Saturday the 9th & Sunday the 10th

I am writing on Saturday early in the afternoon.  Yesterday was
another interesting day workwise.  We went to an apartment  complex
next to the Sony factory.  The first thing we did was move a car that
was sitting in front of a storage shed.  We were finally able to get
it moved by pulling it with the pastors little truck (smaller than my
Fit) and 10 or so of us pushing.  Then we were able to get to the
storage locker that needed to be emptied out.
All day long the garbage haulers were there loading up trucks with a
small front loader.  For the rest of the day most of us  were moving
garbage to areas that a front loader could reach or cleaning up the
playground .  During the lunch hour I was able to give an elderly lady
a ride to the Jr. Hi school in town where she had some business to
take care of.  It would have been a fair distance to walk for a lady
who was not in very good health.   She was most appreciative.
As I mentioned at the end of my last entry the church was also without
water and electricity on Friday.  So was Shichigahama.  I had been
wondering if I had gotten the water to them too late when we were told
they had water when we delivered it on Tuesday.  Well, they need it
now because the water is off again.  So God knew they would need it
even though I thought I was too late.
I made it to Yamagata safely last night.  It was good to catch up with
the Arakis.  I also got a chance to talk to Miss Yamauchi, an old
friend from our Shiogama days.  It was good to catch up a little and
laugh about fun memories.
This morning I noticed how the earthquake the other night has subtly
changed my thinking.  I found myself filling up my water jugs for the
trip back over to “no water land” first just in case there was another
earthquake and we lost water here too.  The Arakis have a bathtub full
of water as well as drinkable water in the fridge just in case the
water goes out.
Another thing I haven’t mentioned on the daily entries is that there
has been some thievery going on in the neighborhood in which we’ve
been helping .  Gas has been siphoned from ruined cars regardless of
to whom the cars belonged.  At least two families said that stuff from
the upstairs that wasn’t damaged had been taken.  There wasn’t the
widespread looting that took place during Katrina when this first
occurred but there has been some of that going on that hasn’t made the
news.
Sunday late afternoon.  I got to do the kids message as well as the
regular message today.  I’m not very good at telling whether my own
sermons are good or not.  At least one person was asking further
questions about dealing with conflict so I must have been somewhat
understandable.  The folks here all said it was easy to understand.
Sometimes they say things to be nice.  Was able to get 10 sheets of
plywood for the church.  No more will fit in the van anyway, so its
just as well that they are limiting purchases to five sheets per
person.  I got 10 cause Hiroya was with me to show me the way.

Thursday the 7th

Today was a late start and an early finish.  No complaints from me.
There were only enough people for two teams and there were two
pre-arranged work sites starting at 10ish each.  One team went to the
house of an elderly gentleman and helped move things, clean out the
back rooms and clean up mud.  My group went to an older ladies place
and helped clean up her garden and parking area that was covered with
silt (that sounds like too nice of a word for the mud mixed with oil,
sand and sewage that covers everything after a tsunami).  Her response
at the end of the day was, “Now I’ll be able to sleep tonight.  I’ve
been so worried about how I was going to get that all cleaned up by
myself”.
She had an interesting story as well.  She was on her way home from
work in Sendai on the train when the earthquake happened.  The trains
stopped working so she started walking home.  A friend came along in a
car and gave her a lift home.  She had no idea there was a tsunami
coming.  The rest of the neighborhood was evacuated by the time she
got home.  She was stuck on the 2nd floor of her house for two days
before anyone could come get her.   She said the tsunami started small
but she was too afraid to watch as it got higher and higher.  After
the fact I started wondering what happened to the friend in the car
who had dropped her off a few minutes earlier.
We actually got done by about 3:15.  That was the goal that we never
attained last week.  Now that we were actually aiming for 4:00 we got
done early.  At the church I got to briefly meet Nan Jordan, a ViBi
(video Bible translation into sigh language for the deaf) board member
and friend of Mark and Mary Esther’s.  She and her husband are up in
the area looking to help deaf people in the disaster zone in whatever
way they can.
When I got home, after carrying another 30 liters of water up the
hill, I found out that they had finally turned the water on.  We’re
not supposed to drink it for another couple of days yet, but thanks to
my labors the last couple of days I have drinking water to last for a
while.  I also have neighbors for the next 3 days or so and was able
to get assistance starting up the water heater.  Mark and I neglected
to go over that detail when he was up here because there was no water
to heat at the time.  I’m not quite sure what to do with myself.  This
makes life a whole lot easier.  Thank you Lord!
Quick addition almost 24 hrs later.  At 11:34ish I was awakened by an
earthquake and hung out with the neighbors for a few hrs until the
tsunami warning was cancelled.  Didn’t sleep too well after that.
Since I have no water or electricity (its also off at the Shiogama
church) I will head over  the mountains to Yamagata tonight instead of
tomorrow morning as originally planned.
I got to talk with my girls around 4:00pm my time, midnight their time. It was nice to be able to talk with them again.

