Dan's Relief Effort Questions

31 March 2011

 Dear Phyllis,

Your son, Dan, just sent me a letter asking questions about the relief operation in Japan. Here is a copy of my letter to Dan.

 31 March 2011

Dear Dan,

 

You humble me by writing to me. You have asked some difficult questions which I do not feel I am in a position to accurately answer, but as a simple Christian  brother standing at the edge of an astronomic disaster area I am delighted to at least give you my observations.

1. At the outset how were you able to discern and confirm that God was extending this call for you to go to Japan?

That’s simple. If you were at the scene of a fire and you heard a child screaming from inside, what would you do? If you came to a scene of someone drowning in water and you were a strong swimmer what would you do? Anyone who wouldn’t run into a fire to save a child or dive into water to save another person; I wouldn’t want to shake their hand. I wouldn’t care to look at the face of someone so disgusting and cowardly as to not be willing to risk their own life to save others. When I heard of the need in Sendai and Neil Verwey called me from Ikoma asking me to come immediately; what am I supposed to do? That guidance is easy.

2.  How did the folks in Ikoma determine what and where help was needed in Tohoku and where you should go with your supplies?

Most of the stuff I took from Ikoma were things that Japan Mission got together themselves. Other missions and individuals in Ikoma heard that JM was sending a load up there and brought some more to add to the pile. I loaded all I could get on the truck – and then I had a serious overload – but still left about 1/3 sitting on the ground because it simply could not take any more. How did they know what to send? If you were in Ikoma what would you do? Use your own judgment. There was food, blankets, clothes, bathroom supplies, etc. One sister brought a box of children books because she heard that the children in refugee centers had nothing to do. That is all anybody has done. Some are right and some are wrong. Some can be used and some is superfluous.

3. How was Vermey (Verwey) involved in planning this project and enlisting your partnership?

I was a former member of Japan Mission and Neil and I have been close friends for many years. Like any organization, JM responded immediately when they saw what had happened in Sendai. What kind of a mission would it be if they were here and didn’t immediately move to do all they could? Anyone who didn’t move should honestly acknowledge that they are not really serving Christ, close their door, and go home. Neil didn’t have anyone in his organization who could go, but he knew me. He naturally called me and asked me to go as the mission representative. I was the only man available.

4. Would it be (or have been) possible for you to join with CRASH or some other group's relief efforts to put to good use your skills and abilities?

Tim Cole didn’t know I was on my way, but he called Neil before I got in Japan asking him how to get in touch with me. I called Tim as soon as I got to Ikoma. I had never heard of CRASH before but it seemed that Tim was working very closely with them. I had been in Sendai 22 years before then building Kakudai Senkyo Gakuin (Bible school). That, of course, gave me a close connection with that Bible school, and it looked like that was going to be a major base for CRASH. I told Tim about the Bible school, and told him that that was my first stop where I was going. I assumed when I got there I would be working hand in glove with CRASH in whatever they had going.

When I got to the Bible school, Nagai sensei knew all about CRASH and all that was going on, but the organization of what was going on seemed very non-tangible. Nagai sensei is an excellent brother. There is nothing wrong with his attitude but I was quite miffed at what I thought was a very irresponsible attitude until I knew a little more about his dilemma. I was komaru as I found nothing to do, and I told him the only person I knew that was more komaru than me was him. People were calling from all over and sending in tons of things to him, and there was no way he could use any of it. He had no distribution channel and knew very little about any needs. The first day I was there we took a load of things I had brought to a church in Sendai where he was good friends with the pastor. They seemed to be in good shape but the pastor told me he knew others that could use the things I brought.

 The next day Nagai sense told a senior brother to take me to Ishinomaki to see if they knew anyplace that could use me. I wrote about that in my last weeks letter. That was the most unreal thing I had ever seen. I called Tim Cole and told him relief work there was like selling bathing suits in a nudist colony. He laughed and said yes that is pretty much the way it is going. He said, “That is why they call it a disaster.” Tim gave me two other phone numbers of men to call to see if they had anything for me to do. I talked with both of these men, but they were more or less blank. One guy said he would call me if he knew of anything, but never called back. I was at the Bible school for over a week and had done next to nothing. I had seen others come and go with about the same success. One missionary had been born and raised in Japan and was highly aggressive. He had looked up locations of schools in Sendai and had gone directly to these schools that were being used as refugee centers, and had some success in finding people with need. But he wound up leaving what he had left in the warehouse I had been to previously in Ishinomaki, and he went on back to Tokyo.

The Bromans are very big people in Sendai. They are the missionaries that drive all over Japan putting up black signs in every village in Japan with short Bible verses. “Jesus saves.” “The Blood of Christ cleanses from sin.” “All sinners are going to hell” Etc. They have large facilities in Sendai and I heard that CRASH was working out of there. I also heard that Samaritan Purse had sent 90 tons of relief supplies that were sitting in a warehouse in Sendai. I called one of the numbers Tim had given me and talked with a man I had spoken with a few days before. He said there might be some need for me to haul a few things from that warehouse. I checked out of the Bible school (they thought I was going back to Ikoma); but drove into Sendai to the warehouse to meet this brother, Jim Grace. We did load up a huge load to take it to a yakuba (town hall) about 40 minutes from the warehouse. There were four other men from Kurume there, that had hauled a few things in their car.

