Reaching out to Japanese Volunteers

7//14/2012  Early in the morning, we loaded up all our supplies into the van, tents, chairs, snacks, disposable cups, napkins, Christian literature, etc.  Our task today is to serve drinks and refreshments to the volunteers of Magokoro Net, who would be doing the disaster cleaning.  However, we have learned that we have to be flexible with our assignment. We never know for sure what we would be doing until we get there.  Therefore, we also brought along our boots, raincoats, hats, and long sleeve shirts.

We arrived at Ofunata after an hour drive from the Tono base.  We saw many vacant lots that building once stood.  Some badly damage buildings remain in the areas although most have been taken down.  What stood out were the piles and piles of debris that still remain in the areas.  The tsunami had watched away many homes, caused tremendous damage and taken many lives in this area.  We heard the story of a family who lost both the husband and father because they were trying to rescue two Indonesia visitors.  The Indonesian visitors were safe but the father and son did not make it to the top of the mountain.  The last Tohoku Care team was able to minister and comfort the widow.  Each of this vacant lot has a story to tell and we pray that god will send someone after us to listen to their stories and comfort them. 

Throughout the day, we spoke to many volunteers. Many of them are young college students.  Most of them are not Christian nor have they ever met a Christian before today.  We served them, fellowship with them, and shared our stories with them.  We shared with them that we are Christian and we are here to help them and to let them know that God cares about them.  Some of them were receptive and accepted the Manga bible (Comic bible).   We have planted the little seed in them and trust in the Lord that He will continue to send someone along to their lives to water the seeds that we have planted.

We did a Prayer Walk when we had a little down time.  As we walked down the street where all the homes had been destroyed, we prayed that God will heal the land and the souls and send His spirit to renew this area.  This area where we worked also had a Shinto temple that was destroyed during Tsunami.  There was a bell that they recovered from Tsunami.  We saw several people praying and ringing the bell so that their prayers would be answered.  They represented the sheep in this country of Japan who do not know their creator nor their shepherd.  We prayed for them and that God will continue to send missionaries here to witness and share His Gospel.

At the end of the day, we felt we accomplished what we called to do today.  To serve our brothers and sisters (thought they do not yet) and to witness to them the love of Jesus Christ. 

7/14/2012 Evening

We learned this afternoon that our team is to prepare and serve lunch tomorrow for the seniors reside at the temporary shelter.  We quickly put together a menu and went grocery shopping after we returned from Ofunato.  Right after supper the three guys (Jim, DY and Gerald) got to work and chopped up the vegetables.  Christina and Brenda then cooked the entrées and got them ready for tomorrow.  We also gathered supplies for craft activity and the café ministry.  We were full of anticipation of what is awaiting us tomorrow.