Wednesday the 6th

Today we worked with a church from Izumi and one that we worked with
last week from Yonezawa.  We were able to finish the inside of the
Bikkuri Ichi store by 2 pm.  I was part of the group assigned to help
clean-up  the parking area while other teams went out to help folks in
the neighborhood.  Since the parking lot filled up with cars our job
became quite easy.  It was amazing how much sand we cleaned up for a
store that far inland.  The owner said he hoped to have it up and
running in a month or two.  There is still a lot of work to be done
before then as all his refridgerated displays, freezers, meat lockers,
butcher shop machines, etc need to be fixed or replaced.  He does have
a small area on the end of the building where there are fresh
vegetables and a few other items for sale.  I was able to get some
eggs for my breakfasts without having to go looking for them and give
him some business.
On my way home I swung through the harbor village just up the street
from Tak called Hanabuchi.  The destruction is amazing.  I will
enclose a few pictures.  I found it interesting that some of the front
line houses/shops are still standing but there is an entire area
behind them that is just foundations.
I’ve been writing a little in between sterilizing water.  It’s amazing
how much water we use.  You don’t really notice until you have to
carry it up a hill.  And this is with conserving ie. a bath is using
baby wipes.  Of course I could go back to digging holes in the woods
like we had to last week with so many more people here.  I think its
worth a little extra weight coming up the hill though.   Fortunately
today was quite warm, (somewhere in the sixties I presume) and the
cabin was warm when I got home so I didn’t have to mess with a fire in
the wood stove.  The layers of clothes are slowly being added however.
 Glad for a warm sleeping bag and a stocking cap.  I’m going to sign
out and go back to sterilizing water so I can get to bed at a decent
hour tonight.

Tuesday the 5th

It’s been a few days since I’ve had a chance to update.  I got in last
night (Monday) after a 6 hr drive from Tokyo with 400 liters of water
and a generator.  The water was from CRASH for the Shichigahama folks
in refugee housing.  I was also able to take a couple boxes of cup
noodles.  The generator was procured from a store near Mark’s place,
the fourth place we had tried.  No one had them and they were not sure
when they would get any as they thought the generators would be sent
to the Tohoku.
Sunday was a good day as well.  I went to church with Mark and Mary
Esther.  I ended up staying until 4 pm talking with the folks there.
Good sign language practice for this Sat and Sun.  Back at M&ME’s I
was alone so I spent some time prepping for next Sunday.  I’m glad I
brought both the Japanese-English and the English-Japanese
dictionaries.  I should have brought a magnifying glass to read the
furigana on the side of the kanji in the Japanese Bible.  In the
evening after M&ME came home I was able to help Mark put up a ceiling
fan in their new place.
That brings me back to today.  Today we started cleaning out a store
that we have been parking at to go out into the surrounding
neighborhoods.  For those who know the area its Bikkuri Ichi, a store
that M&ME have shopped at while spending time at Takayama.  My
favorite part was cleaning out the walk-in freezer for storing meat.
After more than three weeks it had a definite odor.  I decided to toss
my gloves after that particular chore was finished.  There is still
more mud to muck out, as well as a kitchen I assume is for employees
to remove furniture, debris, etc. so we will be going back again
tomorrow.  Today’s group was largely made up of college students from
the Kanto area KGK group.  (KGK is the Japanese version of
InterVarsity  Christian Fellowship as opposed the KGB as one of the
other workers kept calling them).
We got back to the church at 5 pm.  Then I took the water and food to
the Shichigahama shelter/hdqr.  with Pastor Otomo.  They were
appreciative. That is probably the last water they will need as water
is being restored to the shelter.  (Still hasn’t come to Tak yet).  It
strikes me as somewhat ironic that I deposited 400 liters of water and
then spent the evening with the Steri-Pen my brother Tom gave me
making sure the tap water I got from the hose outside the church is
sterilized and drinkable. Thats all for now. - Bruce

Monday the 4th

God provided amazingly yesterday for the generator.  The 4th place we
stopped at had them when everyone else was sold out and didn't know
when any more would come in.  Was on the road by 3:30 and arrived by
9:30 as after Fukushima Prefectural line I had to go 50MPH We also got 400 liters of water from CRASH in Tokyo.

