Tohoku Trip 2 Post #4

It snowed that night and Derick & I made it despite the cold.  I woke up fairly early and boiled water to make coffee that my honey had bought for me.  It felt so good.  We headed out and found the right road with a vision of having breakfast at McDonalds in Ishinomaki just outside the high water mark.  We arrived in time at 08:00 only to find out that they were not opening until 10:00 so we had to wait until they opened only to find they were only able to do take out menu.

We called the team and managed to hook up with them as they arrived.  Our job today was clearing mud from a store.  This involved shoveling the mud into bags and carrying it outside.  There was a lot of broken glass in the mud so we had to be careful.

We made it through the day with only one little cut and a good feeling of a job well done.

We could still see how a power hose would enable us to make the final product look even better.

This was a much dirtier kind of work than clearing the parking lots. The Japanese Army  provided volunteers with a hose down at the end of the day!

As we walked the streets we could see there was still much work to be done and some of it needed more than a shovel and wheelbarrow to move the stuff out.

Before we went home Mr. Kimura having heard about my idea of housing teams in Ishinomaki showed us a building with a clean open second floor that he offered for that purpose.  It,  however, did not have any electricity and there was still no way for anyone to get a shower. It was good, though, to see the trust built in relationship that Mr. Kimura would offer us this location.

After returning to the Baptist Church that evening I felt the need for our team to take a break and visit Sendai to enjoy the cherry blossom season which we did the next day.  See the next post…..  Coming soon……..

Tohoku Trip 2 Post #3

Day three begins the same as day two with devotions led by Pastor Noguchi.  However, after that we divided our team leaving Jack, Jason and Joel in Sendai while  Derick and I headed off north to Unosumai (just north of Kamaishi) to deliver the supplies that we saw were needed from visiting there on our first trip.  This picture is very representative of the area nearest the ocean where the waves came in and totally destroyed the city.

Here you can see the cooking pots that we bought in Tokyo along with the water containers we received from Samaritan’s Purse.  The cooking pots were to supplement the one that they had been using which they had found in the river after the tidal wave.  (see post 1 trip 1).  In talking with Mr. Oikawa we found out that they were able to have a bus come once every five days to take them to a public bath and that they still did not have any water supply but were hoping to get a well installed within a week.

In the photo on the right you can see the wood burning cooking stove that they are using outside for their community.   We also gave them a new blue tarp to provide cover from the rain while they were cooking.

Mr. Oikawa was very happy to show me the apartment where they had set up the clothes that had been donated and which I had spent most of my time sorting the first time we visited them.

I also got to meet his wife and daughter (see photo to left with daughter and granddaughter) who had been the main workers in overseeing this part of the project.

I t was special to be able to give a personal donation of baby supplies  from Janet who came with us on the first trip to Tohoku.

Derick and I spent some time talking with Mr. Oikawa and asked him what needs he was aware of that we might be able to help with.  He told us about new families coming in from the evacuation centres to the apartments that had just been renewed who would be needing kitchen supplies as all their personal things had been lost in the disaster.

Things have been improving in the area though.  In my first post I showed you a river bed full of houses that had been carried there by the waves.  Here is the same riverbed now all cleaned up and ready for the rainy season!

Click here for the original picture taken on our first trip two weeks ago.

Derick and I left Unosumai and headed back to Kamaishi.  Next is a picture taken in the port area.  It looks very much like so many other pictures but it means so much more to me now.  I had watched Utube videos of the wave arriving in this port but now I was actually standing on the land where it happened.  When I returned to Tokyo I reviewed the video and the impact was much deeper having walked the street.

We spent most of the remainder of the day driving south back towards Ishinomaki so we could re-join our team.  We stopped in Ofunato and drove through the port area where  huge damage was very evident.   After eating supper we kept heading south.  It became dark and we were not able to fully witness the bay after bay of smashed houses, broken bridges, ruined possessions and destroyed farm land that we passed in the night.  I was very thankful that I could not see everything.  The impact of it all would have been too much for me.

Finally around 10:00  pm or so we ran into a closed road with a detour.  Having followed the arrows for about 45 minutes we arrived back at the same closed road again so decided to call it quits and slept in the car in the parking lot of a hospital.  It was very cold but we were thankful for the car to sleep in.

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.

Tohoku Trip 2 Post #1

Welcome to trip #2.  This time Rhonda, Sarah and Mary stayed home and we took our first overseas volunteers from YWAM University of the Nations, Kona,Hawaii –  Jason and Jack who are standing on the left of this picture.  In the middle is Jeremy who was raised here in YWAM with a church planting family.  Jeremy had time available inbetween university semesters in the States and wanted to volunteer.

Our first stop was at the Baptist Seminary in Sendai where a friend from CRASH – Ralph Justianano –  had stored four boxes of water carriers from the Samaritan’s Purse warehouse  for us to take up to Mr. Oikawa in Kamaishi.

