The Somers-Harris Family

Brighton 2

Two things that just have to happen when we go to Brighton are a trip to Brighton Beach and eating Fish & Chips.  Here is Sarah combining both by actually eating fish and chips while wading in the sea on Brighton Beach, you can see the Brighton (nee Palace) pier in the background .

Of course if you would rather not be pestered by seagulls and you would rather like to do the job right you need a nice cup of tea and that requires a slightly more refined atmosphere as portrayed on the right in the local chippery.

Now this a part of our city that has a spectacular view of the dales, which is north of the downs on which Brighton is situated.   Tradition has it that the devil planned to flood the Dales with sea water but this was where he was stopped; hence the name devil’s dyke.

While we did get to visit Mum every day we did take a little time out to enjoy the scenery.

Also situated on the Dyke is this plaque which Sarah just fell in love with so I tool a picture with her.  The county side in UK is so pretty, I wish I had space to post all the photos that we took.

On the way back our attention was caught by these lovely horses on the side of the road.  Sarah loves  horses and was impressed by the size of these guys.

Well  there is so much more to Brighton and our visit there.  I need to get on with my work though and  will post again some time soon.  Hee Hee.

Brighton

Our Trip to Brighton to visit my mother for her 88th birthday was wonderful.  Special big awesome thank you to all of you who helped financially to make this trip possible.

Here is the car we used for the trip.  Initialy we had hoped to be able to take my mother out and about in Brighton, but her physical condition meant that she was not able to leave the care facility during our stay.

The car did however, enable us to get around as we were staying on one side of the city and the care facility was on the other side.  Fortunately there were no incidents and we returned the car safe and secure at the end of the trip.

Here is the reason for our trip. Every day Sarah & I were able to spend time with my mother which meant many meaningful but short conversations and some times just sitting holding hands while she slept a little.

On her 88th Birthday we were also able to meet other family members who gathered for the occasion.

Brian my big and only brother with his wife Janet.  they had flown in from the Channel Island of Jersey.  I think the last time I saw Brian was at our father’s funeral.

Elizabeth my big little sister.  I have two little sisters and Liz is the elder of the two.  Here she is with her husband Peter.  They flew in from Auckland in New Zealand.

So not only did we spend time everyday visiting at the care facility but we also had time to meet family from all over the globe.  I hope to give  you more information on our trip to Brighton soon

Back in Merry Old England

Hello everybody,

We would first like to thank you all so much for your support and prayers for us in this time. Papa and I (Sarah) are doing well and are excited by what God has and is doing in our lives! But before we give any updates we would like to first fully explain how we got here.

For those who don’t know, the reason we are here is because of Papa’s mother’s failing health.

Around May of this year I was talking with our Father God when He communicated that He had something important to tell me. I listened and waited and soon had a vision. In my vision I found myself on one of the many white chalk cliffs of south downs (Papa’s home area in England). I looked around and saw in the distance a man pushing an old woman in a wheel chair with a woman walking by his side. (You can imagine my confusion as to what God was trying to say to me!) As they came closer to me I saw that it was my father and myself with my gran (grandmother). Then God spoke to me in my vision saying, “You will go with your father to England this year to see your gran” then the strong impression of ‘October’ was left with me.

I was very confused by this message as I had just recently been to England earlier that year and also despite the fact that Papa had not seen his mother in years there was no great need for him to be there that we knew of. But I knew that I had heard from God so I shared my vision with Papa and together we submitted our confusion to God and gave ourselves to His will.

A month or so later we heard from family members that gran’s health was deteriorating quickly and we were encouraged that if we could we should try to come out and see her. We were amazed by this news because of what we had just heard from the Lord but we were even further amazed when a great emphasis was being placed on the month of October! My father’s sister’s birthday is the same day as my gran’s in October and plans were being made around us for that time frame. My father found himself being encouraged to travel in the month of October!

So, we knew God’s will was with us but we had no money to travel on. Papa and I went before our mighty God and submitted the situation to Him and asked Him to do His will in our lives. Very soon after this we received communication from a community of Christians that they felt led to give toward Papa’s trip. The money we received from them would cover about half of one ticket but this was enough for Papa to, by faith, book both tickets. A mere two or three hours later we received further communication from individuals from the same Christian community that they would like to give towards Papa’s trip! And amazingly his ticket was payed for in full within the day of Papa’s step of faith!

Then there was me. You can imagine my wondering why God would want me to go with my father, with money being as tight as it is. It seemed frivolous that I should go as well but God confirmed in my heart that I was to go.

So, I submitted myself to His will again and waited for His direction. Under God’s guidance, an individual came to me and told me that God had told them to pay for my ticket! Praise God!

We flew out a few days later and here we are! God has been so good to us and has blessed us immensely! And that is the story of how we are here in England. Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to use our time wisely.

We Moved

Yes we moved yet again!  This time to Higashi Kurume where CAJ is located.  I mention that because CAJ is probably one of the bigger reasons that we moved.

For those who have been following us for a longer time you will remember that David our oldest child did his senior year at CAJ and Jonny then followed suit the following year.  I say for a longer time because David has now graduated University and is now working for I-Deep an IT company located in Tokyo.

