English Kids' Camp

Since April last year Lorna has run two weekly English classes, one for younger elementary school age children and another for the older year groups. As well as teaching them English from a native speaker, there is the chance each week at the end to share a simple Bible story (in Japanese) with the children. Many of these children (and their parents) have come to different events we have held over the past year or so. This past weekend we held a camp for some of the English class children - not all were able to come so we had manageable numbers. It was great fun. We were helped by a team which is over here from the UK in July working at another church nearby and two of them also stayed overnight. We had games. We ate some British food for supper - mince, potatoes, carrots and peas followed by trifle! That seemed to go down well. In the evening we practised a play which Lorna had written in simple English telling the story of Daniel in the lions' den. The kids did a great job saying their lines and enjoyed making some masks and props together. The evening ended with fireworks (always part of a camp here). We expected the children to be up early - and they were. Morning exercises took the form of hip hop and then it was time for bread sticks baked over the barbecue. The camp ended with parents being invited to a time of games and food on the Sunday morning and a presentation of the play. It was so good to see many parents turning up, including several dads. The children have had many seeds sown in their hearts over these past months. We trust that in years to come, and even now, some of these children - and their parents - might find their way to Jesus.

A Busy Weekend

This past weekend saw us once again rent the kindergarten building we have used before for Hiragishi Church events. On Saturday we held a UK Culture Day. A team of six from the UK are spending a month working with a church near us and came along to help in different ways. We had fun with icebreaker and other games; we heard about the different parts of UK culture; shared about the significance of the crosses on the flag; sang a traditional song; enjoyed some Scottish country dancing; and ended with a traditional afternoon tea complete with cucumber sandwiches and scones with jam and cream. It was great to welcome people who we know well and have come along to events before. It was also a joy to see a number of people there for the first time. There was a great atmosphere with time to chat to many of the guests who were there. For a small church like ours to hold something like this is always a challenge and we were glad of the help of the team from the UK. These kind of events are 'easy to come to' and offer a low key way to get to know people in our community and a place where we can invite folks we have been getting to know well. People are at ease coming. Our hope is that some will want to know more and come along again. Everyone took home a card with some details of Izumi Church and an invite to some other events we plan to hold in the autumn. As soon as the Culture Day finished we were straight into an overnight camp for the children from Lorna's English classes - but that blog can wait for another day.

Impressions of Iwate - Day 6

We are now back in Sapporo. Travel and catching an overnight ferry meant no time for the Day 6 blog yesterday. It was another action-packed day. The morning saw us loading up the vehicles again. The destination - the town of Yamada which we had driven through the day before and which had been badly affected by the tsunami. We headed for a large temporary housing area with some 150 houses. Some set up the mat and laid out all the things we had brought - vegetables, clothing, blankets, foodstuffs, things for children and babies. Others of us went round the doors telling people we had come. Everyone's eyes opened wide, they smiled, said thank you and headed for the area where we had set up stall. No sooner was everything laid out than it was all gone! No one here has access to shops (there are none left nearby) and many have no car. We helped some of the older folks carry things back to their tiny houses - little ways to serve and to chat. After a quick turn around at the base, we were off again to a smaller temporary housing area, this time small enough that we could deliver some items to each household. Again, the welcome was warm. Some even insisted on giving something in return - a can of juice or an ice cream bar. People with so little giving out of what they had. We drove back to our base again, tidied the place up for the next teams who arrived last night (not OMF teams) and headed north, passing through some other devastated places on our way to Hachinohe where the ferry was waiting. Yesterday, four months to the day of the tsunami, was the first day ferries could operate from that port since then due to the damage incurred that day. It was a busy ferry! Now we are back to daily life in Sapporo. But now is also the time to reflect. What have we learned? What can we do now? How does OMF move forward in these coming weeks and months? Other teams will go. A couple (and their young son) are in Miyako over the coming few weeks. A more permanent presence will be established from September. The needs are vast. The potential is great. Funds have been donated in abundance. Supplies are continually needed and those needs will change as the months go on. The challenge - to provide the resources, both human and material, so that the work of reaching out in word and deed, the work of listening, of being alongside, of encouraging, of being the hands, feet and ears of Jesus can continue in these hugely needy areas. The OMF July team's visit is over. But the work of rebuilding broken communities and broken lives goes on and will go on for many weeks, months and years to come.

