UPDATE ON DEPARTURE

 Hello everyone!

    As we are drawing near to our hopeful departure date we have some new information about our first stop in Japan. Unfortunately, we will not be able to get in right now for several reasons. First being there is a backup of students and business people who have been trying to get in for 2 years. While Japan says they are upping their intake from 5,000 people a day to 7,000 people it will still take a long time for all of those people to be processed and accepted in to Japan . Second, because we are not students, business people, or going through a specific organization, we will have to wait for a tourist visa to come available. Our missionary contact in Japan, Heath, has been very helpful to us and is going to check on any other possible options to get us into Japan. His prediction is that the tourist visa could open up in the summer time if COVID continues to slow down, but as we all know anything can change at the drop of a hat for better or for worse. So, we will keep you updated on that! 

    Due to these circumstances, we have had to re-work our plans! As of right now we are looking to go to Indonesia for a couple weeks to get our feet on the ground before our we meet up with some mission opportunities in Thailand! We have been praying for Gods direction through all of this and as sad as we are to be skipping Japan, hopefully He will allow us to go there when the time is right, in His timing! 

    Let me just tell ya, we knew it would be hard to try to travel the world in a pandemic, but gracious alive its no joke! Between trying to figure out what countries we have to have visas for, if we can apply while we are here in the states, if we can do visa on arrival, if we have to have a negative covid test, if we have to quarantine, how long we have to quarantine ect...... will make you want to pull your hair out! Even then we can rest in knowing that if we truly believe this is what God is calling us to do than we must be faithful and God will lead the way! We have found that when we get overwhelmed with the fact that their are so many unknowns, we have been able to cling to Psalm 3:5-6 which says, 

    "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." 

    This is a constant reminder of our reliance on Him and not on ourselves. We must trust Him in with all circumstances, even when we don't understand why He might not want us to go to Japan now, or even ever. So with that being said, we have bought a ticket to Indonesia and will depart on April 12th! Please continue to pray with us in our final weeks here. There are still quite a few boxes that need to be checked before we can leave. Some specific prayers requests would be for clarity as we figure out more specifics like phone plans and travel insurance. We still need to get a few vaccines before we leave as well. A big prayer request is for Mallory. She has been fighting some type of sinus infection/viral infection for over a month and has not felt well despite taking antibiotics and following the doctors instructions. We will continue to keep you updated as we get closer to our departure! Thank you for your support!