Suitcases and backpacks sit neatly lined up, waiting to be loaded in the vans. International Mission Board missionaries in Tokyo shuffle nervously and make jokes in an effort to cope with their relocation orders.

No one knows how to react to Japan’s nuclear crisis. For more than a week, scenes at the Fukushima Daiichi plant have worsened. While the U.N.’s nuclear agency says there have been positive developments in stabilizing the nuclear reactors, the overall situation remains serious. Thus, all IMB personnel north and east of Nagoya must move to southern Japan.

Questions swirl around the circle waiting to leave: Will our Japanese friends think we’ve abandoned them? How do we leave our friends behind in a time of crisis?

These questions haunt Mark and Wendy Hoshizaki so much that they spend their final hours March 19 handing out the last of their food to the homeless in a Tokyo park. Mark Hoshizaki says the aftereffects of the earthquake and tsunami have greatly affected the people they work with — food shortages for the general public means there’s even less for the homeless.

The Hoshizakis’ ministry to the homeless averages around 80 individuals who come for food and Bible study. Today, however, more than 115 came. Wendy Hoshizaki says there are so many in the park right now. One woman tells her that she just can’t trust anything and anyone since the earthquake. When the woman remains adamant after Wendy encourages her to trust in the Lord, the missionary’s heart breaks.

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