What are the Limits?

Several times in the last three weeks I've thought I was at my limit for accepting and assimilating major upheavals and change. I think it would be great if it would all stop for a day and give us a chance to catch our breath. And then you see the stories in the paper about people living for who knows how long in shelters. My life is not so bad. I can do this.

In a world where it appears that "nothing's quite as sure as change," we have the glorious option of hanging on to the God of the universe who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hallelujah! 

4 Bears for Maiko chan

My latest quilt project is finally finished! It's a baby quilt for little Maiko, the baby of friends of mine. Of course this took longer than I anticipated. Maiko chan will soon be 9 months old. Story of my sewing life - better late than never - usually.  Maiko actually attended the Quilt exhibition I participated in last July. Her mother was delivered of her two days later.

The pattern is "Bear Paw" and it is set in the traditional manner with four blocks set with each "paw" pointing to one of the four corners. So, four paws make a bear, and there are four sets = four bears. Hopefully I'll have a picture of Maiko at the weekend to post for you. Watch this space.

I learned some things doing this quilt. It's paper pieced, which is the technique I wanted to practice. I used the same colors in each block for the paws themselves, the other triangles were scraps and other than trying for not putting light next to light etc. I was going for random placement. Also in the larger squares - some had roses in them others didn't and instead of deliberate placement, I let them fall at will.  It would have been better if I had been a bit more deliberate. The corners were an intriguing idea from sensei. I found turning the corners on the binding was just difficult and I didn't figure out the best solution till I was almost finished - turn the corner twice instead of trying to do it all in one turn.

Interview with Field Director of OMF Japan

You can see an interview with Wolfgang Langhans about OMF's disaster response here:  http://vimeo.com/21503809

Able to Think at 6:00 am?

Maybe living in Japan keeps me more alert mentally. I don't always think so - sometimes I feel quite dull. Things like trying to figure out if we're due for a power outage when I'm slightly sleep deprived, and vertical, at a time of day when I'm usually still horizontal, makes me wonder if I have enough brain cells, and, if I do, where it is I keep them.

Such was the case this morning. When I went to bed last night it appeared that Group Two would probably have an outage starting at 9:20. I got up to turn on the heat and to check for more details at 6:00 am. I found that over the weekend, they had further divided the groups into A, B, C, D, and E, and the outage was for A, B, and C. What group was I now? All I could find were sites in Japanese, but eventually found a list by Prefecture. I clicked on Chiba and was presented with a list of all the cities and subdivisions and eventually found Ichikawa and Osu. We are now Group 2C.

No outages tomorrow. I can sleep in.

A Walk in the Spring Sunshine

After the 10:00 am Service I went for a walk with my friend Sachiko. The sky was bright blue and it was a bit chilly. The spring flowers are really starting to bloom. I will be posting pictures on Picasa  and will run them to the right as a slide show. Remember that if you click on one of the slide shows it will take you to Picasa. To see other albums, click on the "my pictures" tab.

The OMF Japan web site is being updated frequently with prayer requests and stories from the past two weeks. To get there click on the link: omf.org/omf/japan/

Tomorrow a team will leave from Ichikawa taking a load of donated items to the earthquake area. Several churches have collected things like new underwear for people who have lost their homes and even if they have clothes don't have water to wash them.

Relief Work in Ofunato Japan

A team from OMF has been working in the tsunami stricken area north of Sendai. They located this church, and the pastor asked for help in making it usable. It's location makes it a good place to set up the curry rice kitchen.

All of this garbage came from inside the church building. Two weeks and a day ago the church contained furniture, books, and countless usable things. The tsunami came and mixed it all up and added stuff from many places seaward from the church, sea water, mud, at least one salmon and a shark!

In Denial in the Dark

Our power outage today was scheduled for the latest slot, starting at around 6:30 pm. All of the other outages for today were cancelled. We only actually had one or two this whole week, so I really felt that we wouldn't have one tonight ether. So, I was shocked when the power went off. I put on a sweater, got the book I'm reading currently and my battery powered book light. It lasted less than two hours. The temperature dropped 5 degrees Celsius in the living room.

I didn't think I was going to be able to buy any decent toilet paper today either, but as I glanced at the display in front of our neighborhood drug store coming home, there were a few packages of my favorite brand (Americans are so fussy about tp!) I also got kerosene this afternoon. And the price was the same as last time. Yay!

