Wednesday AM updates from MTW (Lowthers and Wilsons) and CRASH Japan (plus a bonus Tokyo newspaper story)

Update from MTW’s Roger and Abi Lowther, Grace City Church Tokyo

Just got off the subway this morning. Ghostly in appearance: Lights half off, vending machines unplugged, escalators not moving, paper signs and police tape…it is NOT “business as usual” in Tokyo…

In the first days after the earthquake, many were too afraid to leave their apartments. While I was driving a truck of food and water to hard hit areas with Seima Aoyagi (Grace City Assistant Pastor) and Matt Chase (Mission to the World missionary), Abi called a few other mothers in the morning inviting them to come to our apartment for lunch and bring donations of food, clothing, etc. for the next truck going north. Soon all witnessed the power of women’s cell phones at work! We all still joke about it. After texting their entire network of contacts, our house was packed with donations by lunch time. After receiving permission to use the community room downstairs, that too soon filled above head height. At first, people left their apartments to bring stuff to the community room and quickly returned home. More and more people began to stay and help organize and pack, loving the vision and the community. Children drew pictures on the boxes and made origami to tape on the boxes. High school students and husbands helped load trucks even if the announcement (by cell phone) to “Load NOW!” came at midnight or 5 AM. Shop owners donated groceries; a transport company owner donated a truck, etc., etc. Our neighbors shared how they feel Grace City Church has made the neighborhood of Tsukishima strong, perhaps one of the closest and strongest communities in Tokyo. It is exactly what a church is supposed to be and do!

The earthquake has been the catalyst for many firsts for Grace City: mercy ministry, college ministry, missions trip, counseling, strong church partnerships, collaboration with non-profit organizations, intensive community development, strong connections with local leaders, and others we have not thought of yet. Despite all the heartache, through all the heartache, God is moving.

Prayer requests:
1. Pray for my family. We are energized by seeing God work so mightily through this time and passionate about the task set before us (this is why we are in Japan and when we are needed the most!), but we are also physically and emotionally tired. In fact, we were tired when the earthquake hit and were looking forward to our anniversary dinner (day of the earthquake) and then a 5 day trip without the kids. Instead we have spent the whole time apart with most conversations being business related. The stories of many in the shelters is also vivid in my mind…especially the couple who lost all three of their children in the tsunami…ages 8, 10, and 13) Pray for all the missionaries, church staff, and church members. Vehicles have made the round trip 33 times since the quake by Grace City Church Tokyo and Mission to the World missionaries and friends.

2. Pray that God would continue to move mightily in our community of Tsukishima and show himself through the hands and feet of His church. So many are getting involved in Grace City Church relief efforts and NONE of them are Christians. One man is letting us borrow his truck, a restaurant owner plans to travel north with us to cook meals, a dentist gave us toothbrushes, a doctor is negotiating the complicated system for bringing in American medical teams, a hundred housewives are collecting supplies, packing boxes, posting blogs, making rice balls, etc.

3. Pray for our health amidst the radiation. We are told tap water is too dangerous for our children but okay for adults so Abi and I are drinking it. Not possible for all of us to drink bottled water, since there is no bottled water within miles of here. Milk and other beverages are hard to get. Pray the situation will not get worse.

Thank you for supporting us and praying for us.

March 28, 2011 Update from Tom and Teresa Wilson, Nagoya Team

Trucks continue to roll out of our church loaded with food, water, fuel, and other supplies being rushed to the disaster-stricken areas in northern Japan. So far we have been able to send about 10 tons of supplies, and we have other trucks lined up. Our fellow MTW missionaries in Chiba and Tokyo and their related churches have continued to send tons and tons of supplies as well. You can view pictures from one of the recent trips from our church by clicking here.

Be sure to see the pictures later in the series. These are taken on a trip to Sendai, when our partnering church there asked our group to take supplies to a local school serving as an evacuation shelter. Before that they had only received supplies for 70 people, but they had over 500 there. They had no heat in the cold weather there. The ones in charge of the shelter said, “Is that really okay to just take these things for free?”

What a privilege to be the hands and feet of Christ in this time of devastation for so many. On another trip very near the border of the evacuation area near the nuclear power plant, our crew was able to take supplies to a nursing home that had not yet received any supplies in over a week, because they are not an evacuation shelter. The churches in the areas to which we’re going are taking the supplies that we carry and distributing them to the people in great need in the area. Our latest trip was to Ishinomaki, one of the towns that was wiped out by the tsunami.

