not arrive (it takes a long time for mail to arrive to us in Israel and the beginning of the High Holidays makes further delay not surprising). The email notice also didn’t provide further clarification on how to contact USCIS regarding the content of their letter. Our lawyers have been working on getting a copy of the letter that was mailed, but as of now have had no success. And so, we are waiting, not knowing when or how the Lord will answer, but continuing to ask Him to bring about a successful conclusion to our application.

We are so grateful for the Lord’s answers so far in giving our legal team wisdom; in bringing our case before someone in the Department of Homeland Security with the potential authority to set precedent in applying the law; and in giving them the compassion to take an interest in the girls’ case. Please continue to pray that they will either approve our case or, if there are further issues, that they would give our legal team the opportunity to address them before finalizing a decision.

Waiting isn’t very easy, but as we wait, we’ve been focused on returning to school and the new year ahead. We’re beginning to get a new schedule put together. Roni is enjoying her new fifth grade class and teachers – only eight children with two teachers and two helpers! Her school day is long, but she said that it goes by quickly.

Leeya has the same teacher and classmates for second grade. She was very happy to see all her friends! She has shown a desire to learn to play the piano. A piano teacher from our congregation agreed to take her on as a pupil, and so we bought an electric piano. She has started well.

Shir’s kindergarten is half kindergartners and half Pre-k. She was in the Pre-k half last year. Sixteen children from last year are continuing this year, and 19 new children have joined them. She loves going to school to be with friends. She is excited to be be joining Roni and Leeya in attending Bible Club on Tuesdays after school this year. The girls had so much fun swimming these past summers that we decided to also add swimming lessons so they could enjoy being in the pool even more in the future.

Heidi and I have been praying about our schedules. I will continue leading prayer, organizing small groups for the congregation, meeting for discipleship with several young men and leading one of the small groups. As elders we decided that I would lead the initiative to develop future spiritual leaders. We will start with Small Group leadership training right after the holidays in mid-October.

Heidi will begin attending my small group this year. Yay! She wanted to meet with a few women for discipleship, but the fact that Leeya and Roni will not be able to continue with their current therapists makes this a very emotionally difficult time for them. Heidi wants to be sure that the grandgirls are settled with new therapists before she adds commitments to other people to her schedule.

We are so grateful for your prayers for us, our congregation and our nation. During four gatherings over the course of Yom Hakippurim, between 20 to 60 of us gathered to fast and pray for the many challenges facing our nation and the world - especially for the opening of the spiritual eyes of people’s hearts. Our hope for any change in hears and lives rests squarely on asking the Lord to move. We so appreciate your partnership as we together seek the Lord’s face, asking Him to work in the lives of those we minister to here in Israel. Thanks for being a vital part!

Yours in the Messiah,

Phil and Heidi