“We wanted to come see you earlier, but we were hindered.”
— Paul to the Thessalonians.
Mid-Spring Update 2024 — Let’s Get Those Totes Back Out
Great news! This week we’ve been preparing once more to leave for Japan. No, we didn’t get Ezra’s visa yet, but we might have a workaround. (More on that later.) In two Sundays, May 26th, we’ll have our send-off service at our church here in Louisville. You can tune in (here) at 10 AM, EDT. The next morning, May 27th, we shuttle off to the airport. First stop, Chicago. Next stop, Tokyo.
Let’s Recap
Our vision of Japan began to take shape back in October of 2018. That was when we visited for the first time. Shortly afterwards, through many conversations and meetings, we set our sails towards the Far East. The journey has taken more time than we would have guessed, but it certainly has been good. I finished a solid pastoral internship at our church, got ordained, I got a masters, we both accomplished biblical counseling certifications, we got to travel extensively and meet all of you wonderful brothers and sisters, we got to experience funerals and weddings of those we love, received wonderful marriage counseling, bonded with many from our local church, and we also had a couple of beautiful, healthy kids along the way. Perhaps the last item I should add to this list is that we both grew up a little too. So then, yes, this step seems to have taken a while. But, no, we have no reason to look back on it with anything but gratitude. God has been at work through it all.
Next Steps
So it begins… Lord willing, we’ll land in Tokyo on Tuesday the 28th with all of our earthly belongings in tow and with the official title of “missionaries.” Let me remind each of you what that is and then tell you what we anticipate our next steps to be. A missionary is a person that a church sends to another people group to share the gospel with them. And we belong to the local church-planting stripe of that vocation. That’s been our aspiration since before we were married, and now it is time to take hold that job title and execute it honorably. We bear the full weight of your expectations that we use our time, finances, and daily opportunities fully to the glory of God. Pray we do that well!
When we land in Tokyo, we will be staying with our missionary friends and mentors until we can get into our own house. Once furnished and settled in, the quest for assimilation begins! We’ll be learning things like grocery shopping, Japanese stop signs (look that one up), foreign bank accounts and health insurance, how to drive on the left side of the road, how to ride the trains, as well as how to merge our lives together with a local church that speaks a different language than we do. We’ve been told already that they love us and have been anticipating our arrival. What an encouragement! Unofficial language learning (also called “immersion”) starts as soon as we leave the airport in Tokyo. Official language classes will start later in the summer or early fall.
Potential Trouble
As much as we’d love to tell you that we’re fully in the clear with our visas, it’s unfortunately not that simple. To recap what’s happened thus far, let me remind you that our visas were approved from Japan on the day after little Ezra was born. That meant we had ninety days from March 1st to get into the country or our applications would expire, and we’d have to get back in line and start all over again. Well June 1st is coming up fast, thus the decision to leave for Japan by the end of this month. If we are able to get past Japanese immigrations before our visa-entry dates expire, then we’re locked in for three years. We’ll then just need to come back to the States to get Ezra’s when his is approved.
In the meantime, Ezra should legally be permitted to enter Japan as a U.S. citizen on a tourist visa, which needs no paperwork or prior approval. All he’ll need is an American passport, which we have. What that means is that the four of us will walk through immigrations with four passports, but only three long-term stay visas. The baby will have a three-month stay visa (which can be used twice per year for a total of six months maximum). We will have to convince the immigrations workers that we really will keep our word and head back to the U.S. in order to get Ezra’s paperwork when it becomes time to do so. We’re praying even now that they will hear us and let us through. There is no reason I’ve thought (or our veteran teammates, the Carters) of yet as to why they wouldn’t. But immigrations are the ones who get to decide that. Pray for us that God would plead our case for us. Pray that we’d not be turned around upon arrival. Again, I don’t think that we will, but it is certainly possible.
One further note on that. Everything that happens, either God does or he allows. And he allows quite a bit that we would not, doesn’t he? But everything he allows to happen is for at least two reasons: it’s for our benefit to grow our faith in him, and it’s for his glory which we will see and understand one day when we finally get the answers to so many of our questions. Because this is true, we have all we need to trust him, come what may. I hope that is an encouragement to each of you as difficult times are sure to come. Trust him. Show the world that he is trustworthy, even when things are out of our control.
And pray that we will do the same, no matter what happens. We’re so thankful for each of you. Please reach out if you think of us!
Grace and peace,
Joe, Sierah, Sophie, and Ezra
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Fun Fact: Due to the Earth’s curvature, our flight westward to Japan is almost entirely over land!
