(488) Extra ordinary favour

A friend told me this real incident.

A missionary kid was applying for a visa to enter the United States of America. She was attending an International School and her transcript from Grade 1 onwards was in a database in USA. From thousands of children, she was a lucky one among many to be chosen to attend a leadership conference in America. Since she has just completed Grade 11, she thought she might as well go and look at a few campuses. Food and lodging for the conference would be sponsored. There are family friends to receive her at the airport. Another close family friend would pay for her airfare. It looks like she is all set.

In the Pacific island they resides, apparently it takes three months to apply for a visa. They filled in all the relevant forms and applied. There was an application fee. They were directed to pay through a certain British bank. This missionary family does not own any bank account in this bank. For convenience sake, a friend paid on their behalf. Right after the payment, that friend went abroad. Perhaps it was remiss for both party, no one thought of passing the bank receipt to the person applying for the visa.

In due time, this teenager was called for an interview. Looking at the document list, they realized that they lack the bank receipt. What to do? They just prayed and committed everything to God. On the actual day, the parents dropped her at the embassy gate. No parent was allowed to accompany the interviewee. She went in with trepidation. It was stated that clearing security may take 45 minutes. It was a surprise that she cleared security after 5 minutes. The interview was expected to last 2 hours. A receptionist checked through the stack of documents. The missing receipt was duly noted. She waited to be called.

And she waited. People who came before her was called. Folks who came after her was called. Half an hour passed. She was nervous. Forty five minutes went by. Her hands started sweating. Her turn came. She was called to go to the most intimidating interviewer. By this time, she was almost in a panic. She prayed and took a deep breath. Walking to the far counter, she greeted the interviewing officer and sat down.

Lo and behold! The interviewer smiled at her and asked her a few routine questions. Then he went out of his way to help her by offering to give her a one year multiple entry visa. Further to that, he went on to advise her to request for letters of invitation from the colleges she plans to visit. Otherwise, she may have problems clearing immigration on arrival.

It was extraordinary favour from God.