Sunday the 3rd

On the way over here on the plane I read about emotional care for people in disaster situations.  The section on self-care for relief workers talked about allowing oneself to get away and de-stress.   Staying out here at Takayama has been very good for that.  I can look out the front windows and see the ocean which, while being extremely destructive three weeks ago, has been a calming sight.  The destruction on the way in to Tak is disturbing in its completeness.  There are few houses left and those that are recognizable as houses are damaged beyond repair.  It’s a strange juxtaposition of destruction and peacefulness.
Today was an exercise in patience that finally paid off.   After a quick trip to lead the work group to where we left off yesterday Mark, Matsumoto sensei, Mr. Takahashi and myself went to the Shiogama City Hall.  We were referred to the welfare office in response to our questions about how we could be of help to the deaf population in Shiogama.  There we waited about 45min while the lady helping us got in touch with the head of the deaf peoples assoc. in Shiogama.  We were able to get see her at 1 pm and again had to wait about an hour  or so while she got in contact with the one deaf person in town who’s home was in the tsunami zone. 
We were able to visit with her and her family, four generations of whom were living in one room at the community center.  They had just been moved there the day before from the elementary school.  It was much more comfortable and warmer because they now had tatami mats instead of a cold, hard floor.  What they wanted the most was a bath.   Mostly they were glad to be alive. 
Right after the earthquake, before any tsunami warnings Mrs. Harada’s daughter grabbed a few things and packed  her family, mom, daughter and granddaughter into the car and fled for higher ground at the elementary school.  After the warnings sounded people had difficulty driving out with the roads getting clogged up with fleeing people.   She told of a couple she knew who had survived overnight in their car with water up to their necks.  They were rescued the next morning.  She told of another friend who had been in Sendai when the tsunami struck and had walked back to Shiogama past scores of dead bodies.  It had taken her three days before she could be reunited with her daughter who had been safe at school during and after the tsunami.
We were then able to go over to their house and remove two very heavy barber chairs from the barber shop at the front of her house.  Mr. Harada had been a barber until he died a few years ago.  They asked us to also remove the few items they had at the back of the house.  That took longer than expected because a bunch of debris was deposited in the back yard from the tsunami.  We were grateful to be able to help after a long day of waiting. 
On Saturday Mark and I will head back down to Tokyo since he needs to get back and I need to find a small generator for the church to use to help clean up houses in the affected areas.  Mark and Mary Esther have loaned me their van through the 15th. 

More than 24hrs later and I still haven’t had a chance to send this.  Back in Tokyo again after an uneventful trip.   Funny how nice a bath can feel when you’ve been living without running water.  Was able to talk to a lady who lives at Takayama year round and get some idea of what is needed around the Shichigahama area.  Hopefully I will be able to pick up some of these items to bring back up as well.  Tomorrow is church with Mark and ME then home to do laundry.  Still no internet connection at Mark and ME’s place much to their dismay.

From Mary Esther Penner

Mark and Bruce are on their way home. They left at 2:47 Saturday.

Yesterday they were joined by Matsumoto and Hiroya from the Yamagata Deaf church and together they made contact with the Deaf community organization's person (kai cho) in Shiogama.  They were really glad to do that.  Matsumoto and Hiroya stayed at the cabin overnight with the rest of the group.

Shiogama church wants a portable generator and so Bruce is going to shop for that here in Tokyo and take it back.    Also, Andrew and Emily's (Mark and Mary Esther’s son and daughter-in-law) Bible study group sent some boxes, so we'll be able to send those things up with him too.  The mission gave him permission to use our van, so he'll have it in Tohoku the next two weeks.  Pray for Mark as he resumes a busy schedule of his normal mission work and for Bruce as he travels back to Shiogama to continue in the relief efforts.  Thank you!