Updates

    “Let earth receive her King!” 🎶 

    — Lyrics to a song I heard at our local mall around Christmas time.

Winter Update 2025 — Nine Months in, Five Months to Go…?

How are we doing?
We’ve been in Japan for 9 months now. We’ve had our first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s in a new place—and now cherry blossom season! Holidays are days usually filled with tradition. And as much as I’d like to tell you that we’ve started a host of new traditions with each of these special days, traditions which we plan to reiterate for years of celebrations to come, we mostly just did what we could to keep the plates spinning! Having littles in a new world sure puts a twist on things. But God has provided everything we have needed up to this point. Little Sophie has turned three years old and is expressing herself more and more in English as well as Japanese. Foreign phrases and songs slip out when she’s playing imagination games with her toys. Ezra has now turned one. We celebrated his birthday with friends from church on March 1st. He is weaned and is already eating like a teenager. Winter’s not been so warm that they’ve gotten to play outside a lot, but these two play quite well together. It’s a blessing to watch these siblings become such good friends.

We’ve been interacting more with their pre-school over the last few months just trying to figure out routines, announcements, expectations, and some basic conversations. (Those are tough!) But we love that the Lord has given us a part-time school situation for them. Especially a school that is top, top notch. We love almost everything about it. It’s been a learning curve trying to navigate the religious aspects of Japanese education. Yes, Tokyo is secular now. But the ancient influences of Buddhism and Shinto saturate everything. And certain school activities have left us scratching our heads. If you’ve been following our social media, you’ve seen some posts about this.

However, this arrangement has freed us up for our own language learning. Classes for us have been going well. Our teachers have been exceptional. The school is Christian owned and operated and mostly Christian staffed. But learning the language has proved every bit as challenging as we were told it would be. And we are at the beginning of that process. Momentum doesn’t feel like it’s picking up yet. I’ll say a lot more about the experiences were having in learning Japanese in coming updates. But for now, let me say this: Japanese is a very possible language to learn. It makes sense in its own way. I keep telling myself, “You can do this, Joe. Missionaries to Japan do it every year.” And they do. We’ve met some. But this is going to take a while. There are so many aspects about Japanese speaking and thinking that are as foreign to English as the moon is to a fish. These things will take time to fully absorb. We’re working hard at that. Pray for us.

Ministry Here
We got to see hands-on how our local church ministers to the community during the “American” holidays that are for some reason observed over here. Events that the church has hosted in the community (including public baptisms in the local river) are opportunities to share the gospel with people who have never heard of a church and would certainly never go to one if they ever learned what it was. Missions requires a bit of creativity every now and then. The gospel message just needs to remain central.

Our duty to the church here has been to stay as involved as we can be. And there’s been plenty for us to do. Our missions team has shrunk this past season. The third missionary family that had been here to help at the church for many years had to transition away. Another solid family in the Japanese church had to move away for work. Sicknesses and surgeries seem to have dropped church attendance over the past several months as well. But that just means there are more ways to serve.

The “Five Months” Announcement?
What’s this all about? This past January, we were invited to go to “Ski Camp.” It is an annual, winter retreat for several Christian churches ours is associated with. (It’s the same group we went on summer retreat with for “Family Camp” last year.) Well, we had to decline the invitation this year. Because…we’re having another baby! And skiing while pregnant is not recommended. In early December we learned that God has opened Sierah’s womb a third time. We are expecting Pliska baby number three this August! (That’s the “five months” from now part.) How exciting to think we’ll have another little one added to our family and born here in Japan! Lord willing, this week we will find out the gender of the baby.

We’re not aware of any extra needs for those of you who have already so graciously asked! If it’s a boy, we’ve already got everything from Ezra. If it’s a girl, we’ll just need to get some clothes. We’re all good there. (And that’s thanks to so many of you!) But we do have a slight need…. And the clock is ticking. A new house!

Let me explain. We love our house. It was an answer to prayer. It was a special sign of God’s providence that we needed when we first showed up here last summer. It was perfect for our needs. Still kind of is. But now two things have to be considered. First is space. Not only are we adding to the family, our two-bedroom house is not as conducive to the ministry of hosting and hospitality that we’d like. We’ve already hosted an American couple for a week. It worked, but they were only two people! There have been challenges with ministering to the people here as well due to space. That’s the first thing we’ve been considering. Here’s the second: Termites! Our house has developed several “squishy” places in the floor since we’ve moved in. One’s right at the bottom of the stairs. There’s a place in our wall you can just poke your finger through, because the wood underneath has been eaten out. It makes little prickly sounds too when you put your ear to it. Ha! So, we do need to move soon. I hear that babies don’t wait.

