Easter worship

Our Takase Christ Church had a good Easter worship on April 24th.

Professor Kato (doctorate in engineering) gave a simple message of the cross, after we read the resurrection story.

Just for fun, we had an egg hunt.

Then the kids, mostly boys, made a boomerang from milk cartons.

"Ominous reports of suicide"

According to L.A. Times, there are "ominous reports of suicides in the region devastated by last month's magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami" here in Japan. "Officials are concerned that a lingering sense of hopelessness among quake victims may drive them to to take their own lives. Authorities have provided hotlines, therapy and counseling in hopes of averting more deaths." Read the full article Japan fears post-quake rise in suicides in the L.A. Times.

Please pray for the Japanese, especially for the quake victims of the Tohoku (northeastern Japan) region. As is well known, Japan has has one of the highest suicides rates in the world. On the average of 30,000 per year. This is a very serious problem.

Please pray that the message of "hope in Christ" would spread through out this region and through out Japan. "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf." Hebrews 6:19-20

Pict: Our team of volunteers praying for the Tohoku region and Japan as a whole in the town of Onagawa, Miyagi.

On Galatians 6:2

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2

“In many cases, we may, by the rules of the gospel, be obliged to give to others, when we cannot do it without suffering ourselves… If our neighbor’s difficulties and necessities be much greater than our own, and we see that he is not like to be otherwise relieved, we should be willing to suffer with him, and to take part of his burden on ourselves; else how is that rule of bearing one another’s burdens fulfilled? If we are never obliged to relieve others’ burdens, but when we can do it without burdening ourselves, then how do we bear our neighbor’s burdens, when we bear no burden at all?” Jonathan Edwards on Galatians 6:2

To Tohoku 6

April 15th, on our way back to Shikoku, we stopped at the warehouse for relief supplies that Samaritans Purse and Food for the Hungry were sharing in Sendai.

March 11, northeastern Japan was hit by a devastating 9.0 earthquake, but it was the tsunami that killed the majority of the dead. The radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant added to the destruction. In the face of all this, people rose up to help.

I would affirm that the victims do need prayer, food, clothing, housing and etc.. But I think they need people even more. Our team with Kuma-chan, Pastor Kumada, served Oginohama Elementary School a hot meal- yakitori. But it was even more than the yakitori. It was knowing that someone cared about you. It was knowing that someone came all the way from Shikoku. It was knowing that even a foreigner came.

Christ is truly our example of incarnational service. The heart of our gospel is the fact that ”God became man.” The God we love and serve is a personal God.

However, man's love does have it's limitations. There is only so much we can do for them. There is so much suffering. So Christ is not only our example, He is our Savior. Christ suffered and died in our place that we may know God who touches our lives. He can really make a difference. As the world celebrates today April 24, we are reminded that He rose again in history, declaring His power over even death. And we've seen much death in northeastern Japan.

People who have served the victims in Tohoku are a testimony to the kindness of the personal God- Jesus Christ- who visits people in their misery. Praise His name!

To Tohoku 5

On the 4th day, we helped an elderly couple clean up their catering service in Ishinomaki. Though hit hard by the earthquake, the tsunami did not hit the 2nd floor. But the 1st floor was hit hard.

The tsunami came from the direction of the wharf.

We cleaned the first floor of this building. See what the tsunami did to the bus.

Pastor Takinami and Mark (missionary) clean up a room. Sludge covered the entire floor.

An Evangelical Free Church from Sendai helped us. Here they are junking a huge refirgerator.

All of us joined in prayer for the Lord's blessing on the couple and the business.

To Tohoku 4

On our third day, we went to Oginohama Elementary School emergency shelter.

The people of the Oginohama fled to the elementary school. Through the calm bay a tsunami of over 15 meters came. This area now flat was full of homes. They haven't started cleaning up the area because there are bodies still among the ruins.

This day we again served them yakitori (teriyaki on a stick).

While we were serving at the elementary school, we went to a Buddhist temple that also served as a shelter and served them some yakitori, soup, coffee, cookies and the love of Christ.

I asked Pastor Kumada if when he was first started his yakitori business he ever dreamed he would be serving yakitori to folks who had experienced such devastation. Never, he said. But the men at this shelter said, Please come again. They had never said that to any other volunteer before. Christ's grace works in such amazing ways. Through a simple hot meal..... By the way, Kuma chan (friendly bear) his wife and their 7 children were also in a shelter for one week.

