Regular Relief Work in Ishinomaki City

Our involvement with Grace City Church Tokyo these past 3 months has also included supporting the on-going earthquake and tsunami relief work up north. "Grace City Relief" in partnership with "Help Tohoku" (formed by sister churches in Chiba city area) organize a volunteer trip to the Watanoha area of Ishinomaki city (click for MAP) every weekend.

I have been helping lead trips of volunteers from Tokyo once or twice a month.  We usually pull a 24-hour turnaround to enable busy Tokyo people to squeeze in a volunteer opportunity to Ishinomaki.  Departing at 11pm on a Friday and driving all night, arriving early Saturday morning.  We then work until early/mid afternoon and drive home by 11pm that night.  Tiring, but worth it!

These are some of the guys I traveled up with on one of my first trips from Tokyo.

Some relief staff and volunteers that stay longer than a day camp on the grounds of nearby Senshu University.

Here with new friend Ohta-san overlooking the washed away coastal area of Ishinomaki city.

These trips always include cooking food, distributing fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as often including kids programs and other special activities. We have committed to one specific area so that week by week, we can get to know the people by face and by name. 

On this trip we brought up over 60 bicycles that we gave to people who had specifically requested and "reserved" one.

Being Japan, everyone dutifully signed up, lined up, and waited to receive their critical post-tsunami mode of transportation.

As we meet specific physical and emotional needs of tsunami victims - we are also building personal relationships to be able to speak to their ultimate spiritual need as well. 

I brought up several bags of Sarah's maternity clothes and found two pregnant ladies who were overjoyed!

Organizing fresh fruits and vegetables into separate bags for each person (~250 bags).

In addition to this, we are building great relationship with volunteers who come from all backgrounds here in Tokyo. A 24-hour turnaround volunteer trip always forges new friendships and deepens existing ones.  7.5 hours in the car (mostly sleeping) to bond initially, 9 hours together in Ishinomaki, and another 7.5 hours in the car driving home lead to great conversations!

This guy (also to the left of me in photo above) is a new friend I met here in Toyosu who joined a volunteer trip.

Transitioning out of the summer season and into the fall brings new opportunities and challenges as well. Pray for God's wisdom and grace as we continue to minister the gospel in word and deed through authentic relationships both in Tokyo and in Ishinomaki ... and sometimes in both at the same time!

Relief Work: Delivering Supplies in Shiogama

Our final "project" during our relief trip up to the greater Sendai area was to load up a truck with supplies at an NGO warehouse, and then travel the next morning up to a devastated town called Minami Sanrikucho...

Unloading the truck full of supplies at Shiogama Bible Baptist Church

However, we were hit with a 7.1 earthquake off the coast of Sendai that night - roads were closed, power and water were temporarily out, no cell phone communication to confirm our route ... We ended up improvising and bringing our supplies instead to Shiogama Bible Baptist Church (a church which is serving as a hub for a lot of relief work in their coastal city).  Check out a ~3min video I made:


(Correction: Scripture reference in video should be Psalm 62:1-2)

You can see that in general, there are not shortages of donated supplies, but rather shortages of available people and vehicles (and gas!) to distribute the supplies to those in need.

Relief Work: Damage Near Ishinomaki Coastline

We had an opportunity to drive down to the coastal area of Ishinomaki.  Unbelievable damage ...

Here is a ~2min video showing the devestation. These are all photos and videos we took ourselves:

Relief Work: Clean-Up in Ishinomaki

We spent a lot of time and energy helping clean out homes in the Ishinomaki city area.  This was a hard hit coastal city just north east of Sendai.  People didn't even know about how bad it was for a number of days - since it was isolated and hard to get to after the tsunami ...

Here is Brett shoveling dried "tsunami sea sludge" from Sasaki-san's home.

Here is a ~4min video showing a part of Ishinomaki city ~1 mile from the coastline, and some of the families that we helped:

Relief Work: Ishinomaki Christ Church

We arrived in the hard-hit town if Ishinomaki and we were soon working together with Japanese believers who had come to help from all over the country.

The church was still being cleaned out (after being under ~ 4ft of standing water of 5 days) even as we started organizing donated food and supplies for their first "free store" for the community (with many more to come!)

Check out this 4min video I made of our work with Ishinomaki Christ Church:

Relief Work: Sendai

We left early in the morning an extended cab diesel mini-van (diesel fuel is easier to come by.) Rev. Fukuda of Grace City Church Tokyo was our "guide". He needed bodies for loading & labor and an extra driver (me!) for the ~8 hr drive. We were happy to oblige. :)

I respect Rev. Fukuda (above) very much and really enjoyed getting to know him better over the course of our trip.  We headed through Tokyo, and then took the Tohoku expressway north all the way to the city of Sendai

Our first stop was to deliver our van-full of books, toys, and games collected as donations in Tokyo for children at Miyagi Children's Hospital.  This hospital was protected from the tsunami by the surrounding mountains, but has been hanging on with only basic supplies.  