Prayer Requests:
– Learning the language — We’d like you to pray for our diligence and God’s mercy in this.
– Baby due in August — Please pray for a healthy momma and baby.
– House — Currently, we are applying around for mortgages here as well as scouting out rental houses.
– Gospel relationships — There are Japanese people here that speak English! We’d like to meet more of them.

Grace and peace,
The Pliskas

“If you get on the wrong train, get off at the nearest station. The longer it takes you to get off, the more expensive the return trip will be.” — Modern Japanese Proverb

Fall Update 2024 (Part 02) — Riding Trains

Tokyo Trains
A couple of months ago I decided it was time for us to learn how to use the train system around here. So, we went big. The four of us headed downtown. We drove most of the way there, then took a train to Shibuya crossing—the most foot-travelled metropolitan intersection in the world. We arrived at noon at the appointed station, walked around to our pre-determined sights, and made it back to the station in time to head home just before rush hour traffic. Then trouble found us. It wasn’t a big deal at first. When we got on our train to head back to where we parked, I realized quickly I had made a relatively minor mistake. We were heading the wrong way. But no big deal, right? So, at the very next station, we switched trains and went back to where we had just left—Shibuya station. This is where we made a second mistake. One of us (I won’t say who) left her backpack/diaper-bag on that wrong train. Remember? The one that was going the wrong direction? Skipping many of the ensuing details… We were able to locate the bag via Find-my-iPhone. We chased it halfway across Tokyo and discovered some kind soul turned it in many stations down the line, made it all the way back to the car, and headed home safe and sound. And stressed out. We’d missed the worst of the traffic by that point. What an exhausting and educational experience! But on the plus side…my confidence in navigating the trains around here has increased ten-fold!

The past few years for us have been a little bit like this story. Nothing life-threatening or truly insurmountable. But challenging, a little bit scary, and a lot of unknown. It’s kind of been a figure-it-out-as-you-go sort of road for us—or…railway, I guess. But at the end of each challenge or “oops” has been the grace of God getting us to the right station with everything we need. I believe that with all these experiences, we are learning and growing. Perhaps we will be of some use out here after all? I can only hope and pray so. Speaking of being out here. Let me tell the rest of what we’ve been up to.

What have we been up to?
Our Fall began with visitors from our home church. We had just gotten settled into our house, so we were ready to host our first guests! We had a great experience showing them around on the trains—on which we did not get lost! So I’m two for three at this point. The only other time I’ve taken the train since we’ve been here was with our fellow missionary to a pastors fellowship downtown. I’ve now been to three pastors fellowships in different parts of the greater Tokyo area with another one scheduled this March. And let me tell you something. Despite the immense amount of work needed here in Japan to expose people to the gospel, I am greatly encouraged in what I have seen. The churches here are desperately trying to find ways to meet the unique challenges of their day. The Lord is at work!

Our Church
Our church had two special services this past quarter. The Thanksgiving service concluded with a large meal and hours of singing and testimony times from members. Some who gave thanks have been Christians for less than a year and one less than a month! A couple weeks ago our church hosted their annual, community Christmas service. The gospel was proclaimed in message and song to the non-Christians who came. To facilitate the larger group of people every year, our church rents out the local town hall where there is plenty of space for the service and food afterwards. This is actually really important. Many Japanese people would never step foot inside of an actual church. But they’ll go the town hall for a “Christian thing” no problem.

I’ve also had the chance to preach now two times at our church, both times through a translator. (Here’s the link if you’d like to watch my first sermon). Lord-willing, I’ll be preaching again two Sundays from now. It’s a blessing to have each opportunity to serve and give our co-workers a break every now and then. Sierah’s been serving on Sundays as well by providing homemade snacks and baked goods for everyone, especially Sophie, to enjoy.  (Turns out the Japanese are quite the social snackers!)

