Day five post earthquake brings new challenges

Students spontaneously praying at CAJ today.

Another day, another challenge. Today we shuffled off to school for a refreshment of our library books. It is the first time the school's been open to students since Friday, but it was only the library that was open. It was good to see familiar faces, hear the stories and vent frustrations. Great to get new books too.

Especially when we got the news later in the day that school has now been cancelled until the end of next week after which is Spring Break - a week long. So we have no school now until the 4th of April. Such joy (tongue firmly in cheek)!

So tomorrow we start "Marshall school". All three boys after breakfast and morning jobs, we'll buckle down to some impromptu home-schooling. Thankfully because there is no school, my husband is also home, so I'm not winging it on my own, unlike many mums. The school is helping a little with some virtual schooling or distance ed-type things. So we'll see how we go. As I type David is writing some lists for the boys to work on.

This afternoon, after chasing the boys away to their rooms, I spent some time working on my articles for our mission's international magazine. Everyone is saying this - it is hard to concentrate. It feels a little like we have ADD, perhaps. Probably part of the stress of the situation, and the fact that it is hard to know what will come next. It is hard to predict anything and that rubs you a little raw on the inside.

At 4pm three other ladies from our mission came over and we prepared dinner for the folk working at the CRASH command centre down the road. I'm guessing we fed about 40 people tonight. That took up about four hours - the preparation, execution and clean-up. We were scrambling really. Scrambling to get all the ingredients, in a situation where you cannot be sure what you'll find in a shop. Scrambling to get about - public transport is still unreliable and this afternoon biking wasn't even very easy, we had a dust storm with strong winds. Scrambling to have the right equipment - our house is not equipped to cook for that many people, I simply don't have the large pots required. And scrambling to get it to them hot. The kitchen next to the room they are working in is a very tiny galley kitchen, with little bench (counter) space. But it all worked out in the end and everyone was fed.

I've also picked up some extra responsibilities with Japan Harvest, the magazine where I'm Associate Editor. Our upcoming issue is going to look a bit different now. I'm not sure, but it looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me in pulling together new articles of news that is just happening. I have no journalistic background, so this is a different area of writing to what I'm used to. Praying for God's wisdom and help, that's for sure. If you have journalistic skills or the ability to transcribe recorded information to typed and you have some time to spare - I'd love to hear from you. We want to capture some of the good news stories, stories that Christians and the church has to tell.

Therefore the family juggling act just got trickier. Two people working part-time jobs from home with three boys doing impromptu home-schooling sounds like it could be a potential disaster. Pray for wisdom to listen to each other and try to work together and not against one another.

We know you are getting lots of bad news about the nuclear situation here. Please do go and read this article that I posted earlier today. It gives a much clearer picture of the situation than the popular media is portraying. We really are too far away to be at risk, despite the news you're hearing. Someone put it this way: "At the current rate you would need to be exposed for about 33 hours (outdoors) to equal the amount absorbed by one chest x-ray."

So, again I say: We're well, a bit stressed and tired, but doing okay. Thank you again for your prayers. Thank you for your emails. But please, more than us, pray for the Japanese people. This has the potential to break down some of the barriers that this culture presents - particularly the pride that says, We're okay, we don't need help, we don't need the gospel. Pray for Japan.