 The warehouse, where I met Jim, seemed to be the epicenter of relief. That was where Samaritan Purse had sent their 90 tons of supplies. I talked with their top man, who had rented a 747 to fly that stuff to Japan. He seemed to be the top man with Samaritan Purse International. He said he had been in 100 other relief operations world wide. I talked with Samuel Broman who was doing excellent work taking teams up the Japan coast looking for desperate areas. I don’t know anyone more central in the relief operation that these men.

There was talk about a need to haul things down towards the nuclear Fukushima area that had been evacuated because of the radiation. Some people were reluctant to go down there because of the radiation. I said, “Sign me up! I’ll take it to the plant if they need it there.” I spent that night with a pastor working with Jim. I called him the next morning but he didn’t know of anything moving. The trip towards Fukushima had not yet materialized. I went back to the warehouse and the fellows from Kurume were taking one more load to the place where we had been the day before. But that was it. From there they were going on home to Tokyo. I took another max load with my kei truck with them to that town hall and left it there. If they were going home, what was the use of me staying there any longer?

From that Shichigahama town hall I drove straight to Saitama. I slept in my truck the first night in the parking lot of a close friend in Salado. I felt like I had been dipped in sin. I felt like the worse sinner out of hell. There were hundreds of thousands of desperate people in Sendai and I had just left there to go back to sunny Chiang Mai. I called Jim in Sendai the next morning and told him I would drive back to Sendai immediately if the was anything to do. Jim said it was a blank day for him and he didn’t recommend my coming. That morning I went to New Life League plant in Hatoyama where I had worked for ten years. I met some Mennonite brothers who had come from the states for relief work. They were from the same group I fellowship with in Chiang Mai and knew all about me. They were organizing relief work and had two men that I had previously met who were up in Sendai that day but were coming back that night. I slept here last night and am waiting to talk to them to see what they have going.

5.What would you do differently if you had this to do all over again?

What would you do? I have done everything I can think of. If I had it to do all over again I would do exactly what I have done. That has been the least I could do. Jesus said of Mary, “She has done what she could.” If we don’t do that, I don’t want to go to heaven. I don’t want to meet Mary if I don’t do what I can.

In a few hours I will talk with these Mennonite brothers and see what they have going. If there is anything to do I will drive back to Sendai. If not I will go back to Chiang Mai and resume several jobs that are waiting for me there. I am trying to get more Bibles into Laos and China. I have a further burden for the Muslims in west China and Pakistan.

My goal in life is to be a Christian terrorist. I feel God has raised up the Muslims terrorists to shame the Church of Christ for their cowardly attitude towards serving Jesus. If those fanatics are so committed to strap bombs on their bodies to go into market places to see how many they can kill;     How much more should we not strap a bomb of the love of God on our bodies and go to the most dangerous places to see how many we can save?!!!!!!!!!

And if we get killed in the process – so what!!! That is what we signed up for. Jesus didn’t think it was a very safe place on earth when He came here to give His life for us. It wasn’t a real safe mission for the apostles in the 1^st century to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Most of them got killed for doing so. Should we plead exemption and stay home?

Gomen nasai.

                              bill

Senai Tsunami Work

27 March 2011

Dear Phyllis,

I am still in Sendai. This has indeed been a very surprising week. I know the Lord’s ways are strange, but I am much confused over this one. I am in about as central a location as there is for this relief operation. I had paid double price to get to Japan as soon as possible. I had driven virtually nonstop for 20 hours from Ikoma to Sendai. Surprisingly, I was the first one from the outside to arrive here. It would be another two days before the next load of supplies would arrive. I had seen amazing miracles – or the Lord’s assistance – in getting here. But once I arrived I wondered why I had come. I have been involved in several relief operations in major disaster zones, but this was a first time experience. I have been in close contact with the fellows who are organizing relief work, and everyone more or less agrees. I told one brother, who is in the heart of this operation, “Relief work here is like running a concession selling bathing suits in a nudist colony.” He laughed and said, “Yes, that is pretty much the way it is going.”

 At first I was a little miffed at Nagai sensei for what I thought was a narrow, uncooperative, attitude. I asked, “Where are the pastors?” He replied, “There are very few churches in Tohoko (this area of Japan)”. I really didn’t understand the situation until Thursday when we took a truck load of supplies to a church in Kesennuma. I was amazed that in a two hour trip I only saw one church on the way. Town after town there simply were no church buildings.

As I told you in my last letter, after we put gas in Nagai sensei’s car, we took a load of the supplies I had brought from Ikoma to a church in Sendai. Monday, an elder brother took me searching to Ishinomaki. These two cities were reportedly the worst hit cities in the tsunami area. After visiting a church in Ishinomaki, where the pastor said everything was under control, we went to the city office. The water from the tsunami had come as far as a meter high in that part of town, but the only real evidence was mud on the street and three canoes sitting in front of the city office. Needless to say the activities in the city office were not normal. There were 20 or 30 people who had no other place to stay who were sleeping on the floor. There were several areas of futons (mats) on the floor where these people had obviously made home for the past week. There was a very large bulletin board with sheets of places that were being used for refugee centers and the needs they had there. Most of them said “food, water, blankets, kerosene, etc.” But I noticed that most of the requests were several days old. Recent ones were scarce.