I’m writing this to you on a Saturday afternoon. This morning I met with an American man in our church as well as a young-bilingual man who is not a Christian. We’ve been working through the book of Mark at Denny’s every Saturday. Jesus is pictured as the hero to the needy and the judge to the self-righteous. What a blessing it has been to share Jesus for the last couple of months with this young man who speaks perfect English! Pray for him.

Language Learning
That leads me to my next point. Language school has been going well for us so far. On the days we have class, we drop Sophie off at her Japanese preschool in the morning then head to class ourselves. For Sophie, it is a fully immersive experience. Her school has nearly one-hundred kids. Zero of them speak a lick of English. Neither do the teachers! Our track in language school will be shifting this spring. We’ve more or less been in private tutoring lessons at the school to get us up to speed. We will now be joining an actual class with other students. They are a fun group! I’ll have to share more about them soon.

Conclusion
The trains system around Tokyo is the highest-rated in the world. It is on time, fast, clean, safe, and utterly dependable. (See an explanation of the genius of Tokyo railways HERE: (Tokyo Trains). It’s worth your time!)  But it wasn’t built in a day. And it wasn’t one single person’s idea and effort. Similarly, we’re a small part of something our great God is doing here in Japan. But we still face a huge learning curve in order to be effective and learn where we fit best into the kingdom work. And the more we ride the trains around here, I hope, the more we learn about what that might look like.

(Note: Be sure to keep up with our weekly posts on Facebook and Instagram!)

Grace and peace,
The Pliskas

“Inevitably, in any such enterprise there are two possible outcomes: success despite difficulty, or failure despite effort.” – Gary Brady

Fall Update 2024 (Part 01) — Riding Bikes

It was three months ago today that I led the singing at our Japanese church service for the first time. I had to step outside afterwards to dry my eyes. That afternoon, I wrote a future letter to my son explaining to him the significance of what that day meant for me and the larger story of our family. What’s funny is that I only got sixty percent of the words correct at best! But no one would have noticed. The brothers and sisters over here sing loud! And if they had noticed, they wouldn’t have cared. The Christians here seem so grateful that outside help has come.  I’m reflecting on that stretch of four subsequent weeks with a smile on my face. It’s obvious now. The Japanese Christians were really leading me in worship.

“Riding Bikes”
Our missionary mentors were Stateside for four weeks in September and October. So, our training wheels were off. Sierah and I were on our own. I did not have opportunity during that time to do any preaching, but I’ll never forget the privilege it was to lead our brothers and sisters in God-glorifying songs that I did not even understand. It was a moving thing to behold. I hope some of you will one day be able to experience Japanese worship with us. Similar to our weekly, family bike rides, this span of time was a journey of exploration for us. And it was one that we were providentially prepared for by our missions partners. Glory to God!

Many things have transpired over the last three months. So, I’ve decided to split this update into two parts. This past summer, we attended “family camp” with some members of our church here as well as a few other churches in the Kanto area. This was our first time getting to meet and worship with Christians from other churches. Our traditional Japanese meals were eaten with chopsticks as we sat on cushions at floor-level tables. Balancing two little ones proved a bit of a challenge. (I also lost my toll ticket on the interstate during our return journey, though that’s a story for another time.) But it was a neat experience to get to have as a family and church family.

Hospitality Lesson
I substitute taught our missionary’s English class in town a few times. These “students” were a group of older retirees, trying to keep their minds and language skills sharp. I did not have liberty to engage with them in a full gospel-presentation during class—we covered Japanese religious topics—but we did get to do something special. As many of you saw on our Facebook page a while back, a few from that class came over to our house for a lunch Sierah made. My goal in having them come was to see a Christian home and exchange ideas about Japanese culture and Christianity. And here’s where I learned a big lesson. Those kinds of conversation are really awkward topics to bring up here around lunch! (At least in a group.) Oh well. It wasn’t everything I hoped it would be, but we did have informative conversation.

A funny thing happed while we were showing them around our house. We got to explain to them a Bible verse that we had hanging up on the wall. “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). They did not know these two words: Lord and rejoice. This was our bridge to introduce them to Jesus the “King of every day” who provides true joy to those who follow him. May those seeds grow. One of the ladies has since come to our home again to make bread with Sierah and chat. The training wheels are off!

