Note: To listen to an audio version of this update, click here.
“And when they found out, the brethren brought Saul down to Caesarea, and sent him to Tarsus.” (60 verses later…) “Then Barnabas left for Tarsus to seek Saul.” — Acts 9:30, 11:25
Winter Update 2024 – Still Stateside
Not What We Expected
This week I was reading through a pastor’s reflections on his early days in ministry. He spoke of his long-term ambitions for the new church, his plans to get there, and the great sincerity of his intentions to obey Paul’s example in 2 Corinthians 12:19, “We do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.” As I read, he went on to describe how difficult it became to stay true to those intentions when pastoring became far different than what he expected.
I’m writing to you all this afternoon from one of the offices at our church here in Louisville, Kentucky. And all I can say is, “Well this is not what I expected either.” To be clear, yes, we are still aiming for Japan as soon as possible. Yes, we’ve done everything we can to this point to prepare ourselves for the move. And yes, the one thing holding us back is still the bizarre delay with our visa paperwork. There’s no pity being asked for here. Christ is still King. And we have been cared for far too well to complain. Providence gives, takes away, and sometimes says to wait. But a couple months ago we were wrestling with a tough question. If visas take too long, we’ll have to stay here in the States to have the baby. And if they come before we’re ready to use them, they’ll expire, and we’ll have to re-apply all over again. So, what do we do?
What do we do indeed. First, we rest in the sovereignty of God, knowing he is not evil but has only goodness in store for his children. He can move the hearts of Japanese bureaucrats whenever he pleases (Proverbs 21:1). And whatever he’s up to now was always the plan. Plus it was always for our highest good and his glory. That’s the first thing. The second thing was to go ahead and try and get an answer to that impending question of “What do we do?”. We spelled out three scenarios of what we would do given the timing of our child’s arrival and the visa approvals. I won’t get into that now since only one scenario remains. (If you’re a pastor reading this, I likely sent you a message about that last month.) This remaining scenario is what I want to tell you about. And it’s certainly not bad news by any stretch.
What Are We Up To Now?
As I’m writing this today, our baby is due in less than two weeks. So, even if visas came in today, we’re not going anywhere for a while. We are excited to meet our son and are right now busily preparing for his arrival. To help with this, our church recently blessed us with a baby shower for Sierah and baby boy. They’ve been far too kind to us during this strange interim! We owe a debt of gratitude to them. But we also owe it to the many of you who have reached out to us during this time to check in on us, pray for us, and ask us for updates.
I wanted to take a minute to write to you all and let you know what exactly we are up to right now. This unforeseen season is unique, and we want to take advantage of the opportunity to keep ourselves busy with kingdom work. I’ve been studying ancient Shinto mythology and practices and a bit of Japanese history as well. Sierah and I have been slowly working on our Japanese just about every day. This Spring semester, I have re-enrolled into in classes at Seminary again to see progress I can further make on my MDiv. Further, I’ve recently started working part time at our church here in Louisville helping out with administrative tasks around the office and lessening the teaching load on our pastors. I’m also potentially planning a quick solo trip to Tokyo this Spring after we have the baby. Pray for wisdom for me on this. The major factor in pulling the trigger on that trip depends on the timing of our visas, of course. All of this has been reviewed and approved by our pastors. So, we are confidently going forward with it for now.
Regarding future correspondence, I plan to send out another Newsletter in the next couple weeks with great news that our baby arrived healthy and happy. As the Lord wills! Until then, we appreciate your prayers and reach-outs. We don’t know why, like Paul, were in Tarsus for now while all the “action” is happening across the globe. But we are trusting his timing. It is always, always better than ours.
Grace and peace,
Joe Pliska