But then there was a bulletin board that brought tears to my eyes. There were many dozen, perhaps a hundred sheets of paper, saying, “Searching for…” Then there was the name of the person, usually a picture, and personal description. This was frantic people desperately looking for missing family members. In all probability Mitsuko, Toshiko, Satoru, etc were no longer on this earth.

We went to the Volunteers section and asked what we could do. They said this was being handled at a university in another part of the city. After a long search we finally found the Volunteer Center. It looked like a store that had just gone out of business. The utsuke (reception desk) was a small container. There were two girls in there to handle inquiring volunteers. After filling out some forms they had us write our names on a tape that they stuck on our arms to be easily identified. It really wasn’t too hard to find us. They had us sit in another small container with about ten chairs. We had no problem finding a seat. The place was empty. We were probably the only ones there that morning. Twenty minutes later another man came, who was probably the director, to talk to us, and explained that they really had nothing where we could be of any help.

I was completely dumbfounded. This was different than anything I had ever seen. I had come from Thailand and there simply was nothing to do.

The explanation for this was that there was extremely little damage from the earthquake. But where the tsunami hit EVERYTHING was totally gone. There was no need for a rescue operation. There were NO survivors. The ones who had escaped, but lost their homes, were being put up in gymnasiums in schools all over town. The immediate need of basics was gradually being met and local people seemed to be handling the refugee centers. I saw no church activity where churches were doing this ministry.

As we left the Volunteer Center I saw a large truck unloading supplies. I asked the men who they were and where they were from. They were just ordinary Japanese who had come from Kanazawa, about 400 km away. They were unloading their things in a large room that was being used as a warehouse at the university.

I talked with Tim Cole, who was heading up a lot of the missionary relief work, several times on the phone. He said there seemed to be a glut of supplies in Sendai but extremely poor coordination in getting these things out to other more desperate areas. I asked Tim, “Is there anything I can do?” He replied, “We might need a truck driver or someone to load trucks.” But he never called back.

Yesterday morning a truck came into the Bible school with 7 tons of water. I went out to help them unload but there were so many standing shoulder to shoulder passing cartons of water off that I saw no place to edge in. I later told another man who had come from Nagoya to help, “I feel like the fifth cup on a milking machine.” He laughed and said, “Me too.”

When I left Ikoma Neil said, “If you can find one person who needs help your trip will be well worth while.” Tuesday morning I was so discourage I felt like a dog putting his tail between his legs and slinking off in defeat. I was about to go home but the Lord seemed to say, “Stay on a little longer”. At 11:00 o’clock Nagai’s wife, Mari, came to tell me that a sister from the church had just called in desperate need. There was a hundred year old bathhouse on her property that had tipped over during the earthquake and it was leaning against the neighbor’s house. Was there anyone there that could help pull that building off from the neighbor’s house? I was ecstatic!

Before leaving Ikoma, Hirota san and I had gone out looking for a chiruhoru (come-along). That is a very unusual winch that works its way up a cable with tremendous pulling power. It had cost nearly $800 but I felt it was the type of tool we needed in a disaster area like Sendai. I envisioned myself pulling all sorts of heavy object with it. That was exactly the tool I needed for that job. We had also bought a new chain saw to use here. I loaded those two tools in the truck and went over to sister Itamiya’s house. It was pure joy.

There was a very heavy tile roof on this ancient building. I first climbed up on the roof and tore the tiles off. Then I began to cut out key posts in the building. By pulling with that incredible come-along I was able to pull the building a meter off the neighbors house and get it leaning towards Itamiya san’s house. It was no simple trick to tear that building down. It was quite dangerous and fairly complicated. Without that chiruhoru, a regular Japanese carpenter would have had a hard time getting it down. A chiruhoru is a very unusual tool that extremely few people have ever seen – much less few people own one. But the Lord helped us marvelously. We made excellent progress the first day, and by noon the second day the building was laying flat on the ground exactly where I wanted it to fall.

Itamiya san is a wonderful sister with a testimony showing a great deal of the Lord’s work in her heart. Her husband had died 17 years ago. Seven years ago she had a serious personal problem that took her to the church. I asked, “Why did you go to the church rather than to a temple?” All she could say was, "It was the Lord.” She shows a great deal of the Lord’s direct involvement in her life. Itamiya san is a lovely sister but one who is very destitute and had no way to get that building off the neighbor’s house. She was bathed in tears as I told her how the Lord had spent a great deal of money to send a strange gaijin (foreign) carpenter all the way from Thailand to tear down her building. She was totally overwhelmed with gratitude.

I greatly enjoyed helping her, but I noticed she had a fairly well kept butsudan (Buddhist worship shelf). I told her, “I am delighted to tear your building down for you, but I also want to clean out your house and haul that butsudan away”. She said she didn’t worship idols anymore and agreed that it should go. But after lunch the second day, when I was ready to do it, I ran into a brick wall. She agreed with everything I said, but was spiritually paralyzed. She wept profusely, and wound up on the floor. The devil had her bound with a chain. I was komaru (problem). I could have forcefully taken that butsudan away while she was still spiritually chained, but I knew it would do little good until the Lord released her from that bondage. In desperate tears she pleaded, “Please give me time.”