To Tohoku 3

April 12th, after we the hot meal in Ishinomaki, we drove over to one of the devastated areas called Onagawa. It has a nuclear reactor that had no problems.

Here's a view of the town after it has been cleaned up quite a bit by the Japanese military.

In the middle of the town, we prayed for this area and Japan as a whole.

Here's a view from a mountain. The tsunami reached 15 meters (about 15 yards). Note how the train is in the middle of the grave yard on the hill. Unbelievable power.

To Tohoku 2

The second day of our service in the Tohoku area was exactly one month after the devastating tsunami. Don't forget! Over 10,000 precious souls were consumed by the tsunami.

When we entered into the hard hit section of Ishinomaki, tears came to my eyes and all I could do was cry, "Oh, Lord."

Across the street from where we distributed a hot meal was this field of cars.

The Japanese armed forces were distributing needed articles. There must be over 150 lined up.

The man making the yakitori (terriyaki on the stick) is a pastor who makes his living by making yakitori. His nickname is 'Kumachan' (meaning friendly bear). We gave out all of the yakitori on rice with some soup, cookies and coffee. Most people took a gospel leaflet too.

This family of four was saved from the tsunami. The 2 year old boy's name is Sota. One of the words he mentioned was 'nothing,' probably referring to nothing left after the tsunami.

More to come...

To Tohoku

April 10th, six of us gathered at Takamatsu Zion Church to serve the victims of the 3/11 (compared to 9/11) earthquake and tsunami. Three more joined us later.

＊The eastern part of the Tohoku (meaning eastern north) was hit hardest by the earthquake, tsunami and radiation.

We left the church about 7:30PM Sunday. We first drove 3 hours to Kobe and stayed over night.

Then we drove over 15 hours to Miyagi, one of the prefectures hit hardest by both the earthquakes and tsunami. Note the cars lining up to fill up their tanks before they go further into the devastated area. At this point on the expressway we were within the 50 mile radius of the nuclear reactor.

Here we also met some other Christians who were going into serve the victims.

We are spending time in the Word. We also needed to prepare spiritually for this service.

We made Miyagi Church our home base. They too were victims of the earthquake, but were generous to let us work from here.

More to come...

Shane's birthday.

April 9th, we celebrated Shane's 10th birthday at a family restaurant called Joyfull. Shane had some curry rice and some soup.

”I was an outcast.”

“The person who knows that he received mercy while an undeserving enemy of God will have a heart of love for even (and especially!) the most ungrateful and difficult persons. When a Christian sees prostitutes, alcoholics, prisoners, drug addicts, unwed mothers, the homeless, the refugees, he knows that he is looking in a mirror. Perhaps the Christian spent all of is life as a respectable middle-class person. No matter. He thinks: ‘Spiritually I was just like these people, though physically and socially I never was where they are now. They are outcasts. I was an outcast.’” Timothy Keller

"Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ." Ephesians 2:13,13

It's been 13 years.

By the Lord's grace, Naho and I have been married for 13 years now. Thirteen roses for 13 years. Our anniversary was April 4th. Naho does most of the cooking, so I cooked the family an anniversary meal. 'Naho, thank you for the 13 very special years!'

The leading edge of the whole culture

“The gospel of Jesus points us and indeed urges us to be the leading edge of the whole culture, articulating in story and music and art and philosophy and education and poetry and politics and theology…a world-view that will mount the historically rooted Christian to both modernity and postmodernity, leading the way into the post-postmodern world with joy and humor and gentleness and good judgment and true wisdom. I believe we face the question : if not now, then when? And if we are grasped by this vision, we may also hear the question: if not us, then who? And if the gospel of Christ is not the key to this task, then what is?” N.T. Wright

Leoma World... Videos

April Fools Day, we went to Leoma World- about 45 mins. away. It was an excursion for the kids in our Kitabara area. We missed being with local kids who went on the previous Sunday, the Lord's day.

Joshua, our F-1 driver.

Hosahna and the boys enjoying a ride on ”Rainbow Bandit" (?).

Naho and the kids enjoying the traditional merry-go-round. Shane caught in the act.

Our kids had a great time. I has some quality time with Naho.

To be honest, remembering the pain of those in devastated eastern Japan, I couldn't fully enjoy the time. But we thank the Lord for 'life,' with both pain and fun.