Last post

With the last entry I sent a picture with a grand piano in front of a house.  I had thought I had posted a picture of the same place two weeks ago when we removed the grand piano andcleaned out the back rooms.  I did not, as it turns out, so I am posting it now.  I intended to show the progress of the cleaning effort as a whole street that was lined with garbage is now clear.
As I sat at the gate waiting for boarding to commence I was thinking it was a little ironic that the train I rode to the airport on was stopped for  15 minutes on the way to the airport because of an earthquake.  The other thing I noticed is that life in Tokyo has pretty much returned to normal.  It made me a little sad for the people up north where life is still anything but normal.  I don’t want people to forget what is going on up there.  There is so much in life that we take for granted that can change in an instant.
I was blessed at the airport to get to spend some time with Richard Nakamura, my classmate from Multnomah.  What a blessing to get to catch up with him and hear how God is working in him.  My mostly empty very large suitcase came in handy in getting a replacement chime back to the States in time for Easter.  You can’t get just one in the States.  You have to get a whole set.  So Rich was getting a single chime replacement.
The weekend before Mark’s call I was wondering if it wouldn’t be better just to send money instead of spending the money to actually go.  Now looking back it is easy to see that actually going was the right thing to do on many levels.  A person  can offer encouragement, comfort, care and make connections  Not only was I able to help meet some practical needs of people who have lost much, I was also able to minister to the deaf community on the weekends.   I was able to encourage the Japanese just by my willingness to come over and help.  Being there gave me the opportunity to see a family who had lost a Bible in the flooding and to replace it.   Being there gave me the opportunity to spend meaningful time with my brother and encourage him.  Being there for three weeks, working under the leadership of the Shiogama Bible Baptist Church was an encouragement to them as well. 
Presence is important.  I am thankful that God could use my presence there to minister to and encourage many people.   Once again, thank you for your prayers and support.  Please continue to pray for Pastor Otomo and the crew up in Shiogama as they continue in the daily grind of the relief effort.  (The picture is of Pastor Otomo).
I am safely home now.  I received a very wonderful pleasant surprise when I returned home.  A project I had originally planned on doing during this period of time that I have been gone was completed.  Thank you Carey and Stan!  Its a load off my mind.

Thursday the 14th

Three weeks seems like a long time when you are starting out on an adventure, but it sure seems to have flown by quickly.  We got to work in Ishinomaki again today with the Samaritan’s Purse team.  There were more of them today and my interpreting ability was put to use with them today as we had two teams and only one interpreter for them today.  Mr. Hori also came so both my non-Japanese languages came in handy today.  Our team finished up where we worked yesterday then moved on to another garden cleaning job.  The other team was cleaning inside a house like we have been doing often lately.  There was another team that stayed in Tagajo and worked on things like we have been lately.
As my time here comes to a close I want to thank everyone who has been praying.  I have felt your prayers throughout my stay here.  God has been very good.  I also want to thank those who have given financially to help this cause.  The Shiogama church really is a hub for relief activities.  They have worked with a number of agencies and churches in Japan to keep spreading God’s love by being involved with the relief effort.  I am glad to have been able to be a part of this effort and to pass on your donations to a good cause.
The church here covets your prayers as they continue in the relief effort.  I would appreciate your continued prayers as I travel to Tokyo on tomorrow and on the States on Saturday.  Thanks for helping me be here and have a small part in this huge effort.

Wednesday the 13th #2

Today I didn’t get a chance to get on the internet and send the blog update until late as the team was already loading up and getting ready to go to Ishinomaki to help out there.  We were working with a Samaritan’s Purse team who had helped out with Katrina.  They had a Japanese  interpreter, a Japanese driver/worker/interpreter and 3 American disaster relief team members.  We were working under their tutelage today as they are experts at this sort of thing.  It was interesting to learn a few more tips about flood damage control.  We did pretty much the same thing we’ve been doing in terms of cleaning out water ruined stuff, sorting and cleaning.
I got another surprise when the Hori family from the Yamagata Deaf Peoples Church showed up to help.  I got to be a three language person today.  They went out to find obentos and then came out to Tak to keep me company over dinner.  They knew I didn’t have a whole lot to offer foodwise.  It was nice to spend time with them.  Mr. Hori is part of the ViBi translator team (Japanese Sign Language Bible).  I’ve known both he and his wife since dad got started in the deaf ministry way back in the mid-70s.  I also got to meet their youngest son who came along to help as well.
It was fun to meet Kishinami Sensei again after 30 years or so.  He is a former kick-boxing champion turned pastor.  He is just as genki (full of energy) as ever.
Tomorrow will be my last day working out of the Shiogama church.  It is a little hard to leave as there is still so much to do.   There are still some areas that have not been opened up for people to return to their homes as the police and self-defense force soldiers are still searching for bodies.  A number of the streets around town that had garbage piled up all along the sides of the roads have been cleared and some areas look close to normal.  There is still some places where the cars are piled 2 and 3 high.  Those piles still catch my attention, but the single car with its front bumper on the ground and rear bumper 5 feet up a telephone pole on the back side of an apartment building almost doesn’t register as being out of place anymore. 

