As the month of February starts, we wanted to make you aware of our situation and ask for you to pray with us. Japan is still closed due to COVID, and they are not allowing non-citizens to enter the country. We called the Japanese consulate to see if there were any options at this time, and they told us that unless Alishia or I were Japanese we had no options at this time. The Japanese government is going to reassess these policies at the end of February. Would you join us in prayer each day this month that Japan would open up to international travel in March?

We are not the only people being impacted and slowed down by COVID, and we understand that the Lord may well be the One behind the slow down. Pray that we would receive direction from the Lord and discernment on what is a closed door and what is an obstacle to push through. We are not questioning our call, we still feel that we are called to Japan, but we want to be open to whatever the Lord would have us do. If our time before we can get to Japan is going to stretch out, we want to know if there is a step or two, we can make to further prepare ourselves and serve the Lord in the meantime. We trust that our next step will be made clear if we all join together in prayer, so thank you for taking the time to lift us before the Lord.

As far as what we are doing while here in California, in January we joined with some friends to do outreach in Little Tokyo (a neighborhood in LA). A Japanese believer from Northern California joined us to witness and we handed out Japanese tracts to those that gathered. Please pray for the seeds that were planted among the Japanese here in the US.

Missions Equip, the ministry I work with, is currently starting up two translation projects. They are translating the Bible into the Toposa language that is spoken in South Sudan. Half a million people will be getting a Bible in their language for the first time! While that’s going on in Africa, I am helping to lead a project translating our missions Bible college classes into Spanish. We are working with a team from Iquique, Chile to take our videos and translate them, and dub them with the Spanish audio. We are so blessed by the number of resources we have in our language and the access we have to the Word of God, let’s not take it for granted.

Alishia is continuing to lead a Bible study as well as working with the youth group at the church. I’ve been blessed to help lead a men’s group and a life group. We also have the opportunity to fill in at church in March leading their young adults group while their leaders are out of town, so please pray as I prepare for that.

Thank you for your partnership. We love you.

Jeff and Alishia Root