Attacking The Big Green Wall

7/10/12  Early in the morning, we started our day with breakfast at 6 am, followed by a brief devotion.  Then, we loaded the truck with work equipment and drove to Kirikiri ready for a hard day of work.  It took a little more than an hour to get there.  This is the first time that we drove past the areas devastated by Tsunami. We saw buildings that were damaged and vacant lots where buildings once stood.  In our hearts, we know many lives were taken along with the building.  This area had the highest percentage of lost lives.  We also stopped at the train station, which had been swept away by the tsunami. All that was left was the platform and a short section of track.  The whole station was swept away along with several trains.  The magnitude of loss is hard to grasp even as we physically saw the devastation of the tsunami before our eyes.  We silently prayed that the Lord would comfort many people and bring hope to their hearts. Among the vacant lots and wrecked buildings, we saw thriving vegetable gardens, children returning to school, rebuilding efforts and stores opening up.  Life has return to this region.

We were anticipating cleaning windows and working in the garden of an retirement home today.  The home is situated on top of the hill and was spared by the tsunami.  When we arrived there, suprisingly, our team was being led to the lower part of the hill and was asked to cut down the overgrown brush that was along the side of the stream.  We looked at that big green wall above the stream and wondered how on earth are we going to do this.  We are not professional and we do not have the heavy equipment.

We attacked the green wall bit by bit.  We pulled weeds, raked, and cut down the overgrown bushes.  We sweated under the hot sun and battered the heat.  We kept on going and going.  Amazingly, by the end of the day, the Big Green Wall was tamed and nicely groomed.  We left with a satisfaction of a job well done.  One worker from the retirement home smiled from ear-to-ear. While it was a stretch to call this work disaster relief, it may open doors for future teams to work more closely with the residents.

When we arrived back at the base, we were tired.  We cleaned up the boots and equipment.  We had dinner at a restaurant and then had debriefing for our experience today.  As we reflected on our experience today, although we were dissapponted that had limited oppurtunities to share with anyone, we were able to witness to the staff of the retirement home by our action of love and willingness to help with whatever needed.  We were also able to explain briefly the mission of the team and shared the one scripture that was printed the work truck: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). We trusted in God that this work that we did today will lead to open doors in the future.