Singapore
Late this past summer a group of ten members from a church in Singapore were traveling to different ministries in Japan, and our church here got to host them. On a weekday evening, we set up tables in the church and fellowshipped (mostly in English!) over snacks and good testimonies. In this group was a Japanese missionary who recently got kicked out of China. He is now working with the Chinese and Japanese youth in that church in Singapore. This missionary is a friend of our pastor here in Japan and came back a few weeks later to preach to our church on a Sunday. While Japan does have its challenges for Christians spreading the gospel, we face nothing like those doing missions work in China. Evangelism strategies can be the same: relationship building, hospitality, church invites, etc… The risks are not at all the same.

So many of you have reached out to us this past quarter to check in on us, or write birthday cards, or let us know you are praying for us. I wish I could say more than thank you! All of our needs have been met. The family here is happy and healthy. Our church family is doing well. Many of our assimilation challenges are behind us. But the biggest one still looms, as it will for some time—learning Japanese. I’ll write to you more about our progress in this area soon as well as the second half of our fall season!

(Note: Be sure to keep up with our weekly posts on Facebook and Instagram!)

Grace and peace,
The Pliskas

“Paul received a mission from God. He gave allegiance to a new but mostly unknown king, Christ Jesus. In doing so, Paul assumed a role without social honor… But he knows he belongs to Christ, whom the Creator God appointed the King of the world.” — Jackson Wu

Summer Update 2024 — We Are Missionaries Now

Has it only been 90 days since we got here? Why do our kids look a year older already? When did driving on the left side of the road start to feel normal? Am I ever going to understand what the store clerks say after I clarify which size bag I’d like my groceries in? Have we accidentally offended my neighborhood yet? (I hope not! But here’s to hoping we’re good so far…)

We’re Here Now
It’s thundering outside right now. Of course, it’s the same kind of thunder I’ve always known back home. Rain is rain. Yet it seems different. The last two months have introduced many, many changes. I can’t think of an area of our lives that hasn’t been touched by this transition. But it’s been a good transition. It’s not been easy, but it has been incredible.

We moved into our house just over a month ago. Not apartment—a house. Now, the house wasn’t listed for rent. In fact, it was listed to be demolished! That’s not because it was in bad shape or unsafe. It’s just a bit old. Houses in Japan depreciate in value very quickly. Many older houses are torn down when they are in fine condition, because it’s more lucrative to build a new house on the lot and sell new. Such was the case with the house we live in now. But a neighbor of our missionary partners, a local, unsaved, Japanese man, heard we were looking for a place and knew that this house had been empty for some time. God knew we were coming and kept this perfectly fine house standing and waiting for us.

A similar providence of God provided us with a decent family car. (It’s a 2019 Honda Freed, if you want to look it up.)  I won’t get into the details, but we unknowingly found this car the very day it became available, thus were the first to ask about it. It was owned by an American who barely drove it. How we got in touch with the dealer is a story in itself. We didn’t expect to find the perfect car for us at such a great deal; but God did. He knew having a car in our part of Japan is really an essential considering the ministry work we intend to do. We just needed to get over here. Note: When we don’t need the car to get around, we really do ride our bikes just about everywhere. It’s becoming a regular practice for us to take an evening bike ride as a family.

God’s Providence
This is the paragraph I’ve been wanting to write to you all for weeks now. Everything is falling into place for us. It’s odd typing that out, but it is true. Yes, God has been taking care of us from the first step of our journey in 2020 until now. He has never left us. But many things—okay, almost everything—during our fundraising travels went differently from what we had imagined. All plans got delayed, changed, or cancelled. If you’ve followed us for the journey, you know. What’s beautiful to ponder is how those changes to our plans are the very thing that let us meet the hundreds of you that will read this newsletter! Beautiful Providence indeed. 

Back to our sob story. Many times we had to clear our travel calendar, cancel meetings, pick up spontaneous trips, figure out our “nomadic” life being new parents, push our departure back time and again, and on and on the list goes.  Even the last twenty-four hours before we arrived in Japan were hair-raising! I’m learning that we developed a mindset of, “Hmm… What’s about to go wrong next?” before coming here. But now that we’re here, everything has really fallen into place. This is a great comfort to us.