OK so why is CAJ a major reason for us to move?  Well for reasons I won’t go into right now Sarah our third child decided not to attend CAJ for her senior year, however, Mary our youngest is proud to follow in her brothers footsteps and also plans to attend TWU just like David & Jonny.

When David and Jonny were at CAJ I was taking time out from regular mission work.  Usually we travel home and visit family and those who pray for us and help us financially.  This time however, we did not have the money to travel so I was free to take a part-time job at CAJ to help cover the tuition costs for the boys.

Now it is Rhonda’s turn to work at CAJ and this actually fits into our last child leaving the home.  Rhonda is finally able to get back to the reason she came to Japan and seek to work in Education again.  However having been raising four children, even though this included home-schooling along the way there was still a need to catch up on recent developments in the classroom.  So Rhonda is now a teacher at CAJ.

With both Rhonda and Mary needing to commute to CAJ and Mary at the same time being diagnosed with POTS, it was not reasonable to expect the both to commute for over one hour each way every day.  Our new postal address is;

2-19-10 Kanayama Cho.  Higashi Kurume. Tokyo 203-0003.

The big benefit is that this house is only a one-minute-walk from our oldest son and his wife.  As they are expecting our first grandchild in January it is an added bonus to be this close.

Tohoku Trip 4 Post #3

There were two other significant events on our trip but just in case you thought helping out was all work and no play,  here is a picture of our team playing cards in the music room.

Now that we were refreshed…. A major highlight of ministering this time was joining a church from Shizuoka which comes every week to Ishinomaki to cook a meal for over 500 people.  They bring all the food and cooking equipment.  We used all these rice cookers at least twice!

Of course we had to keep our hands off of the food but Hitomi showed us all how to do that one.

Meanwhile Nao-kun made sure that anyone needing remedial discipline was taken care of immediately.  The set up and cooking took way longer than the serving out of the food.  While we prepared all the food in only one place it was distributed in three different locations.

All together we had about 30 volunteers working together for this project.  We made rice and a type of soup that had lots of vegetables and some meat in  it too.

All the vegetables had already been cu;t we just had to boil them in water and stir them from time to time.  It sure looks good!!!!!!

Of course the job is not done until the dishes are washed so we had to take of that, too.

Our team took food in to a Junior High School and served as many people whoi wanted it.  The meal was so good that many came back for seconds.

One of the overseas volunteers was a fully trained Osteopath who met a Japanese Chiropractor who was there to help the evacuees.  The Chiropractor, however, had injured his knee so our friendly   volunteer helped woth his adjustment  so that he could continue to help others.  The Osteopath was later able to assist this man in his work for the day.

We were requested  not to take photos of the people in the school but here is a photo of Jonny serving a meal.

Here are Justin & Kohki filling the styrofoam containers with hot rice ready to be delivered to the other sites.

We had a lot of fun and even got to taste the food from what was left over.  I sure hope we can get to do that one again with the church some time soon.

The second event was cleaning out a house.  This usually involves removing all the waterlogged belongings, broken windows,  doors and other debris from inside the building.

These photos show what we usually find upon arrival at the site.  It is pretty much just as the tidal wave left things.

We then pull everything outside and pile it up, hopefully leaving an empty room for the owner to decide what to repair and what to replace.

Here we are pulling out the debris which includes water soaked drawers of clothes and many other household items.

Meanwhile the pile outside begins to grow and grow.

This house also has about 3 inches of mud on the floor left by the wave that includes lots of stinky three month old fish that were swept out of the fish market the day of disaster.  The fish and mud were also filling the draining ditches alongside the road which we had to clean out later.

Here is a picture of the gunky stuff we find on the floor after we have removed the bigger items from the room.

Finally things are looking relatively clean.  It’s still not ready to be lived in but a definite improvement.

I think the stink of the fish was perhaps the hardest part of this particular house cleaning job.

You can see the house owner looking at her family altar,  one of the few things she wanted to keep from  all of the things we brought out.

Well, the job was over.  It took twenty volunteers just about all day to take care of this building.  There is still a lot more to be done……..

Tohoku Trip 4 Post #2

Here we are with our new friend Zen, a Buddhist priest.  He works very near to the school where we were staying.  We met him because he came into the music room where we spent the night to play the piano.  We didn’t get to hear him play  but spent a lot of time  talking and listening to him tell us his story.  Jonny asked him if we could pray for him.   Zen said yes and we had the great joy of doing so.

We also went to the high place to pray over the city.  That day, however,  it was foggy so we could not see the city at all.  We felt that this was a spiritual reality  for Ishinomaki.  There was something making the area spiritually  foggy so the people could not see or feel the presence and love of God.

As well, we were able to get to one of the first points of impact of the tsunami on land.  We stood right where the waves first came and  declared the awesomeness and faithfulness of our God and His heart of compassion for the people of Ishinomaki.  On our last day we went back to the high point and found that the fog had lifted!!!

A big blessing of these trips is the people you meet along the way.  We worked alongside these folks who also come from Tokyo to help as much as possible wherever needed.

