It's still stormy

On Wednesday I rode to my favourite large park and enjoyed some time on my own. I read a book, but then words of my own started breaking into my concentration. So I stopped and put the book down and started to put my own words down. I "wrote" on my little phone screen, so poetry seemed easier than prose. Or maybe it's just lazy prose...

This was part of my view on Wednesday while
I wrote.

What's below is an edited version of what came out in the park.

It's still stormy

Same storm different boat
It's a phrase people are using
About these strange pandemic months.

It makes sense.
Most of us have been stuck at home
Doing things differently to usual
Spending more time with some
And less time with others

But each one has a different household
A different set of griefs, of longings.

I've lost solitude.
I've gained more time with some of my family.
I've lost time with friends.
I've gained space in my schedule to rest.
I've lost a summer visit from a loved one.
I've lost precious farewells with friends.
I've lost more than I've gained.

Every morning I cast myself

In the arms of the God who bears our daily burdens

Lately that’s felt more important than usual
Maybe that will be what I've gained when the storm is over.

Life is usually full of ups and downs

This year they’ve been more intense 

More unpredictable 

More universal 

It’s been odd to go through a global disaster

To experience the same storm here as everyone else

Yet our boats are all different

My boat has two teenage boys and husband

My boat has a tiny backyard, but a beautiful tree

My boat affords little solitude, but it's safe

My emotions have crashed around

From gratitude to grief

From relief to fear

From joy to lethargy

I’ve bounced between 

Action and resignation

Energy and boredom

Feeling free and struggling against confinement

I’ve been disappointed

By myself

And by others

But I’ve also been surprised

By unexpected blessings

I long for things that will never be regained:

time, goodbyes, opportunities.

And some that will be regained, but will take time:

freedom to travel, to go outside without my face covered.
For a life free from the fear of other people's germs.

Same storm. Different boat.
I long to be through the storm.
To be reflecting on this from a distance.
But the clouds haven't cleared yet.

So I'll continue to daily
Cast my burdens on the Lord
The one who promised rest for our souls.

Living with the tension of not understanding why

I finally got myself back to the gym this morning. Ever since my husband was in hospital in the latter half of November (followed by family holidays and school holidays), I haven't really caught up on work. And if I'm behind on work, I find it hard to justify the time it takes to go to the gym. Anyway, after five straight work-days at my desk (with just grocery shopping to interrupt my computer time), I'm feeling like I'm not paddling so desperately anymore. It's a nice feeling! 

The gym is a good place to think and process and I spent time thinking over the recent weeks and what I might write here this week.

So, after three weeks of very lazy holidays, our family got whiplash on the 6th when we went back to school and work. Work that I had put to one side over the break suddenly overwhelmed and I paddled with fervour. Those first ten days after getting back came with two big deadlines: 

1. The prayer booklet for Japan that I'm working with. From mid-November I was responsible for liaising with authors, acquiring content, and doing the initial edits. that was all due in my first week back.
2. Last Wednesday morning I taught about writing and social media at our mission's annual pre-home assignment workshop. It was a first for me to stand up in front of a mission workshop like this as "the expert" and it took both time to prepare for, and time to recover from!

In the latter part of last week it was a relief to have those two things over, and be able to concentrate on my more regular work (although #1 is by no means over, I've got more to do there, but I did [mostly] meet that particular deadline).

As I reflected on these weeks this morning, while working the machines, the undercurrent of grief that flows ever stronger, the older I get, worked its way closer to the surface. I've had to ignore it to meet my deadlines and get my work done, but on reflection, there's a lot of "brokenness" going on around me.

Australia's disasters
I think I may have offended some non-Australians recently when they've asked me about my country's state. As much as I love social media, it is capable of spreading misinformation and ugliness quickly. Most of the rest of the world has been under the impression that the majority of Australia is burning. Unfortunately, the fires are a more dramatic story than the devastating drought that my country's been labouring under for years now. And, yes, the fires are of enormous magnitude, but no, the majority of Australia is not on fire.

I hate the blame-casting. Of course, everyone who talks to us about it wants to know why the fires have been so bad this year (Australia has fires most summers). But so far as I can see there is no easy answer to this question. There are many factors that have tragically combined to produce this disaster. (Please note that I really don't want to have a discussion on this on social media and will delete comments on this post that are to that effect.)