At first I felt Itamiya san was the basic reason the Lord called me from Thailand to Sendai, but when I left there with her still in bondage I felt very uncomfortable. Needless to say there was a great deal of prayer.

Then yesterday afternoon Mari san told me Itamiya san had just called asking that I come over to haul the butsudan away. Oh my goodness, what joy! She too was filled with gratitude and joy as we loaded that monstrous box on my truck and took it over to the Bible school to burn it.

What a strange story! I spent over $1, 200 to come to Japan to help in the relief work in Sendai. Japan Mission spent over $1,000 for that chiruhoru and new chain saw, plus a great deal of money to send me to Sendai. Apart from the truck load of supplies that I hauled up and helped out slightly at two churches there seems to be little justification for that major financial investment. But I did help one sister. There was one dear sister who had been bound by the devil all her life that is now in joyous freedom. It cost Jesus His Blood to deliver us from satan’s grip, and the Lord feels so intense about delivering His children from spiritual bondage that He sent me from Thailand to see one sister released.

 

Lord willing, I will be heading south tomorrow and probably be back in Chiang Mai sometime next week.

There is much more to write but I will close for now in the joyous freedom of Jesus,

                                  bill

Getting to Sendai

20 March 2011

Dear Phyllis,

When I left Chiang Mai I had no idea where I was going in Japan. Tim Cole was trying to get in touch with me, and called Neil asking if he knew anyway he could reach me. He was surprised to hear that I was presently on my way to Japan. I called Tim as soon as I got in Ikoma. In 1988-1989 I had been in Sendai building the Kakudai Senkyo Gauin (Tohoku Bible School). Tim wanted to know about them and how to contact them. There is a large organization, CRASH, that Tim was working with and they wanted to use those facilities as a base. I naturally thought that would probably be the first place I would go, and Tim’s call confirmed that that was to be my first destination.

The Japan Mission truck was just out of shakden (inspection) which meant they had to get it inspected before I could leave Ikoma for Sendai. This put my schedule back a day and a half. Thursday night we finally got the truck loaded and by 9:00PM I was ready to leave. It seemed like the better side of wisdom to get a little rest first, so I slept on a couch at Japan Mission until 2:00AM. After a cup of coffee and some brief devotions, I hit the road with a badly overloaded truck. We had such a terrible load on that small truck that the back tires almost looked like they were square. Until I was able to get some more air in the tires, that truck was waddling so badly all over the road that it felt like I was driving a dolphin. I thought this is going to be a long ride.

Six hours later I got up to Nagano-ken, and drowsiness was starting to get in the red zone. I pulled into a rest area near Matsumoto to rest for half an hour. The snow around Miyoko was higher than the truck, but it had warmed up considerably. That day the sky was beautiful and the roads were clear. By 4:00 in the afternoon I had gotten as far as Niigata City. I was almost out of gas and stopped at a rest area to fill up. I was surprised to see a huge line for fuel pump at the gas station and noticed that the license plates were from all over Japan. It seemed a small army was headed for the disaster area.

 I asked the girl at the highway information desk about what route to take. She recommended a lower one and said everyone was headed that way. That discussion convinced me that I was right in choosing to go further north to Sakata and come into Sendai from the northwest. With all that traffic headed the south route, there would be a major traffic jam. I also knew that the highway was closed to all traffic except emergency vehicles, and you had to have a permit to get in the Sendai area. I didn’t have one, but was sure that going north would be open. That decision proved to be the right one. Except for one area where they were working on the highway, causing an unbelievable traffic jam, the rest of the trip was with very little traffic. I was surprised to discover that from Niigata City on there were absolutely NO gasoline stations open. I had planned on filling up one more time in Sakata, which is on the Japan Sea side. I assumed there would be gas that far, but for the last five hours there wasn’t one gas station open. Fortunately I had several spare gas cans prepared for this emergency and stopped once to put some more in my tank.

Neil Verwey called me on my cell phone around 4:00 asking how far I had got. He told me, “You have many people traveling with you in prayer.” I’m sure that was true. It was a most unusual trip. I told Neil, “All I have to do is drive. Jesus has to do all the rest.” I would like to report that Jesus did an outstanding job.

Tying down and covering a load like that is difficult. I was genuinely surprised how well the load rode. I never had to retie the load once. The tarp stayed basically in place and the Lord had His angles doing everything else. From Niigata on the sky was black. I couldn’t imagine anything but heavy rain. Miraculously the rain never came down on me and everything on the truck was kept perfectly dry.

Because of the truck inspection, the schedule had been delayed a day and a half. Had I gone when I first planned it is doubtful that I would have made it. They had had heavy snow, but it had warmed up considerable when I got there. The roads were wet with melting snow but I had no problem going over mountain passes that would have been closed the day before.

It was 10:00PM when I finally pulled in the parking lot at the Bible school. I had been driving virtually nonstop for 20 hours. My shoulders should have been as tight as a fiddle string, but I felt amazingly rested. I called David Verwey telling him that I had arrived safely. I didn’t want to bother anyone at 10:00PM and planned to sleep in the truck, but Dave called Nagai sensei telling him I was there. Ten minutes later I heard a knocking on the truck window. It was Nagai sensei welcoming me to the school and offering that I sleep on the floor in the office.

