Tohoku Trip 2 Post #2

Well,  the morning began with devotions at 07:00 led by Pastor Noguchi.  Then we had breakfast and headed out to a local home centre where some of us purchased the needed protective clothing for working in Ishinomaki.

Our first assignment was to clean up a parking lot.  The work was determined by a Mr. Kimura who is the community leader for the area.  That first day gave us opportunity to build trust by carrying out the assignments we were given. We shoveled the mud and debris into wheelbarrows and carted it away to a disposal sight; the larger articles had to be hand carried.

This was pretty hard work but as most of this dirt was dry now it was lighter than the mud we saw in some of the shops in the area.

As we worked I felt that it was sad that we had spent about three hours of  the day just getting to and from the city which meant that we only spent around four hours actually working there.  During the break I mentioned this to the folks from Jhelp that we were working with.  I also felt that they needed a power hose and had seen a kit at the Samaritan’s Purse warehouse where we had stayed on the first trip.  We were getting ideas and seeing ways of making the work go easier to be more of a blessing to Mr. Kimura and the neighbourhood.

Finally the parking lot was cleaned and we felt good, ready for our next assignment.  Yeah! Another parking lot for us to clean.

This one was quite a bit bigger and the distance we had to move the mud and debris was also further, so of course it took us a little longer to complete.

We kept going and finally this parking lot too was looking spick and span.  Our first day’s work was over and we felt tired but happy that our contribution was making a difference.

As you can imagine the work with all the dust was making us a little thirsty.  Some of us were getting a little desperate.  The man drinking is actually the grandson of Pastor Noguchi from the church that we are staying at.  His name is Nao and he lives in Fukuoka (southern Japan).

Mr. Kimura had prepared a poster for all of us to sign so before we left to return to the church we all took time to do so.

Having finished for  the day  we cleaned up our tools and returned them to Mr. Kimura.  Arriving back at the Baptist church in Sendai it felt good to be able to relax a little enjoy a meal and then all go out for a public bath before going to sleep.