Impressions of Iwate - Day 5

Today has been quite a day. It started off with a jolt just after 10am when a strong earthquake hit off the coast of Iwate. It was M7.1 and immediately the sirens went off and announcements started giving a tsunami warning and saying to people to move away from the coastal areas. That continued for some time, even after we had gone to the service at the local church. Occasionally the service stopped so we could listen to the announcements. In the end of the tday he tsunami amounted to hardly anything but it went to show how suddenly these things can happen - and almost 4 months to the day of the big quake. It was great to worship at Miyako Community Church and have fellowship with the folks there. We were given a warm welcome and it is so good that OMF can work in partnership with this church and Pastor Iwatsuka. The afternoon saw us head further south along the coast to visit some of the towns which had really taken the brunt of the tsunami. The scenes were quite incredible. As a team we reflected on our time after our evening meal. Some expressions people used - like a war zone. Like the aftermath of Hiroshima. Desolate. Sense of hopelessness. The buildings that still stood were gutted; some were badly charred due to fire; some still lay toppled over; some were just twisted wrecks. Mangled cars were everywhere. The roads through these towns have been cleared but it is like driving through a ghost town. You can't even imagine what it was like before. The town of Otsuchi lost over 60% of its population. The clear up seems hardly to have started in some places. The Ostuchi town office was swept away by the tsunami along with the town's mayor and other leaders. Later one of our team met an old lady from Otsuchi who survived by running up the mountain - she said simply that Otsuchi is finished. There were many poignant sights today but one that sticks in the mind is seeing a boat with the name 海友 - the characters for 'sea' and 'friend'. What an irony. The sea which today was so serene and beautiful - it is an idyllic coastline - is the same sea that had come crashing in with such force and swept away everything and everyone in its path. We stopped to pray for Otsuchi. We then moved further south and saw more of the same. Where do they begin? How do they rebuild? What about those who remain? Huge questions. All that we have done in our time here seems to have been but a drop in a bucket. Yet surely each drop counts. Each drop has meaning. And surely more and more need to be committed to come here and live with these people, serve these people and point them to the only way out of the utter devastation and hopelessness we saw today.

Impressions of Iwate - Day 4

Today was hot. 35 degrees hot! And our task for today (well, some of us anyway) - to pack some packets of special noodles along with the accompanying sauce into bags then head off to Taro, a badly affected area, to deliver these round the neighbourhoods there. This time we worked with a group from another church around a two hour drive away. People were so grateful to receive even the little we were giving them. Their words were kind. Their smiles were sweet. Some even bowed down in the entrance way on their hands and knees. As we delivered, there were several opportunities to linger and chat - in the shade thankfully. People were open to speaking about the dreadful events of 11th March. Our task - just to listen to their stories and say very little. It was evident today that for some the time has come for them to speak out their pain and tell their stories. Who will be there to listen over the coming weeks and months? This morning Daniel and Matthew had a different task as they headed off to a local primary school to play games and sports with some children there. The children were so happy and seemed to chat all the time. We were not long back from Taro when we were packing up the vehicles again with vegetables, clothing (some people can't readily buy or even have the rescources to buy things they need). This time we went to another temporary housing area in a remote part of Miyako. Soon people were gathering round, selecting what they wanted to have, chatting and thanking us for coming. Again some people were opening up, one man even describing the day of the tsunami when he had to cling on to a tree as the water rose and threatened to sweep him away. He survived as did his wife. Just one story out of thousands. As we chatted as a team tonight we wondered about the idea of a 'kikiya' (literally a room where you can go to have your story listened to). This is a time for those who love Jesus to be available to listen, to sit alongside, to be there as people release some of what has been in their hearts for these past months. That is a big challenge for all of us in the churches in Japan.