Once again it hurts to be watching from a distance as our loved ones suffer. Though I am very thankful that none of my family or close friends have lost their houses or lives, my heart goes out to those who have. The air quality of our beautiful land has been difficult for many millions. And again, the suffering brought on by the drought is hard to comprehend, but our farmers, in particular, are doing it really tough.

Personal disasters
And then there's family and friends who are suffering just now, apart from the national disaster: watching a child die from cancer, trying to find a way through this year as a marriage dies, and dealing with the false accusations and old-boy-style of working in a new job. Just a few of the currents that are running under the surface of my life at present.

I'm trying to compartmentalise: seeking to enjoy the blessings God brings into my life (thanking him for clean air to breathe, for example) while at the same time holding the pain of my friends (which is also my own to a certain degree).

Yesterday I listened to an English sermon while I ate lunch and did other household tasks. It was specifically about what God thinks about the fires in Australia. It pointed us back to the fact that this world is broken and groaning and nothing is going to fix it before Jesus comes back. The preacher compelled us to be compassionate and do what we can for those who are hurting, but also to fix our eyes on Jesus. To put full trust in him alone, because no other can save us in the long run. 

We can put the fires out, but will still die of some other cause later. We can follow God's lead to a new job, and find that the rug has been pulled from underneath us before we even arrived. We can be as good as we possibly can, but still have the person we pledged to love forever turn their back on us. We can devote our lives to serving others, only to have cancer take our lives.

God's most extensive answer to someone who asked "Why?" that is recorded in the Bible is in Job. If you read through chapters 38 to 41, you quickly have your breath taken away. God didn't answer Job's question about why he suffered so greatly, but rather revealed to Job the vast chasm of difference between his knowledge and power and God's. Afterall what human can answer the question: "Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?" (38:35 NIV).

And again in Isaiah 40 God speaks to his people, people who are in a world of pain: exiled, crushed, and without hope. He points to his great power and wisdom, "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?" (v12 NIV).

So, I'm pointed back to God, who says:

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perpelxed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destoryed... 

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Cor. 4:8, 9, 18 NIV).

For me, now, today, that means continuing to trust God no matter what comes across my path. I don't understand and don't want, the pain, grief, or strife. But I won't turn my back on God, whose understanding far surpasses mine. For the time being, we all have to live with the tension of not-understanding: just like we do when we watch a movie that doesn't lay out all the pieces at the start.

Gifts with meaning

This is my Nozomi jewellery. By the way, it is
much harder to photograph jewellery than I thought!

This morning a 5.9 earthquake hit Osaka. You will probably have heard about it on the news. That's 550km from here, so we didn't feel it, but a few memories have been dredged up as a result. Yes, we live in an earthquake-prone country and news like this no longer surprises us. 

There is quiet relief that it didn't happen here this time, but sadness for those who have/are suffering. However, Japan is built for earth quakes and a 5.9 isn't a major problem for most people or structures. The news I've seen says three have died and over 200 injured. Electricity is off in many places and trains are still not running, There haven been fires and some walls/roofs have fallen. But I'm only telling you what I've read, and you have probably heard it or read it yourself.

Unique projects

However, I've been wanting to write about two social enterprises that were birthed from the level 9 earthquake that happened north of here near Sendai in 2011. These enterprises are similar to things you may have seen from much poorer countries than Japan: a group that provides employment for women, especially, and sells their goods. It's unusual to see it in Japan because this is such a wealthy country and most people can find employment if they want to.

But that changed after the triple disaster when so many people died (more than 15,000) and many livelihoods were also taken away. You can read about how these enterprises came about here: Nozomi Project and here: Megumi Project.

Nozomi sell jewellery created from broken pottery, they started with pottery that was left-over from the huge tsunami. Megumi up-cycle vintage kimonos into various gorgeous products.

I own jewellery from both groups.

These are my earrings from Megumi.

Here are two excellent articles about them from the Ethical Unicorn website: Nozomi Project and Megumi Project.

Here is a TEDx talk about Nozomi by one of the ladies instrumental in starting Nozomi (and, incidentally, she's a friend of mine).