Thursday, Earthquake+14

A jolt at 5:30 am (I think) got me up to turn the heater on in preparation for morning ablutions on a chilly morning. Several more throughout the morning as is usual these days. HoHum.                                                

Thursdays at the office we generally have a Prayer Meeting open to all OMFers in the area. Today we were twelve and spent time praying through Psalm 16, and telling things that had encouraged us in the past few days, as well as praying specifically for OMFers working directly with the relief effort. I really enjoyed hearing the voices of people praying in small groups rising in our own small symphony of praise.                                                                                 

On the table in the office lunch area today was a plastic box of sweets. Well, the remains - two to be exact - were left. I picked one up and it was quite heavy for it's size, and a bit squashy feeling. Even though I could read the letters on top of the small package, it didn't tell me what it was exactly. I did recognize the flower pictured - a strawberry blossom.

Further investigation revealed a whole strawberry totally encased in lovely, soft mochi. (see the December post about mochi if you're not sure what it is). It was very fragile and needed to be eaten immediately!

Another Rather Shaky Day

The day started with several rolling shakes that got most folk I know out of bed.  There have been others throughout the day, just light ones, but reminders that we are not in control. I'm glad I know the God who is.

I was able to help out at the Guest Home this morning as there was no power cut. Then I got the filing caught up in Serve Japan. So I have a certain feeling of accomplishment.

Our team in Aomori were planning to set up a kitchen to make and serve curry rice. They found an area where people are able to live in their homes, but aren't able to get food easily. The local shelter requests food for the number of people staying there, but not for those living nearby. Curry rice is a kind of Japanese comfort food to many. It tends to be milder and sweeter than Indian curry and is served with Japanese short grain rice.

Tomorrow is the regular Prayer Meeting at JHQ and it's my turn to lead. There are an overwhelming number of things to pray for, so I hope to help us to encourage each other and to be thankful.

Full Day

Back to a three +-hour power cut this afternoon. Got two guestrooms cleaned and ready for occupancy and did a little work in the office before it though. Power came back on about 20 minutes before my Japanese tutor arrived so I was able to get the temperature up a little from the 11 degrees (C) it had fallen to during the outage. She brought a couple exercises in reading Japanese and answering questions/solving puzzles which were just difficult enough to make me want to figure them out. We also talked about the school where she now works, and a little about the relief efforts and OMF's involvement.

"For such a time as this..." keeps coming to mind.

Tomorrow's schedule from Tokyo Electric shows us due for our power cut starting at about 9:30 am so I can go to the office/Guest Home in the afternoon.

Today a team of OMFers traveled from Hokkaido to Aomori with the makings of a soup kitchen which they hope to get set up in an area where food has been difficult to get in. They will be working with a local Japanese pastor who can introduce them properly in the area where they want to work.

Cold and Rainy

Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox, but the weather took a turn from almost spring to more like winter today. It is a public holiday in Japan and perhaps a chance to take an even deeper breath before needing to head back to work tomorrow.

The schedule at the Guest Home is hard to keep track of as there are people canceling planned trips and others needing housing unexpectedly, but that's the point of having a place like that here. Even though I  do other kinds of jobs in Japan, taking care of people and keeping the facility ready for use is where my heart is. I'm happy to be able to step up to the challenge at this time.

Sunday Afternoon Walk

My friend Sachiko and I went for a walk after church. The picture here is the only sign we saw of damage from the earthquake. There will be a new set of pictures running in the slide show (as soon as I can get it changed) of other things we saw as we walked down to and then along the river, to Satomi Park and Junsai Park. Everywhere we saw people walking and enjoying the early spring weather. Sachiko commented that the conversations of people we passed were centered on the earthquake.

Several people let me know today about the Samaritan's Purse delivery of food etc. for Sendai. I was really happy to know that they had coordinated with CRASH the Christian organization that OMF is partnering with in the relief effort on this end for delivery to evacuation centers, especially ones the government hadn't gotten to yet. The main problem so far is not that there is no food, but that it's difficult to get food from collection depots around Sendai into the area evacuation centers. Sendai was able yesterday to receive a supply ship at their port.

Read a report from one of our missionaries in Sendai who seems to be having the time of his life ministering and witnessing to Japanese people.

Read one comment that it would be good if people in developed countries made sure that missionaries who are already serving here were fully supported before just donating willy nilly to the general 'cause'.

Two OMFers doing some scouting along the coast to see where we should send a team, got government permission to get gas and to travel on the expressway rather than the back roads. It really pays to have people on the ground who know how things work here and follow accepted cultural procedures. Doing it the Japanese way is important for getting things done and being accepted.

Remember that if you want to look at the pictures more closely, click on the slide show and when you get to Picasa you have lots of options. You can even comment there if you like.


  

My Day Off

Saturdays are usually my day off. As I wrote yesterday, I thought I would stay in bed during the scheduled early morning power cut. I woke just before 6 and decided to make a pot of hot water to put in the thermos, and check my emails and get the latest news. The latest news was that the power cut was canceled. So I stayed up.