Since the completion of the Bible school in 1989, that was the first time I had been back. The school was only 20 km from the epicenter of the Righter 9 earthquake but showed very little sign of damage.

Things had been so hectic since leaving Chiang Mai that I didn’t even know what day it was. They told me that tomorrow was Sunday and they would be having regular worship service. Because of the gas shortage, many people who had to come from a distance were unable to attend, but otherwise it seemed like a very ordinary worship service.

After church I asked Nagai sensei what his plans were for the afternoon. He said he would probably split firewood for their wood stove. I looked at him in stunned disbelief. I had just arrived with a load of supplies and he was going to spend the day splitting firewood. Then he said he had no gas for his car to go anywhere. When I told him I had brought nearly 100 liters of spare gasoline, he said as soon as we could off-load my truck we could go immediately into Sendai to a church he knew.

I was utterly amazed when we drove into Sendai. The city had just experienced one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history. I had been in Kobe when a Righter 7.6 earthquake had flattened that city. Sendai had just been hit with a 9.0 but I saw very little damage. It was hard to believe that the magnitude was stronger than about a 5.0. The people said that everything in the houses was thrown all over, but I haven’t heard of anyone injured and very little property damage.

The church we visited was fine. All the Christians were safe. No one had suffered serious damage except one sister who lost her house. But the pastor told me that he knew other places where the food and supplies I brought were needed. After we unloaded some things, the pastor took us to the tsunami area, less than 1km away.

That was what you saw on TV. A wall of water over 10 meters (34 feet) had cleaned out everything in its path. As far as you could see unto the base of the hills everything was perfectly flat. It looked exactly like Hiroshima. It would be virtually impossible for there to be any survivors after something like that. The only thing to look for was dead bodies. Nagai sensei told me that the Japanese army had been there, and they had taken out all the dead they could find. There were thousands lined up to be identified by relatives, but getting rid of the dead was an enormous problem. Crematoriums were, of course, totally jammed. I don't know what they did with the dead.

But the living – that is the problem.

 I will write more later,

                                                    bill

To Senai with Love

16 March 2011

Dear Phyllis,

This is probably the most unusual dispatch I have ever sent. Gomen nasai (I’m sorry). Today is Wednesday and I doubt seriously that I will be able to write this coming Sunday. In two hours I am leaving Chiang Mai to go directly to the tsunami area of Japan. In all probability this will be a long term project.

My very dear friend, Neil Verwey, called from Japan last night asking why I wasn’t in Sendai. He wasn’t critical, but as the founder of Japan Mission he has a deep concern to help people in such a stricken area with as much assistance as possible. They had no one on their immediate staff who were in a position to go, and he resorted to calling his old buddy, Bill Cook, asking him if he would go as their representative to the Sendai area. He said they had a truck loaded with blankets and all the sulies that they could get, loaded, waiting for me to drive up there.

The roads, of course, are gone. Transportation to that area is virtually impossible. But Neil did some investigation, and it looks like there is a possible way in by going up the west coast of Japan, and then crossing over the mountains from the west to get as close as possible to the desperate area.

Neil talked with his son David about the proposed operation and both thought I was uniquely qualified. I am in a somewhat unique position with my knowledge of the language, the country, and construction to be a help to those people. I had a deep desire to go but it looked totally out of the question until Neil called pleading that I go as their representative. They have the organization and supplies but needed a man to carry the supplies up to there and join the fight to help survivors. They are standing behind me but I must go by myself and trust the Lord to open the way to show me what He would have me do there.

I bought my ticket for Japan two hours ago and will be leaving soon, arriving in Osaka early tomorrow morning. I can’t say that what lies in front of me is what I would choose for an exciting adventure. I would rather stay in Chiang Mai in the lovely weather working in my comfortable shop. It is an exhausting trip to drive from Ikoma to Sendai on the expressway. This is impossible now, which means I will have a grueling two days driving by myself on back roads through terrible snow country. Just existing in a disaster area like that is challenging. There is no electricity. It is freezing cold. Rain and snow are to be expected. Food and water are scarce. The work is utterly overwhelming and endless. There is extremely little that one person can do. I will simply be one ant on a huge mountain. But one ant can move one grain of sand. Jesus said of Mary, “She has done what she could.” That is the best testimony the Lord can ever say about anyone of us. How can we do less?

In the Air Force, they had a policy that when a man was down in an inaccessible area – as a last ditch effort – they would drop a survival specialist in that area to be with the down pilot and work with him until they could get him to an area that could be reached by ship or helicopter. When the rescue specialist parachuted out of that plane, he was totally identified with the man in his environment; whether it be the arctic, a jungle, or the ocean; to share the same fate as the man he was sent in to rescue. This is what Jesus did for us – only in a much profounder way. He went beyond our suffering to take the full brunt of the wrath of God to suffer for our sins. It is not fun to leave my comfortable home in Chiang Mai to go and live with those people who have lost everything, including the roof over their heads. But this is a privilege, and one that I cannot decline.

 I don’t know when I will write again but when I do it will probably be with stories beyond anything I have hitherto seen.

When you speak to Jesus in these coming weeks you might remind Him that one of His most limited servants there in that tsunami area as a candidate for His use in any capacity He may choose.

