“If you don’t give the kid his passport back right now, I’m going to kill you!”

For a month, I had been fighting, along with the local immigration office, to get my passport back from one of their officials who had gone crooked and absconded with several expats’ passports. The director had just informed me that the situation looked hopeless.

Unbeknown to us, a retired official who was at the office overheard our conversation. Right then and there, he texted the offending official, threatening his life if he didn’t return my passport.

As I was walking out of the office, my phone buzzed. It was a courier tracking number for my passport! “See?” the old man beamed, “Sometimes you have to throw your weight around.”

Little did I know that the fight was far from over. Apparently the crooked official had been giving me fake visas for the last year and a half. My case went all the way to the Commissioner of Immigration, and I was very nearly deported. God was incredibly merciful, and my visa has now been reinstated. Thank you for your continued prayers on behalf of the Batangan!

—John Holbrook

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