I used to think I was a pretty flexible person. This last week has really put a strain on my ability to flex. Almost every day I started out with a plan or an idea about what I would do or what I thought would happen and every evening would find me doing something totally different or thinking about totally different things.

So I spent my day off being quiet, sort of gathering energy for the week to come. The earth was fairly quiet too till around 7 pm when we had a bit of a shake. Tomorrow will be church. Ms. S. my old friend plans to be there too. She's not a believer, but believes some things - she says listening to hymns has a healing effect.

A New Normal

So many major and minor adjustments in the past week are gradually adding up to a new way of coping with my world in Japan.

Since the power outages have become fairly standard at once a day, first I find out what time the day's outage will be and start planning from there. I think it's brilliant that tomorrow's schedule says Group 2's slot is 6:20 to 10:00 am so since it's Saturday I guess I might as well stay in bed till I can turn the heat on. Of course if the sun shines tomorrow morning that will heat the place up and I can have another session sitting with the sun coming though the window on my feet while I do some hand sewing mixed with some reading and thinking and praying. As soon as the power is restored I need to start a batch of bread in the bread maker and a load of laundry. After that the schedule is open.

I was able to get coffee filters at the store today. I also went to the bank for some cash and to the Dr.'s office to get prescriptions for my regular meds. I got my carry on bag down from the top shelf and started putting in some things for "just in case". At the Guest home I cleaned and made up two rooms to be ready for guests on the weekend.

Our message from the Crisis Management Team contained the following, reiterating the reasons for the decision not to call for members to evacuate:

· The Japanese government is not seeing the need to evacuate people beyond the 30 km radius around the nuclear reactor plant.


· The British and American Embassies have sent a number of bulletins but while recommending that people consider moving they have not ordered citizens in the regions to leave.


· We want to stand together with the Japanese at this crucial time.

Later in the day our Field director let us know that in the event we need to move away from the Tokyo area, another mission with facilities near Osaka has offered OMF a place for 40+ people to stay.

I got several messages today from friends asking for an update here in Jyojia's Japan Journal. Honestly I had no idea some of you were following. I have a visit counter installed, but without comments I really haven't a clue who is reading. Please consider leaving a short comment from time to time; it really makes  it easier for me to write.

"The Big One" one week later

Apologies for letting this blog go for a few days.

Living in Tokyo at this time, like working with two-year-old children is a bit like being nibbled to death by ducks.

I am so happy to get emails and Facebook posts from people everywhere, but I feel compelled to respond to each. The difficulty is that we are also facing daily power cuts, which means no Internet connection. I have also been keeping up with as much of my regular work as possible, and at the same time I'm trying to be ready for possible eventualities such as the possibility of being advised to evacuate.

If I am advised to leave Tokyo, I would ask to go to Hokkaido for a time rather than to the US or another country. I think that if I returned to Florida, I might no be able to return here to work.

We're due for a power cut soon, so I'll let this go for now.

?

I've decided that wondering, "What else could happen?" is probably a bad idea. Today, there is unsettling news from the damaged power station at Fukushima. News media are at both ends of the spectrum on this one. Who or what do you believe? It emphasizes the range of possibilities.

As with most things, I look for the conservative side of the middle, trying to separate the possible from the probable. Searching for a sensible line of thinking that is neither radical nor blase. I invite you to do the same.

Another day - a new set of circumstances

I woke this morning to news of planned rolling black outs to conserve electrical power. Everything was organized with lists of places affected and the times. The Osu area of Ichikawa city where I live was scheduled to be blacked out from 9:20 to 12 :20 and again from 3:00pm for three hours. I came to the office to see if there was anything I could do. We had our usual time for prayer a little later, hoping to coordinate with the blackout. However, the power has not gone off and it is now nearing noon. So, I did some of the work that I usually do for Serve Japan. Alison came by on her way looking for some specific items to buy at the stores, only to find that the stores are mostly closed or out of significant amounts of important things.


This reminds me in some ways of an approaching hurricane. Or of the aftermath when you lose power or are expecting to lose power. And yet it is different. Everyone is waiting to hear what is happening with the nuclear power station in Fukushima, and speculating as people do. Will there be an explosion, will it release significant radioactive material. Will dangerous dust clouds blow around? Will the wind blow out to sea, toward Tokyo, where? What do you do in case of any of these scenarios?

Our Medical Advisor is trying to keep on top of giving us the best advice, and the Japanese Government has prepared ahead of time for some of the eventualities.

