Getting into Japan
September 30th is my birthday.
On September 30th, 2018 I had a dream. In part of the dream Jon had a sword in his hand and he asked me, “Will you go with me?” In the dream I did not answer him right away, but instead I waited for the Lord to show me what was in my own heart. The floor below us was a part of a church and it was literally splitting apart with Jon on one side and me on the other. I was crying because I knew the value of all that I would have to leave behind (friends and family)and my heart was divided between wanting to go and wanting to stay. Nonetheless I said, “Yes, I will.” When I woke up, I thought the dream meant we would be moving overseas again.
At that point in our lives in 2018 I was walking through a lot of redemption with my family. I hadn’t lived near them in a while and we were able to spend more time together and continue building our relationships even stronger. Around the same time and shortly after I was about to experience the strongest / healthiest community I’d ever been in. As someone who once called myself an introvert I was so excited just to be around people all the time (that is a miracle in itself!). With these positive things happening in California, I was torn to make another long term trip overseas.
On September 30, 2019, Jon and I had our first video interview with YWAM Takatsuki in Japan. We thought we would move to Japan after spending Christmas 2019 with our family, but the Lord had other plans and I’m so grateful He did. Things kept getting delayed and then in March two days after we got visa paperwork completed the whole world shut down, as you know, so we waited. And waited. And waited some more until….
September 30, 2020, on my birthday, we found out that Japan was beginning to issue visas to foreign workers again. I was shocked! I was prepared to wait much longer, but it was such a surreal birthday present. I didn’t want to get my hopes up but the Lord kept confirming it. Jon and I tried some headphones on in Target and the song that was playing said, “ I’m only 100 miles from Japan tonight...” Little things like that were kisses from God encouraging us that after a year of waiting we would be going soon.
After submitting our final paperwork to the Los Angeles consulate, we received our visas, took Covid tests and four days later we were on our plane to Tokyo. That was November 4th.
As with most travel and especially ours, it was not without its trials. When we got to the airport, we were immediately told that we would have to quarantine in Tokyo, our port of entry, and could catch our connecting flight to Osaka. We had already booked a hotel in Osaka (near our YWAM base) to observe our 2 week quarantine. We had to purchase a second hotel and lose the money we had spent on the one we had already booked.
The flight itself went well and the kids slept nearly the whole time which was such a blessing. When we arrived in Tokyo, we had to take new COVID tests and wait on the results at the airport. When we passed the tests, we made our way to Immigration. The immigration officers were not happy with our COVID test paperwork from the States ( even though we had all just tested negative in the Tokyo airport), so we were brought in a small room and asked to give them more official looking test results.
Jon pulled his laptop out and I sat with the kids while about 6-10 different people surround his computer looking over his shoulder. They wanted to see online documents stating that we had passed our COVID tests in the states. Since we had left so soon after the tests we hadn’t recieved all the email proof that we had negative test results.
When he checked his email, only 3 of the 4 test result e-mails had come in. Jon’s was the only one missing. Forty-five minutes passed with people coming in and out and checking on us and we were praying for the last email to come in. After a while, Jon got up and started dancing with the kids because he felt like the Lord told him to get up and worship. I kept praying in my mind, but we had a lot of peace that in whatever circumstance there would be a positive outcome.
After Jon danced, he checked his email one last time only to find there was still no email. He finally told the young man who was standing there that he only had three of the results needed not four. The man was concerned and went to speak to all the other people in the Immigration office. A couple of minutes later about five people came to speak with one who looked like an older officer. I immediately saw that he was smiling and that he carried a very strong sense of a gracious father. The whole feeling in the room shifted as soon as I saw him and the young man looked at us and said, “today there is no more problems for you. Today you will receive grace.” Ten minutes later, the man came back with residency cards.
Five hours from the time we landed in Japan, we were able to leave the airport and start our quarantine. God is such a gracious Father. He is so kind and He keeps every promise. Not one of them are broken. I can truly say that He has used every trial we have faced up to this point for our own benefit as we learn to trust him in each situation.
Thanks for reading and see you in the next entry!