Thank you for your participation with me. In the cause of our gracious Lord Jesus,

                                         Bill

PS: I wrote this just before leaving for the airport. I am now in Ikoma getting things ready to probably leave tomorrow for up north. Jesus is in charge of this operation. All I have to do is follow Him.

Tsunami of the Heart

13 March 2011

Dear Phyllis,

It would be pretty easy to title my letter this week. TSUNAMI! This has truly been a week in history. What happened Friday was probably the worst natural disaster ever to strike Japan in its history. The earthquake that triggered that tsunami was in the top five of the most major earthquakes ever recorded. Needless to say I have spent many hours glued to my computer watching the news on Internet.

That tsunami was something like I have never seen. In 2004, I watched many videos of the major tsunami that hit Thailand’s Pee Pee Island and Puket, but this was totally different. That one in 2004 was water. But this one looked like lava. It wasn’t water. It was a solid mass of material moving slowly like an irresistible bulldozer blade taking everything out in its path. As of this moment, 5:00 PM Sunday afternoon, the Japanese government is still calling the casualties at “several hundred” with expectations that it “might rise to over 1,000”. That is utterly ridiculous! There are numerous villages and cities that have been virtually wiped out where it looks like there are probably NO survivors. Four trains, including one Shinkan sen (Bullet train), that have simply disappeared and no one knows where they went. There must be tens of thousands – if not hundreds of thousands – dead.

A friend called me the other day and asked me if I was grieving and praying for my beloved country of Japan. I replied, “No”. Of course the human suffering at a time like this is enormous. I personally went through a similar natural disaster in the Kobe earthquake in 1995. I was 50 km from the epicenter of that quake when it hit and was in Kobe five times in the next few days digging people out from under rubble. Each time got worse. The human suffering was unimaginable. But that isn’t the problem. The Bible has told us that things considerably many thousand times worse than this are absolutely in the pipe coming this was in the near future. We can expect a lot of this – only many times greater. These are things in the Seven Seals that Jesus is about to open (Rev. 5-16). These are things that will affect 1/3 of the earth (Rev. 8:7, 8, 9, 10, 12; 9:15, 18). Why will God resort to such extreme natural disasters? To warn men and move them to repentance unto salvation. This is the problem. As tragic as the human suffering in northeastern Japan is today, the real disaster is that Japan is not saved. In January, when I went back to Japan, I landed at the Kansai Airport. Taking the train out of Osaka and going up the mountain towards Ikoma, I could look back and see that enormous metropolis lying below me. Real pain went through my heart. I thought, “My goodness, they’re lost!” Millions of millions of people are hopelessly lost on their way to a Christless hell without the faintest idea what they are up against. This is the problem. What will it take to awaken Japan and turn that nation to Jesus? I have no idea. I doubt that this huge national disaster will have any impact on it at all. I know of very little effect that the Kobe earthquake had in a significant spiritual awakening. I can’t imagine a greater opportunity than Japan had in 1945 when everything – including the fundamental spiritual fabric of the nation – went totally to zero. God gave Japan an amazing man in Douglas MacArthur to remold the country anyway he wanted. MacArthur pleaded for missionaries and Bibles, but somehow the Church dropped the ball. A lot of dendo (evangelism) was done, but very little came out of it. The only answer I know is the Holy Spirit. “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit” (Zech. 4:6).

On a totally different page, I saw another Richter 9 spiritual earthquake this past week. My friend Scott has a neighbor that is about as bad a loser as they come. The poor guy is a low-life American that is a total spiritual no-hoper. Scott invited him over for the Friday night Bible studies several times, but I thought it was a waste of time. Seeing a guy like that saved just won’t happen. Spiritually there was just nobody home and little expectation that there would ever be any spiritual occupancy. More than that he had a Thai wife who was a serious Buddhist; and a mother-in-law that they said she was more Buddhist than Buddha. People said they could imagine Buddha praying to her.

About two months ago Paul asked me, “What is this business of baptism? My wife wants to get baptized.” I couldn’t imagine anything more unusual. I asked, “Why in the world does she want to get baptized?”

“Because she wants to be a member of the club.”

Scott was out of town last week and asked me to go see Paul to spend some one-on-one time with him. Unexpectedly, he showed up at my house Thursday asking me to come over. He said his wife kept asking, “When is Bill coming? She wants to see you.” I had heard some unusual things were happening and she was being taught one-on-one by a member of the Chinese Church. That is a very good church, and I was sure they were giving her the straight story. It was with great expectation that I went over there Friday night. I thought Maricia had better English than she does, and I had a hard time communicating with her. But the story that came out was something like I have never heard in my life

She has been getting up every morning at 4:30 to read the Bible. I asked, “Why do you want to read the Bible like that?”

“Because I want to be a Christian.”

“Why do you want to be a Christian?”

“Because I love God.”

“How long have you loved God?”

“Two months. Ever since Kae talked to me.”

Two months ago Scott’s wife, Kae, had spoken to her about the Lord, and it was like that kicked off a Richter 9 earthquake that suddenly totally transform the entire landscape.

She got mad at her husband. Paul professes to be a Christian but she said, “You would have let me go to hell. And I would have gone to hell if Kae hadn’t spoken to me.” He would go regularly with them to the Wat – Buddhist temple – to pray. Paul told me after I left their house Friday night Maricia lectured to him for an hour and a half how Buddhism  was the devils plan to blind people into worshiping idols and keeping them from Christ. Two months ago both Maricia and her mother were devout Buddhist but now they are passionate Christians. Paul told me, “My mother-in-law says that God is talking to her.” I said, “Yes, I can understand that.”

