Huge Earthquake in Japan

I'm afraid prayer is all she can do right now. No traffic is going into Sendai. Ship, train and airplane traffic is all stopped. News helicopters fly over areas that are isolated and help hasn't gotten to yet. I've been trying all day to get through on cell phone to Mrs. Sato, who moved down there near Sendai last fall from our church, but can't. My Greek student has a friend down there too and he can't get through either. So prayer is the thing right now.

 

Thanks for the prayers, Debbie and SaggyWoman and everyone else.

After evangelism this morning I went to the church and began to prepare for tomorrow. After prayer I decided to change my message to Matt. 24:4-8 and talk about how God is sovereign, He is in charge and we can trust Him.

As I mentioned above, I've been trying all day to contact friends in the stricken area. I was able to get through to Pastor Tajima and talk to his son. I said, "This is Himes in Hokkaido," and he immediately answered "We're okay." So I'm sure he was standing by the phone for his dad. Their city of Koriyama was rocked very badly by the quake, but is well inland and so was not affected by the tsunami.

I also have been trying to contact Pastor Mita all day, but can only reach his answering machine. So he and his wife may be out trying to help. I believe it was abcgrad who said the BMM missionaries are all okay, so we're sure he and his wife are okay. Praise the Lord for that! Pastor Mita is an old friend, and head of the Bible school which used to be in Tokyo where I taught for years, and still teach by video in its present location.

We heard from a friend of Patty's that our friends Pastor and Mrs. Takahashi and their daughter in the Tohoku area are okay. I've preached for him several times in the BMM camp for which he is the caretaker, and also in the church he is planting.

Pastor Abeh was one of my students years ago in the Bible school mentioned above. He is in the stricken area and we're worried about him. According to Pastor Tajima's son they have not yet been able to contact him and his wife.

Another friend I've been able to contact is Pastor Kosaki down in Tomakomai on the coast of Hokkaido. He is a church planter who came to our island of Hokkaido originally under a Japanese mission board. They are all fine, he told me, without damage to the house or church. Tsunami (plural) as high as two meters (over six feet) came in and washed cars and shipping containers away, but his city has no injured people. However, there was one death in the historical Hokkaido coast city of Hakodate.

We are worried about single mother Mrs. Satoh and her sweet little six year old girl Hitoha, whose name means "One leaf (one word") based on John 1:1. Last fall they moved down to Miyagi Prefecture not far from Sendai, the hardest hit city of all. I've been trying to call her cell phone all day, and usually the phone would cut off without even connecting. The last time, however, I got a message saying, "The party you are trying to contact is either in an area with poor service, or has their phone turned off." I don't know if that is good or bad.

 

I was glad to know Pastor Carter and his family are okay. We stayed in their house while they were on furlough when we first came to Japan 30 years ago, so they are old and precious friends.

 

Just one more post before I hit the sack tonight.

You may have seen on American news about trouble at a Japanese nuclear power plant stemming from the earthquake. This has been on Japanese news a good deal, and every station we get has nothing but earthquake news, so there has been a lot of news about that. The truth is, there is trouble at two plants, and they've evacuated everyone for ten kilometers around each.

There was a huge explosion at one plant, with many injured, though none reported dead. They showed it over and over on the news. However, the minister in the government in charge of the situation informed us that there was no known radiation problem. However, other sources have been reporting possible fuel leaks, so it's an ongoing situation.

Meanwhile, our friends in the Tohoku area, the Tajimas and the Takahashis, had a fearful time during the quake itself but are all right. Mrs. Tajima wrote mutual friends that the quake was almost 7.0 in there area. I've been in one 5-6 in Yokohama and believe me, 7.0 would be absolutely scary. She said it went on for a long time and all they could do was hang on. But they still have water, gas and electricity. There have since been many aftershocks ranging from 3-4.

Their two daughters were in the air at the time with two grandkids, and their flight was diverted from Tokyo Narita down to Nagoya, so they are staying there with relatives. That situation and worse is repeated tens of thousands of times all over the affected area. With planes, trains and buses not running and roads blocked or destroyed, many people are stranded far from home. There have been more than 500 roads or bridges destroyed or damaged. Several bridges have huge sections gone, and cars were reported to have fallen in the water from them.

Good night, all.

 

Thank you for the prayers. They are needed.

 

To show how great the effect of the earthquake is in Japan even in areas that were not nearly hit as hard, here is some news from a close missionary friend way up in the mountains, quite a ways from Tokyo and even further from Sendai in the Tohoku region. All of the Kanto Plain (Tokyo, Kawasaki, Yokohama, maybe 15 million people) will be worse, and this is up in the mountains from Kanto.

