Aftermath of Sendai

5 April 2011

Dear Phyllis,

Gomen nasai for writing another mid-week letter. It is just that so much has happened in the past three weeks that I could write a book of the things that are on my heart.

I sincerely apologize for last Sunday’s letter. I fear that was not very edifying. It was just that the contrast of where I was blessed with reconciliation, and then hours later run into a stiff resistance against it, was the dominant impression in my heart.

The central issue of the past three weeks is the historic Sendai earthquake/tsunami. That will stand as one of the major events in Japanese history.

That was a very unique event that was recorded by many professional and armature videos of that enormous tsunami advancing wiping out entire towns in a moment of time. We have all watched in disbelief as that terrifying wave advanced irresistibly taking out everything in its path. The Japan tsunami and the one in Thailand in 2004 were much different. The one in Puket was water. But this one was a paste of ground up matter.

It is impossible to describe what it was like to stand there in the midst that mass of destruction looking at what happened. It was like someone had taken a huge putty knife and scraped the surface of the earth. Then they took the towns and placed everything in a blender grinding it up into a paste. After that they took that paste and spread it back over the earth like icing on a cake. As far as you could see there was nothing but a waist deep pile of broken boards, cars, and whatever else constituted of what used to be a town. You couldn’t distinguish the difference between towns and rice fields. Everything was evenly distributed over all.

We have all seen videos of people on bicycles or cars in the path of that moving wave. There was no escape. Unlike the destruction of an earthquake, there was no rescue operation after that. There were only two categories – those killed and those who escaped. I could only think that this looked exactly like the coming judgment of God. In the days of Noah, and the days of Sodom, once the door was closed, there was no salvation offered. How would you pray for the earth the fourth day of the Flood? It took 40 days to cover the earth. You could plead, “Lord, there are millions of children and elderly here on earth and the water is getting higher.” There would be no survivors. There was a hundred year warning, but once the door was closed, hope of salvation was past.

As terrible as the destruction was in Sendai, I feel strongly that is not to be compared with the horrible situation in Osaka, Kobe, Tokyo, and every city in Japan. Here we have multiple millions of people who are in the path of an even more terrifying wave of destruction that is irresistible progressing without any notice. It would be close to being statically accurate to say that in an 80 year period every soul in Japan will die. That is the entire nation. Sendai was a very dramatic visual threat. In Sendai it was terrifying to see that tsunami coming. But all over Japan there are much more people falling into the abyss of hell everyday unnoticed that we passively view as normal. The millions and millions of Japanese who die annually are in far more terrifying danger than those who were swept away in the Sendai tsunami. The ones in Sendai were gone in a moment of time, but the ones dying every year throughout Japan are falling into a pit where there is no termination. The only similarity is that in both cases there are only two categories – those lost and those saved. How serious is the situation that we are faced with in warning everyone around us of the inevitable fate that is moving their way! As I drove south from Sendai through peaceful Japanese towns, all I could think of was the immanent danger everyone is in. That was one of the illustrations that was forcefully impressed on my heart.

In any natural disaster zone there are three phases. The first is the immediate rescue of victims. In times of natural disasters, that time is measured in minutes, hours, or days. In many earthquakes, that period may be as long as a week as people are slowly being dug out from under the rubble. In a tsunami, like we just had, there are no survivors. There were thousands of people buried under all that debris, but there was no one yet alive.

The second phase is caring for the ones who escaped. That is a crisis lasting several days where there must be shelter, food, water, and clothing for those who have lost everything. That is the basic reason I returned to Japan from Thailand to help out in that phase.

The third phase is reconstruction. That defies imagination. I have absolutely NO idea how they are going to handle that. In Kobe it was a giant task but one you could grapple with, as the area of destruction was restricted to about ten kilometers or less. In this case it is over 500 kilometers of hundreds of cities and towns. After a house fire, you can clean up the mess of charred timbers. But here it staggers the imagination how they are going to just clear the land, much less rebuild the towns. This will take many years. And where are the people going to live in the mean time? There are only three options. One is to move away or live with relatives. The second would be to put up tent cities. This is occasionally done after earthquakes or floods. The third option is to put up temporary housing until regular houses can be constructed.  But to house hundreds of thousands along a 500 km stretch of Japan for years as they rebuild?

This entire issue of humanitarian relief is something that we must look at in the light of eternity. Jesus didn’t come to help us improve our methods for humanitarian relief. There was a tower that collapsed while Jesus was on earth, that killed 18 people (Lk. 13:4). There must have been many more injured. He didn’t organize a group of people to rush to the scene of the disaster to support the families of victims or assist those who undoubtedly were injured. All He did was comment that unless people repent, they all would likewise perish.

The victims of this tsunami disaster are kawaiso (pitiful). It is heart rending to hear stories of children and family members who perished. It would be less than human if we didn’t weep with them. Those in refugee centers are in bad shape. They have lost everything and need help. But far more than food and clothing, their greatest need is salvation. I told Nagai sensei of the Bible school, “I fear much of this effort is simply devoted to seeing that victims have a more comfortable life and can go to hell with ease.” As much as we want to see that people have full stomachs, what is that going to accomplish if the Blood that Jesus shed for their salvation is not answered with a grateful acceptance and seeing the fulfillment for His original coming? Jesus didn’t pay the price of Calvary just to see to it that we have a more comfortable journey of self-indulgence. He came to bring us back to God. If that is not accomplished, what good is all this humanitarian relief?

Anybody with a concern for souls will certainly agree and say that the basic purpose for this relief work is to provide an effective avenue for evangelism. It is nice that the Red Cross and Samaritan Purse are intensely engaged in humanitarian relief. Somebody has got to do that. But that is not the Gospel message. The Gospel message is that Jesus came to save us from sin and the devil’s dominion. He came to restore us to God – not rebuild us a nice new house.

Gomen nasai. My heart is greatly exercised. Japan has an ASTRONOMICAL problem on her hands as to how to recover from this historic disaster. But it looks to me like the Church of Christ has an even greater challenge in seeing the Kingdom of God come to Japan.

I have no idea how that can be accomplished. Since the end of the 2^nd WW we have had 60 years of trying, and have seen very little progress. The only answer I know is BY MY SPIRIT (Zech. 4:6).

Let’s give all we have to Jesus and maybe He can use us a little;

                                                                                                  bill