Sunday AM Updates from MTW missionaries Dan Iverson and Abi Lowther, plus a testimony from a non-Christian observer in Japan

Update from Dan Iverson, Japan Team Leader (from MTW website)

With the exception of the ongoing nuclear crisis, you have probably noticed that news from Japan has slowed to a trickle. There are fewer and fewer news stories; the world has moved on.

But we are grateful that God’s people are not moving on. Thank you for your continued interest and your prayers!

The following is a note written by Japan Country Director, Dan Iverson, on March 26. It has long been his practice to journal his walk with the Lord every day, but this entry was the first time he had written since the earthquake on March 11.

What a two weeks! How I need the Lord’s strength, wisdom, power, for what lies ahead. How much I need day off [on] Monday. On bullet train to Nagoya [for the graduation ceremony of one of his church members from seminary at Christ Bible Institute. Cried a little on the train as I read notes from donors for minuteman fund…

Two family members who are helping with communications also added: Please know, friends, prayer partners, and supporters that your encouragement does not go unread or unappreciated. Of course, there is no time to respond at present, but please know that the Lord is using you all to encourage a nation wrought with devastation, fear, and darkness, and through you, He brings light. Thank you so much.

Be encouraged that God is using your prayers, gifts, and love in the lives of MTW missionaries, the Japanese Church, and especially on behalf of the people of Japan.

The reality of the immense loss and change in their lives is just beginning to set in for many Japanese people who have lost loved ones, homes, and livelihood. At the same time, the work is gradually moving from relief and disaster response to recovery, and there is new reconnaissance and fact finding as well as much prayer for next steps. Thank you for continuing to stand with us in prayer—you can see how much it means to our missionaries.

Dan’s requests:
• Please pray for God’s intervention in this awful reactor situation.
• Pray that God clearly leads us to the places we are to serve long-term. We have no Presbyterian churches in that part (the tsunami-affected east coast), but [there are] other solid evangelicals we can partner with to help the region. And, Lord willing, [we want] to plant new churches.
• Continue to pray for a spiritual tsunami in the lives of the Japanese people, that God will open hearts, and many will come to confess Christ.

Our missionaries do not take you for granted. We at MTW do not take you for granted. Thank you!

Story from local newspaper in Tokyo: Coming together for the survivors – Tokyo moms bring relief to the displaced and to themselves

One recent afternoon in a small community room in an apartment building in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, people streamed in carrying big boxes and bags full of food, beverages and clothing.

The room was bathed in sunlight and the air was charged with positive energy as mothers busily packed the items in boxes to be sent to the disaster areas up north while their children wrote colorful messages of support.

What started as a small group of missionaries at Grace City Church Tokyo quickly expanded into a wide local network, as many Japanese and foreigners gathered to help the disaster victims of the deadly earthquake and tsunami that hit the Tohoku region on March 11.

Abi Lowther, a Mission to the World missionary at Grace City Church and resident of the Tsukishima neighborhood, said she decided to ask a small group of other mothers she knew to help out after seeing how many seemed afraid to leave their homes amid repeated aftershocks and fear of radiation exposure.

“I thought it would help us not think about our own fears so much if I asked them to come and help if they wanted to,” Lowther said.

They started off at her apartment, but in less than a day it was too packed and they needed to find a bigger space to organize the mountains of goods donated by friends and others.

By the end of the second day, they had enough to fill a 2-ton truck, Lowther said.
“I learned the power of a woman’s cell phone,” Lowther said with a smile, saying word spread amazingly fast, from one friend to another.

Kikuko Nishimura, a neighborhood resident and Lowther’s soccer buddy, said she was grateful that Lowther and other Grace City Church members began the activity because so many wanted to help but didn’t know how.

“There were many people who felt the same way, wanting to do something for the disaster victims,” Nishimura said. “We didn’t know what to do as individuals, so it’s great that someone stood up to start” the relief activity.

Nishimura brought a large box full of new underwear, which she said was sent by a friend visiting her home in Shizuoka because Tokyo stores have been running low on various products.

“All of our hearts are united in thinking of this activity as long term,” Nishimura, a mother of three, said. “But we all are mothers, so we need to think about how to balance families with the activity.”

And their activities have not gone unnoticed.

Aside from individual contributions, Hoppy Beverage Co. lent a 4-ton truck to the group, a neighborhood greengrocer donated 75 boxes of fresh vegetables and fruit, and a dentist provided toothbrushes.

Now the hundreds of Tsukishima volunteers, both Japanese and foreigners, are turning their attention to people living in groups at homes — not shelters — where help is extremely scarce.

Through their network, they found a family in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, living on the second floor of their half-destroyed home, completely isolated and in desperate need of food and other items.

According to Lowther, these are the kind of people the volunteers are hoping to help, the people who have fallen through the cracks of support from the government or major nongovernmental organizations.

“We want to help fill in the gaps,” Lowther said. “We’re just mothers, we can’t go up there. But if there are men who are going and are willing to find those gaps, we will help them.”

And people like Lowther’s husband, Roger, also an MTW missionary with Grace City Church, have been going back and forth between Tokyo and the disaster area to make sure their goods reach the people who need them.

Roger has already been up four times since the earthquake struck three weeks ago. He said the volunteer group was first going around to shelters, but after noticing that the evacuees were receiving necessities, they started going through neighborhoods.

“There are a lot of people living in their homes, especially in Ishinomaki, but there are no stores open or restaurants — there is really no way for them to get food,” Roger pointed out, adding that many were actually living in groups of 50 or so in homes that were not completely destroyed.

During his trips, he met many people who lost their homes and families, including a woman who had lost all three of her children.

But he noted that many found comfort in the fact that people in Tokyo cared about them and were doing what they could to support the disaster victims.

“I got the impression . . . that people were happy about organizations and the government providing things, but to know that there is this community of people in Tokyo who really cared, that connection seemed to be very powerful to them, that they weren’t alone,” Roger said.

Source link –with photos: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110401f2.html

Westerners Head to the Airport; Missionaries Head to the Disaster Zone (Update from MTW FB page)

Email from an American businessman in Japan who’s NOT a Christian, reporting about those unsung heroes:

The response to the earthquake by many of the westerners here in Japan has been to head straight to the airport and get out of the country.

The Christian missionaries here have done just the opposite; they collect relief supplies and go straight to the disaster area to help out.

It is truly amazing what they have accomplished.

They collect supplies through donations from local citizens and international aid associations.

Then they get trucks, road permits and take the supplies to the 400,000 people who have lost their homes to the earthquake, tsunami and evacuations from the exclusion zone around the nuclear reactors.

Churches in the affected region are often used as distribution points.

Some of these churches have been damaged by the earthquake, and some are even without electricity.

This has been a 24/7 job for many of my missionary friends, but I have not heard a complaint from even one of them.

Goldman Sachs has moved their offices from Tokyo to Osaka so that their employees will not be inconvenienced by the disruptions of the earthquake.

Tom