Tomorrow we will send two trucks and a van (along with a nearby partnering group), with 5 tons of supplies and 10 volunteers. Tom will be driving again, and they will stay a couple of days to help out in the area. They will serve in a number of ways, including deliveries and clean-up. Along with the physical needs, there is obviously an excruciating need for emotional/spiritual care. The church there is asking for help on that front as well, and we are hoping and praying to be able to provide help in that way. Some of the team members this time will focus on talking/counseling with people one-on-one, including three women who will make the trip this time. (Amy Newsome is one of them, for those of you who know her.) There was even some talk of the possibility of Tom singing and playing the piano for the people there. You know how healing and comforting music can be. Another similar trip is lined up for shortly after they return.

Thank you so much to so many of you who have GIVEN SO GENEROUSLY to help in this time of crisis, as well as giving financial support to allow us to be here in the first place. We are regularly sending people out to buy food, water, fuel, etc., to be put on the trucks along with all that is being donated here. We trust God will use all of our ‘loaves and fishes’ to feed the multitudes here–not only physically but spiritually and for all eternity.

We pray God will continue to help us “lift high the cross,” our only true and lasting salvation as we seek to bring comfort and help to those reeling from disaster, and hope to those gripped with fear. God have mercy on the people of Japan.
God bless you. With love in Christ, our true and lasting comfort who enables us to comfort others,
Tom, Teresa, Ian & Liana Wilson

Update from CRASH Japan – Fear and Faith in Fukushima

Years before he was I.T. Director of CRASH Japan, Scott Eaton was a teacher and member of Fukushima Daiichi Seisho Baptist Church. Eaton was tapped to lead the CRASH Japan assessment team to Fukushima. Prior to departure, emotions raced through Eaton, “They are my …” his teammate, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, said what Eaton could not, “your family.”

Eaton and the assessment team visited community centers and government run shelters to find that those who had evacuated due to the nuclear threat were not expecting a long-term stay. “Many people were expecting to go home in a couple hours,” said team member Richard Nakamura. “Now, they may never go back to their homes.”

With Fukushima now becoming synonymous with nuclear crisis and radiation contamination, residents of the area are fully aware their home now has a different image. Nakamura shares, “The people of Fukushima are thinking about the korekara – from now on- Fukushima can never be the same.”

The CRASH Japan team was able to locate Eaton’s former church who had managed to gather and evacuate together. A church in Yonezawa generously opened its doors to the members of Fukushima Daiichi Seisho Baptist Church allowing them to remain together.

“The atmosphere in the church and the shelter was like day and night,” reports Nakamura. “At the church, you could feel the sense of love, joy and peace.” When asked how such things could thrive given the circumstances, Nakamura exclaimed, “It was so, so obvious. It’s the love of God in and through these people.”

Nakamura and Eaton’s faces glowed and tears flowed as they recounted stories of church members helping each other, as well as family members and neighbors finding hope in Christ.

Seven of the church members are working in the ailing Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. One of the seven workers had actually run away from the plant out of fear. After becoming Christian, he returned to work with a smile and Bible in hand convicted to share the Gospel with his co-workers. The seven workers and their families are fully aware of the possible consequences of working so close to the leaking core.

Eaton shared, “My prayer for Fukushima is that they would not give in to fear. That they will find their source of strength in the only strength powerful enough for a time like this; strength in Christ.”

A Christian campground in Okutama has invited all the members of the Fukushima Daiichi Seisho Baptist Church to move together as one congregation closer to safety. Eaton said that there is one thought that continues to come to mind, “this is the body of Christ.”

Link below to a Japan Times store about one family’s experience and how the relief effort is working.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110329b1.html

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Previous updates below

Monday Morning Updates: Poignant story from MTW Japan MK and RTS student Danny Iverson; New Relief Base Camp established by CRASH Japan; two brief reports from Family Forum Japan

Footwashing (From MTW Website)
Danny Iverson, son of Dan & Carol Iverson, was raised in Japan, speaks the language fluently, and is raising support to return there with his family as missionaries. He and several friends are in Japan to help with the ministry and disaster response. Here he reflects on a trip to Iwaki and a simple act of loving kindness by a pastor who has stayed in the danger zone for the sake of the gospel and love of his people. Join with Danny and many others who love the Japanese people that they will know the Savior.
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I want to share one story that really moved me. Because there is no water, electricity or gas still in some places, no one has had the chance to take a bath. Rev. Mori (Global Mission Chapel) had a great idea of how to minister to one of the shelters filled with the elderly and disabled, some of whom had been discharged from the hospital with no where to go. He secured a truck full of fire wood and so our team built fires and heated up water right outside the school. Although we couldn’t give them baths, we were able to do offer hot water foot baths for those who wanted them. They lined up and we washed their feet as many of them cried, shared their stories from the earthquake and tsunami and just received the love of Christ through his servants. It was quite the team effort and amazing to see everyone doing their part to serve the elderly in the shelter. One older lady was so moved that we had come all the way from America that she couldn’t stop thanking us. She even went outside to find the rest of our team who were chopping the wood for the fires.

