The Passport Miracles

Greetings from Bernal! Since early January, as mentioned in the last update, youth have gathered nightly at Brother Sam Cunningham’s shop to pray, often interceding for the many obstacles to the Mexico trip. Several graduates needed passports, most obtaining them smoothly by mail. However, two girls faced daunting delays, and until the Saturday before departure, prayers at Brother Sam’s centered on these seemingly hopeless hurdles. What follows are the stories of miracles born from impossibility.

Liz's Story

Liz Mast had given up on ever obtaining a passport long before she heard of the graduation trip to Bernal. A few of her siblings had previously applied and been flatly denied. She determined that the process would be highly difficult, if not impossible, and not worth the trouble. 

After hearing the announcement about the graduation trip, Liz discussed her plight with Brothers Simeon and Sam Cunningham. Being doubtful about her prospects, she was surprised to encounter confidence from Simeon and Sam that she would get her passport. She gotobtained a list of the supporting documents she would need to submit with her application and traveled all the way to her birthplace in North Carolina to get affidavits and a letter signed by a judge attesting to the legitimacy of her birth certificate. 

After a month-long trip to Wisconsin, Virginia, and North Carolina, little time remained before departure. It was too late to apply by mail, and Liz again doubted whether she should even try. She shared her uncertainty, and Brother Sam sent her a song, saying: “I will send out an army to find you, in the middle of the darkest night; I will never stop marching to reach you, in the middle of the hardest fight; it’s true, I will rescue you.” He told her to listen first, then decide. She chose to fight on!

Six days before her flight, Liz and her dad drove to Dallas and encountered no difficulty at all. They submitted her documents, paid for an expedited process, and were told to expect the passport in the mail within two days!

But the faith test wasn’t over.

The next morning, Liz checked her shipment tracking and saw she needed to submit more documents—but had to wait for an official letter before scheduling another appointment. With the flight just five days away, there was no telling if or when the letter would arrive. She met with Brother Sam again and made multiple unsuccessful calls to the passport agency. Finally, Brother Sam told her, “I think you have one last chance at this. But you’ll need to get in your car, drive to Dallas, and try to get in.”

Within half an hour, Liz and her dad were again on their way to the passport agency. When they arrived, the office was closed. They found a security guard loitering outside and petitioned for his help. Miraculously, he apprehended an official who opened the doors and a ticket window and arranged an appointment right there.

But the faith test still wasn’t over.

They requested even more proof, so Liz and her dad got back in their car, drove to Waco, and procured medical records, photos, and anything else they could come up with before heading to Dallas for the third time the next morning. This time, after just one hour and a six-inch pile of documents, she walked out of the building, passport in hand!

“Until I held the passport in my hands, I never actually believed I would make it on the trip. I felt like I was running on Brother Sam’s faith throughout the whole process!”     - Liz

Sophia's Story

Sophia applied for her passport by mail a month before the Bernal trip, receiving routine updates for weeks. But as departure neared, her expedited document still hadn’t arrived, and by March 21—the day of the fundraiser banquet—she got a notice that her application had been declined. Like Liz, she was told to wait for an official letter explaining the denial, but it never came. Despite calling the passport agency daily, she got no answers. As time ran out, it seemed her chance to join the graduation trip was slipping away.

Three days before the travel date, Sophia’s older sister Melony volunteered a rather outlandish idea: she recommended climbing the chain of command and calling U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s office. They reached a member of his staff who scheduled an emergency appointment for Sophia in Houston on Saturday, March 1, at 7:45 a.m. Within hours, Sophia also had her passport in hand, and the last of the 36 graduates was equipped to travel to Bernal!  

The clerk at Senator Cuz’s office was dumbfounded by her success, claiming, “I have helped countless people get their passports, but never at this speed!”

We serve a miracle-working God. What may seem like mere coincidences to some, we see as just a glimpse of the miracles woven throughout this trip.