Now came the challenge of working out how to use the new net we had purchased to hold the boxes on the roof rack.  We did it in record time.  (OK,  it was the first time so we did kind of establish a record)  Next we headed up to Sendai Baptist church where we were going to partner with J-Help.

This church has opened its doors for volunteers to stay and use as a base for reaching out.  The pastor is a wonderful man of God and we really enjoyed getting to know him as we heard a few stories and listened to him play the Japanese flute.

I also had the privilege of meeting again  after many years Tak from the Baptist HQ who was travelling with Mark who was  disaster relief expert with their mission.  That night we, JHelp team and our two brothers from the Baptist mission bedded down to get a good sleep before going out the next day.

Trip 1 Post #4 Sendai

Our final stop on this trip was in Sendai City.  Our hosts for sleeping were the kind folks from Samaritan’s Purse.  Pictured here is Darren Polischuck whom I had gotten  to know through JEMA’s Church Planting Institute.  We had served together in the compassion network to see how we could bring this area into focus for those involved in the CPI  group.

The Samaritan’s Purse  provide large quantities of relief supplies for emergencies.   We were able to stay a couple of nights at their facility which was a former bookstore they rented to turn into a warehouse for their needs.   On the left is a picture of their kitchen kits that will be used for those moving into a new place having lost all of their own kitchen supplies.

On the right are water containers  to enable folks to get water from tanks and other sources when they have none in their location.  Another thing they supply is a power hose kit for washing walls and  floors. This kit is pictured on the left.

During one of our nights there was a major aftershock which really shook the warehouse.  Some bits of tile fell from the ceiling but no one on our team was injured.

We went out from the warehouse which was more inland to the coastal area of Ishonomaki to prayerwalk the area where we would join the TBC team who would be handing out food and supplies on the street.

I was able to hand out several Bibles to those who were patiently waiting in line.  It was a blessing to be able to serve our own church TBC in our YWAM team.

Here you can see a couple of the boys who happily received the Bibles.  TBC has been going up to Ishinomaki every week since the  earthquake and relationships are being formed for the Lord!

On our last day in Sendai we helped take out the trash at the warehouse – a whole truck load of it! Right after that a truck load of water arrived so we pitched in and helped to  unload that  with the folks from Samaritan’s Purse and Food for the Hungry (sharing the warehouse space).  This water was sent from Korea.  It was a blessing for us to see such love coming from the nation of Korea.

We found out that the earthquake had affected the CRASH base near Ishinomaki and that they had no water, or electricity so we were able to load up 18 boxes of the water we had just unloaded and take them to the CRASH site and then head back home to Tokyo.

Overall this was a great first trip of learning a little of what was going on in the areas that we visited and also a very rich time of getting to know, serving alongside and working with other groups whose heart was to be a blessing to the

people in Tohoku.  Some of us will go again and others will be able to effectively pray for those who are bringing a little relief to those still living in the devastated areas.

Trip 1 Post #3 Kamaishi

In Tono City the CRASH house was soo busy that we were billeted at a nearby church.  This church was started by a very famous missionary over 50 years ago.  They had a pre-school on the ground (1st) floor and the sanctuary was on the next floor.

Our team was split up the next day and we all headed to Kamaishi but to different sections of the city.  Rhonda, Matt and I drove the supplies we had been given by Samaritan’s Purse and friends to give to Kamaishi volunteer center which then sent us out to the area of Unosumai with a volunteer who spoke English! (More on our new friend below.)  Here is the sign up board for the day listing the various assignments. Sarah & Mary went with Derick, Brandon, Lois & Janet on the Tono city volunteer bus to Kamaishi to do house cleaning; unfortunately there were not any pictures of them except in their fancy hats.  It was hard work moving tsunami waterlogged household treasures out of each house to be dumped but they were blessed by the gratitude shown to them as foreigners come to help the neighbourhood.

Unosumai is a very small town that has been almost completely destroyed by the tidal wave.  Many houses had been washed up the small river and the area close to the sea was totally razed.

We were sent to an area of apartments just up from the disaster area.  There we were given the task of sorting clothes of all sizes which had been sent from around the country.  This was not a too challenging task but did keep us busy for a few hours.  We even enrolled the help of a couple of girls from the area to help in the work.

During the lunch break we talked with the community leader, Mr. Oikawa, who showed us the wood stove that they were using to cook for the people and explained that they still had no water available for their apartments.  The pot they used to cook their meal in had been found in the river after the tsunami.  Mr. Oikawa is wearing the blue overalls.  We shared lunch with the people which was a delicious but simple meal of soupl and rice balls.  The grandmother there made sure we all had a second rice ball to eat.