Could you imagine going as a missionary yourself to some new country, but you don’t have an established team to work with, you can’t find lodging for your young family, there’s no local church for you to plug into, you have zero idea of what your first couple of years are going to look like, you don’t know how to buy and prepare food, you have to figure out legal paperwork and insurance applications all by yourself, and, oh, you also don’t have a car since you don’t know how to find one you can afford? I’ve been eager to tell you that none of that has been our experience. Praise be to God! So again, I say with gratitude to our God that after a long journey getting here, everything is falling into place.

Our Gratitude to You
This is the part where each of you deserve an in-person, firm handshake and a hearty, “Thank you!”—knowing your true reward is in heaven I’d love to give that to you! But for now, let me say thanks for all who got us here. Thank you to you who gave to our startup fund. I can’t tell you what a relief it was to be able to afford all the things we needed in order to start this new chapter as a family of four.

If you’ve been following things lately, you may have heard that the U.S. dollar is doing really well over here in Japan. I mean really well. I’ve been joking that “The whole country’s 30% off.” But that’s not really a joke. All of our big purchases thus far (made primarily from our startup fund) have been significantly less expensive than we had budgeted. This is another way the Lord has so clearly provided for us.

I look forward to the many updates to follow. We would not have made it this far without those of you who lift us up and support us. I know some of you give to us individually or at great sacrifice. I pray we are stewarding your generosity faithfully.

Heads Up
In my next update I’ll lay out for you more of what this season of life looks like for us. What does the new missionary family do once they’ve moved to the field and gotten settled in? Also, the Carter family is leaving this week for a month-long trip to the states. So, our training wheels are really about to come off. There are many exciting things to come! By the way, did I mention we’re preparing an emergency earthquake “to-go” bag? If you have any recommendations on what survival items to pack, let us know!

Grace and peace,
The Pliskas

“Hey… where’s my laptop?”
— Me, 10 minutes before we board.

Spring Update 2024  — We Made It!!

If you’ve been following our social media (it’s the fastest way to get quick updates out), you already know a few things. Our prayers were answered, we made it to Japan, and we arrived with all four visas in hand! That’s the short version of things. But I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t fill in more details as to how God answered your prayers and got us here to Japan, safe and sound. So, greetings from Japan! Now, let me tell you how we got here.

The Final Week
With our departure day seven days away, we received tremendous news from Immigrations in Tokyo. After only two months, little Ezra’s visas were approved! (Mind you, it took ours about eight months.) This changed quite a few things. If we could get to Nashville tomorrow—we received the good news on Sunday…which was already Monday in Japan—and request Ezra’s physical visa, we might be able to get it and still leave the States on time! I already had plans to drive down to Nashville that following day anyhow to pick up our physical visas anyway, so the Lord’s timing was perfect. But his timing did require us to adjust our timing a bit. I went ahead and moved our flight reservations ahead a couple of days to give just enough time to go back down to Nashville the following week, pick up Ezra’s paperwork, and get on the plane the next day. Instead of arriving in Tokyo on Tuesday the 27th, we’d now be arriving on Thursday the 29th. And, mind you once more, our 90-day entry window expires on Friday the 30th!

The Final 24 Hours
I was on said trip to Nashville that following Wednesday morning, the 28th, to pick up his paperwork when Sierah called. She said she couldn’t check into our flights for the following morning. Apparently our flight reservation was cancelled and we had been refunded for the trip. It took a stressful, ninety-minute phone call to figure this out. Somehow, their systems had glitched when I switched our flight from Monday to Wednesday. And when we didn’t show for our flight Monday, they cancelled our reservation. But the Lord spared our seats on both very full flights, and we were able to get our seats back! This mattered. Had we been pushed to a flight the following day, we would be arriving in Japan on the day our entry-window expired. While I was on the phone with United, I was able to get to the Japanese consulate, take the elevators up, secure Ezra’s visa paperwork, and head back home.

But the testing of our faith wasn’t over. On the day of the flight we found out that United’s glitch did not switch little Ezra’s lap-ticket over. Then, we temporarily lost a laptop at TSA, but found it within minutes of boarding our first flight. On our second flight (which little Sophie and I boarded before the family to get the stroller stowed), Ezra was barred from boarding at first. He simply wasn’t in their system. But I didn’t know that exact detail. All I knew is that I was stuck in the plane and Sierah was stuck inside the airport. And the gate attendants wouldn’t budge! Until…for no reason, finding no proof of Ezra being on our ticket, they let Sierah and the baby on anyways so the flight wouldn’t be delayed. She and Ezra were the last to board. It was a long flight, but we were happy to be on it together! God took care of us despite whatever opposition we faced. Looking back, we experienced one of those moments where you know people have been praying for you. God heard.

