We’ve seen over the last days how God has orchestrated circumstances to allow all of our children to come home in surprising and happy ways. (Yesterday’s blog.) Of seven amazing stories, the most spectacular belongs to Hans and Katy, although it really belongs to God.

Hans married Katy, a British citizen, in July of 2007. Before then, Hans had been living with her family for several months, working various jobs on a volunteer visa linked to Katy’s parents, who had agreed to sponsor him.

As a newlywed, Hans upgraded to a better visa that allowed him to work and collect pay in England and to travel in and out of the country freely. The catch was that it expired in two years. If he left the country after that, he wouldn’t be allowed to return without major hassles and possibly couldn’t return at all.

Two months ago, Hans applied for a more permanent work visa that included a residency card. This would entitle him to unhindered travel, as well as most of the perks of British citizenship, even though he would remain an American. The process traditionally takes six months to a year.

When Hans got his call from Nate about the cancer, he yearned to come home immediately, but he’d had to surrender his passport for the duration of the lengthy visa process. Even Katy had had to turn in her British passport, as Hans’ wife, to satisfy the document requirements. Neither of them could leave England in the foreseeable future.

Then God stepped in. A week ago, on Sunday evening, Pastor Erwin Lutzer was seated next to Pastor Steve Mason at a missionary appreciation banquet. Somehow Hans and Katy’s visa/passport situation came up in the conversation. Steve jumped up and said, “Hold that thought.” He walked several tables away and tapped on the shoulder of a young British girl who followed him to Pastor Lutzer’s table. “Tell Tilly what you just told me,” he said.

The surprise of the evening was that Tilly works full time at the British Consulate in Chicago helping people who have visa and passport problems! She gave Pastor Lutzer her phone number and said, “Have them call me in the morning, and I’ll go to work on it.”

I called, and she told me there were three options. The first had only a 1% chance of working, that the British Home Office in London would complete the residency card/visa process for Hans quickly. “That would have to be a miracle,” she said.

The second option had better odds. It involved applying for a second passport given on rare occasions for serious medical reasons. It would have a time limit of three months but would allow Hans to visit us relatively soon. She asked us to get a succinct letter from Nate’s doctor describing the nature of his cancer and the importance of a quick visit.

The third and worse choice was to abort the residency card/visa process altogether, collect the passports and travel to the States. Tilly told Hans that if he chose to do that, he would most likely never get a residency card in the future and might not even get permission to re-enter the country at all.

She peppered the British Home Office with phone calls for three days until Hans’ papers were finally found and given to an officer to study. We all held our breath, and 48 hours later, Tilly called to say the impossible had happened and the documents would soon be mailed! But just then all of London went on a mail strike. We still couldn’t breathe.

When the strike ended, the precious bundle was delivered to Hans and Katy’s home on Pleasant Street, but neither of them were there to sign for it. Today, Monday, Katy raced to the post office and collected the package. As Nate, Linnea and I were on the highway heading home after radiation #5, our cell phone rang and there was Hans.

“You won’t believe it! God has worked a miracle!” Their situation fell in the 1% possibility and it gets even better. Hans received a visa that is the absolute best kind available, a Settlement Visa, with privileges to come and go in the UK for as long as he lives. It will never expire.

Tilly put it well when she said, “God has truly moved a mountain.”

“Truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” (Matthew 17:20)