Monday and Tuesday May 9 and 10, 2011 Back to Work: karate and snowsleds

Monday.

Drove all day from Osaka to the dojo in the HiAce van. Driving with me were Joel from Nara, and Ian from Ishinome (Kobe). Ed. note: that's Ian in a picture from a later workday. About half way there we

passed through Toyama where Joel grew up, so he was pointing out where he went to school and how Toyama is famous for pure mountain snow water, tulips, and squid that glow. Arrived at the dojo at 10:30 pm.

There we met up with the group that were the holdovers from Golden Week: Tony and Mary Anne who arrived just as I was leaving last month. They were glad to have been part of all the work done during Golden Week, but as akido instructors, the chance to be at the dojo and to talk and do karate with the sensei was particularly thrilling. Also Stu who trains ministers in Singapore, and the Kobe ladies: Alexis, Monica, Carol, Marci, and Machiko.

Tuesday.

At breakfast Stu shared a devotional thought from Psalm 97.1: “The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad.” This was an incredible lead-in to a time of sharing of all the experiences of the previous day or two:

The team had visited Minamisanriku which was almost completely devastated. They did find a barber in a shack and during the time they were in contact with him, they had prayed with him. When they saw him next, his request for a temporary building had been approved, and he felt like things were beginning to fall into place for him.

Mary Anne described Machiko talking and hugging and praying and with this one little woman and sharing a Bible passage with her and she ended up asking for a Bible. Then a little boy ran up and asked in broken English if they were Presbyterian or Catholic.

Then Stu talked about a new neighborhood they had been focusing on east of the train station. Near the river, massive destruction, but on one street they had been able to meet several people while cleaning out the gutter/storm drain ditch in front of a house. In that house was an extended family—brother, sister, baby, father—eight people now living there. Together they had lost seven vehicles, none of which the insurance would be replacing. They had mostly worked at the seaweed factory which was now gone and they were getting no assistance. Tony remarked that God has taken away all the things they depended on; these material things had become idols. All they have left now is the one true God. He added that we’ve been praying that God would break through the strongholds that are keeping people from Him. But referring back to Stu’s verse about the coastlands, maybe there were people along these coastal areas who have been looking for the living, loving God. So we prayed that God would lead us to those whose hearts were prepared to receive him.

So we left with a dual agenda—locate a house that Chihiro told us needed the crawlspace cleared of mud, and then set out food and supplies and children’s books and toys in a parking lot nearby for the neighborhood. So half of us spent three hours crawling under this house scraping dried mud with dust pans and pulling it out on a plastic snow sled with a rope. Gives “sledding” a whole new meaning. So while we got down and dirty, Stu met a thirty-five year old man who came by and Stu asked if he was married. He said he had lost his wife and child and workplace in the tsumani. Later Stu’s took out his camera, and showed me the picture of the man. It wasn’t what I was expecting. In the photo he appeared to be relaxed and happy, but all I could think was how incredibly hard it would be to have the courage to start over if I were him.