Monday, April 4, 2011 Places and Faces

First, a little geographical orientation. They say Japan is about the size of California. The main island is Honshu. Northeast of Honshu is another large island called Hokkaido. I presume it is cold there. The southern end of Honshu sweeps away to the west and the two smaller islands of Shikoku and Kyushu sit nearby across the inland sea called Seto.

Located at the northeast end of this inland sea is the area containing Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. Nearer the western tip of Honshu is Hiroshima. My sister, Sandy and her husband Brent live in Kojima, Kurashiki halfway between Osaka and Hiroshima, and across from the island of Shikoku.

The earthquake and tsunami damaged area is in the Tohoku (lit: northeast) area of the country, near the city of Sendai mentioned so often in the media. The Huddlestons have been focusing on a town called Ishinomaki. Using a 1 ½ ton flatbed truck and vans, they have already made 5 or 6 trips to deliver and distribute supplies.

The people I will be working with:

Brent and Sandy Rogers. Sandy Rogers is my sister. They first went to Japan as English teachers in 1991. They returned to the States in 1997 to enter their two children in Harding Academy. They returned in 2001 to resume operating their own conversational English school named Logos in Kojima, Kurashiki. They have shared their faith through various means, including Bible studies, a weekly worship time, and Let’s Start Talking campaigns in the summer. The church has a small and scattered presence in Japan outside of the Tokyo and Ibaraki (north of Tokyo) areas. Some of Brent and Sandy’s students have been studying the Bible for many years and are very close to becoming Christians, but the cultural barriers are very strong. That final step seems to be very hard to make.

Brent and Sandy Rogers


Paul and Stacey Herrington. From Kansas. In Japan for about a year and a half. Full time missionaries at a 10-year old congregation in Haruna, about 100 miles southwest of the affected area. Paul is actively involved in the relief caravans and distribution. Stacy has temporarily relocated to the Kurashiki area since she is 7 months pregnant. Web site: herringtonjapan.com
Paul and Stacy Herrington

Chad and Jennifer Huddleston. Children, Anika, Josiah, Caleb, Katia, Gideon.
House churches in Osaka. Full-time missionaries. In Japan for about 13years. Chad’s father former minister in Fairfield,CA. Jennifer child of former missionaries in Japan. Their home is a staging area for relief supplies
Website: www.b-1.jp (click on New Zealand flag for English)

Gavin and Lindsey and their one-year-old son Noah also live in the Osaka metro area. They host one group of the house churches in their home. Gavin is employed by a company that makes ultrasound testing equipment. Brent and I stayed Saturday night at Gavin’s house after I arrived at the Kansai/Osaka airport. Then we took the shinkansen (bullet train) home Sunday evening.

Gavin

Sunday worship at the Huddleston home in Osaka 4/3/11
 

View from Brent and Sandy’s apartment showing the inland sea, Islands, and Shikoku off to the right. note the elevated train electric train tracks and station. I jogged to the top of Washuzan Hill to see the famous O Seto bridge before leaving Kojima

My first impressions: electric trains, narrow little streets, narrow little cars (driving on the wrong side), narrow little parking places, efficient little apartments, the entire country (including little old grandmas in caps and scarves) out riding dorky bicycles on Sundays. Everyone riding bicycles to school and work during the week. Vending machines where you can buy most anything.

Back to Osaka (on three trains by myself!) Tues afternoon. Then helping drive a caravan north on Wednesday.

I think I heard that Christians in Japan have spontaneously started a “Pray for Japan” movement. They are serious about asking God to use them and this opportunity to call the country to awareness of a God who cares. That doesn’t mean we have all the answers. Far from it. But we can serve as Christ would.

Pray that we will be safe and able to serve in ways that will do the most good.