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