Category: Japan Stories

This is a disaster relief update from Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Morioka City, Iwate, in northern Japan.

There are doors that open as we continue our relief work in disaster area.

We have been visiting an elementary school which is one of the evacuation centers twice a week to play with children there. At first, it seemed like they were wondering in suspicion what kind of group we were. But as we kept visiting, they seemed to have gotten familiar with our faces and trusted us, and the person who checks us in now treats us completely differently.

At first: “Sooo, what kind of organization are you guys? …Please make sure you call us before you come.” Last week: “It would be a big help if you can come on this day.” Yesterday: “Please come anytime!”

We promise to the children “We will come again on this day!” when we leave the shelter.

Yesterday, two members joined us from Hokumin (Hokkaido Christian Mission Network) team. (Those coming on a short-term trip, please join.) Those who have been participating from Morioka repeatedly are starting to remember children’s names and their prayers deepening, even though they feel a little frustrated by the distance of 4-hour round trip. This ministry will expand to areas with temporary houses that will be built in the near future. In working in the disaster area, one of the key things has been to continue the relief work patiently as we build trust.

This is a disaster relief update from Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Morioka city, Iwate, in northern Japan.

A building in the coastal area of Taro district that’s left only with its framework was a “childcare center”. It’s horrifying even to imagine what happened here on March 11, around 3pm… This afternoon, I gathered my courage to ask at the Taro District General Office, “What happened to the children at that childcare center…?”  “The children who were left at the center were all safe” …..! I visited a place where the childcare workers and children are with Pastor Otsuka from Morioka Minami Church and the EMS team from America.

When the siren sounded, the workers took the children, some just woke up from their nap, others still sleeping, to a designated evacuation location. They didn’t go into the building because they were afraid of aftershocks. And as they looked back, they saw a wall of water almost reaching where they stood. The thirteen workers picked up the children frantically and ran and ran… and they saved 37 children. But some of the children who had already been picked up and gone home are gone… They shared with us in tears.

They told us their need was story books and toys that got swept away along with the building. It is such a wonder that the IBF team, which arrived late at night, happened to have brought storybooks. We will deliver these books tomorrow, hoping that there will be smiles on the faces of children and childcare workers as they open up the books even in the midst of such grief.

This is an update from Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Iwate prefecture, Japan, who has been serving and ministering in the disaster area since the tsunami.

The inn we helped cleaning out last week turns out to be a different house than the “house that needed help” that a pastor told us about! So we made a mistake. We then wondered, what was that “Hey!” about then??

Today, I wanted to see the inn keeper again and visited the inn. ME: “How’ve you been?”  INN KEEPER: “Oh!! Thank you! Thank you!” ME: “By the way, we have a little problem. As we keep helping the people in disaster area, it’s hard to drive from Morioka to Miyako every time because it’s so far. So we’re looking for a place where 5 or 10 people can spend some nights, just rolling on the floor is fine.” INN KEEPER: “Oh, yeah, sure, use my inn.” He offered happily on the spot.

Although the lifeline of water and electricity is still cut off, we ensured a shelter from wind and rain. That “Hey!”… The jigsaw puzzle of God’s plan is being put together. (by Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Morioka city, Iwate)

This is a disaster relief update from Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Morioka city, Iwate, in northern Japan.

In 2005, Taro district was merged into Miyako city. The district was protected by a 10m (32.8ft) high storm surge barrier that ran 2.4km (1.5 mile) along the coast line. It took over 40 years to build it. But what happened to this protected district on that day was….

I parked my car on the highway that penetrates the town from north to south, and looked to the ocean with the mountains on my back. What I saw was the pride of the town, the storm surge barrier. But, nothing else. Not even rubbles of destroyed houses. According to yesterday’s news, on March 11^th, the tsunami that hit this town supposedly reached 39m (128ft). The wave that easily overwhelmed the storm surge barrier that people took pride in swallowed up, destroyed, and swept away the buildings, cars, and people. And what is left is a flat wasteland.

The people at the Taro district general office wore an anguished expression. The small town is isolated among the mountains and still has no life line. Even though they know that people are not getting enough relief goods including food and are worried for them, there’s not enough manpower to visit them all. I shared in their concerns and burdens, and will start working in this district starting tomorrow, with a help of Hokumin (Hokkaido Christian Mission Network) team that came to Iwate today.

This is an update from Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Iwate prefecture, Japan, who has been serving and ministering in the disaster area since the tsunami.

Self-Defence Force soldiers cutting food on cutting boards on a school yard we visited today. At this shelter, every meal is prepared by these soldiers. I asked a child as we watched them, “So those are the people who work so hard to make the meals, huh?”  “Yeah, but it’s not very good.”   Oh well, it’s men cooking after all. Go Self-Defense Force! (by Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Morioka city, Iwate)

This is a disaster relief update from Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Morioka city, Iwate.

