Recent update! A major Japanese newspaper reported that a church in Ishinomaki (the area that Tsunami hit) is having double numbers of attendants these days. God is working! Praise the Lord!
Love in Action Team #5 is back and additional teams are planned through the summer months. At this stage even more volunteers are needed to help with Heart Care, helping care for people emotionally, giving them space to talk and share their feelings. Team 5 reported that the Mrs. Suzuki they helped in one neighborhood stood strong emotionally all week while directing the team in the helping and cleaning they were doing, but when they got to the end of the week her tears began to flow as she realized the amazing help and encouragement of the team members personally. Pray for her salvation!
Love in Action Team #5 PRAYER REQUEST : This unique team of 14 is lead by JCCC staff, Kazuko. Pray for her as well as other JCCC staff, John and Atsushi, to have God’s wisdom in ministering to its own members as well as working well with Pastor Tateishi and Higashi Sendai Christ Church. They took off on April 30, tackling harder clean up situation than before. Thank you for going there with the team in your prayers. Team #1~#4 totally felt your prayer coverings and Team #5 covet your prayer as well.
Summary of other Love in Action Team Information:
3 days after 3/11, JCCC went ahead with the national student conference, gathering 200 staff and students in Tokyo. One result was to make plans together as partners with CRASH Japan to volunteer for relief efforts in the Tohoku region. While many Tokyo students and staff participated in prayer meetings and volunteer work at the CRASH HQ, other staff and students prepared for week long volunteer trips to the affected areas.
Below are notes from those teams.
Japan Campus Crusade for Christ director Weng Kong Loh reports:
Love In Action begins! 2 teams of 16 staff & students will head north for 1 week (28th Mar – 3rd Apr).
They will go to 2 and more locations in the North to help with Relief and Recovery. Please remember them & we will continue to send teams in the weeks ahead, too.
Update Mar 30:
LoveInAction: (from our staff & students helping in Tohoku)
– On 30th, they helped to clear the debris of 4 houses.
One elderly lady was trying to clear her place for 2 weeks. She had almost given up hope when the team came and helped her! She cried, cheerful again & planned to go to church!
Other members, as they helped, got opportunities to share testimonies!
Please continue to pray for strength, good weather and manpower!
One of the staff members Japan CCC sent wrote that they did find it easy to get gas and arrived safely at the church in Mizusawa, Iwate Prefecture that is providing host stay as a staging base for their work in a nearby town.
Update! A team of 9 staff and students from Nagoya will be making a Love in Action trip to Tohoku Apr 3 to 9. Please pray for their preparations.
Update! Report from Japan CCC staff/student relief team in city of Kesennuma. They were able to pray for each homes/families they worked at yesterday. People are trying to act strong; suppressing their sorrow. Yet they wept as the team prayed for them, revealing their inner emotions. City office staff visited a Baptist church there. They are counting on the church to be the center of mental care, especially dealing with suicidal people due to disaster. The team from Tokyo will be replaced by the team from Nagoya.
Update! Tokyo/Osaka CCC combined team safely came back last night. Tohoku is known as a place closed to outsiders, and is the least churched area in Japan; some areas even REFUSING volunteer workers to come in. Our team stayed in Iwate prefecture, then commuted 1 hour and half to Kesennuma in Miyagi pre. They worked with Pastor Chiba at Kesennuma Baptist church. One of the church member, Katos, introduced their neighbors who are in need; enabling the team to work on already cultivated relationships. They are welcomed, able to help the neighbors physically and spiritually. As the team said good-bye, they were rewarded by much appreciation and parting words of ” Please come back again.” Tohoku people never say this unless they mean it. Nagoya CCC team is on their way to take over. I cannot thank you enough for your prayers!
Update! A lady whose house the first team helped to clean heard from Kato-san (church member) about relief supplies at the church and went to get some. A student, Chiaki helped her carry the stuff back home. The lady was so thankful for the 1st team that helped her last week and kept talking about it with tears in her eyes. Chiaki took the opportunity to say, “God loves you, has kept you alive and provided help for you. When I face difficult times, God helps, encourages and comforts me. Through a simple prayer, you can invite God into your heart. Would you like to pray a prayer to invite Him in?” The lady said, “Yes” and they prayed together! Hallelujah! Pastor Chiba & Kato san will visit her tomorrow (Apr 7). Please pray that God will continue to use them, for protection as they travel, for humble hearts to do whatever is asked, for wisdom to work with balance so they don’t get overwhelmed themselves, and for Jesus’ love to shine through them.
Update from Mori F. one of our Japan CCC staff in Tokyo – Student Impact (Japan CCC) has being start sending student and staff to Tohoku area. Our first team has just came back. And second team from Nagoya is there this week. This volunteer work will be sending weekly until this summer. I already heard many grace from the first team. They ware going to each houses that are unleached by Japanese army. (many place of refuge have already enough supplies, but each houses there are people can’t away and most of old people) And helping cleaning, massaging, and even just talking with victim is very needed. And they shared their testimony.
JCCC, or many Christian organizations and churches are now helping and working together. I’m working for design brochure with CRASH Japan (www.crashjapan.org) last week. So that Christian volunteers can hand out and share gospel to victim.
We are having different life before earthquake, Supermarket have less product than Before, inside of train is dark for planned black out. I can feel Atmospher of whole city is dark.
People are realizing that things even they used to believe unshakable are not unshakable, and seeking what can be their safe. One of a student said at her Facebook status, “I want to pray but I already too much away from Jesus. Forgot how to pray, would some one pray with me? I’m scared…”
People are seeking, and coming back to Jesus. Last week, 2 students came back to Jesus. Hallelujah!
I’m going to Sendai Miyagi-prefecture from 11th to 17th as a third team from JCCC (9 people). Pray for our heart and body protection. So that we can serve people well.
Pray for people in Tohoku area. So that they can know there are a hope.
Pray for all Jpanese people won’t be feel our men power or any other kind of things save us, but recognize there are God when Japan reconstructed.
We are hearing people in the world are praying for us. Thank you very much!!!
Update! From Jessika T. on team 3 up in Sendai.
third full day in sendai. our team’s worked with four families working on their tsunami-damaged homes. we’re really enjoying getting to know them and hearing their stories. jesus is using this experience to really impact me. we’ve spent a lot of time praying. praying for this land, praying for the families and their salvation…and we got to pray WITH some of them today…thank you for your prayers too!
Heard from our team in Tohoku that another person read ‘The Search’ manga and prayed & invited Christ into her life! And, NOW the Japanese version is in DIGITAL format for iPad/iTouch. (Android version coming soon…i’m learning now…)