Remembering — to Forget God’s Miracles is Unbelief

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?’” (Numbers 14:11)

The past six days are ones we should never forget; the miraculous signs of Jesus and his grace in our lives were evident and cumulative. Just over a week ago we wrote: “The Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him! (Isaiah 30:18)”

During Daniel’s citizenship interview in New Jersey this past Tuesday, he heard the sobering words from the USCIS interviewer, “You will not receive your citizenship today.” Thirty minutes later the USCIS Supervisory Officer at that same office told Corinne and Daniel that there was one missing piece needed: an application Daniel mailed over a year ago. This USCIS Supervisory Officer (Keith) further told us the application was in Vermont and filed with literally millions of other applications.

The miracle began with what Keith said next. Despite the "seemingly impossible” task to get the application from Vermont to New Jersey and have the application approved before our Saturday travel date, Keith said he would personally see to getting it done. Taking at least 20 minutes of his time to speak with us, Keith asked to exchange personal cell phone numbers and said he would communicate with us how it was going and when to come back to the office. We were beginning to think your prayers planted an angel in that USCIS office called Keith.

As the result was still pending, we asked and you continued to pray. At 10:00am on Thursday morning, we received a call from Keith describing his incredible and unexpected ability to find the perfect contact person in Vermont, who in turn miraculously located Daniel's application (among millions of other applications) and mailed it overnight to New Jersey. Keith asked Daniel to report to the Mount Laurel, New Jersey USCIS Field Office that same day at 2:00pm, with a 98% chance his citizenship would be approved and Daniel sworn in as an American citizen at 3:30pm. That afternoon, some from our family joined Corinne and baby Danny to share the tears of joy and witness Daniel's Oath Ceremony.

“And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.” (Exodus 12:51)

This short verse describes something seemingly routine - if not embedded in the context of the miraculous signs God performed in the previous 10 chapters. Forgetting these miraculous signs showed contempt for God and resulted in the loss of rest in the Promised Land for all, except Joshua and Caleb, who witnessed them.

On Thursday, Daniel became a US citizen. This short sentence has a long and complex back story including years of your prayers. Thank you! We have experienced the miraculous grace of God together. 

After the Oath Ceremony, when we told Keith of hundreds of people who had prayed for this moment, he was not surprised. He told us how his staff scolded him for “giving us hope” after the Tuesday interview. Finding and retrieving that application, among other things, was a miracle.

We should never forget this week. “The Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him” (Isaiah 30:18). We together have asked, and we return to Uganda as a family of US citizens now - able to more freely travel in this ministry to which we have been called.

Remember with us as God calls us — as God calls you. Have faith in the future by not forgetting his past grace.

Daniel & Corinne