Since Then
We arrived safe and sound with all of our luggage to a warm welcome at the Tokyo airport. We got through immigrations without a single hiccup! Our missionary partners were waiting with the rental van, big smiles, and a warm embrace. Two hours later, we made it to their house, ate dinner, and went to bed. Since then, we’ve registered as official residents of Japan, signed the kids up for health insurance, got some currency exchanged, and adjusted to the new time zone. Fun fact: the sun gets up around four in the morning over here!

We’ve started attending the English and Japanese services at church on Sundays and the midweek Bible studies. We’ve started riding bicycles, driving, shopping, and greeting the occasional neighbor while getting settled in. Our Japanese language learning has finally grown past phone apps and online classes to a real Japanese community. I’ve been able to participate in book studies, leading worship during the English service, and work on sermon prep with the missionaries. We’ve been so blessed by them to stay in their house for now! Which reminds me of houses. Many of you have been praying that we find a house that meets our family needs but which also keeps us in close proximity to the church and the other missionaries. We didn’t think we’d find one at this time of the year and were preparing to look at houses further away if necessary. But the Lord has opened up an opportunity to rent a small house just a ten minute walk away from the other missionary families here! There’s some extra paperwork that will take a couple of weeks to get through before we get to move in, but we are thrilled to do it!

Our Gratitude to You
There’s much more to say that I’ll get to in days ahead. I just wanted everyone to know how the Lord has provided for us over these last thirty days. I am first compelled to give a special thanks to our home church. You hosted us on the property for nearly two years, you regularly brought us into your homes (and entered ours), you sent us off a month ago with such gracious encouragements, and you have followed up multiple times since to see how we are doing! And I mean multiple times. See, it’s not just that we couldn’t be here without you. I wouldn’t want us to be here without such dear brothers and sisters back home lifting us up as you do so well. We are beyond grateful.

A second word of thanks must be said to all who have partnered with us up to this point—friends and family included. Besides the regular giving and prayers that you supply us, so many of you have reached out to us as well to see how we’re doing and if we need anything. Just the other day I got to Zoom in to a midweek gathering with a beloved church body and give them an update live! On top of this, some of you have felt moved of God to generously give beyond what you’ve committed just to be a blessing to us! Just so you know, the U.S. dollar is doing incredible over here in Japan. $160 USD has about $200 of buying power right now. So, your gifts are stretching farther than you know!

That’s enough for today. Know that there is so much left to say. And I am excited to tell you about it shortly, especially about our new home and new start in this strange and beautiful country. For now, remember that Christ is king, and our true home is with him. Though mostly unknown so far, he is the reigning King here in Japan just as much as he is back in the States. May we all be faithful citizens foremost to him and his kingdom.

Grace and peace,
Joe, Sierah, Sophie, and Ezra

“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 28^th 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

_______________________________________________

Fun Fact: Due to the Earth’s curvature, our flight westward to Japan is almost entirely over land!

“Unto the woman he said, in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children… But she shall be saved in childbearing.”
– Judah, Genesis 43:10

Special Spring Update 2024 — Babies, Visas, and Totes

Good News!
The curse is being reversed. We have quite an update for you all today! On Leap day (February 29^th) just a few minutes before midnight, Ezra Jay Pliska was born in our home in Louisville. God was so gracious, our midwives were spectacular, and both mom and baby are as healthy as could be. What an answer to prayer! He was born weighing in at 9 lbs. 7 oz. and measured 22.5 inches long. Right now, he sleeps about 20 hours a day, and we…well we don’t exactly. But that’s how it goes! Sophie is excited to have a new brother, and we are excited to teach her how to handle him gently. She’s always eager to hold him, tickle him, smack him, sing to him, and all the playful things toddlers love to do. I’m reminded of the journey of faith it is for every Christian mother to go through the pain of labor to bring new, little disciples of Jesus into this world. God’s design is simply incredible.