A couple of months ago I flirted with the idea of bringing back some of this jewellry and selling it to interested people. It didn't take me long to realise I would have to wade through regulations about importing goods and also GST (Goods and Sales Tax). Sorry, I don't have the headspace or time, nor the inclination or motivation to deal with all that!

However, if you'd like to order something in the next day or two, you could have it sent to us (email me for a postal address) and we could bring it back in our luggage (though do check with them that they can get it to us by June 29). However, the reality is that postage within Japan for the Nozomi products is US$3 and worldwide is US$5, so you wouldn't be saving much! I do encourage you to get something from one of these projects, they are beautiful, quality products and have a unique story. 

Nozomi's meaningful tag line is "Beauty in Brokenness". I sent a gift to a friend from them and included with her gift was this: 

Nozomi is a social enterprise empowering women through the creating of beautiful accessories from broken pottery. Locally, Nozomi is providing jobs and community to women adversely affected by the 2011 tsunami. Globally, Nozomi is sending hope-filled pieces across the world as visible reminders that there really is beauty in brokenness.

A gift with a meaning. 

Seven years on and recovery that has happened

Today, seven years ago Japan was hit with one of the largest earthquakes recorded, which triggered an enormous tsunami, and which also flooded a nuclear power plant and caused it to overheat. A triple disaster. A day that thousands died. And thousands more have died since March 2011 due to post-disaster stress.

It's not a day that we're likely to forget in a hurry. Here's a post I wrote the day after the earthquake. We received no damage here, but the psychological effect of being in the same country as such a disaster is not to be ignored. You see a little bit of that in this post 11 days after the earthquake and this one about unexpected emotions.

There's a part of me that doesn't like the way media dwells on past disasters, but I can see how this comes about. We don't want to forget those lost, indeed forgetting a disaster like this is dangerous because it leads to bad decisions about the future. However, recycling the horror of that day isn't necessarily helpful.

I'm glad, therefore, to be able to show you the following video, about hopeful things that have happened in the disaster zone. This is not a video about the hope that Christians have brought to people in the area, though there is also plenty of that too. 

Praise God that as people across the world prayed for this nation in 2011, God called some to serve here, both in the short- and long-term. It's now not unusual to hear the triple disaster included in the testimony of how someone has come to serve in Japan in the last few years.

Praise God that his name has been heard by many in the area who had never heard of him before. 

Step by step recovery

It's easy to be swayed by the tight news cycle these days. We're concerned about the disaster in Kyushu, to the south-west of us. It is terrible, horrible, and many other extreme adjectives you can think of. 

However today I want to draw your attention to the ministry that's still going on in the area where Japan experience a triple disaster just five years ago where there are still more than 170,000 people still living in temporary accommodation. OMF has had workers in this area for many decades now and continues to work there. 

Below is a copy of the recent newsletter that came from the work OMFers and Japanese workers are doing north of Sendai. Please read and pray. There are big changes happening, including changes in staffing and a location change. The newsletter has some good personal stories to fuel your prayers.

Ippo Ippo means step-by-step and is the name the ministry's had since early on, though the ministry itself has fluxed and changed as needs changed.

Ongoing sadness four years later

This morning I sat in a park with a friend. A park that was under metres of water in Brisbane's flood nearly four years ago. Two months after that disaster we experienced our own disaster in Japan. The fourth largest earthquake ever recorded which caused a tsunami of mammoth proportions.

The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that reached heights of up to 40.5 metres (133 ft) in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture,^[16][17] and which, in the Sendai area, travelled up to 10 km (6 mi) inland.

There were many differences between the two disasters. 

South East Queensland: Up to 50 people were killed, mostly in areas where flash floods occurred. Most of the floods were expected and most people were able to move out in time.

Damage initially was estimated at around A$1 billion^[3] before it was raised to $2.38 billion (Wiki).

This morning as I sat in the park that had been covered by this flood, I saw zero evidence. Houses that had been flooded were occupied. The park was restored (or reformed, I don't know, I hadn't been there pre-flood).

North-east Honshu: Around 18,000 people were dead or missing as of February this year (Wikipedia). While earthquakes and tsunamis are expected in Japan, this tsunami was unusually large. The tsunamis (yes, there was more than one wave) simply flowed over structures designed to protect communities from inundation by tsunami, so many people were caught unawares.