 

This morning we picked up Usuki San, our ex-con and former drug addict, and headed for Sunday School. Of course the immediate subject was the earthquake. Usuki San felt God was speaking to Japan, and Japan must listen. He believes God may have even sent the earthquake. He's come a long way in the past few months, is even witnessing for Christ now to a girl at his place of work--gave her his old Bible.

We learned before the morning service that Mrs. Takasugi's daughter and son-in-law were okay down in Tokyo, and she was very glad for that. They were both at work in different parts of Tokyo when the earthquake struck. The son-in-law was taken to a train station in a bus, but the trains weren't running so they were taken back to the office. Both companies gave each employee a safety helmet and a backpack with emergency supplies. They waited around awhile and then everyone was sent home. They had to walk a long distance to get home. The earthquake was at about 2:30, add an hour for making arrangements, then the daughter walked until 8:00 PM and the son-in-law had to walk until midnight.

All over Tokyo people were doing the same thing, walking dozens of kilometers to get home. Those who lived too far away simply bunked at the office. That might include a million or more stranded in Tokyo, since there are "bed towns" all around Tokyo, and people travel every day as long as two hours one way just to get to work. (I did that for a year and a half to get to language school in 1980-81, and it can be very difficult even when there is no earthquake.)

Our morning service went well. The people listened carefully to the Word of God. Afterwards we sat down around the tables and drank coffee, had snacks and fellowship as we always do. (Our church is very small, as are many in Japan.) The topic was the earthquake of course, and we praise the Lord that none of our church people had friends or relatives in the worst hit areas--except for Mrs. Sato and little Hitoha, who moved down there last fall from our church. We still are not able to contact her.

From the conversation and from TV we know that the death and missing toll will be in the tens of thousands. Mrs. Takasugi mentioned that one town of 17,000 has only had 10,000 accounted for. One city official in another town of 23,000 said that only 10,000 are accounted for righ tnow, and their city office was destroyed so they nave no records and no way to tell. In the meantime, about 300,000 are in the various shelters.

One thing that has stuck us is how incredibly powerful the tsunami were. Mr. Ueno told us that out in the ocean a tsunami can travel 700 kilometers per hour--as fast as a jetliner. In this 21st century, many took video with cell phones and cameras, and tsunami can be seen tossing cars like toys and breaking and carrying away houses like popsicle sticks.

The incredibly sad and tragic event continues to unfold.

 

Praise the Lord for those found, Scarlett's friend's son and menageriekeeper's friends. Thanks to all for prayers.

If you know anyone at all living in the area from Yokohama and Tokyo in the Kanto Plain all the way up to the northern tip of Honshu, especially along the pacific coast, pray for them. There are planned power blackouts during the day. We hear from our friends the Carters in the Tokyo area that the shelves are empty, their city in the Tokyo Metropolitan District has no gasoline, and water is not flowing. People will be running out of food and water soon.

We still have no word about Mrs. Sato and Pastor Abeh. I finally remembered today that I have the cell phone number of Mrs. Sato's older daughter (18) still here in Asahikawa, and thought she might have news, but I wasn't able to get through to her (probably at work). Looking at a map today, I realized that her town is far enough away from the ocean to be safe from the tsunami. However, it looks to be in the evacuation zone for the nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture south of Sendai. So she may have been evacuated from her apartment even if it is okay after the earthquake. Worse yet, she may have been at work in Sendai when the earthquake hit, and thus a 30 minute trip by car from where little Hitoha was in kindergarten. So please continue to pray for her.

Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) have been dispatched from around Japan to the earthquake area, including from our island of Hokkaido. They are going through the worst areas checking every house and every car. There are two men in the SDF who we know well who may be there, we don't know yet.

The Uematsu family used to go to our church, and I counselled him for a year about serious problems until he trusted Christ as Savior through a friend's witness. He came to our house late one Sunday evening to tell us he had been saved. He served in the Mideast with the SDF, and may have volunteered for this duty.

Young Watabe San was the friend of our son back in high school, and trusted Christ as Savior and was baptized then. He later drifted away from the Lord. He's also in the SDF and may be down in the stricken area. We called his mother but weren't able to reach her.

This morning I read in Isaiah in my personal devotions. Afterward I turned on the TV briefly before breakfast and heard an interview of a woman carried away by the tsunami. She said she and her daughter rushed to the door, only to be swept away. She clung to a tree, then grabbed on when a tatami mat floated along. Every house has at least one room with this traditional type of flooring, each mat about 2 by 3 feet. When the water receded, she was stranded for a whole day until they found her. She still doesn't know what happened to her daughter. Such stories have been repeated many times on the news.

This morning my wife taught English conversation to a class of Japanese women while I paid the Japanese income tax. Her ladies were all deeply hurting for their country, most of all a Catholic lady. She and her husband had a vacation trip all planned to go to Italy at the end of April, but they have cancelled it, they feel so hurt at the tragedy.

Please continue to pray for God's glory in Japan through the rescue and recovery period.