11 months have passed and I still cry

Yesterday was the 11th month anniversary of the March 11 disaster in Japan last year. I've been working on the next issue of Japan Harvest. We are featuring some articles about the recovery after March 11 disaster. It has been interesting to read various stories from different perspectives. I thought it would be good to put some video footage here (that doesn't work well in a magazine format!) for you to have a look at.


This one made me cry:

Here is a dizzying set of photos, just post-disaster and last month, 10 months later. There are some places that look totally restored, but others that are look like they are waiting for the developers to move in. This is true for hearts too. Some people's lives look like they've returned to normal, others are far from that. However underneath, even if things look normal, there is pain hidden deep, or not so deep.

At the top of the above article is a short list of statistics, here's an excerpt:

15,846 — Number of dead.

3,320 — People still missing.

2 — Number of missing people found dead this year.

240 — Number of orphans in the three most severely affected prefectures, Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima.

I find it strange to find myself crying as I post this. Even though we weren't in the tsunami zone, the whole event shook us in many different ways. It is not easy to contemplate that many people dying, or that many families losing loved ones. And knowing that less than 1% of those who died loved Jesus makes it even worse. This event will not soon be forgotten, even as the world and our lives continue to move forward and the "anniversaries" start to slip past unnoticed.

But here is the hope. This whole region was somewhat neglected by mission organisations in the past, but now there is a plethora of activity going on. Not just recovery work, but church planting too. And of course the relief and recovery work that Christians have done in the past 11 months will lay a basis for the future. A foundation for making friends, and followers of Jesus.

Here is a link to a video about what OMF is doing in the northern part of the region.


Here's another one with a Japanese pastor from the region talking about positive things that have happened since March 11.

Please don't forget Japan in your prayers. This nation is needy, in a way that is hard to take photos of. Many are searching for meaning after the great loss that they've suffered, pray that they'll find it before it is too late.