Update April 18 from fellow missionaries in Japan
**Before March 11, one small church in the area affected by the
tsunamis had been discouraged and had been considering closing its
doors, but the flood waters stopped just 5 meters from their front
door, a sign to them that God wanted to use them and was not finished
with them.
**We have already heard the testimony of some who have placed their
faith in Christ, including one entire family (several generations).
This family has already begun to see God work miracles in their lives.
**The Christian relief group CRASH Japan and another church group had placed supplies out on a street
for people to collect and those who received the gifts were eager to
know what church had done this for them, as they were so appreciative.
One man was excited to find that the name of the church group “Be One”
was the same name as his business “B1”.
**The pastors and leaders (around 60 people!!) in the affected regions
have been meeting together weekly for prayer and to support one
another. Some of these churches had never had any contact with one
another before, but God is working His spirit of unity among them.
**When CRASH was distributing some of its supplies to a local church,
the church asked if they had any ladies underwear. They had to
apologize that they did not have them. Then, while unloading, 3 boxes
thought to have contained food items actually contained ladies
underwear.
**One group went to an address to help a man clean up his hotel. When
they were finished, they found they had “accidentally” gone to the
wrong location/hotel. It’s very likely that the man there had never
encountered Christians before. Nevertheless, he gladly offered the
upper level of his hotel to house Christian service groups.
Please continue to pray! This is the greatest contribution you can
give to Japan!
Here are some more encouraging reports from Japan CCC’s second “love in action” team to go to the stricken area.
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one of our nagoya teammates, chiaki, got a call from her dad who was driving supplies up to the area. their intended destination didn’t need anymore supplies, so they drove their truck to kesennuma, where we were. word of the supplies circulated throughout the neighborhood, and people, including mrs. k, came to pick up whatever they needed. chiaki helped mrs. k carry the supplies back to her home and seized the opportunity to share about God’s love and that it was God who had rescued mrs. k. she was overflowing with thanksgiving and prayed to trust Christ!!!
the next day, pastor chiba, chiaki & i went to visit mrs. k to encourage her. we each shared a little bit, and pastor chiba, who already knew her, invited her to go to church.
God is so cool! He orchestrated everything even in redirecting the supply truck driven by chiaki’s dad.
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chiaki helped mrs. ko carry her supplies back to a car up a hill. mrs. ko’s house had been washed away by the tsunami, so she’s staying at an evacuation center. chiaki also shared about God’s love with her. as she shared, five neighborhood kids came and listened. all five kids and mrs. ko prayed to receive Christ.
when chiaki returned and told me what had happened, we decided to bring a bible back to mrs. ko. hoping to somehow find mrs. ko, we went to the same area where chiaki had left her and found her at a relative’s house. i was surprised by how upbeat mrs. ko was. when i mentioned that to chiaki later, she said that mrs. ko had actually been really depressed and had cried the whole time chiaki had previously been with her.
the next day (the day after the 7.4 earthquake), chiaki and i went prayer walking up the same hill and found the kids. yamato, the youngest one at five years old, came running up to chiaki and asked her how to pray because he was scared. the faith of a child… chiaki taught him how to pray and got to encourage them and their grandmother that the Lord is watching out for them.
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Another lady who was not a believer but was helping the team, also decided to put her trust in Christ. She told our volunteer that she wanted to pray the salvation prayer with the pastor of the church. So, great cooperation with the pastor there, too!
I think that our teams have seen a {good} response because we worked very closely under pastors and church members from the area, who had built good relationships with their neighbors. Also, our teams were willing to do whatever the people there wanted them to do, demonstrating love, putting aside their own ideas of what they wanted to do.
I have a grave concern about volunteers who come in with pre-set ideas of what they are willing to do. I’ve heard of servant-hearted volunteers who went and spent the whole day in the church babysitting the pastor’s kids so the pastor’s wife could be relieved for a while. Please pray that Christian volunteers would demonstrate the loving, servant heart of Jesus.
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My friend Chiko (not a Christian yet) is from a tsunami-struck town, Iwaizumi. Because their area is on higher ground, Chiko’s parents are okay, but even their lives are turned upside down as they work to assist disaster survivors. Hearing about the things they’re doing, I had the thought of sending them a letter and donation. At the same time, I was sort of worried about the proper “protocol” for reaching out to a friend’s parents whom I’ve never met. Finally, the Lord prompted me to just trust Him for the results and take the small step
of writing the letter, giving our family’s heartfelt condolences and “our love and prayers along with a very small donation to help survivors”… And then pray and pray as the letter traveled through the mail and reached them… Since then, I’ve actually talked by phone with Chiko’s mother, and they sent us a letter back (along with locally produced yogurt from a factory that had been damaged in the quake)–to which our family has sent a poster of encouragement back to them! God opened the door to connect with these dear parents and to share the love and message of Jesus with them, which we wouldn’t have had otherwise. Such a small thing, but who knows what God will do?