On the way out we were confronted again with the  houses washed up into the river bed.  As Rhonda was taking a photo, a man spoke in English, “My house.”  She turned around to see him smiling, standing with his 5 year old son and wife.  She sympathized with him, putting an arm on his shoulder and asked if she could pray for him in the name of Jesus.  He agreed and very respectfully bowed his head as Rhonda prayed.  Rhonda prayed for him to have the strength to support his wife and son, being the husband and father of the household.  He murmured his agreement.  The son was watching shyly.  Rhonda encouraged him to be his father’s helper.  We got into our cars, the government workers continuing to busily remove the houses one by one from the river bed.

We drove back to Kamaishi and returned our volunteer badges to the centre.  Then I had to rest for about 30 minutes because I had been suffering with a severe headache all day and was not up to driving.  It turned out to be good that I had to rest as I was able to meet up with Akifumi.

Akifumi had come to Tokyo and joined our TBC youth outreach to Taiwan last summer.  He live with his family here in this city (they escaped the tsunami) and was so happy to see someone from TBC.  We also met his mother and we were able to spend time praying for her, too.  They had spent every day since the tsunami looking for her mother and brothers-in-law.

That night we again had a delicious supper made by MUP missionaries staffing the CRASH facility.  We made our farewells and returned to the church where the pastor kindly let us all use his shower before we bed down for the night.  In the morning we  got up, took a group photo with the pastor and left Tono City to head south to Sendai.

(Here is a photo of myself with the dear volunteer who spoke English so beautifully! She had been born and raised in Kamaishi but was working in Tokyo at the time of the tsunami.  She couldn’t make contact with her family for a frightening few days.  They were safe but her father, a city hall worker, had only been saved by going to the roof of the city hall.  He had been working nonstop since the tsunami in rescue and relief work out of the city hall.  We hope to meet our new friend again once she returns to Tokyo.

Trip 1 Post #2 The trip to Tono City and the Crash Base

Well, the trip  to Iwate Prefecture went very smoothly; we left Tokyo behind and headed up the freeway.  At the first highway stop we paused for a break and had our first briefing time as there had not been adequate time during the preparation week.  Rhonda shared from Crisis Response training held the day before at TBC and led by Southern Baptist International Mission Board disaster specialists.

As you can see from the pictures the weather was very nice – blue sky and sunshine all the way.

Our orientation continued at the next stop along with a bit of  fun as we found the samuari posing pictures.

All in all the trip was rather uneventful but did provide us with a little bonding time as we stopped to eat together.

When we finally left the highway and entered the city of Tono our Navigator took us pretty close to the CRASH base where we were welcomed with a curry rice diner made by the missionaries from MUP who had been there for awhile.  Apparently the house had originally been rented by OMF missionaries for CRASH ministry use right after the initial earthquake and tidal wave.

Trip 1 Post #1 – Preparation

Greetings – I am hoping to do a quick series of reports on our recent trips to the Tohoku area (Northeast Japan) where the earthquake and Tidal Wave brought such destruction.  On March 11 when the earthquake occurred we were in no position to help at all as our van needed repairs and we were in the middle of preparing for the DTS.  We needed a house for the students and nothing was coming through for them.

However, we sent out a newsletter and very quickly people responded; in one week we had enough money promised from several of our regular supporters and also a substantial offering from YWAM San Francisco that enabled us to repair the van, purchase a roof rack and obtain many things to take with us on our first adventure to Tohoku.  One of our church planting teams here in Japan was able to come along with us and another team from Kagoshima purchased the needed fuel tanks as gasoline (Petrol) was not easily available in the affected areas.

Also very quickly we were able to find and finalize a rental contract for a new apartment so we were now able to house all of our students.  This also meant ordering bunk beds and storage drawers which kept us very busy during our week of preparation.  Olivier from the DTS staff helped me a lot in  installing the roof rack and in the picture you see Bob helping with the final touches.

Donations came in to supplement the things we had bought. Rhonda is caught here in a moment of packing baby food which along with ladies underwear was an item in high demand in Tohoku.   These items were donated by Matt Poe from TBC.  Matt had really wanted to come with us but was unable to get leave from his work, so instead he brought these items for us to take.

As the final practical details came together for the DTS, so did the final touches for our pioneer trip to the affected areas.  We arranged to stay at the Crash base in Tono City for our first visit to Kamaishi and then we arranged to stay at the Samaritan’s Purse warehouse  during our time in the Sendai area where we planned to visit the city of Ishinomaki.

The very first day of the DTS our team gathered at 08:00 for a time of worship and for a time of prayer for our relief effort.  So this DTS was bonded in to our efforts right from day one.

We had of course gathered a team for this trip and it included all of our family, plus Brandon and Derick,on the left, from YWAM Tokyo, Matt Saxton from YWAM International Rescue Net and Sarah.  The two ladies between Rhonda and Sarah are Janet and Lois who provided the extra van and are a church planting team near to Narita City.  Mary took the photo!

Finally, all the preparation was complete.  The van was loaded to the gills and we were ready to hit the road.