Two Weeks after the Earthquake

Hi Everyone, It is two weeks since the Earthquake.

I know it's been a while but when your in the frying pan all you do is run around and try not to get cooked. It has been one of the most difficult weeks for me. In 1984, my boot camp in Fort Dix New Jersey was a pleasure cruise compared to this time. It isn't the physical demand but the mental and spiritual things that have come my way. I am on the Emotional Care Team. In the US we call it Pastoral Care or Pastoral Crisis Intervention PCI. Here we renamed it Emocare. We have two groups to approach this, one is the team care which I am leading and the survivor care. The UN report said the PTSD symptoms are already beginning to manifest in people earlier than usual. The Children are especially affected.

I am working with a team of people that is changing daily and we are ramping up a training process for different types of teams in the field right now. We first have Assessment teams usually our first responders they love to get out there to be our eyes and ears and survey the land and find possible sights for us to set up camps. After two weeks we now have three full functioning Bases and a fourth on the way.

We now have a second Group in the field known as supply and base staff. There are long term teams who will stay up to two weeks on base and network with churches in the area. Our first one is up to about 35-40 some churches that they are getting aid to and helping with emotional and spiritual care.

We then have our third group of people to train and those are our recovery teams. There are churches and groups from all over the world and in the Tokyo area and we network the local churches with the churches in the affected areas and they then begin the clean up and ministering to the people.

God is at work and there are many coming to faith. The devastation is so great and vast. One pastor from Chicago said he was in Haiti but this was far worse. Another pastor said the amount of devastation was like 5 katrinas. In one area of Kasenuma you can be on the beach and look inland for a mile and then drive for 15 miles north and it is all devastation. The strange feeling team members have is that the place has a deafening silence.

We are having to work on Cultural Sensitivity Training for our American guests. The Japanese are very private persons and since the disaster have very little dignity left. They are in the shelters and have set up chairs for walls and they have a blanket on the floor but members take off their shoes to enter and ask for permission to enter. They feel strange because this is all the home they have left and they are encroaching upon it. In one church a big named organization was said to have a circus driving around with a van full of film crews and as they come to a church they jump out and almost bust the doors of the churches down. You have to understand most churches in this area are small and usually the pastors home. The guys of this group jump out and make a chain carrying relief into the home of the pastor and they start to slide boxes across their very old and precious wood floor. In Japan you don't do those things. It is disrespectful. You take off your shoes no matter if you have the combat boots on you take them off. You honor the home. Anyway, I am on a soap box crying against the so-called relief. The disaster is hard enough to process but the relief crew should not be a disaster and embarrassment to Jesus Christ. I never knew how many hundreds of groups there are. They all claim some kind of fame naming their disasters as badges of honor. It is kind of sickening. They don't remember the people or church name but that disaster..."Yea we were there." So what! These groups come in for a month or two and then leave. Our goal at Crash is we are here for the long term. We are here to help. We live here and aren't going home or off to the next disaster. Just to give you a sense of this. One team called a Pastor to offer relief to them and they said, "Not today. We are not ready to receive you. Come on Monday." That was two days later. They would rather do without and suffer for honor of the family members to all get ready to receive a guest.

I was promoted just today. Yea, but it can change tomorrow so stay tuned. I am now also in charge of Radiation monitoring. We are getting trained on the latest equipment for testing radiation. A group donated 12 units for us to use. Each base camp and each work team will be given a monitor that will have readings for the whole day of how much IF ANY exposure they may have to radiation. So far to my knowledge there is none in the areas we are in but that can change and we need to keep a daily log on the readings and if they spike I have to call teams out of the field. So I am over the Pastoral Care, Survivor care, Radiation Scary (JOKE) and a few others things I think. I have no Idea what I am doing but that Jesus keeps providing the right people to plug into place and have them go to work. The amount of translators that are available are awesome. God is good. We have had Erin Kawaye of OMF international come in and train our HQ team on our roles together and how we are to work together. It was a great time. I am learning how to love people in a new way. I am working with many different denominations and types of Christians. Love is the key.

We had an Emocare information night expecting 30 some people we called to show up. About 200 showed up and we had it U-streamed with 10 churches logging on. It was so awesome. I was terrible and God is using it. HA. I love our God so much. The verse I am enjoying and chewing on right now is Hebrews 12:12 in the New Living Translation. "So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs. Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong." There is another meeting next week and they decided to rent out Aoyama Gakuin Hall. That is a big college in Tokyo. They are expecting 700 but have a feeling it may be more.