The World Bank's estimated economic cost was US$235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in world history (Wiki).

However, if I were to go today to one of the areas in Japan that were inundated, I'd see much evidence still remaining. Mostly empty foundations: places where people used to live, but no longer do. 

The fourth winter since the giant disaster in north-eastern Japan has arrived and many are still in temporary housing. Not because there isn't enough money, but because the money for reconstruction is tied up in red tape. This article is quite detailed in places, but it reveals the sad reality for many who have been promised homes, but don't yet have them.

Summary of the below: 
Lots of negotiation has been required to get land to build new homes on. It hasn't been easy to find the true owners of property. 

Here is more detailed explanation:

The government’s five-year reconstruction plan was built on unrealistic assumptions, said Yoshikiyo Shimamine, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. “Given bottlenecks such as labor shortages and material cost rises, and difficulties in getting consensus among residents who are relocated, reconstruction budgets are not something that can be spent within five years,” he said. 

Officials in Ishinomaki, home to 150,000 people, say spending the more than ¥437 billion in reconstruction aid has proven tough. With all of the municipal-owned land having been designated for temporary housing after the tsunami, the city government had to negotiate the purchase of an additional 9,000 plots to build permanent homes, the reconstruction office’s Oka said. That inflated the price of a plot of land in Ishinomaki by 15 percent last year, the biggest jump anywhere in Japan.

Before the city could buy land, it had to track down the legal owners. That proved tedious, said Oka. Officials discovered that in many instances, properties had been passed down without proper inheritance procedures.

World OT Congress #3

The disaster preparedness workshop that I began my day with.
Fascinating stuff, read about it below.

This event has been an interesting experience. I'm reminded again of what I felt when I left uni. That Occupational Therapy isn't so much what you do and know, it is how you think. They spent four years training us to think like OTs. 


A couple of core OT skills are problem solving within the current context and drawing on resources you have already available to you. Another is looking at the world in terms of occupation. Occupation being anything that people do, and particularly OTs are concerned with every day occupation. When people encounter limitations like injury or disease they are often driven back to the basics of living, and even taking care of themselves, doing "Activities of Daily Living" (or ADL) become hard.

Even though I no longer have a strong work identity as an OT, I still think like one. I'm a problem solver. Someone who's concerned about people's independence. Someone who sees environmental limitations and ergonomic problems earlier than other people.

Gotta love Japanese convenience stores. Here was my lunch. Cost less than
500 yen (under AU$5). Not only tuna/crab salad, but rice "ball", OJ, and
convenient hand wipes that I didn't even ask for.

This conference has huge proportions. During most time slots from 8.30 to 6pm there are at least 16 choices of things that you could do or listen to. The interesting feeling for me is that this is a bit like being back at uni, except that you aren't obligated to be at anything. No one is keeping track, there will be no exams. So at any time you'll find people not in sessions, if there's nothing that attracts their interest.

There are so many people. Over 5,000. The closest I've come to meeting someone I know is someone who happened to mention a colleague in her speech the other day. That colleague I lived with for three years, but haven't seen since I graduated nearly 20 years ago. Amazing!

The very enormous programme that you
almost need a degree to negotiate your way
through and definitely need an OT degree
to comprehend.

There is at least one of my old lecturers here, but I haven't seen her, I only know she's supposed to be here because her name appears several times in the programme, the inch-thick programme. Such are the proportions that there is no way to guarantee meeting someone unless you have their email address or phone number and arrange to meet.

_______________________________ But for my OT friends who want to know. Here is what I saw of the conference today.

I attended an hour and a half workshop about disaster preparedness. It was fascinating. We had OTs in the room from many recent major disasters: Sri Lanka's tsunami, Philippines' typhoon, Christchurch's earthquakes, Japan's tsunami, US hurricane Katrina etc. We spent time in groups talking about what we'd do in a hypothetical disaster: what we'd pack immediately, what we'd do 3 weeks later in a temporary housing situation etc.  It was interesting to note what OTs thought of packing that others might not, including diversional-type activities, like cards, puppets, assistive devices etc. But also looking out for the most vulnerable and noticing that some will have trouble accessing the bathrooms, getting up off mattresses on the floor etc.