Wednesday the 13th

When I got home this evening I had a visit from my neighbor down the
hill, Teddy.  She had come to let me know the water was going to be
turned off at 10 pm for three days so the sewer system in Shichigahama
could be fixed.  Evidently it is damaged to the point that it cannot
handle the drainage.  They had asked people not to wash their rice or
drain their tubs when the water came back on in order to prevent
backup issues.  We are not on the sewer system but will still be
losing our water.  So, now that I have washed the dishes, eaten, made
rice balls for lunch, washed the rice and started it soaking for
tomorrow, taken a shower/bath, washed the tub and put a load of towels
and stuff in the  laundry, I can settle down to reflect on the day.
A new group of KGK volunteers came late yesterday afternoon.  So there
were 19 guys spending the night in the downstairs of the church. There
were snorers on either side of me.   As I was laying there trying to
sleep on a hard tatami pad in my sleeping bag without having taken the
few meds I usually take or brushed my teeth, I got to thinking this
was just a small taste of what evacuees are dealing with.  I had
plenty of food, a knowledge that it would most likely be for only one
night and no overwhelming loss with which to deal.  What’s a few hours
lost sleep compared to what they have been dealing with on a daily
basis for over a month now.
There is still a fair amount of fear that another big one is going to
hit.   Adam, a former short term worker in Sendai who has been working
with us for about a week was helping a friend from the Sendai area
cleanout her house when an earthquake that I didn’t even notice
happened.  There was a nine year old girl who was so frightened she
closed her eyes, covered both her ears and started turning around and
around in a little circle when that earthquake, a 4.2 by Japanese
measurement, happened.  The TV which was turned on as soon as
yesterday’s earthquake happened was showing pictures of crying
children in the evacuee centers.  Several people were sure the three
fairly strong earthquakes we had within an hour or so were a
foreboding of another big one just around the corner.   “We’re gonna
get another big one tonight”.
Since we had a fairly big group we split up into three teams today.
One moved out tatami from an apt. then cleaned up mud.  My group and
another group ended up looking for work.  My group found work at the
first store we stopped at.  There were two rooms in the back that were
still a mess.  We sorted through stuff to keep and stuff to throw then
cleaned up the dirt and muck all over the floors.  Then from about
11:00 I got to play with a pressure washer  cleaning two public
bathrooms and a storage area with mudlines up to about my neck.  Other
team members were scrubbing the walls but I got to do the fun stuff.
The other tool I like to use is an 18 or so inch wide,  thick rubber
squeegee on a handle that we use to cleanup runny mud and water.   I
have no idea what the other team did today except that we cleaned a
lot of shovels at the end of the day and our crew used maybe 3 of
them.  Another good day.

Monday the 11th

We did more cleaning up around the same apartment complex and then
from 11:00 on we cleaned up the yard around the kindergarten next door.
 “Many hands make light work” was shown to be true today.  There was
literally mountains of garbage that had been cleaned out of the
classrooms that needed to be moved to a spot more easily accessed by
the front loaders.  I will send before and after pictures. The young
teachers at the kindergarten were the first this whole trip to get
excited to see foreigners like I remember happening all the time when
I was younger.  I wonder if it is the shock of everything that has
been happening around here with the tsunami or if foreigners are that
much more common than they (we) used to be.
The greater excitement came later in the afternoon just as I was about
to leave to go to Tak.  We had another shaker with tsunami warnings.
The field of the middle school next door started filling with cars as
it is an evacuation center.  I was told there were many more cars last
Thursday night with the bigger earthquake that took out our
electricity and water.  Needless to say I put off going out to Tak.
After several aftershocks it didn’t take too much argument to get me
to stay the night.  Thankfully I had forgotten my sleeping bag the
other day and still had my food suitcase in the van as it was covered
with plywood until this morning. (Speaking of plywood, the plywood is
to be used to make the fixer-upper house next door into housing for
volunteers in the relatively near future).
I'm glad my earplugs are in my backpack.  One of the older American
guys already fell asleep and he is sawing logs big time.  Time for a
sleep study and some CPAP.  Hopefully I sleep well tonight..

Sunday the 10th

I really enjoyed my weekend.  Spent a couple hours looking for stuff
at “recycle stores” with Mrs. Araki on Saturday afternoon.  Enjoyed
the evening chatting with them about this and that.  I had spent a
little time in the evening trying to figure out what to say to the
kids during the short kid’s message they asked me to do late Saturday
afternoon.  Mrs. Araki suggested I just tell them about how God
provided for this trip, so I went with that and it seemed to work ok.
I thought it would be just the kids, but everyone listened to it.
Since I don’t sign and speak regular Japanese at the same time that
well Mrs. A interpreted the Japanese into sign for the adults.
I also enjoyed spending the afternoon renewing old friendships and
making new acquaintances.  I was able to talk with Jiro by phone as he
and his wife had to go to her parents to help get ready for rice
planting.  I was a little disappointed they couldn’t be there.
By the time I left at 6:20 I was mentally exhausted.  It is amazing
how much trying to communicate in a foreign language that you haven’t
used in a while can take it out of a person.  I had considered taking
the old highway home for old times sake but by that time I just wanted
to get back to Tak as quickly and safely as possible so I took the new
toll road.
Imagine my delight to get back to Tak and find out I had both
electricity and water again.  Woohoo!!  The first thing I did was to
wash the rice and get it going so I would have some in the morning
even if I lost electricity in the night.  It’s interesting how
experiencing that bigger earthquake last week has affected my thinking
and decision making.

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.