This next week will be hard and We need prayer. There are two teams from the US arriving and coming to check out our operations and then we will drive up to the bases and check on our teams and perform in field debriefings and radiation checking. Basically talk about the mission and read our Bibles and pray together. But I am supposed to sound real official. We if possible will also do some assessing if time allows for us to go into the Iwate prefecture north of sendai. Pray God to prepare our hearts for the time we have together and also for what we will see and smell.

I am on shaky legs right now. But God is encouraging me to stand firm and not stumble or run away. I think of the Love Song tune "With one hand reach out for Jesus and with the other bring a friend."

Pray for the Calvary Japan Conference coming up it should be awesome for all of us to be refreshed in the Lord. I pray we can all get together and just seek Jesus. I am loving my brothers and sisters in the others groups but there is something special and heart warming about your own family.

The Calvary Churches are responding to the disaster each in their Spirit led way. God is raising them up to respond in so many ways it is awesome. Chizuo and Rick went to the North area and just took a truck and loved on the people. It was very impacting but also a blessing for them to just pray and bless people as they'd come to an area and open the truck and give supplies to people. They touched so many lives. Pastor Jack was at Costco buying supplies to donate and is wanting to do all he can. Jeremiah is helping get teams with trucks off from his church to deliver relief to some churches. So many are helping. Many of the guys are busy but have plans to come and work. Travis and Rich and Kiyomasa are going up to Sendai to deliver relief and supplies soon. It is such a blessing to have brothers like minded and open to the leading to the Holy Spirit. They are such an encouragement to me. This week Travis came in to do some stuff and just took time and prayed for me. I needed it. Jonathan is some how holding together. He is that kind of person that loves to blaze a trail in a jungle where not many have gone before. We follow behind wondering where is he going some times but there are vistas were we see the hand of God working and moving and blessing.

This week was huge for the whole team as Jonathan took time to admit some things that were on the hearts of others and it was a breath of fresh air for everyone to stand back and regroup together. We have been strengthened in Jesus and linked arm in arm as we march forward. The awesome thing is we are not just the foreign missionaries we have hundreds of Japanese Christians all partnering with us and working though Crash. Our goal is to turn the whole thing over to Japanese churches.

There are miracles happening and many stories of hope coming out of this. The greatest thing I see is no one person is getting the glory. God is doing a work and he is getting the glory he deserves. One group commented on our team dynamic and that was that we all have a true heart for Jesus they saw no egos in the leadership. He needs to look harder. Mine is there an I am doing all I can to kill that bad boy daily now it is moment by moment. One team found a man and a woman sitting on the concrete steps of the foundation of their home that had been washed away. They asked if they needed anything. The woman who was a popular radio personality said we have our physical needs but what we need is "Heart Care." The team shared the gospel. She was so glad to hear this she took them down to the studio and put them on the air to share the gospel. In one area, I heard a team was passing out food and Bibles. The people took some food but all wanted Bibles. They are hungry for God and are searching.

In Tokyo it seems as if nothing happened. Many are back to their old ways. In my town the pachinko parlors are packed out. Life is resuming even though there is eminent danger just to the North they are oblivious many of them with consciences seared. The schools all will start back up again Monday. Life will return to normalcy. But many areas of our town now have refugees in the sense of people without homes and jobs are now down here in our area in Government shelters. There is opportunity to minister to them as well. Pray we will have opportunity to visit them and love on them.

There is an awakening beginning in the mountains where churches and pastors are coming together to pray and worship God. We rejoice with all that God is doing. We are expecting God to do things far greater than we could ever imagine or think. Pray for the salvation of Japan. Pray for our teams safety. Pray for the unity among the brethren. Pray that we will be known for our Love for one another. Pray for all the thousands that are now mobilizing in the US coming over to be sensitive to this beautiful culture. Pray that the body of Christ will bring glory to his name.

Mihoko and the kids went back to the states for 30 days and I have asked my Students to allow me a couple of weeks off to work. They are so gracious and some even call me just to see how I am doing. It is such a blessing to have good friends.

Erin from OMF leaves all our teams with Romans 15-1-7 I think I'll do the same as this is the sum of all we are trying to do here. We are creating an organization where by the Japanese churches can link with the affected Churches and bless them and help them.