I hope and pray she visits Rev. Mori’s church and hears more of the good news found in Jesus, the one who has served her more than I ever could, the one who came from further than the USA to help her, the one who has not only offered to wash her feet, but to wash her soul completely and give her a home that can never be taken away by an earthquake, tsunami or anything this broken world might send her way… May the Japanese people know this Savior…

I can’t think of a better way to show the love of Jesus than what I witnessed in that school. I watched as Rev. Mori sat on his knees and washed and soaked the feet of the people coming to his station. His heart was overflowing with the joy of Jesus as he laughed, cried and loved the people he was serving. It made me weep as well as I washed Hitomi’s feet and listened to her story of how she lost her home and her entire life in a matter of minutes. I showed her pictures of my family which brought her lots of joy and made her laugh. I told her about how much Jesus loved her and how even in this hardship he was with her and would bring her through…

Second CRASH Japan Base Established in Hitachi
In Hitachi, CRASH Japan’s second hub for support and hope has been established. A core team left Tokyo on Friday, March 25, to set-up the new base-camp in Ibaraki.
In line with the goal of helping churches share love and hope with their communities while meeting their practical needs, CRASH Japan is searching for potential base sites in each of the affected areas of Tohoku. Once a location has been chosen, a team is sent to set-up, prepare to receive volunteer teams and most importantly contact local churches to see how CRASH Japan can serve them.

“This is a nice, safe place,” said CRASH Japan Operations Manager Caleb Eby, about the new base site located just south of Fukushima. “The base-camp is outside of the worst hit areas, but is within traveling distance for volunteer teams. The base will be able to help the churches in the local communities, as well as people who have evacuated from Fukushima and those still in the stricken areas.”

In order for these base-camps to reach the worst affected areas CRASH Japan teams need fuel. While supply chains are slowly being repaired in major cities, many people outside in the hardest hit areas need aid to come to them.

Updates from Family Forum Japan

1. Just last week the number of people living in evacuation centers was 350,000 which is already down to 190,000 today according to an NHK report. If you don’t go to Tohoku, they will be coming to you as they are being housed all over Japan. We just heard that some were moved to Nagano city as well.

2. (Response to inquiry about finding specific people) Because of privacy policies I doubt that you can request a list. However, you can probably find information through local connections/bulletins or by looking a lists of housing made available to victims. This one lists public housing from Hokkaido to Okinawa opened to victims. http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/000138357.pdf

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Previous postings below

Sunday Early AM update from Matt Chase (Chiba), Koji Isaka (Nagoya) and former MTW Missionary Kid Phil Foxwell

Update from Matt Chase, MTW Japan the Chiba team

I just returned from a three day trip up north to Sendai, Japan, delivering food, clothes, water, and gas to the local churches, in order to meet the needs of the community. I really can’t express in words what I’ve seen of the devastation to this country and people I love so much. I walked along the beach littered with massive sea containers, and remnant belongings from people’s lives. A single soccer shoe. A stuffed doll. A wedding album. All thrown into the piles of debris that shattered power lines, trees, and houses in half.

I stood there speechless, snapping photos, and couldn’t help but weep and pray. Warm tears streamed down my face, not just because people lost houses and possessions, but even more that they lost eternity spent with Jesus. The areas hardest hit by the earthquake are the least churched in Japan. How many of the 28,000 dead and missing didn’t know Jesus as their Lord and Savior? Every year, 35,000 Japanese commit suicide because they lack purpose, hope, and joy that can only be found in Christ.

As we drove through what used to be a very wealthy neighborhood, all that remained were the foundations of the previous homes. I talked with one family who were very kind, and they let me take a picture of them standing in front of the foundation of their home. It is all that is left of their home. It reminded me of that hymn we sing sometimes…”My hope is built on NOTHING less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness…on Christ the SOLID rock I stand, ALL other ground is sinking sand.”

More than people losing homes, water, and electricity, and sons, is the desperate need for the TRUTH of Jesus Christ. He is their firm foundation that will not be shaken, unlike the Buddhist temple that had the stone gods at the front entrance toppled over, lying on the ground. Continue to PRAY for God’s kingdom to come quickly here in Japan.

