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.