Impressions of Iwate - Day 3

Another day. More new experiences. This time a visit to a primary school in an area badly affected by the tsunami. In the school playground (they are large in Japanese schools) the military have set up large tents which are operating as temporary bathing facilities for people who are not in their own houses or are not able to use the bath in their house. Each day there is an after-school club for children whose parents are working. We were asked to go at 3pm and the request was for a barbecue. We spent the morning getting all the stuff together and were pleased to receive a (very large!) barbecue grill from another missionary who had just finished time in the area. When we got there the teacher said 'We have lots of children today'. There were around 35 and some other kids from the area turned up too. We played some fun games, football, even an egg and spoon race! One of our team taught them Frere Jacques in French. Then it was the BBQ time - the kids loved it. At the end we had lots of goodies (including some tartan pencils from Scotland which we have had for ages) and everyone was delighted to get something. Some of these kids would have lost their houses and everything in them. We didn't talk about that though - it was time for fun and food and just building relatioships with that school. The pastor of the church was there but in the background - cooking the food and helping clear up. How many of these children are hurting inside? All of them have witnessed and are daily seeing sights round about them that are unimaginable for most of us. As we drove back we saw many destroyed houses, some left half-standing awaiting demolition. We saw the mangled railway track. A train still stood on the track having been derailed at the moment the earthquake struck. We think the people in the train got out to safety before the tsunami came crashing over the thick sea wall. Tomorrow Daniel and Matthew will go to another school with the pastor's son just to play and have fun with local kids. The rest of us are out and about again, this time delivering a special noodle dish to locals in a certain area. One other impression of today from an early-morning walk. Sometimes you go past buildings which have been wrecked. Others are damaged. Yet others just round the corner appear to be relatively unaffected. The force of the water was immense. To look on now though you wonder why the water went some places and not to others. Those who remain are surely grateful to be alive - yet perhaps too there is a sense of guilt because some of their friends and neighbours lost their lives while they survived. The task of rebuilding broken buildings is huge. The task of rebuilding broken lives is perhaps even greater. We trust that the little of bit of fun we gave the children today helped even in some very small way.

Impressions of Iwate - Day 2

This morning we loaded up the car with bags of vegetables and fruit. Many people in the temporary housing or in less accessible areas simply cannot get hold of such things. Our first stop was a temporary housing area outside the town of Taro. The pastor had been only once before and said people there might be much more reserved. There was vast destruction in that town and many lost their lives. People there had also had to endure television crews and people who came for so-called 'disaster tourism'. We went and started going round the houses. People were happy to receive. Some, especially older men, were hanging around and eager to chat. We were able to spend time listening, chatting, seeking to encourage and simply being other people around for a short time. The people were grateful that we had come even though we had done relatively little. We moved on to some other areas in the town, delivering the bags of vegetables in more remote areas. Once again people were so happy to receive these. The pastor knew of various people in these houses - he was keen to introduce to David to one who was a relative of a pastor he knows in Sapporo. What we witnessed next though was sobering indeed. We drove through the area of Taro which bore the brunt of the tsunami. Mist was gently rolling in from the sea. It was an eerie sight. Just a vast area where houses had been washed away. Many were new-built houses. People thought the thick tsunami-proof wall would protect them - but no one reckoned on a 40m high wave. The whole area looked like a war zone - tidied up to some extent but just the remains of buildings razed to the ground, other buildings standing wrecked, fences mangled, piles of wreckage everywhere, the sea wall crumbled. Some 200 perished in that small town. The afternoon saw us move on to another temporary housing area where the pastor had visited a few times already. We had lots of items which were spread out on a large sheet of tarpaulin and people gathered round to receive what they needed or wanted - anything from oranges to underwear to pots to things for children. Soon it was pretty much all gone (some Bibles were taken too) and we had some great chats with the people - again they were all so grateful. Later we were able to linger some more with a few people. One man spoke movingly about all he had lost and how people here need 'kokoro no kea' - literally care of the heart. When David asked what people wanted most, he simply said community, people to talk to, people to be with. What a need there is. What an opportunity there is for people who love Jesus to follow his example and just go to where hurting people are. This man said that from now on is the time when people really need the 'heart care'. We need to pray that many would be available to go and be there, people like the pastor of the church in Miyako, people who will be prepared to move to these areas and just be with the people, listen to their stories, share in their pain and show them the love of Jesus. Tomorrow is another day - different again as this time we will be doing a barbecue and having fun and games for children at a local primary school. Watch this space again then.