More Good News!
But there’s a second answer to prayer we received last week. No more than seventeen hours after our son was born, our visas were approved in Japan! Our missionary sponsors in Japan sent us the great news right away. I checked my email, and yep, visas for three of us were sitting in my inbox. You’ll have to forgive us for waiting so long to say so, but it took a few days for this news to settle in. As I said in our last update, one of our concerns about the timing of our visa approval was whether or not we’d have sufficient time to get our newest child prepared to go with us in that ninety-day window. (More on that below.) If Ezra wasn’t here yet, the three of us who are approved could technically hop on a plane today and begin our new life in Japan tomorrow. Things are different now. But we have until June 1^st to get there before our visas expire; and we will need every minute of it.

Our Clock Is Ticking
In light of all this news, here’s what the next three months will look like for the Pliska family of four. First, we are doing everything we can to expedite the process of getting Ezra added to our visas. We were told originally that we could add him to our visas in Japan after we got there. And while this is true, there’s a likelihood that the Immigrations Office will require Ezra pick up his visa paperwork in person in the U.S.—yes, an infant. This would mean all four of us would have to fly back to America just to pick up his paperwork, just to fly back to Japan! If we can expedite every step of the process, we hope and pray to be able to get his paperwork before our ninety-day window expires.

Aside from this, we’re keeping ourselves busy with the things I wrote about in our last update. We’re working on our Japanese. I’m working through lectures and assignments for a couple of classes at seminary. During the work week, I’m helping out with Bible classes at the Christian school or preparing for other teaching opportunities at the church. We’re both reading, exercising, spending time with each other, and enjoying family day every Thursday. Pray for a man who I won’t name here who owns a Korean restaurant here in town. We’ve eaten there many Thursdays for the past few months trying to get to know him and his family. We plan to give him a Bible soon as a gift for his great food!

What to Pray For
Soon, Lord-willing, we’ll be getting our yellow totes back out and start preparing for the big move. Pray for our faith in the delayed providence of God. Pray for Sierah as she learns to balance mothering two. Pray for our minds as we dial in on the Japanese language. And most especially, pray that Ezra’s visa application goes much faster than ours! We’re so thankful for each and every one of you.

Grace and peace,
Joe, Sierah, Sophie, and Ezra Pliska

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

Note: To listen to an audio version of this update, click here

“Had we not been deterred, we could have gone and come back twice by now.”
– Judah, Genesis 43:10

Special Fall Update 2023 — Delayed but not Disheartened

Good morning, to all who have been following our journey. I’m writing to you from Louisville, Kentucky. And, well, I suppose that that fact is what I’m writing to you about. Thank you to so many of you who have reached out to us these last couple of weeks asking how our trip was to Japan or what our visa status is! You all already know then. Our original departure date was November 21^st, but we’ve had to reschedule.

This won’t be a long update. But I’ll be sending another if and when we do make to Japan—Lord willing, in the very near future! Perhaps I was a little ambitious in my last update. But I do not regret it, for it was ambition held in good faith. And I’d take that kind of faith over hesitant disbelief any day. So, here’s what happened.

On July 1st, we submitted our visa applications to the immigrations office in Japan and were given a timeline to expect approval (or denial) in two to six months. We were also told to reach out if we hadn’t heard anything back by September or October. We’ve been reaching out, but the only update being given right now is that our applications are pending “under review” (as they’ve been from the beginning). And, well, it is now the first of December.

This morning, in Japan time, our missionary friends in Japan went in-person to the immigrations office in Tokyo to inquire for us on the delay. They were told the same thing. Our visa applications are still pending “under review.” And no expectation date was provided. As you can imagine, this is not exactly how we envisioned things going. Are we complaining? Not one bit. In fact the verse I quoted at the top was done fully in good humor. (Plus, if you go back and read Genesis 42-43, but view their youngest brother Benjamin as their visa application, our story does have some humorous parallels.) No, we are not angry or discouraged. Disappointed? Of course. Most of our earthly possessions are packed away in totes in our hall closet. We’re more or less living out of a suitcase for the time being, waiting for that call. But in the meantime, every single one of our needs are being met. There’s simply nothing to complain about. We’ve learned along the way that God’s timing is always—and I do mean always—better than ours. Every single time.