A little earlier, a relief team left the church to go to Miyako city. They will be splitting up into “Clean-Out-the-Houses troop” and “Play-with-Children-in-the-shelter troop” again. I’m going to stay in Morioka today and pray for the teams, prepare for Sunday service tomorrow, and play with my son, which I hadn’t done much of at all in the past 3 weeks. May the Lord’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

When I saw the flowers beautifully arranged in the sanctuary on Sunday, it made me realize that my sense of things had not been “normal” since I started visiting the disaster area. I couldn’t move for a while at the sight of bright colored flowers, for I felt like I had seen colors and living things for the first time in a long time. In the last 2 weeks, what occupied my mind was the grey and reddish brown of the rubbles, and the shadows of death towns from which I cannot imagine its previous state.

Now I’m just running around doing the specific works needed right now, but when I stop and think about rebuilding the disaster area, I find it difficult to picture a specific blue print. Where will they build the town? Who’s going to live in it? Who’s going to do the rebuilding? What will happen to the economy of this area now that they lost their main industry, fishery? Is the population going to shrink even more, and economic gap widen as the people have lost their industry and jobs?

In my mind, I dream and pray for the day when flowers will bloom in the town of rubbles like a flower in the grey and make it colorful again. May the Lord who makes way in the desert have mercy on this land.

This is a disaster update from Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Morioka city, Iwate, whose coastal towns were hit by tsunami.

When I walk the coastline, I see fishing boats stranded in the city. Every once in a while I see fish as well. Salmon, brevoort, and tuna were carried into the city with tsunami (Although I’m not sure if they’re from a fish market or the ocean.) We were rewarded for our work with canned food from Sanriku yesterday. They said that tons of canned food were washed into the house probably from a factory. Also yesterday, when one of the people who were working in the house got a stomachache, he looked at his feet and found a handwarmer that was washed away with the mud. He stuck it on his belly and got back to work. There’s provision on top of a mount of mud.

The Sanriku area of Iwate, which is called “the countryside of the countryside”, has been sending out people and things. I hope that not just things like these that get washed into this area, but our prayer, God’s workers, and believers will also be washed into this area, and not just now but stay there, and start new churches.

This is an update from Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Iwate prefecture, Japan, who has been serving and ministering in the disaster area since the tsunami.

Like last Saturday, we formed a ‘Play-with-the-Kids-in-Shelter’ troop and visited Miyako city again. (‘Clean-Out-Houses-Hit-by-Tsunami’ troop has also been formed.) Many of us were students because it was a weekday, and I also joined the ‘Kids’ troop this time, not the ‘Mud’ troop.

I heard them talking as we played. “Downstairs were hit” “My house was swept away” “I thought I wouldn’t see my parents again, but they came looking for me the next day.” … These are some of the things they were saying. It isn’t easy to find the words to say to them.

It had been four days since the last time we were there. Four days ago is such a ‘long time ago’ in a disaster area where they are forced to live an abnormal life. A little girl expressed her joy with her whole body when she saw my wife who went visit again, as she jumped up to her with a big smile on her face. Such an indescribable anxiety and loneliness is hidden behind the smile, which she shouldn’t have to have. When I come home, take a little rest and close my eyes, I see the children waving to us until they couldn’t see us anymore. (by Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Morioka city, Iwate)

This is an update from Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Iwate prefecture, Japan, who has been serving and ministering in the disaster area since the tsunami.

March 26, Sat. We went over the hill in the snow to go to Miyako city. 8 of us men headed toward a house of “someone who needed help” that a local pastor told us about with a help of car navigation. We parked near the destination, and heard a “Hey!” calling out to us. We stood in front of the house, or is this a house? No it was an inn. We walked in and saw it in a terrible condition. Bent concrete walls, piled up mud, woods that shot into the room with the tsunami as they crashed the windows, rubbles. A couple hundred plates and food scattered, destroyed heavy machines in the kitchen… After four hours, we finished most of the cleaning out.

Then we talked to the inn keeper in his seventies. Looking at the ocean, he said “I don’t want to remember (about the tsunami)” with tears in his eyes. But slowly, he kindly shared with us about his experience of an unforgettable terror. “When the ‘wall-like water’ came, I was swept away before I knew it but was saved because I got stuck on something. My wife was swept into the cellar with the water but was rescued by the local fire fighters. We survived miraculously, but looking at the destruction it did, we thought we could never reopen the inn. But then, these helpers came out of nowhere.” He looked around the cleaned out room and said, “I guess there is also a saving god…” He told us with a wrinkled face to come back in 6 months and that he will treat us good fish. I couldn’t help myself but to ask if I could pray for him. In 6 months? I would rather see him again tomorrow and pray for him. Even if I couldn’t see him, I want to serve him through praying for him. (by Pastor Yoshiya Kondo in Morioka city, Iwate)