 ¹ We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. ² Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. ³ For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”^{[a] 4} For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.  ⁵ May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, ⁶ so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁷ Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. Romans 15:1-7 NIV

God bless you all. Do all to Glorify Him

Dan

Crash Meeting

 We had our first brief/training of CRASH tonight. We expected 30. Got about 200. We had the room over flowed to an outside lobby and then there were 10 churches logged on live through U-stream. It was awesome. I was horrified. I blanked out and don't remember what I said but they said I did fine. Wow... were they being giri? Lol It was fun now if we could do that every week. I spoke for the first 15 minutes and Andy Meeko shared his notes on stress reduction. We need to do more thorough training I believe. Hopefully we will have some good training sessions in the months to come.

Yukiko did an awesome job translating Andy. She was great. So was my translator. God bless you all and thank you for coming.

Normalcy or not?

The Earthquake in Japan is very hard to process. We are grieving so hard. We are all tired and overwhelmed. After my sons (@3-1/2) death in 2000 and my daughters @ 5 heart transplant I have learned it is important to try as hard as it is to get back to some kind of normalcy. I thought about ending all my ESL classes and just bury myself into the relief work. Problem is the danger of losing touch with reality. Processing grief is real and very hard but not processing real life is escapism and leads to darkness within the soul. Depression will settle in and isolation will dominate. It is very important we extend ourselves out to serving and loving others. Focusing on self will only spiral into deeper depression and will lead to dangerous behaviors like medicating self or seeking ways to end self. The road to normalcy is very rough and hard. But is is absolutely necessary.

Today for our kids ESL I tried to keep it simple. I also allowed the kids to process their grief and fears through play. We first taught the phrases "I need help?" We substituted the word help with water, medicine, my mom and the last one was Chocolate. I also taught the phrases, "Are you okay?" and also "I'm hurt." "I'm hungry." "I'm thirsty.""I'm crazy." 


We then modeled our lesson with building a city for 15 minutes reviewing past vocabulary: truck, people, animals, building, store, park, zoo...etc. I had each student pick a lego character and place themselves in the city. After we built the city we then simulated an earthquake and destroyed it. Then we played search and rescue. Using our flash lights we then looked for ourselves and went through our ESL phrases. "Are you okay?" No I'm hurt. I need chocolate.

At the end we modeled our phrases once more after clean up we ended with the phrase I need chocolate. Then I rewarded our good students with good chocolate. I hope they will remember the sentences. It was a fun class.

These pictures were my Tigers level 2 class and I also did it with my next class Zebras level 1 both responded to the play very well. My daughter Jane enjoyed being in the class too. It was at least therapeutic to see these kids process and play and learn. Thanks guys you helped me more than you realize.

Reflections of a Disaster

Staring at Kaneko, a twenty something college student, whom I am teaching English to, we were discussing Moscow deporting hundreds of stray dogs to Siberia. Our coffee spills onto the table and we are looking like deer in the headlights as the most violent shaking begins. Things start to fall in the bathrooms and off shelves. The doors and windows start to rattle. We both say at the same time Jishin! which means earthquake. We think it is going to stop 30 seconds go by then a minute, the shaking is still violent we go outside and people are running away from the building. We are on the 7th floor thinking we should go down stairs. So we walk to the Elevator but it is flashing emergency signs and is not running. That's right don't take elevators in Earthquakes. So we go down the stairs. It is about 3 minutes now and the shaking is still going on. When is this going to stop? Buildings and trees are swaying, birds are in the air squawking alarms to something really big happening. Kaneko and I decided to end class early and part ways. At the bridge from our train station to our apartment Mrs Sasaki San who is dealing with life threatening bone cancer approaches me and is rattling off her story. We talk and I encourage her. Her husband is in Tokyo and she is worried if he'll get home. The shaking had stopped but there is an eerie feeling that something terrible had just occurred and we were not the center of it. I call Mihoko and the phones are dead...Uh oh? The shaking had stopped so I went back to go to our apartment elevator to go back and check on our home. Drat it still is out of commission... That's right never take an elevator during an earthquake. I climb up 7 flights of stairs. The disaster was my legs at this point wow I am so out of shape. As soon as I get into my apartment there is a tremendous aftershock almost equal to the original. I stay inside and then go out on the balcony should I stay or should I go. The shaking stops I do what any good post baby boomer pre-gen xer guy would do. I facebook the event. The shaking returns a little less. I can't reach my family. I go outside and downstairs and talk to neighbors. I walk around town to access damage. An ambulance is at the pachinko parlor someone must have had a heart attack when their balls fell on the floor? People are out dazed. I go in to a familiar convenience store. The clerk at the counter is frazzled. I ask, "Daijoubu?" (You okay?) She says very loud as if she had been holding it in for a while, "KOWAIIII!" (Scary!) We laugh I tell her I will pray for her and her family. She is thankful and relieved. I go outside trying to call missionary friends, family, neighbors. Phones don't work. My kids are still at school which is 30 minutes away. I walk back to the apartment and climb the 7 flights of stairs. It is amazing how much Oxygen we demand the higher we go. I look on the computer which is still up and running. The devastation reports are beginning to filter in the Tsunami pictures are already within minutes of the events happening being broadcast on national television.