Grace and Peace in Christ from broken but beautiful Japan,

Update from Koji Esaki, PMI missionary in Nagoya, Japan

The first stop, after the 12-hour drive (normally an 8-hour drive) was the Sendai MeySen Academy (a Christian school for 3 to 5-year olds), where Food for the Hungry has located themselves. From there, the truck was directed to a large storage area that has been donated by a businessman, as a collection center for Samaritan’s Purse, HOPE, World Vision and other relief groups. Many volunteers were there to unload the food, diapers, toilet paper, and kerosene. Local people can come here, sign their name and address, and pick up whatever they need.

At this point, there was still a 200-liter drum of diesel fuel in the truck that no one seemed to need. After a few phone calls, there was a church–closer to the ocean–that needed some food, sanitary products and kerosene for the people in their area. The pastor of that church called their local city hall in East Matsushima City and found that they needed the diesel fuel. Supplies were loaded back on the truck and deliveries were made to the church and the city hall. All-in-all, the need is great, but the organization and delivery has to remain fluid.

Two nights on the road, and one was spent in sleeping bags in a church in Tokyo.

Please pray for wisdom as to how to perform these trips to the greatest effectiveness.

More News from Phil Foxwell, Missionary Kid who went back to Japan for a business career, but never stopped being a ‘missionary’

I am a Tokyo-based businessman who was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan where my parents traveled after World War II as missionaries. In addition to my home in the Tokyo, I have a summer home in the area of Japan that was directly hit by the recent tsunami. I also spent many summers as a boy on that very beach that was hit, as my kids have in more recent years. After the tragic tsunami I felt the need to confirm the well-being of my “Japanese family” in Shichigahama (“7 Beaches”), the little peninsula on the Pacific coast that we love so much.

Driving down the hill toward the community of very close friends right above the beach below our own house was an overwhelming experience that is hard to describe, and any driving even in the truck was soon impossible.

All of our friends’ houses were scattered around in pieces, but most of the parts of the houses were simply gone, and debris was everywhere, from the edge of the water on up. I looked over at our house up on the cliff 60 feet off of the beach, through the trees, and it was there, but it seemed to have moved from where it normally sat. — I later understood that that was because of the way the land had washed away at the end of the beach.

At this point, I hadn’t seen any people at all, but looking back at the former neighborhood of our friends, I suddenly saw a couple looking through the debris. I started back toward them and found that it was the daughter and son-in-law of our good friends. There was a lot of hugging (especially in contrast to the amount that is usually seen in Japan).

One interesting thing about the last few days is that all constraints are gone; there is no posturing now that all of life is completely changed.

I immediately asked them about their parents and other family members, and they told me that all were safe and up the hill a ways where they were setting up a campsite.
It was a wonderful reunion–hard to describe, after the first sight of the community and wreckage, and not even imagining that any of them could be alive any more.

At that point, I checked other shelters, and amazingly instead of just finding names on a list, as I had hoped for, I found the actual people and had wonderful times of reunion. For a couple of days, I got all of the food out of our own house and all I had brought with me and passed it around. I got all of our old blue tarps and helped my friend build a nice new “house” out of old scaffolding pipes and the blue tarps.

During these hours, I hiked over to our neighboring fishing village where I had spent so much time growing up. The devastation is beyond imagination or even computer graphics in the worst disaster movie.

The places where many houses had been were simply smooth without even a single toothpick left on them, and other places looked like a giant mass of shredded wheat: a jumble of houses, boats, buildings, and human belongings, and cars jammed in every conceivable position – upside down, on top of each other, inside houses, and on top of walls—the pictures just simply don’t give the full impact, but they’re a start.

I walked through the whole length of the town and along the harbor where we kept our boat when I was a kid. The islands in our beautiful Matsushima Bay are mostly uninhabited, but for the few that are inhabited that I could see across the bay, I’m afraid they are no longer.

I’ll never know why, but in one huge pile of debris I pulled out a broken wooden board you can see in a picture and painted on it in Japanese kanji was “Shu wa waga….” in English, “The Lord is my Way” including the unfinished kanji at the end. Japan just doesn’t have signs like that, let alone the one in a million chance of finding the broken piece in the piles and piles of devastation. I am convinced it is a message from God for the people of Japan.

As I initially drove north for many hours, my optimistic hope was that I would find names of some of my friends on a list, showing they had registered at a shelter. But after finding the actual people in just a couple days –– I found a sense of renewed hope and am convinced that this can be a time of renewal and in many ways, new life.

The Japanese are resourceful, resilient people in any circumstance, and I believe the world will see an example of courage and determination in the months ahead, and with it, amazing Grace.