It was quite enlightening to realise how much insight I have into this now, having experienced the events of 2011. Others in the group were fascinated to hear from people who'd lived here at that time and what it was like to experience earthquakes. Even though We weren't close to the epicentre.

Later in the day I went to a couple of sessions about children. The topics included 

• comparing the HST and DASH (handwriting assessments) checking their reliability (and yes they are reliable), and also looking at hand pain.
• goal directed intervention with children with disabilities: quite effective.
• evidence based approaches for children with DCD.
• this was interesting. It was a national project by the Dutch and they've definitely come up with the recommendation that CO-OP and not Sensory Integration is the way to go according to the data available.
• ASD – have more difficulty following the gaze of others
• ASD and sensory stimulus (I had trouble concentrating on this. It was by a Japanese OT, but in English, so I'm not really sure what her conclusions were.)

In actual fact I find that this conference attending is a bit of a lottery, even at such a prestigious event. The quality of  presentations varies considerably. All you have to decide on whether or not you'll go is a single line of text and the name of the presenter. Some have surprised me, others disappointed.

Tomorrow we have a Keynote speaker: a Nobel Laurette! A Japanese author who won the nobel prize for literature in 1994. I wonder what he has to say to a large gathering of OTs?

I'm off to bed. We've received some exciting news tonight, but I'll leave you in suspense for now about that!

Passion from the Winter Olympics

I spent some time yesterday afternoon with my language exchange friends and we inevitably got onto one of the current event stories here: the Winter Olympics. 

I was surprised to see one of my friends tear up as she talked about Japan's gold medalist,

Yuzuru Hanyu, in the Men's Figure skating. See here for more of his story. I love the photo in this story, when he and his coach saw his world record score.

This article includes some interesting backstory. Here is the pertinent bit:

And as things turned out, there was a sweet back story to his victory. Hanyu is from Sendai, Japan, where the earthquake and tsunami of 2011 hit the fiercest. His practice rink was destroyed. But the people of Sendai, with all their troubles, still helped him raise enough money to relocate to Toronto and train for these Games.

"I don't think I'm here spiritually all by myself," Hanyu said after his victory. "I am here because of all the people who supported me. I was able to return a favor, if you want to put it that way. The medal itself can't assist with the recovery. But now that I've won it, perhaps there is something I can do, going forward from today."

Another journalist wrote this:

And then Hanyu said something equally extraordinary, when asked by the media about March 11, 2011, a day many of his friends didn't survive. "It's a very difficult subject for me to talk about," he said. "I think my service to all those who were affected by the earthquake starts today." This, he added: "is going to be the starting point for what I can do for the recovery." 

And then gave some passionate advice to the gold medal winner from Sendai here.  

What do we do with all this disaster news?

Bushfires in New South Wales, typhoons in the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam and Guam, mudslides in Japan, floods in Japan, hail storms in Queensland, earthquakes in Japan, tornadoes in the US. All this is recent and I feel like I'm being slammed by disaster news too often. I don't know what to do with it all.

Earlier in the month I read Philip Yancey's recent (e)book, The Question That Never Goes Away.* He writes that because he's written on the topic of suffering before (most notably, Where is God When it Hurts?) he continues to be invited to talk on the topic.

He was invited to Japan last year for the one year anniversary of the earthquake/tsunami/ nuclear disaster. He was invited the same year to Sarajevo, a city that suffered under siege for four years, and at the end of that year was invited to speak to the community in the US where a man gunned down first graders and staff (Sandy Hook Elementary School).

So he writes:

I am well aware that no book can "solve' the problem of pain. Yet I feel compelled to pass along what I have learned from the land of suffering. (Ebook location 119)

Yancey asks, Where is God? and comes up with three answers.

1. God is on the side of the sufferer. He shares in our suffering. God does not overwhelm human freedom or even prevent evil from happening. Rather, what some meant for evil, God redeemed for good. (In the case of evil things happening that people cause directly.)

2. Where is God when it hurts? God is now in the church, God's delegated presence on earth. It might even be rephrased, "Where is the church when it hurts?"

Time will not heal all wounds. Even God will not heal all wounds, at least not in this life. Meanwhile, we in the church have work to do. Some have particular gifts . . . All of us have the power of love. Suffering isolates, batters self-image, ravages hope; a loving presence can prevail over all three. (Location 1221)

He writes, "If the church does its job, people don't torment themselves wondering where God is. They know the answer. God becomes visible though people."

