Shinchi town’s temporary housing three piece visitation package (bag, cookie and postcard)・・・On the back side if the cookie is the confectioners address. They sent the postcard to that address. Thank you all for your prayers. We will do this again next month.
Praise the Lord!
Thank you all for your consistent and loving prayers and support for the relief work of the Higashi Matsushima Amazing Grace Support Center.
On Sunday the 31st the center will be used by the Akai-Shinkawa neighborhood council for their regular meeting. The center staff, for their last job of the week, set up tables and cleaned the center in preparation for the meeting.
Of the council members that will attend most of them are well acquainted with our relief work and some of the attend our various events including worship.This will actual be the third time that they have met at the center. I am so thankful that we can use the center in this manner, serving the local community.
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
Praise the Lord!
Thank you all for your consistent and loving prayers and support for the relief work of the Higashi Matsushima Amazing Grace Support Center.
On Tuesday the 26th we held the second "New! Word and Tea" event. This time we broke everyone up into small groups and at each table a pastor, missionary or center staff member led the Bible lesson.
With smaller numbers of people it was easier to answer questions as well as to match the lesson to the level of understanding among the members of the group. All in all, everyone enjoyed it. I praise God that we are actually seeing His Word gradually taking root in the daily lives of these disaster victims.
Our next scheduled event like this will be on April the 30th.
All the glory belongs to God.
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
Praise the Lord!
Thank you all for your consistent and loving prayers and support for the relief work of the Higashi Matsushima Amazing Grace Support Center.
Starting at 3pm in Sunday the 24th we held the nineteenth Sunday worship and Sunday school at the support center. Recently we have been having more and more new comers at the worship service and this time we had 32 people from the local area show up and if you include those from the Izumi church and the center staff there was a total of more than 50 people.
For this service we were blessed to use some very beautiful, donated offering baskets that were provided by the Hanson's who were missionaries in Brazil for 35 years. They were attending the Second American Midwest Japanese Conference and saw a video of our worship here at the center and in it we were using large manila envelopes to collect the offering. They felt led by God to donate the new offering baskets to replace the envelopes.
I really feel that God is doing the work of saving, comforting and healing this hurt and scarred region. And, I truly believe that as the people in this area repent of their sins He will heal and restore their land.
We also had a number of children show up for Sunday school and they had a fun time playing games, singing worship, listening to the Word and eating snacks.
Hallelujah!
Our next scheduled worship service will be on April the 14th.
All the glory belongs to God.
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
To view more pictures of this event, click this link and scroll to the bottom of the blog entry.
Praise the Lord!
Thank you all for your consistent and loving prayers and support for the relief work of theHigashiMatsushimaAmazingGraceSupportCenter.
On Sunday the 10th at the center we held the eighteenth Sunday worship and Sunday school.
For this worship service we had Mr. Iwai, a member from the Hamamatsu church as well as the head of the surgical department for the Hamamatsu City Laborer’s Hospital, give a greeting during the service and give the closing prayer.
Mr. Iwai came as a medical volunteer just two weeks after the disaster occurred as well as numerous times after that. He helped to take blood pressures, check on people who couldn't get to a hospital and help provide medicine for people who had lost their supply.
With his long awaited visit everyone was thankful and happy that he came.
The Lord uses various "vessels" to reach out to the disaster victims, displaying His love and making His works known.
We have an increasing need for people who can provide emotional, particularly spiritual support and relief. Please pray that God will send people to meet these needs.
Our next scheduled Sunday worship is for the 24th.
All the glory belongs to God.
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
Praise the Lord!
Thank you all for your consistent and loving prayers and support for the relief work of the Higashi Matsushima Amazing Grace Support Center.
On Thursday the 7th we opened the "Cafe Amazing" at the support.
Normally we have the cafe area open everyday at the center but twice a month we offer specially made pour-over drip coffee as well as cake and cookies, making for an especially relaxing and refreshing cafe experience.