The hospital staff was very grateful for the "non-essential",  yet still very important part of life in a Children's Hospital.  This hopefully will be the beginning of an ongoing support relationship with this hospital.

After spending several hours at the hospital (they gave us an in depth tour as a sign of their appreciation) we headed through Sendai city as we headed for Ishinomaki.   

Before arriving in Japan, we had the impression from American news that all of Sendai was wiped out ... well the main part of the city on the western side of the Tohoku Expressway looked pretty good.

The video below show rice fields on the east side (closer to the coastline) where you can see lots of debris and various cars strewn across the fields.  Our first real sense of major destruction that we would soon face ...

Leaving for Ishinomaki (Sendai area)

We leave Wed morning at 6am for Ishinomaki city, just north of Sendai.  Will be there 3 days together with Grace City Church pastor Rev Fukuda.

(Click photo to enlarge MAP)

See Scott Dean's Blog for more details.

Off to bed for early start!

Setting the Tone for the Trip

Our first morning together in Japan, we got up quite early due to jet lag (~ 4am) and had a long uninterrupted time of sharing from scripture as well what was on our hearts as we anticipated the week ahead. It was great team building time and it set a great tone for the big unknown of what lay ahead.



Scott Dean asked if he could catch on film some of my thoughts from that morning, based on a quote from Bart Garrett, a friend of mine who planted and now is lead pastor of Christ Church in Berkeley, CA:

"The story is not about us, but about HIM,

and our part is not a bill of rights but a call to service."

We Just Arrived in Japan

I'm up at 4am (due to jet-lag) and wanted to post a quick update saying that we are safely in Chiba city and looking forward to what God has for us.

Today will sit down and discuss what our upcoming week will look like.  Lots of needs, just trying to figure out how we fit into this dynamic, rapidly changing relief effort.

Jon, Brett, Scott, Chris - on our 747 to Tokyo!

Please check out this update from Seima Aoyagi (the Japanese pastor we will be partnering with in Tokyo):

Particularly scroll down and read the section  "City on a Hill", which speaks of how God is using Grace City Church Tokyo to be a light in the city.  Very encouraging!

Olivia's heart for JAPAN

Olivia wrote this note for Sarah the other day as she was playing with Annabella & Calvin:

"Dear Mother, we are on a airplan(e). We are going to Japan! To see the damage[d].  

We will help the people in Japan.  Love, your sweet Olivia"

There has been a lot of talk about Japan in our home, especially now that Daddy will be leaving on Saturday for a 2-week trip.

Please be praying for Jon's preparations and for the kids as they try to understand all that is going on in Japan.

3min Slideshow of Photos from our MTW Team

"Over the years I have often described

our mission in Japan as

praying and preparing for

the day of opportunity of Japan."

MTW Missionary Dr. Michael Oh

President - Christ Bible Institute - Nagoya, Japan

(All photos taken by fellow MTW Missionary Roger Lowther.)

Please give generously through MTW: Help JAPAN to equip the Japanese Church to meet the physical & spiritual needs of Japan.

Photo Overview of 1st Week of MTW Disaster Relief

It is hard to believe that it has only been a week since the tragic Earthquake & Tsunami that hit Japan on March 11. Our communication so far has primarily been through e-mail updates (March 11th & March 14th) and on Facebook.

Here is an overview of what is going on in Japan, through photos taken by fellow MTW missionaries and our Japanese partners:

First the 9.0 earthquake hit - Damage shown above in Tokyo was significant, but not disastrous.  (The little boy is an MTW missionary kids friend of Olivia & Annabella living ~6 miles from our future home in Tokyo)

The earthquake lead to a terrible fire at the Ichihara Oil Refinery in Chiba prefecture (seen on US news stations). The photo above of the raging fire was taking from the front of our Oyumino Christ Church (~ 5miles away).

The major devestation of Northern Japan, though, came because of the following tsunami.  (Photo taken near Sendai by fellow MTW missionary Roger Lowther)

Water, food, and gas shortages have hit much of the country.  Gas shortages in particular have hamstring the relief effort up north.

Our MTW Team together with Japanese Churches have been sending up 3 trucks full of supplies every night to the hard hit city of Iwaki (see map below). Our Japanese pastor in the photo has been one of the drivers.

This is a Google Satellite map - showing the relative distances.  Chiba to Iwaki City is ~120 miles.  From Iwaki to the Fukushima Power Plant is about 30 miles.  From Iwaki to Sendai is ~ 95 miles

When the community found out that the church was getting supplies up north, donation started pouring in. Great bridges for the gospel are being built through this relief effort.  Praise God!

Distribution of water (seen above) as well as fuel and other supplies to the Iwaki (and also Sendai) area.  Our team has been able to work though local Japanese churches in those areas to reach shelters that are not yet receiving government relief  aid.

PLEASE click on image above or visit mtw.org to DONATE through the local Japanese Church, which is delivering these desperately need supplies "in the name of Jesus".