3. God is preparing a new and perfect home for us. Jesus asks for our trust that he's got our future under control.

He quotes Terry Waite, who was a hostage for four years in Lebanon,

I have been determined in captivity, and still am determined, to convert this experience into something that will be useful and good for other people. I think that's the best way to approach suffering. It seems to me that Christianity doesn't in any way lessen suffering. What it does is enable you to take it, to fact it, to work through it, and eventually to convert it. (Location 1254)

So, we "cling to the promise that the God of all comfort has not abandoned us but continues a slow and steady work to restore what evil and death have spoiled."

And he ends the book with a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Christian martyr during the Nazi regime. He wrote this shortly before his execution.

I believe that God can and will generate good out of everything, even out of the worst evil. For that, he needs people who allow that everything that happens fits into a pattern for good.

I believe that God will give us in each state of emergency as much power of resistance as we need. But he will not give in advance, so that we do not rely on ourselves but on Him alone. Through such faith all anxiety concerning the future should be overcome.

I believe that even our mistakes and failings are not in vain, and that it is not more difficult for God to cope with these as with our assumed good deeds.

I believe that God is not a timeless fate, but that He waits for and responds to honest prayers and responsible action. (Location 1264-5)

There is no stopping these disasters. We can but continue to pray to our God who cares, that good will come out of these this suffering. We can but continue to play our part in "being present" in whatever way God calls us to be. We can but continue to look forward to the time when all will be right again and suffering will no longer be a given. And we can continue to know that we are not abandoned.

 * See here for his blog post about the book.

Parenting: always letting go

Last week on Monday we released our eldest son to make another step towards adulthood. He went to his wrestling club on his own. As I wrote here, it is a 45 minute journey involving two trains and one of the busiest train stations in the world.

This is a journey of about 22 km.

We enjoy considerable freedom here in Japan, especially in respect to safety and allowing the kids to get themselves around. I wrote a bit about that here.

Even though this is a relatively safe journey, it was still a big step to take, letting him do this (before we did, we accompanied him on the journey with him four times prior to letting him go it alone). And I have to admit I felt a bit shaky.

His biggest concern was managing the language at wrestling. My biggest concern was disaster planning.

One of the concerns with earthquakes is that they disrupt the train system. So if you rely on the trains to get home, and they stop on you, you're in a little bit of a bother, especially if you're a 14 year old foreigner without much Japanese and less idea of Tokyo's geography.

One of the weird images from the March 11 earthquake was rivers of people walking along train lines that night to get home. We heard stories of people walking many kilometres home in business shoes, or other people borrowing bikes to ride across Tokyo. And that was without major damage in the city.

The other thing that happened that afternoon/night was a serious disruption of mobile phone service. The internet worked fine, but phones took a while to get up and running again. I'm not sure why, perhaps they were overwhelmed with the number of people using the system?

First line of defence in a tricky situation would be for our son to call us, but if that isn't working and neither are the trains, it is tricky.

You might think this seems a bit extreme, but these are the sorts of things you must think about when you live in an earthquake prone country.

So, what have we done to plan for this possible eventuality?

We've photocopied the pages of our road map (which is all in Japanese), and added some English to help him out. If necessary, he could use this to walk home.I hope and pray that it won't ever be necessary, but there are no guarantees in this life.

As for our son's concern about language, his CAJ coach laughed off that concern saying, "The coach is a nice guy." And it's true. Not to mention, if we don't tip him into the deep end sometime, he'll never learn much of the language at all.

So, it's a continuation of the theme of parenting: teach and release. Constantly preparing them for the day when they'll need to function as independent adults.

What's happened since the Great Tohoku Disaster?

Yesterday I gave you some links to secular news items. Today I give you some news from the Christian and missionary community.

There has been a large influx of missionaries into the disaster area. Here is a video from one such agency, interviewing survivors and hearing from missionaries and Christian workers in the area. You'll hear a Japanese word: kasetsus, this means "temporary accommodation", though how temporary they'll end up being, no one knows.