Tohoku Trip 4 Post #1

This trip was different in a couple of ways.   One was that  we took a team member from our church planting team in Nagano Ken, Hitomi Wilson.  She bravely joined  two young guys from TBC, Justin and Kohki, along with, finally, but not least, my son Jonny (which explains the large number of photos that made it into my Facebook account).

Another different aspect of this trip was that we only visited the one location Ishinomaki.  However, some things never change and we did stop at the first highway stop on the Tohoku highway to  get coffee for our first break.

Our first project was cleaning at the Buddhist temple right next to the refugee centre where we moved to our second day.  Several cars had been dumped by the tidal wave on top of the graves and mud covered the ground under the floor of the temple as well as the unused plots. too.

In this picture we are bagging the mud from the unused lots. Removing the cars from the graveyard is going to be very difficult as a large crane is needed and there is not really the room for it there to operate.

One blessing from this day was working with some students from Nagoya. We became good friends and exchanged contact information.

Another new thing on this trip was the local Sukiya store was finally open so after work and a Japanese bath (again provided by the Japanese military)  we headed out for our evening meal.

It was good to feel clean and full, ready for a good night’s sleep.  Tonight would be another first as we would actually be staying in a public school evacuation centre with evacuees.  We shared the music room with other ngo volunteer teams.  Evacuees shared other school rooms, making a private place with the help of cardboard box dividers.  We went to sleep to get ready for an early rise the next day.

Tohoku Trip 3 Post #6

As I mentioned in earlier posts the main emphasis of this trip was prayer and our last day was especially marked by this.  In our morning time after sharing together we broke into twos and prayed for one another.

Even our new friends were prayed for.  We had to say goodbye and head off to Sednai Baptist Church to pick up Jason.  Here we introduced our team members to the Pastor who played his flute for us and shared some more of his story.

Not only were we privileged to pray for him and his assistant but Jason took time to wash their feet to express a little of the Love of God for them as individuals and to thank them for all their serving of the volunteers who were comng to Sendai.

One more trip to Tohoku brought  many more lives touched, much more understanding of God and His love for the Japanese people and His ways is sharing love and compassion.

We brought Jason and Jack back to Tokyo for some rest and relaxation and they will return in  a week. Peter, Mike, and Jacky also returned to Hawaii to begin planning for more teams  It will not be until next month that I will get to go again but in the meantime much will happen to enhance our future trips.

Tohoku Trip 3 Post #5

Today we spent the whole day carrying out water damaged materials from the house of a lady who ran a flower shop.  Near  the end we were wondering just how so much had been fitted into so small a building.

As well as the stuff we piled up outside the building there were three truck runs taking stuff away which fortunately could be used again.

Having removed the tatami mats from the floor it became obvious that the floor needed to go, too.

This was pure joy for Ko  - actually getting to smash things up and not get into trouble for it.  Both David and Ko managed to fall through the boards without hurting themselves or drawing blood and stuff like that.

The owner and her brother we so happy at all the work we were able to accomplish in one day and were bursting to share their story with us.

They had kept a scrap book and newspaper articles.  The owner told how she had spent most of her time first looking for,  finding, and then looking after her father before searching for other relatives.  This was why her house and business had not yet been cleaned out.

After hearing her story we took time to pray for her, her brother and other family members and also for her business.

Somehow at the end of the day it became apparent that Ko had added another Grandma to his collection.  Young people are such a blessing on outreach trips like this.  They have a way of opening hearts just by being young and being there.

That night we met some new friends at the base – two university students who had volunteered for their Golden Week holiday.  It was amazing how being in the same place volunteering together opened up their heart so much more than if we had just met them on the streets of Tokyo.

They also made good friends with the other members of our team and as they study in Chiba University it is VERY possible that we will be seeing them again when we are back in Tokyo.

Tohoku Trip 3 Post #4

During trip two Derick and I drove down the coast and passed through bay after bay of destroyed houses.  Fortunately for me we were driving in the dark and did not see the full impact as I knew my heart could not have handled so much in one trip.

This trip however was to be a prayer focus as we covered the same coast line – this time in broad day light.  We stopped at a few places and took time to pray as a team especially for those who were still trying to put their lives back together.

I am sure you have seen many such pictures but the impact of being there is greater than expected.

The journey continued mile after mile, bay after bay - a coastline completely changed in such a short time by one earthquake and a few tidal waves.  All in one day.

Here is the city of Rikusentakata – what is left of it. We spent a while in prayer here.  You can see the apartment building where up to the fourth floor is broken by the waves and only the fifth floor is unscathed.

Other than the buildings you can see in the first picture there is literally nothing still standing for  over a kilometer from the shoreline.  The picture on the right is looking to the left of the apartment buildings.

A whole city once stood here.  Once again – I had seen the video on You Tube of the wave arriving right where I was standing.  The video I feel that gives the best understanding of what happened is linked here.   If you are able to see this, notice  how many buildings there are the first time the camera sweeps round compared to when the camera comes back about two minutes later.

We did finish our trip and arrived in Ishinomaki to join Jack, Jason and the volunteers with J-Help.  It was good to bond together again and prepare for the next day’s work