by Christine Huber

A young mother ( that our team  met on the last trip) is still living in a shelter with her 3 children, and her sister who also has two teenagers.  They have been there since March 11. We were able to take supplies to them that they requested through text messages.  We played “Uno” with the kids, talking and listening a lot with the adults.  Finally, before leaving, we cautiously asked, “Can we pray for you?”  She said,  “Yes, and please don’t forget to pray for my father, my husband, and my nephew too.”  They live in a lot of fear, since almost every day there are more aftershocks, and some are quite strong.  They can’t sleep well at night.  They are so excited about our next trip to see them.

We gave apples and oranges to each of the other people sitting on their mats in the huge gymnasium, and they were so thankful for fresh fruits, which have been hard to get because of the radiation in that area.  Many of them also wanted to talk and tell about the earthquake and tsunami and how it is affecting them–they are living in so much fear, and many of the children are afraid to go to school,  because that is where they were when the earthquake hit.  We are going again next week to take more apples and oranges and supplies, and hope to talk to more people, and pray with them if they accept it. Very few Japanese have ever prayed in their lives, and don’t know anything at all about God.

Right next to the area where many houses were completely washed off their foundations, we helped another family, whose house was still standing.  We worked for several hours picking up bricks, tiles, wood, broken glass, mud and debris. It was amazing to see the difference–the garden looked soooooo beautiful!!  They thanked us over and over, even though there are still many weeks/months of painstaking work to do inside the house–it’s such a mess still.  They would rather do that themselves, in case they find something they can still save…valuables and important memories among the trash.  We offered to pray for them before we left, and they said yes.  One of the volunteers said a beautiful prayer over them, that God would bless their family and protect them and give them His salvation.

During the prayer, I put my arm around one of the two women from the house.  She began to sob and sob, and all I could do was cry with her.  I hugged her tight, and she held on tight too, and cried more.  I told her that she is not alone–God loves her so much and with God there is HOPE.  I sure want to see her again sometime, somehow.  I did give her the name of the church there in case they need more help. We just feel so bad that we can not help at every house, but at least we can help one house at a time.  Some houses have been totally abandoned, and no one is around.

I couldn’t hold back the tears when a 74-year-old man told us how he and his wife barely escaped from the tsunami.  It just hit me that they were almost two of those many ”bodies”–27,000 people who died–I could not hold back the tears of thankfulness that they were still alive!!  At first, he didn’t talk at all–he just shoveled and shoveled and shoveled, as we also shoveled and bagged sand, and hauled sooooo many sand bags out of his wrecked house, sand from the beach that came in with the tsunami.  I couldn’t imagine how his back was feeling–he wouldn’t stop shoveling.  But finally when we finished that task, we asked him his story.  He said that the water came in so fast, it was already up to his wife’s chest, and he jumped up on a ledge and broke a hole in the roof with his fist, and pulled her up and they escaped through that hole!  He showed us the hole–it wasn’t very big–I was amazed.  They waited on their roof till the water went down again.  What a miracle that the whole house didn’t wash away, like soooooo many others!  I couldn’t help crying with him, and another pastor and I assured him that it was God Who protected him and his wife!!  He even has little grandchildren just like I do!!.  GOD was there to do this miracle for him!!   He continued telling his story over and over.  He said after that, his wife had to stay lying down for four days till she recuperated enough to get up.  We asked him (carefully) if he minded if we prayed for God to continue to protect and bless him and his wife, and he said yes, we could pray for him..  May God help him finish fixing up his house, and may he and his elderly wife, his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren come to know God’s intimate love for them!!  In Jesus’ Name!!

We  were sooo excited when our volunteer friend told us that the  “rice-man” was there that day–at his rice storage building that day.  At first, right after the tsunami, when the church staff asked permission to help him clean up,  he and everyone else in that area refused to take volunteers from the church!!  But finally, he was the only one who said he would accept help, and I was privilged to be with the group that went there that first day.  (When we go to them and ask if we can help them–they don’t know who we are or if we have good intentions, and at first they may say no.  But many times, they will change their minds and say yes, and afterwards they have thanked us endlessly and cried!) 

That first day we went, the “rice-man’s” storage place of hundreds of bags of rice was a complete mess, together with a mirage of other miscelaneous broken and wrecked items mixed in with the rice–office supplies, children’s toys, albums, tools, house-hold items, all muddy and destroyed along with all the destroyed rice-cleaning machines–such a huge loss!    The “rice-man” couldn’t believe we were working so hard for him!  At lunch time, we were all standing around eating riceballs and other snacks provided by another volunteer.  The volunteers invited him to eat with us, and they began to ask him questions about the earthquake and tsunami. He began to talk with them, and all of a sudden, I noticed he was crying!  He told the guys around him, “Now I believe there really is a God!”  (Japanese are raised to believe there are thousands of gods, but no ONE true God.)  “My mother is a Christian, and she has prayed for me!” 

Then last week, one of the volunteers from Korea (who is now a pastor in Japan) visited him and asked him if he wanted to receive Jesus!!  He did!!  And on this visit, a few days later, I saw such a beam in his eyes that wasn’t there before—his whole face actually changed!!  He was very happy to see us our pastor friend from Yokohama again.  I gave him a Japanese Picture Bible to give to his son, since he said he wanted his 3 kids to read the Bible.  His son came home early from school to get it, and the “rice-man” texted the pastor from Yokohama to say that his son (15 years old) also believed in Jesus!!   That was so exciting, because we had been told earlier that in that area, there were NO Christians at all, except for one elderly lady who was bedridden.  (I sure hope she is okay after the disaster, and I wonder who would know…)  But now there are two more who believe in Jesus!!!  We heard he went to the worship service at the church there.  May this family be completely protected from ALL attacks of the enemy, in the Name of Jesus!!  (The “rice-man” is wearing a blue shirt.  He said we could show his picture to our friends, so please pray for him and his family.)

There are still thousands and thousands and millions of people who need help and who also need God’s LOVE.  We are thanking God so much for Christian teams who are contacting us that they want to come and help!!!   NOW is the time for Japan!!