Jordan and Nitasha News

August 2025 Update

"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another" - Proverbs 27:17 (ESV)

Dear Friends

June and July have meant very hot days, with temperatures of up to 37 degrees Celsius and very few rainy days! Phew! But we thank God for air conditioning in our home, and workspaces, and the enjoyable events that the summer has provided. By the sounds of things, those of you in UK are enjoying the British weather to some extent too!

June/July Happenings:

First up, we are thankful for so many of you reaching out to us recently over your concern for our safety, in light of the earthquakes and tsunami warnings. We are completely fine and unaffected. For accurate disaster updates and weather warnings, download the NHK World app or visit the website. This really helps you understand if we are in trouble or not when these things happen.

In other news, the Gospel Through A Click Ministries [GTAC] x Japan Kingdom Church testimony premiere was a very successful collaboration between Pastor Marcel, his wife Chiaki and Vicente of GTAC, which we told you about back in March. GTAC delivered an amazing production, of an amazing testimony as told by the couple whose son had recently gone to be with Jesus. One year after his passing, the production was premiered on YouTube and in-person at JKC. Tash and I helped facilitate the evening, and I (Jordan) also had the opportunity to create part of the score for the short-film. We pray that this becomes a blessing for so many, who have lost a young one - or anyone - especially those in Japan who rarely share their grief. You can watch the full video and support the work of GTAC here.

We’ve both had a great time connecting with the people of JKC recently. Jordan has started the ball rolling in starting a youth ministry by leading the youth small group and taking ideas for a monthly youth event. Nitasha has been working really hard and has officially started the Hosting Team - the team in the church that deals with food and hospitality! This is where her relational gifts and love for hosting really shines. These are definitely some of our favourite areas of ministry and it’s been so good to see the hearts of the church members involved.

Something that was also really nice, was going to the Tachikawa Fireworks Festival with a couple of friends within the church. Tachikawa is a nearby town. This was our first festival experience in Japan, and thankfully there was nothing religious about it. Our friend had picked out a great spot to view the fireworks and had also prepared some fantastic food for our little camp! We’re extremely grateful for their friendship and loved the display in the sky on a summer’s evening!

Wins!

I was excited to have been invited to DJ at a Christian-owned coffee shop in a nearby town, and both occasions were a great success! This is the product of a friendship between ourselves and the owner (Akira-san), and the desire to create community between Christians and non-Christians in the area, for the sake of sharing the Gospel. We both really enjoyed talking with new people (Japanese and non-Japanese) during the evenings and we look forward to seeing what God will do with this partnership!

Inside of church, Nitasha and an elderly lady called Y-san (we have changed her name to protect her identity) had been meeting up a few times because Y-san came to confide in Nitasha, outside of the pastoral ministry she has been leading for a while now. Y-san was concerned for her life since her husband passed and didn’t want to continue living. But praise God, after having spent some time with Nitasha over coffee and some random encounters, Y-san is no longer wanting that for herself! She can see her reason for living in Christ and has a restored sense of hope and belonging as a Christian, as a poet-writer and as a widow. There is so much to tell about this particular meeting between Nitasha and Y-san, and I can’t tell it all here! But there is so much in developing relationships with others and living out the word of God that says ‘iron sharpens iron’.

Another meet up with some new friends resulted in one of those friends attending a Sunday service, and as a Japanese woman, she had never been to a church ever in her life! We believe this is an amazing first step for them both since they aren’t Christians. We’ve loved hanging out with them because they are great people, but we would love to see Christ show them deep hope and significant purpose in their lives! Please pray for them, that they would hunger for God and that they would come to truly know Him.

Difficulties:

In other ways it has been a long couple of months for us here, with many hospital and dentist visits - all new experiences of Japanese life, which have been very draining at times. Even though we would typically spend anything between 4-8 hours learning the processes, waiting, and translating, the hospital visits have been very successful. Our health is improving, praise the Lord!

This time, I have been the one getting my teeth sorted. Visits to the dentist have involved many of the same things, but taking less time - sometimes 3 hours! I’ve had to make a number of visits because of the extent of the job, and I’ve suffered from some pain in between procedures but everything is well. I’ll have my final appointment this month.

We’ve also experienced some hardship with learning the language. This simply because we’ve been involved in a lot of ministry, we’ve done our best to settle into the Japanese government system and we’re also trying to have time to connect with others and have times of rest. Being a missionary and trying to be organised and trying to learn the language is much more difficult than we anticipated. As we approach the end of our first year, we will be revising our schedule and prioritising language learning, especially since we have done some of the acclimatising now. Please ray for wisdom and direction in this.

Prayer requests

• Renewing our visa should be taking place this month. Please pray for God’s leading in the whole process. We are delayed in applying for the visas because of some things we need to put right before the church leadership and Elim Missions. Nevertheless, we are confident that He will come through for us.
• Nitasha’s grandmother is unwell and the fact that she has dementia means her state of mind is deteriorating. Please pray for improved health, as she may be approaching the end of her life.
• Please give a prayer of thanksgiving for health! We are praising the Lord that Nitasha health has been improving, and that God has been providing for the health costs through consistent giving! Please continue to give praise for these things.

Thank you again to everyone who reads, prays, gives and believes in the work we are doing with the Lord in Tokyo! We really do appreciate it when you reach out, so drop us a text or an email and we will respond as soon as we can.

All our love,

Nitasha & Jordan
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