What has happened is the worst national disaster known in the history of Japan. The devastation is not just one local area or prefecture but it is the whole East Coast about 5 prefectures (States) have declared states of emergency. There are many more prefectures with lots of structure damage but their infrastructure is still in tact. The 5 main prefectures hit have severe infrastructure problems with electricity, water, gas all shut off or broken. Roads are impassible, and fires are spreading in some areas. Landslides have wiped out some small villages and Tsunami's have washed away whole communities. The military and many organizations are already on the ground working but are completely overwhelmed. Children are displaced because while at school their families were washed away or killed in accidents. The trauma and questions being asked are great and we are praying how to best be involved in the recovery and ministry to those hardest affected.

We are partnering with CRASH Japan a disaster relief organization from Grace Christian Fellowship with Pastor Jonathan Wilson. I am heading up Pastoral Care and running admin on coordinating teams from CC churches in Japan to group up and aid in various recovery efforts. Samaritans Purse, World Vision, Campus Crusade for Christ, OMF, JEMA, JEA and many other organizations are all behind us now and we will be having a meeting tomorrow for assessment teams to be assigned and to move out. Over the next few days we will be getting teams of missionaries from all over Japan to pair up and go into the areas and locate churches and missionaries and find our their needs. We are looking to establishing command centers in multiple communities for the express purpose of serving those communities. The recovery process will not be easy or short. One report says over 10 thousand people are missing. We know of about a couple of thousand dead from reports.

We are here in Japan for such a time as this. We are making ourselves available to the Lord for his glory and to use in this effort. Tomorrow we will have an assessment meeting at 2pm in Tokyo. Mihoko with be simultaneous translating it. Pray for her to be anointed to impart the information necessary to direct the teams and train the staff. We are feeling multiple aftershocks some very strong and we are over 250KM away from it all but those in the epicenter are feeling scared and need help.

We need you all to be praying for us. We need the leading of the Holy Spirit for the things he will have us do. Right now we are uncertain what all the details will hold. I will try to post after the meeting to let you all know what's going on. We need your prayers. God is at work and we look forward to what he will bring out of the ashes. Teams in the US are forming up and mobilizing to come over. Pray how to be apart if the Lord allows. God bless

Jane's first tooth

Miss Jane took out her first tooth. She was so happy and is very upset at the slow service of the tooth fairy. We told her she has to fly all over the world and Japan was a island that takes an extra special trip. She smirked and said, "Mom, just tell me you forgot." The tooth fairy came through the next day.

Sunday School

We have Sunday School and invited the neighborhood kids to come out and learn about Jesus. They love the English word find puzzles from CCCM Kids web. I download those word puzzles each week and they love to find the words. This weeks study was on Noah's ark. These kids have never heard about God or sin or floods. It was very hard to not just put the cookies on the lower shelf but literally on the floor. I had a hard time to explain in Japanese the terms. But we have fun anyway. After the lesson and story time I showed a Noah cartoon video that was in English and explained the story in more detail. I am challenged by this. Pray for us.

Puppet Show

Rachel's class mates all had been learning the story of Genesis and Adam and Eve. To express what they had learned they created a puppet show for the whole school. It was Chapel last week where they delivered the performance of a life-time. It was so wonderful to see all the kids get into the show. Good job guy.

Aren't we cute?

I'm not sure what to expect so let's pray.

Nathan is fingering Kazuma for his jokes he plays.

Day 1

Adam and Eve listen to the serpent BOO

All that work and it was over so fast. Wow!