“You can?! Man, this is getting spooky!”

I told him, “Paul, you might as well forget it. It is all over for you. God has got you in His cross hairs. He obviously has a very intense interest in you. He is going to run you down, and you are not going to get away. You might as well run up the white flag now.” He responded, “Why would God be interested in me? I am such a bad person. I have done so many terrible things. Why does God want me?” I have no answer for that one other than perhaps God specializes in that kind of salvation. He chooses some of the worst – the most unlikely candidates – to shows His amazing mercy and love. To save a guy like that, and make him to be a citizen of heaven, brings enormous glory to God.

Last Friday afternoon suddenly the earth’s crust split and the ground heaved up with astounding force triggering that Sendai earthquake/tsunami. In a moment of time the landscape was transformed. It was almost like the same thing happened two months ago when Kae spoke to Maricia. It wasn’t a gradual process of months of teaching, but when she heard the Gospel, suddenly there was a tsunami-force change in her life.

Paul said, “I wish you had known this girl before. We both had trouble with drink. We fought a lot. She attempted suicide. Now she is so happy and we don’t fight any more.” I told him, “Yes, there is a totally different new Life that has come to live in her heart. The Spirit of Christ has taken up residence in your family. Maricia is born-again.” Paul replied, “Yea, that is the only explanation. I used to think this business about being born-again was male bovine excretement, but now I see it is real. And the funny thing is, now I don’t want to drink anymore.”

I have seen a number of people brought to Christ over the years but this is almost a first time experience for me. I don’t believer I have ever seen anyone quite like Maricia and her mother so suddenly transformed. They are very unusual spiritual beings. Paul is having a very hard time with the Scripture. He thinks the God of the OT is mean. Maricia told me, “I understand everything I read in the Bible.” I nodded, “Yes, I know. You are being taught by the Holy Spirit.” Paul sat there with almost a frightened, bewildered, look on his face. He will come along. There is no doubt but what he is in the process of being born-again but I will take a little time. He said he loves church.

When I was there Friday night I had Maricia read Ephesians. She had never seen it before but kept raving, “Oh, this is wonderful! This is wonderful!” When she got to Eph. 2:8, she suddenly turned to Paul, thumping her Bible, said, “You have got read this!” (By grace are ye saved)

Man howdy, this is fun! I have seen two historic acts of God this past week. One transformed the face of a portion of Japan and the other was an astounding spiritual invasion in an unlikely home in Chiang Mai.

God is amazing!

                                      bill

TSUNAMI!

13 March 2011

Dear Phyllis,

It would be pretty easy to title my letter this week. TSUNAMI! This has truly been a week in history. What happened Friday was probably the worst natural disaster ever to strike Japan in its history. The earthquake that triggered that tsunami was in the top five of the most major earthquakes ever recorded. Needless to say I have spent many hours glued to my computer watching the news on Internet.

That tsunami was something like I have never seen. In 2004, I watched many videos of the major tsunami that hit Thailand’s Pee Pee Island and Puket, but this was totally different. That one in 2004 was water. But this one looked like lava. It wasn’t water. It was a solid mass of material moving slowly like an irresistible bulldozer blade taking everything out in its path. As of this moment, 5:00 PM Sunday afternoon, the Japanese government is still calling the casualties at “several hundred” with expectations that it “might rise to over 1,000”. That is utterly ridiculous! There are numerous villages and cities that have been virtually wiped out where it looks like there are probably NO survivors. Four trains, including one Shinkan sen (Bullet train), that have simply disappeared and no one knows where they went. There must be tens of thousands – if not hundreds of thousands – dead.

A friend called me the other day and asked me if I was grieving and praying for my beloved country of Japan. I replied, “No”. Of course the human suffering at a time like this is enormous. I personally went through a similar natural disaster in the Kobe earthquake in 1995. I was 50 km from the epicenter of that quake when it hit and was in Kobe five times in the next few days digging people out from under rubble. Each time got worse. The human suffering was unimaginable. But that isn’t the problem. The Bible has told us that things considerably many thousand times worse than this are absolutely in the pipe coming this was in the near future. We can expect a lot of this – only many times greater. These are things in the Seven Seals that Jesus is about to open (Rev. 5-16). These are things that will affect 1/3 of the earth (Rev. 8:7, 8, 9, 10, 12; 9:15, 18). Why will God resort to such extreme natural disasters? To warn men and move them to repentance unto salvation. This is the problem. As tragic as the human suffering in northeastern Japan is today, the real disaster is that Japan is not saved. In January, when I went back to Japan, I landed at the Kansai Airport. Taking the train out of Osaka and going up the mountain towards Ikoma, I could look back and see that enormous metropolis lying below me. Real pain went through my heart. I thought, “My goodness, they’re lost!” Millions of millions of people are hopelessly lost on their way to a Christless hell without the faintest idea what they are up against. This is the problem. What will it take to awaken Japan and turn that nation to Jesus? I have no idea. I doubt that this huge national disaster will have any impact on it at all. I know of very little effect that the Kobe earthquake had in a significant spiritual awakening. I can’t imagine a greater opportunity than Japan had in 1945 when everything – including the fundamental spiritual fabric of the nation – went totally to zero. God gave Japan an amazing man in Douglas MacArthur to remold the country anyway he wanted. MacArthur pleaded for missionaries and Bibles, but somehow the Church dropped the ball. A lot of dendo (evangelism) was done, but very little came out of it. The only answer I know is the Holy Spirit. “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit” (Zech. 4:6).