Here is one project begun by missionaries that we heard about at the women's retreat, a business that makes jewellery out of debris (smashed ceramic and glass). The project employs more than a dozen women who lost loved ones or houses or both during the earthquake/tsunami disaster. We heard one women's story at the retreat I went to last week. Heartbreaking: she lost her mum, her pregnant sister, and then her husband chucked her out of their house. She's been suicidal, but now, through the love of missionaries, she's come to faith in Christ. You can buy the jewellery they make through their website: http://nozomiproject.com/

CRASH, a local Christian relief group who has worked hard for the last two years in relief, and recovery. They have a number of videos on their Facebook page that will gives you a view of some of the Christian side of the recovery.

This is a short testimony in song and a thank you to all who've prayed and given since March 2011.

This video is of a former yakusa (Japanese-mafia) who helped in the recovery effort alongside Christians after the March 2011 disasters and as a result God changed his life. Great story!

I hope that you are inspired, blessed, encouraged, but especially that you'll pray for Japan today. Many were lost directly due to the earthquake and tsunami (about 30,000). More than 100,000 were displaced from their homes due to the nuclear disaster and most of those will probably never go back. Many more have been lost to suicide since March 2011, some directly due to the disaster, others less related, but the ongoing "slow tsunami" of despair continues to overtake this country.

• Pray for God's peace and presence in the midst of pain.

• Pray for hope that comes from knowing God.

• Pray that God would continue to raise up communities of believers that can bring Jesus into broken places.

• Japan is one of the least reached nations in the world, with less than 1% of its 125 million people claiming to be Christian. Pray for an amazing outpouring of God's spirit upon Japan.

Tomorrow is the second anniversary: we will remember.

I don't know if the second anniversary of Japan's triple disasters will appear in your local media. So I've collected some links to stories, and photos here:

Two years later: three images of Japan's barren tsunami coast 2 years on.

Japan's recovery, two years later (18 photo images)

Revisiting Fukushima's Ghost Towns (15 images)

Tsunami-hit farmers struggle to restore clean, healthy soil

After Fukushima: families on the edge of meltdown

The one remaining citizen in the nuclear exclusion zone seen at his home in Tomioka town, Fukushima prefecture.

Japanese Police Still Search For Missing Victims after the 2011 tsunami.

If you want to, you can go back to some of the posts I wrote at the time, in order to remember the big impact it had on our lives, even though we were hundreds of kilometres away from the affected area:

The day of the earthquake.

The next day, a fuller account, but still with no idea of the longer-term impact nor the magnitude of the disaster.

Day five brought new challenges.

And a post showing all too clearly some of the uncomfortable emotional shifts that I went through during this difficult period.

Two weeks later.

Tomorrow I will blog about some of the hope that we're seeing in the area and some of the Christian work that is going on there.

Monday is a the two year anniversary of the giant earthquake

Next Monday is the 2nd year anniversary of the Great Tohoku Disaster (earthquake, tsunami, followed by the nuclear power plant catastrophe). There are a variety of stories surfacing again. It isn't common to find stories involving missionaries in the secular press, but here is one in the Wall Street Journal's "Japan Real Time".

Our local grocery store the week after the disaster (that
was more than 300km away from us).

I've also become aware of a 24 hour prayer event for the disaster affected area (and Japan as a whole) that anyone can join. If you were touched by the event and even the reports on this blog, consider signing up to pray for just a little while on Monday. Check here for details. 

I'm just back from a two-day women in ministry retreat and haven't had as much beauty sleep as I need, so I'm a bit blurry eyed. But I will be posting more about what's happened since the earthquake here next week. Tomorrow I'll let you in on some of the fun and excitement of our women's retreat.

Till then...

Does Japan need missionaries?

I heard yesterday that

• Korea has one church for every 738 people 
• Philippines has one church for every 880 people 
• Japan has one church for every 16,000. 

And yet at the same time the number of missionaries and pastors is decreasing.

Does Japan need missionaries?

As I talk to missionaries in Japan, pretty much everyone has stories of supporting churches who no longer support them because:-

• they don't see Japan as a needy field anymore
• Japan is too expensive.
• they'd rather support native pastors directly
• Japan isn't in the 10/40 window (by the way, it is)

Yes Japan is expensive, but it is still a needy field. There are many who've never heard of Jesus and the church (under 1% of the population) isn't big enough to evangelise their own country.