I would urge all of my praying friends to continue to pray for the situation in Japan. Please do not become desensitized by the repetitions of pictures and reports on the news. A nation is held in thrall of the unfolding events. God is still on the throne and doesn't miss a thing.

Sunday Update

It sounds like people everywhere have seen lots of images of Japan in the past few days. One thing you need to remember is that not all of Japan looks like that. In my town, Ichikawa, everything looks the same as it did a week ago. Church was much the same with the addition of a collection point for monetary donations for relief efforts and prayers during the service specifically addressing the distressing circumstances.

I have heard some amazing stories about friends and acquaintances. One man who works in Tokyo picked up his 12 year old daughter who is is in school in the city as well. Trains were not running, so the two of them walked home. I don't know how far, but it took most of 8 hours to accomplish. A mom and dad drove into Tokyo to rescue their two kids who were stranded at school. On the way back they got to the river that divides Ichikawa from Tokyo. Dad and son decided to get out and walk; they got home at about 12:30 am. Mom and daughter made it home with the car after 4:00 am.

Today I saw the local JR train line running. Most activities are continuing as usual. I noticed again at my local market that food was rather scarce in some departments. I wonder now if deliveries were just totally disrupted on Friday and stores have had to make do with what they had.

If we had only had the earthquake, the relief effort would have had mostly consisted of clean-up. With the tsunami so much more is needed. Here "in country" OMF as I mentioned yesterday is partnering with a group called CRASH for coordination of activities.
From the OMF website http://www.omf.org/omf/japan   

OMF workers will be helping with relief efforts in the Sendai region to provide whatever assistance they are able to give to the people in the area. OMF will also be supporting the work of other Christian agencies in Japan that are reaching out to help those affected by the earthquake and tsunami.


The Sendai Earthquake Relief Fund, an OMF Japan project, has been created to channel funds for this effort. Anyone wishing to contribute to this project may do so through the OMF office in their country. (Working through your local OMF office is faster, less expensive and less complicated than arranging international bank transfers to Japan). Please quote project number L60500.

In the States you can make donations to this fund by check or credit card. For more information call 1-800-422-5330.

One Day Later

The subtle rolling and gentle shakings are fewer and farther between. I walked up to the Ichikawa JR Station late this afternoon to get some exercise and to see how things seemed to be going. It's Saturday which is usually a day when families do something together. The shops are busy and so are trains.

Today there were people walking purposefully as usual. Women with several bags of grocery shopping. Moms and dads with babies. The sidewalks weren't crowded, but there were people doing the usual things. At the station building itself, which is full of all kinds of shops, people were looking at and buying food. I went to the gates for the trains and saw that they were running the Rapid Service toward Tokyo and toward Chiba, but it didn't look like there were trains running on the local line. Periodic announcements were being made over the PA system. These, as in stations around the world, are difficult to understand on a good day. I thought perhaps they were saying that the Blue Line was working as a "stop-at-every-station" train, but that can't be right, there aren't platforms at all the stations for the Blue.  A large screen was running through the list of train lines one-by-one saying if it was operating or not. Glad I didn't need to go anywhere.

I went to the bank and used an ATM. There was one other woman there doing the same. I went to several shops that sell ready to eat food and they had  sold most of their inventory. Some were hurrying to make more, and it seemed that some were running specials to make sure they sold everything.

This evening there are problems that everyone has heard with the power plants. Tokyo Electric is talking about "rolling blackouts" (where have I heard that term before?) so I went ahead and took a shower in case there is no power later, or tomorrow morning when I want to go to church. I need to get a flashlight out of my emergency kit. It's not too cold yet this evening, but if it's dark I suspect I'll spend some time under the covers with a book and my battery operated book light.

Like the Japanese I have adopted an attitude of making the best of a difficult situation, and staying calm as the Prime Minister has urged. No moaning and complaining - others have much more difficulty to cope with than I.

OMF Japan works with an Organization called CRASH - Christian Relief, Assistance Support and Hope - which is a network supporting Christians to do relief work in Japan and around the world. Hopefully some of us will be able to contribute various talents and skills to the recovery through working with them. If you want to do something tangible, go to their website http://crashjapan.com/ to see what you can do. If you're looking for a place to make a monetary donation, click on the tab for donations.

Keep Japan in your thoughts and prayers.

Thankful

Having lived through the intermittent shaking, sometimes weak, sometimes incredibly strong, of the past twenty hours, I am thankful.

To have survived relatively unscathed first of all, and to have news from every quarter that those I know and love are okay. I'm also so thankful that I had several avenues of communication open to me so that I could send messages of inquiry and reassurance to many places.

Most of all I'm thankful that God is sovereign. I have more questions than answers like most people, but I am sure God Knows, cares and understands. May he give you that peace today.