 

On a totally different page, I saw another Richter 9 spiritual earthquake this past week. My friend Scott has a neighbor that is about as bad a loser as they come. The poor guy is a low-life American that is a total spiritual no-hoper. Scott invited him over for the Friday night Bible studies several times, but I thought it was a waste of time. Seeing a guy like that saved just won’t happen. Spiritually there was just nobody home and little expectation that there would ever be any spiritual occupancy. More than that he had a Thai wife who was a serious Buddhist; and a mother-in-law that they said she was more Buddhist than Buddha. People said they could imagine Buddha praying to her.

About two months ago Paul asked me, “What is this business of baptism? My wife wants to get baptized.” I couldn’t imagine anything more unusual. I asked, “Why in the world does she want to get baptized?”

“Because she wants to be a member of the club.”

Scott was out of town last week and asked me to go see Paul to spend some one-on-one time with him. Unexpectedly, he showed up at my house Thursday asking me to come over. He said his wife kept asking, “When is Bill coming? She wants to see you.” I had heard some unusual things were happening and she was being taught one-on-one by a member of the Chinese Church. That is a very good church, and I was sure they were giving her the straight story. It was with great expectation that I went over there Friday night. I thought Marcia had better English than she does, and I had a hard time communicating with her. But the story that came out was something like I have never heard in my life

She has been getting up every morning at 4:30 to read the Bible. I asked, “Why do you want to read the Bible like that?”

“Because I want to be a Christian.”

“Why do you want to be a Christian?”

“Because I love God.”

“How long have you loved God?”

“Two months. Ever since Kae talked to me.”

 Two months ago Scott’s wife, Kae, had spoken to her about the Lord, and it was like that kicked off a Richter 9 earthquake that suddenly totally transform the entire landscape.

She got mad at her husband. Paul professes to be a Christian but she said, “You would have let me go to hell. And I would have gone to hell if Kae hadn’t spoken to me.” He would go regularly with them to the Wat – Buddhist temple – to pray. Paul told me after I left their house Friday night Marcia lectured to him for an hour and a half how Buddhism  was the devils plan to blind people into worshiping idols and keeping them from Christ. Two months ago both Marcia and her mother were devout Buddhist but now they are passionate Christians. Paul told me, “My mother-in-law says that God is talking to her.” I said, “Yes, I can understand that.”

“You can?! Man, this is getting spooky!”

I told him, “Paul, you might as well forget it. It is all over for you. God has got you in His cross hairs. He obviously has a very intense interest in you. He is going to run you down, and you are not going to get away. You might as well run up the white flag now.” He responded, “Why would God be interested in me? I am such a bad person. I have done so many terrible things. Why does God want me?” I have no answer for that one other than perhaps God specializes in that kind of salvation. He chooses some of the worst – the most unlikely candidates – to shows His amazing mercy and love. To save a guy like that, and make him to be a citizen of heaven, brings enormous glory to God.

 Last Friday afternoon suddenly the earth’s crust split and the ground heaved up with astounding force triggering that Sendai earthquake/tsunami. In a moment of time the landscape was transformed. It was almost like the same thing happened two months ago when Kae spoke to Marcia. It wasn’t a gradual process of months of teaching, but when she heard the Gospel, suddenly there was a tsunami-force change in her life.

Paul said, “I wish you had known this girl before. We both had trouble with drink. We fought a lot. She attempted suicide. Now she is so happy and we don’t fight any more.” I told him, “Yes, there is a totally different new Life that has come to live in her heart. The Spirit of Christ has taken up residence in your family. Marcia is born-again.” Paul replied, “Yea, that is the only explanation. I used to think this business about being born-again was male bovine excrement, but now I see it is real. And the funny thing is, now I don’t want to drink anymore.”

 I have seen a number of people brought to Christ over the years but this is almost a first time experience for me. I don’t believer I have ever seen anyone quite like Marcia and her mother so suddenly transformed. They are very unusual spiritual beings. Paul is having a very hard time with the Scripture. He thinks the God of the OT is mean. Marcia told me, “I understand everything I read in the Bible.” I nodded, “Yes, I know. You are being taught by the Holy Spirit.” Paul sat there with almost a frightened, bewildered, look on his face. He will come along. There is no doubt but what he is in the process of being born-again but I will take a little time. He said he loves church.

When I was there Friday night I had Marcia read Ephesians. She had never seen it before but kept raving, “Oh, this is wonderful! This is wonderful!” When she got to Eph. 2:8, she suddenly turned to Paul, thumping her Bible, said, “You have got read this!” (By grace are ye saved)

Man howdy, this is fun! I have seen two historic acts of God this past week. One transformed the face of a portion of Japan and the other was an astounding spiritual invasion in an unlikely home in Chiang Mai.

God is amazing!

                                       bill