Roberta’s residence and the bulk of her ministry is in Tokyo. She is starting a program in hopes of placing volunteers of all ages year round in Japanese Baptist Union churches and institutions.
Dear Journal Friends,
Larry, Rie and I left behind the difficult visual images of Shichigahama on July 29 and drove north. We left behind trashed beaches (cleaned every three days), and mountains of rubble from the clean-up operation. After driving inland for a few hours the same scenes sadly greeted our eyes again as we headed up along the coast toward Kesennuma.
Dear Journal Friends,
So much has happened since I wrote last, that I may have to divide this up into several letters! When I wrote in July, I had the feeling that all of you had disappeared. Why? Because I didn’t hear back from anyone! But then again I might have goofed up putting the letter on the IM website. Sometimes it defies me. But now there is a new website. Please check it out when you have a chance. And if you didn’t receive the letter sent about July 25th, please let me know.
On the other hand, shortly after I wrote the journal, I disappeared with volunteers in tow, and felt a tinge of loneliness at that awesome task. It had been quite a task during June to determine who could go with me and who could not. In the end, two volunteers and I made up our team. Although my plans were for four volunteers, God had special tasks for this small group.
Since the end of May, I have spent an increasing amount of time at the kindergarten with volunteer Laura in tow. Laura, a Navy wife from nearby Yokosuka has fit in fine as an International Ministries volunteer. She has gone through the “disaster-zone” of four-year olds where one never knows when one will be pinched, poked or picked at! But she survived one and a half months of service and now moves on to a permanent job on the Navy base. Thank you Laura! I assist a group of mothers who have formed the “Clover Circle’ to support an organization which is overseeing the needs of over 1250 orphans of the disaster in NE Japan. They are making items for their children to “buy” (!) to teach them the value of raising money to help kids who have lost their parents in the disaster. Every day the teachers help the children to pray for the children in the Taira Kindergarten in Fukushima who have been adversely affected by the radiation aspect of the disaster.
Dear Friends,
While much of the world is now looking elsewhere for news, Japan continues to try to cope with the present realities while planning for a new start heading in a different direction. Japan has become a country of great contrasts as there is a great dichotomy between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” between those who are already on the road to recovery and those who are stuck at a dead-end. Although Japan continues to help itself and heal itself, volunteers and donations from abroad continue to surprise local churches and citizens. For example, last week a professor from Kanto Gakuin in Yokohama was visiting the office of the Akha Churches of (northern) Thailand when he was given a very heavy bagful of coins equaling $375. “This is our donation from our mountain villages to the people in the disaster area of Japan,” the church official said. And, there are other stories like this.
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