Another statistic I heard yesterday is the suicide rate: 30,000 per year. That's 300,000 in 10 years. So the truth is that Japan, though a "first world" country and a place where people don't look needy, is a country full of people with deep needs and not just spiritual ones. So yes, more than church planters and evangelists are needed.

Nearly two years ago the world's spotlight was turned on Japan when a huge earthquake and tsunami (not to mention a serious nuclear event) hit this country. There are many people who didn't "get wet" in that disaster, and many who didn't die, yet more than 50,000 have since died by their own hand since then.

Does Japan need missionaries? Yes.

I've been published again

Today I have a publishing shout. Women of the Harvest have published an article I wrote 18 months ago (I've had difficulty finding a market for it). It's based around our experience of the March disasters almost two years ago.

Bad memories evoked yesterday

This is one place the tsunami invaded
last year. The wave was as high as the mark
on the brown pole. But it was higher (30m)
in other areas.

We had an earthquake yesterday, actually we had at least two. One woke David and I briefly at 5.30am. The one 12 hours later was far more noticeable.

It's the first one in over a year that's had me wondering whether to hop under a table or leave the building. It started quietly too, just the infamous March 11 one. I heard it first, in the subtle creaking of our wooden-framed house. It started quietly and got stronger and stronger till the contents of the house were rattling and the floor shook under our feet. But not so strong that anything here fell down, and we were able to easily keep our footing.

There was only a 1m tsunami wave, but people were scared and many did evacuate the coastal areas: the same coastal areas that are still struggling to figure out how to rebuild from last year's disaster.

It brings back bad memories for us (and left us feeling shaky), who weren't in the disaster zone and didn't lose anyone we knew. How must it have been for those who did?

Here is a glimpse of some of the changes made to the warning systems and people's responses: Tsunami nation: then and now.

Our escape-Tokyo weekend

Our weekend up north was good, but too short. Three days isn't a long enough time when you spend six or more hours driving each way. Nevertheless it was good to get out of Tokyo.

Here are some random thoughts about our time away.

Saturday evening and Sunday were lovely. When we arrived mid afternoon on Saturday our hosts took us for a rambling hike that gave us some understanding of where we were located and also a lot of information about how the tsunami affected this coastal area.

The lay of the land is interesting. There are more than 30 missionary holiday cabins located up on these nobby hills. When the tsunami came last year it didn't get on top of the hills, but swept around them and behind. Because the land subsided below sea level, the hills were islands for some time. And the rice paddies behind them are currently unusable because they were inundated by salt water.

 Here you can see where the tiles were lifted away by the force of the tsunami. The fence was bent too.

Marked on the brown post way above the heads of my family is the level of the tsunami!

 Most of the damage has been cleared, but there is still evidence. Here is a gate that was smashed.

The beach was not quite a Queensland beach, but the sand wasn't too bad (not as dark and dirty-looking as some beaches we've seen in Japan). Not the best photo, though, sorry.

Our boys spent hours playing in the water. It was marvellous to watch.

I guess it is a challenge of being a TK (teacher's kid) that you get to socialise with teachers. And if you happen to be at the same school as your parents you get to socialise with your own teachers! The boys coped pretty well, though.

As for me, a TW (teacher's wife) I find myself socialising with teachers. This weekend I found myself residing in a house with four teachers. They were pretty good, though. They held off on much of the "teacher talk" most of the time. I shouldn't complain, I do remember some friends at uni who had to put up with us "therapy" students talking "shop" or worse (anatomy) at meal-times.

Really, though, our hosts were wonderful. Quite laid back and we could pretty do what we wanted when we wanted, without having to have a big discussion about it. They didn't even complain about boys who decided turn the light on and have a party at 2 am in the room above our hosts' bedroom!

Our hosts' life situation also posed an interesting thought for us. They're fairly new empty nesters. What will we do with our "extra" time when we're empty nesters (we'll still be our early 50s)? Maybe I'll write a book, or take up a new hobby?

When we asked the boys if they would like to go back to Takayama (as it is called), it was a unanimous "Yes". So I guess we'll be back there, maybe on our way home from an epic Hokkaido Camping Trip next summer?