Our team of 5 from our church  just got back today (after 5 days) from the earthquake/tsunami area in Fukushima (Iwaki City).  About 5 others from our churches also went and returned at varied times, and some are still there.  It’s a 4-hour drive. 

We are tired but each one wants to go back again.  It’s hard to know what to include in this report.  There are so many, uncountable  people that need sooooo much  help.  All of us are overwhelmed.   Of course, many have died, too many and too painful to think about.  So many bodies still have not been found–either they were washed out in the sea or are still under the mud and destroyed houses.    

Many houses were also washed out to sea.  Many people are living in shelters with water and mostly bread, and now they are getting more fruits and vegetables and sometimes warm food being brought in to them, portable toilets for everyone to share.  No where to take a bath.  Some houses are still there, but will have to be torn down–houses where they and their parents and grandparents have lived for so many years–so many memories, documents, albums completely destroyed.  Other houses are incredibly messed up–the owners don’t even know where to start, and are feeling so alone.  

The amazing church there where we were helping (Global Missions Center) organized all the volunteers (about 30-50 from different cities in Japan and Korea), and we went out to help people…anything we could do.  

You just can’t imagine how much there is to do, and the old people trying to clean their own houses is overwhelming and pathetic.  We couldn’t complain about our backs hurting, because we could just imagine how much their backs hurt–elderly men and women with nobody to help them.  The tsunami-hit areas don’t even have running water or electricity. 

We worked together to help carry out completely wrecked furniture, broken windows, walls, anything you can imagine…tons of broken tiles, bricks, etc. etc., houses and yards that are completely full of mud and a maize of destroyed articles from other far away houses and buildings that came in during the tsunami–completely unlivable homes and shops.  We shoveled mud and filled wheelbarrows to carry it out, sweeping up broken glass everywhere, unbelievable messes.   

Japanese people don’t show much emotion, but when we helped them, several cried, even men. Japanese don’t hug either, but they gave us some amazing hugs and thanks, bowing over and over and over again, saying “thank you, thank you, thank you”!!   One man said that the first time he cried after the disaster was when our volunteers came to help him–he couldn’t believe it–and even as he was talking, he kept choking up.  One lady asked me why I came so far to help them, even to the nuclear radiation area where most people don’t want to go. I told her that we were Christians, and God wanted us to come there.  She asked several questions about Christians, and quietly thought about it all.  Other people wonder why we aren’t helping them, just their neighbors.  We want to help all of them, but there is no way.  We are so sorry.  

One lady told me that her dad helped carry the dead bodies from the beach–so many dead children.  He doesn’t sleep well at night–with all the memories and all the continuing earthquakes.  People are scared, trying to comfort their children.  One young beautiful mother said she had to be strong for her children, but she doesn’t have any idea about the future.  She cried and hugged me when her children were not around.   What a time to show God’s love to people.  They just can’t believe someone is there to give them a hand. 

Of course, there are many others who don’t even have houses to clean–they completely disappeared.  (Actually many of the foundations are still there.)   With the other Global Missions Center volunteers we made hot food to take to the shelters. It’s hard for them to bathe with no running water even in the shelters, and some have not had a bath since the disaster, March 11.  So we also took warm spring water to wash and massage their feet, which gives a chance to listen to their painful stories. 

One boy I met at one shelter, 12 years old who has three younger siblings, told me about his house that washed away with everything in it, while he was at school.  After the first earthquake, all the school kids thought they might die, but they ran to the emergency shelter at the top of the hill, and they were safe, but they kept feeling the earthquakes, had no food or water, were in the dark, etc.  But his parents were okay and found them there.  He was glad they were all alive, because many are not, and many have evacuated, and he doesn’t know where they all went.   He was too shy to get his feet washed.  When I asked him what he missed the most out of all he lost, he had to think, but he said  it was his baseball bat and ball. 

Japanese don’t usually open up with strangers.  But after they see you working so hard to help them, something changes.  I can imagine if I were in their shoes, how I would feel.  The next day we went back, they were so happy to see us.  We just felt overwhelmed because what we did was like a drop of water in the sea.  (The sea doesn’t look so pretty anymore either–it’s scary to them–and full of missing people–no one expected this horrendous tsunami.  And now the radiation problem, and for many, there is no where to escape.) 

I keep thinking, “Now is the time to help–now is the time they need help.”  We can’t close our eyes and walk around them on the “other side of the road.”  We need to stop and help them.