In closing, we don’t know when we’ll get that approval. It could even be this week. But we are eager to go and quite ready to do so. Not only does Japan await, but we also have a baby due this Spring! The clock is ticking. But for now, we patiently wait and pray, knowing that God is in control and that he is infinitely good (James 1:17). Keep your eye out for our social media updates for when we do get those visas. We’ll also have a link there for those who want to tune into our home church’s send-off service for us at that time.

Oh, and a big thanks is coming for those of you who have already given to our startup fund. I’ll have all of those numbers as they come in over the next couple of months! If you’re new to our updates, this was the document outlining basic categories needed, as of a couple months ago.

Grace and peace,
Joe and Sierah Pliska

Note: To listen to an audio version of this update, click here

When that was done, they all mounted once more, and jogged along again on the path towards the East.
“Where did you go to, if I may ask?” said Thorin to Gandalf as they rode along.
“To look ahead,” said he.
“And what brought you back in the nick of time?”
“Looking behind,” said he.

Summer/Fall Update 2023 — It’s Time to Go!

The deputation road has been long. But as much as it has been challenging, it has also been good. And God has been faithful all along the way. This update will be a combined one, since our next update will be coming from Japan this fall! There’s much to cover in this update—exiting things—so, I’ll get right to it.

Baby on the Way!
We’re excited to announce that a Pliska boy is due March of 2024! God has been kind again to us to give us another precious little one to raise in the knowledge and fear of the Lord. Some have asked how this will affect our preparations to go to Japan or life when we get there. The answer is that it won’t throw anything off. We’re still aiming to leave according to plan, and Sierah is fully on board with having our baby in Japan. We’ve talked with the missionaries over there about what that process would look like, and it’s not too much different than what you would expect here in the States. The due date for our little Pliska man is March 1st, and we can’t wait to meet him.

Japan on the Way!
This is the big news we’ve been awaiting with many of you for so long. I now have in hand our plane tickets for Tokyo. Lord-willing, our departure date for Japan will be November 21st of this year! I’ve been reflecting on this much lately. Our first time stepping foot in Japan was in October of 2018. Now I write to you exactly five years later announcing that we are finally moving there to begin our kingdom work among the Japanese people. We want to say thanks to each of you who have been following our journey and praying for us—especially those who have reached out to us to tell us you have kept us in your prayers.

Our send-off service at our home church will be on Sunday, November 19th, and you can watch the service on our church’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@LandmarkBaptist. It’s difficult to say what the “hardest” part of our big move will be. The familiar goodbyes or the foreign hellos? Time will tell; but God’s grace will be all-sufficient.

How you can help!
I’ve lost track of how many of you have been asking us about our departure date, visa status, and what you can do to help. It’s overwhelming to think that just three years ago, I hadn’t yet even met most of you on our newsletter updates. God has indeed been very good. Continue praying for those visas though. They should be in any week now.

I did want to give you an idea of these next steps ahead of us, for those who would be helped to have specifics. First, all prayers are welcome concerning the logistics, expenses, and spiritual health during the next few months. Moving to the other side of the world is going to be the most challenging and expensive thing we’ve ever done. Please keep us in your prayers (and reach out to us if you do!) that our faith in God would be rock-solid, firmly rooted in his sovereignty and goodness in all things pertaining to his children. May he be our support now and on the journey ahead.

Second, like I said in our last update, I wanted to give you an idea of the expenses needed for what I’m calling our “Start-up Fund.” This is a one-time expense that encapsulates everything from the plane tickets I just purchased, to our first few months renting a house or apartment in Japan. The large categories include: 1. Getting There (plane tickets), 2. Getting Settled (housing and furnishings, baby items, and transportation), and 3. Getting Started (language school). I’ve attached a document to this update for a more itemized listing of each of these categories, and as you will see, some of the items have already been fully covered by people who have given towards this start-up fund in advance! Here is where you can give to us, if not by check: https://thepliskas.com/give/. The total amount needed in US dollars is $28,400. An astounding number in many ways; but $14,300 of this has already been raised!

Final Note
For those who regularly give to us already, please do not feel compelled to do more. This is for those who feel led to go above and beyond normal support or for many of those who have asked to be updated when one-time expenses like this arise. We’re thankful for each one of you and are open to any communication and questions that arise. My cell is (502) 424-3954, if you’d like to call and let me know how you plan to help.

The next time we write you all, we plan to do it from Japan—Lord willing, and to his praise alone.

Grace and peace,
Joe and Sierah Pliska