Impressions of Iwate - Day 1

Last night six of us headed off from Sapporo bound for the ferry terminal at Tomakomai and the overnight crossing to Aomori. After not too much sleep in the somewhat mis-named 'easy comfort zone', we arrived early this morning and headed down through Aomori, part of Akita and into Iwate, one of the prefectures most badly hit by the March 11th tsunami. We were destined for Miyako, the large town where OMF now has a base for future work. Everything looks quite normal as you enter the town. You pass a Mr Donuts and even a new McDonalds. People go about their daily business. Then we headed down into the areas nearer the coast. While much clearing up has been done, the devastation was still shockingly apparent. Mangled buildings. Large areas where houses had been swept away in an instant. Piles of scrapped cars. Some areas survived unscathed. Others continue to live on the second floor of their houses. Still others have houses that are totally intact. Everywhere you see buildings with what looks like red graffiti - a condemned building to be knocked down. Later we met the pastor of the local church and it was great just to observe him in action. He has got to know people. He is earning trust. He is building bridges. As we went to a temporary housing area, he obviously knew and was known by a number of the people there. This evening a mobile cafe was set up there (run by the son of an OMF missionary) where people could come and gather, chat, and enjoy free drinks and cakes. We paid a visit to a school where we will go on Friday. A number of the children there have been badly affected by the tsunami and its aftermath. They want us to do a barbecue - as well as games and probably some English too. And to cap off an eventful day, bizarrely we ended up chasing a little dog for about 2 km. We were passing in the van and saw the owner chasing it as it had run away. Dog was retrieved and owner very grateful. We didn't quite know what to expect when we came here. We certainly didn't expect to be rescuing a dog! But our eyes have been opened - to the sheer scale of the devastation (and we have not been to the worst areas yet). But also been opened to see a pastor and other Christians sharing the love of Jesus in word and deed. And also to see people, from young children to the elderly, who have been through so much but who are moving on with life as best they can. Tomorrow we visit another area to deliver vegetables and other things. May we all be open to show and share the love of Jesus and just be alongside, even for a moment, these precious people.

Together again

This blog seems to have gone quiet over the past two or three weeks. Two OMF Conferences, the older two boys returning from India, preparation for a one week trip to one of the areas devastated by the tsunami, plus all the usual things (and not a few extra too) have cut into available time. But here we go again. It's great to be together again as a family of six. Matthew got home just over a week ago and Daniel followed two days later having been away in the Himalayas for two weeks. The first week back always sees them indulge in plenty of sleeping plus plenty of trips to the fridge to see what might be there for consumption. A late birthday cake for Matthew was also baked; Daniel conveniently has his birthday during the holidays. The younger two of course are very happy to have their older brothers on hand, not least to go and play football! We really do live quite an unusual lifestyle with all the continual coming and going. But in an odd kind of way that becomes usual to us. Daniel and Matthew are looking forward to joining David as we go as a team of six people to Miyako in Iwate prefecture from the day after tomorrow. It's great to be able to do this together. Matthew will have the job of photographer and Daniel has the task of writing up a log of all that we do day by day. Although we have some idea of what we might be doing, flexibility is the key. Watch this space for some news of what we end up doing.