Throughout the day we had about 20 people come and go, enjoying the coffee and the staff's handmade muffins.
I really believe that each person that came was touched by the Lord's love through the fellowship and conversation of the center staff.
Our next scheduled cafe event like this will be on Thursday the 21st.
All the glory belongs to God.
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
My Confirmation on 2nd Memorial day
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.-Romans 5:3-5 (NIV)
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”-Acts 4:12 (NIV)
These two scripture were my foundation for the last two years.
I’m reminded that we had an early morning prayer meeting with 4 girls from JCTN (the Koriyama church's youth group).
I won't forget what we read and prayed.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’-Matthew 25:35-36 (NIV)
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’-Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
10 days after the disaster, just when we started to do our first fumbling attempts at relief work, pastors from some group came and admonished me saying, "Boldly preach the gospel and tell the people, 'you are all being judged by God,' and tell them to repent!"
I shot back, "No! I don't want to. I just want to do what Jesus did; go and stay by their sides through their tears and sorrows!”
It was the above scriptures that gave me strength and kept me moving forward at that time.
I am now reconfirming.
To start this 3rd year saying,
"I'll do what my Abba Father has asked me to do."
That's it!
It's been two years.
I am so, so thankful for everyone's prayers and encouragement and for standing with us this whole time.
There have been so many prayers and words of encouragement, many of you have come and cared for people and ministered to them and there have been mountains of relief supplies sent to the towns in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures.
In 2011 we participated in various youth camps, a number of local community events here within Fukushima as well as dealt with the flooding from the typhoon...
I've just remembered that back on New Year's Day 2012 I told my husband, "That one month was as hectic as a whole year...but we survived."
I sometimes hear disaster victims say, "I thought we've been forgotten."
Many people in Fukushima are feeling this type of pressure.
Others sometime say, "I don't want them to forget but I also don't want them to only think about us either."
As we started into this year we began to see an increase in demolition construction with signs reading "Disaster Related Demolition Work" posted around on various vacant lots and construction sites. With that people are saying, "But it's only been two years, just 2 years..."
Last month we had someone come to our church that is receiving treatment for PTSD and anxiety disorder due to the fact that immediately after the disaster they worked (in connection with the city office) for five months straight, nonstop.
Recently in the local news there are repeated reports that wild animals in the quarantined regions are proliferating and starting to heavily damage farms that border the off-limits land.
Not only that, but there are also reports that doctors are leaving the general hospitals in cities like Fukushima, Koriyama and Sukagawa.
And reports that there are even divorces occurring because husbands and wives disagree over the severity if the radiation issue and how it effects their children's development.
But yet, I believe.
And I know that there are people praying and pouring out their love for the numerous people that are still crying out in pain because of what Japan experienced.
There are also people praying that the disaster victims in Tohoku as well as Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures who are feeling "forgotten" will be remembered and that they will receive hope for the future.
The other day my son and I passed a park that is about twenty minutes from our church. I said to him, "This is the park where your dad and you came to get water rations on March 12th (the day the nuclear reactor exploded).” "Yeah, at the time people from some group were passing out handmade rice balls...that was really nice," he said in reply.
After the fact I had regretted making my son wait out in the March cold to get water. Not only that but the radiation was already falling and he did not have any warm food or drink. So to hear his words made me cry tears of joy.
It is by no means over yet.
But I will look to Jesus and in the words of the old pioneer of the Fukushima area,
"I ain't gonna give up, I's just gonna keep on keeping on!!!"
Praise the Lord!
On Tuesday the 5 we held the eleventh "Tea Party" at the support center. We had a lot of people show up including many new faces. Some of the new comers often attend our meal distributions and one of them has seven children so up to now, even though they have wanted to attend, it has been hard to make it to a "Tea Party" event. The fact that they were finally able to attend was a great joy for them.
At this "Tea Party" we enjoyed some popcorn with our green tea and then watched Genzo Mizuno’s movie “Mabataki no shijin” (trans: The Twinkling Poet). Everyone seemed deeply moved by the experience.
