Emergency Response

Partners International is working with the United Churches of Japan to provide assistance for people affected by the earthquake and tsunami around Sendai, Japan. Here's a story from Japan sent by Bob Savage, a Partners International staff member who is helping to coordinate that effort.

I'm in Sendai, the largest city near the earthquake and tsunami zone. Heading to the hardest hit area today. But first let me tell you one story.

Last nite I slept on the floor of Spring of Love Church. A young couple, Kunitsu and Shinichi, have been serving here for 10 years. And they are up to 10 members. This is typical in Japan where a big church might be 30. Working at it for 10 years is not considered long at all in Japan.

They have a very small but new building, only 2 years old. Everyone in earthquake-prone Japan knows that newer buildings are built with rigorous standards.

Sato came to the church to meet us and tell what happened to him. People seem to want to share their stories with those who will listen. When the quake hit, he was thrown off his feet. He crawled under a table and was sure he was about to die. When the shaking slowed down he ran outside.

The aftershocks kept coming for days. He was afraid to go back into his house. The local schools double as earthquake centers in Japan. He went but there were too many people. And there was no heat or water and it was snowing, it was cold to sleep on the floor. So for 2 nights he walked the streets trying to keep warm.

Then he saw that someone had made a big fire. It was Pastor Kunitsu, in front of his church. Somehow no one else had thought of that. He saw someone he knew, another neighbor, so he joined in, the first time to feel warm in days. Then he found that 50 neighbors were sleeping in the church. He joined them for 10 nights. No relief help had arrived yet, but people went into their houses and brought food and blankets to share. None of them had ever been inside a church. He and Pastor Kunitsu became friends.

There was another special thing. The church had water. No one could figure out how this could be when all the houses around it didn't. The Pastor's wife said, "I know there is probably some technical reason why we had water. But why us, why now? Look at our name, Spring of Love Church. It was the Lord who gave us springs of water."

When Pastor Kunitsu preached the next Sunday he was shocked to see 30 people there. He knows that many will drift away after their trauma subsides. But maybe some will stay. His message was from John Chapter 4, "he who drinks from the water I give him will never thirst."

More about emergency response and community development

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Helping rebuild Haiti
10 reasons to work through local partners in an emergency
Food delivered to starving families in Zimbabwe
Myanmar Cyclone Nargis report
Tsunami response report

 

 

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