On the sea in Kamaishi

Mrs. F was born and raised in the seaside town of Kamaishi. She lived with her husband in a home near the sea, and her 89 year old mother lived in the 3rd floor apartment of their restaurant, located in the main part of town. I don't know much about her life before March 11, 2011, but here's what happened to her town on that day.






When we arrived in Kamaishi, at the New Life Church, we were asked to go over to Mrs. F's place and to help her with the cleanup. We got there, and our first task was carrying liquor bottles from the wrecked inside, separating them into opened bottles (trash) and unopened bottles (keepers). Several of us got to work on this, carrying them out, and beginning to clean off the bottles she wanted to keep. It struck me as a little strange that our first task in Kamaishi was working with a vast number of liquor bottles, but we wanted to do whatever the church asked us to do, so we didn't question it. Here's some of what that looked like.

 Here's Mrs. F, watching as we bring things out of the house, adding to the pile of rubble in the street:

 On most walls of her place, the wallboard and siding was gone, leaving the steel frame exposed, and many of those steel beams were bent or broken:

As we worked, I thought about the crash course in post traumatic stress I had received from a member of our church, a counselor, and so I asked Mrs. F, "Where were you when the tsunami came?"  She told me the story of her rushing upstairs to get her mother, then moving as fast as they could through town, around 6-8 blocks away, to the hill beside the church.  With the water lapping at the backs of their legs, they joined the other people hurrying up the hill, and they all pushed and pulled her mother, and somehow escaped the wave.  But with a rush of tears, she said that her husband had been lost; he was at home alone with the tsunami struck, and his body was found that night.  I just cried with her, hugged her, and promised that we would do all we could to help her with the immense clean up job before her.

Pastor Yanagiya of New Life Church met Mrs. F in the shelter; he too is living there, as the manse is unlivable, like much of the town.  As he meets people like Mrs. F, who've lost the men in their lives, he's able to direct the volunteers (like our team) to help with the hard, dirty, and seemingly hopeless job they have.  Here's some of our team with Pastor Yanagiya (in the white coat):

As we spent time with him, sleeping on the second floor of his church, talking with him around the fire under the tent in the church yard, I came to admire this man and his heart for his city.  I kept asking myself what WE would do if we were in his situation.  What if OUR home had been heavily damaged, OUR town destroyed, OUR church called on to be a place of refuge, when we ourselves needed refuge as well?  I don't know what we would do, but Pastor Yanagiya is loving his city in the midst of great suffering--he's showing the love of Christ in very practical, tangible ways:  they have a sign out front with a list of all the supplies they have available; he's sending workers to stand shoulder to shoulder with the needy; he's dreaming and thinking of ways he can do more to serve the people of Kamaishi.

Yesterday Wayne and another pastor left with a 4 ton truck, heading to Kamaishi.  Today they unloaded all 4 tons of supplies at the Christian kindergarten in town, and began helping with the clean up of that place.  The kindergarten principal was overwhelmed with the generosity of the people of Nagoya, sending so much so far to the people of his town.

As we worked at Mrs. F's place, and others, I think each member of our team began to realize that much of the physical work we were doing was really meaningless.  As much as Mrs. F wants to just clean up and get back to business, her building is destroyed and will almost certainly have to be torn down.  But just as meaningless as the actual work may have been, the doing of that work, side by side, with her, was full of meaning.  She felt comfort, encouragement and hope for the future, something the people of Kamaishi and other Japanese coastal residents desperately need.  Her connection with the New Life Church was established, and it's our hope and prayer that this will be the beginning of new life for Mrs. F...new life in Christ.

It was really humbling and overwhelming to go and spend time in Kamaishi.  But I was just a representative of hundreds of people in Nagoya who have contributed to our relief efforts.  What a beautiful thing it is to see the body of Christ coming together for a time like this.  Please watch this clip, and pray for this beautiful thing to continue as we love the people of eastern Japan: