Jordan and Nitasha News

November 2023 Update

I will proclaim the Name of the Lord; how glorious is our God!" Deuteronomy 32:3 (NLT)

Dear Friends,

Our sincere apologies for not getting this update out to you all sooner. We have always aimed to send out an email on the 1st of every month, but things have been very busy lately. There has been a lot going on behind the scenes, and things have worked out so that we are headed to Japan sooner than we thought but not in the way that we thought.

Firstly, thank you all so much for praying for us, encouraging us and donating to the mission. We love that you are with us in this! We want you to know that our prayers have been answered – we were granted the Certificate of Eligibility last month. However, since then, we have recently learned that because ECCJ Tokyo is a young and very small church with little to no official structure, it is not a church that is ready to receive missionaries just yet, and therefore we can no longer use the Certificate.

For a little context, we'll explain part of the visa requirements for those applying for a Religious Activities Visa for Japan, in our own words:

Almost everyone applying for almost any visa to enter Japan must have someone in Japan who will guarantee that that their presence won't burden the government in any way – whether it be financial or otherwise. They are what is called a 'Sponsor'. Firstly, they apply for what is called a Certificate of Eligibility (CofE), stating their Sponsor and finances, in order to help the government determine whether they can stay in the country without causing issues. Once granted, they use the certificate to apply for the visa. If successful, they are granted a visa and, as a result, stay in the country for ‘x’ amount of time.

Without a Sponsor, it is nearly impossible to obtain a stay in Japan for a period longer than 6 months. For us, ECCJ Tokyo were described on our CofE application as our Sponsor, and so without them, we cannot apply for a Missionary Visa using the Certificate that we've been granted.

You can learn more about the Japan Visa Processes at Embassy of Japan website, linked here.

This is the part where we assure you that our mission to Japan is still going ahead – so thank you for everything! From here on out, we will be looking for a new way to get into Japan, so we are looking at our options for visas.

This is why, as some of you will already know, this Sunday 19th November 2023 we fly out to Tokyo, via Seoul!!! ?????????? We’re doing this to embark on a short survey trip or recce (pronounced "re-key", short for 'reconnaissance mission'), in order to find out what direction God wants to steer our call to the Japanese, in Japan. For us, this means developing our current connections with Christian organisations, churches and communities in Japan, and fostering new ones.

Over the years, thankfully, we have accumulated a variety of contacts from across Japan. And we believe that this has happened for a good reason. For the majority of our time in Japan, we will be staying in Tokyo, but in order to exhaust our contacts list, we will also make short visits to Osaka and Sapporo, with possible stops in Naha (in Okinawa) and Nagoya too!

Now this may look like a lot – because it is! But we are so excited and very expectant!

God willing, we will arrive back in the UK on Friday 12th January 2024 with a bag full of stories and a renewed sense of confidence and clarity in God's will pertaining to our ministry. Many of you, like us, believe that sometimes we have to first knock on a few doors, to find the one God is opening for us - and that’s exactly what we’re doing!

We want to express our gratitude to Ealing Christian Centre, their Japanese fellowship, as well as their pastors and team for expressing an interest over these past 4 years or so, in our call to Japan, and our desire to spread the gospel amongst the Japanese. They have all been a tremendous support and some have become great friends. We’re sure that our relationship with them will continue to grow within Elim and that we will continue to offer each other mutual support, for the sake of spreading the kingdom of God amongst the Japanese.

Below are some recent photos of us and our family as we’ve prepared for this trip throughout October and November. All of this would not be possible without your continued prayer and support, so please continue to pray for us - for great health on the trip, for wild God-adventures and Spirit-filled meetings.

You follow us on social media (if you’d like to see the exciting photos and videos as it happens) and feel free to share the content to spread the word about God’s work in Japan. Instagram: @revjchristian / @mrs_nitasha_christian

Thank you again for walking this journey with us!

Love and Mega Blessings,

Rev. Jordan & Nitasha Christian

  more about Jordan_and_Nitasha
  Donate to Jordan_and_Nitasha Now