After watching it, missionary Rhonda Boehme gave a reflective message about the video followed by a prayer by her husband missionary Eric. This time pastor and Mrs. Ito were not able to attend but a retired minister couple, Mr. and Mrs. Honma, who are members of the Izumi church, gave the opening and closing prayers for the event.
Finally, we passed out and ate the delicious green tea cake that on of our church members baked. It was a wonderfully enjoyable time and was over before we knew it. Everyone then returned home in the blessing and grace of the Lord.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.
All the glory belongs to God.
Sunday the 10th we are scheduled to hold worship and Sunday school.
I would be grateful if you would keep it in your prayers.
Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement.
Please follow this link and scroll to the bottom of the page to view more pictures of this event.
《Diary》
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7(NIV)
Starting on March 11th of 2011 the Fukushima prefectural Board of Education's Administrative Division has been regularly sending out reports like the one above to junior high school students like my son:
"Report of Individual Accumulated Radiation Levels"
They don't send one to public high school students like my daughter. I'm not sure why.
It states that for the 64 day period from November 5th of last year to the 7th of January of this year there was a measurement of 0.09 microsieverts. The students are supposed to wear the radiation measuring devices on lanyards hung around their necks but my son is a junior high school student...and he refuses to bother with it.
He has just left his device somewhere in the jumble of his schoolbag.
What's more, the cumulative absorption that he has experienced from May 21st of last year until the 7th of January of this year is 0.46 microsiervets.
The paper explains how to read the results but even if I could understand it I don't know if the levels are high or low nor do I know what kind of effect they are having.
In the Japanese media there are periodically references to Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company) and the Fukushima nuclear reactors but there is rarely any mention of the "daily lives" of the people in Fukushima prefecture.
Not only that but the towns and villages in Ibaraki and Miyagi prefectures which border Fukushima, like our town of Koriyama, are not being covered in the news and the voices if the people living there are not being heard.
....well, those are the things I think about as I look at this reports from the school.
I really I am thankful that they are checking the kid’s levels.
But, for me and my husband and my daughter and my son...nothing changes.
As long as we are on this earth we will have trouble and disaster and illness and accidents.
Yet, we must choose whether we will spend our time thinking of the problems that might come and live bound up by worry and anxiety, or we can spend our time being thankful to God for this priceless "treasure" which we call life.
Everyday doing the work that we are able to do; enjoying the food which has been provided; spending time with our families laughing and playing; laughing and crying with our church family through their ups and downs.
Loving this world and those are living around you.
Until the last day.
No matter how much I worry I cannot not change a thing, but when I think of how God cares for me I am wrapped in such a peace...I am starting to understand this truth little by little.
Praise the Lord!
On Sunday the 24th we held the seventeenth Sunday worship and Sunday school.
With the recent cold front that hit the region the Tohoku expressway was closed by blowing snow just as we left the Izumi church to head to the center.
Praying and believing in the Lord's protective hand our five cars drove the 50 kilometers to Higashi Matsushima. We used local roads until we found an on ramp allowing us on to the expressway and so we arrived a little later than planned but thankfully everyone arrived safe and sound.
I really felt the fact that Izumi is in the mountains when we arrived at Higashi Matsushima along the coast and found clear skies.
The moment all of the cars made it safely to the center we all gathered inside and thanked the Lord and asked His blessing over the service’s preparations and then we broke apart to set the room, make snacks, practice worship etc. As we were getting ready people began to show up and we were able to start worship right on time.
For this event we had 30 people from the Izumi church and 23 locals attend amidst the blustery cold weather. We had a wonderful grace filled service that overflowed with the presence of the Lord.
There were also a lot of kids that attended the Sunday school that was held up on the second floor of the center, and I am sure that the seed of the Gospel was planted in their hearts.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.
I ask that you would pray all the more for the salvation and healing of this area.
All the glory belongs to God.
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
Please follow this link and scroll to the bottom of the page to view more pictures of this event.
