As I sit in Sea-Tac and reflect on the happenings of these past few weeks I know I have so much to be thankful for and am so incredibly blessed. God is so good! So as I have a few hours to kill let me take you on a little journey of life since March 11...
March 11 at about 2:45pm I was sitting at my desk as my students were busily working on creating some posters throughout the classroom. When suddenly I felt a bit of shaking and sat there for a minute looking around at my students wondering if they felt it too. As the shaking grew stronger and we realized what was happening I told my students to get under their desks. The shaking continued to shake more and it felt like it went on forever. I had one little boy holding on to his desk for dear life praying that God would stop being mad, but we calmly talked through the quake and reminded them that God is with them and we prayed. As the earth stopped shaking and we got out of the building to check that everything was ok as we were headed back inside I noticed tears in a little girls eyes. With not much time left in our school day we talked about what we had just experienced and assured each other that God is always with us and went on our way. As I was dismissing my kids parents were starting to talk about threats of a tsunami and as I came back into my classroom and opened BBC I realized the extent of what just happened. I got on facebook and right away my mom was asking if I was ok and said the quake and everything was already all over the news there. It’s amazing how quickly news travels! For the coming days and the whole next week my kids would come in everyday with new facts to share about what they had heard from the news about all the devastation. We’ve talked and praying about it all a lot and they seem to be processing everything well although most of them knew people directly affected by what was happening. Whether they just had friends or relatives in Tokyo closer to the center of everything or they knew people further up north. I have been so encouraged by my kids compassion in all of this. It happened on a Friday afternoon and the very next Monday a student came in and one of the first things she said to me in the morning was, “We need to help the people affected by this disaster.” She had already started brainstorming ideas of what we could do. That is one thing that has amazed me about the Japanese people through all of this, their amazing unselfishness! People have lost everything...homes, family/friends, there is little food and clean water I can’t even imagine what that would be like. But despite all the hardship and losses there is no loitering happening. People are orderly waiting in their lines to get the necessities they need. They are not fitting for the things they need in order to survive. What an amazing example that is to the rest of the world.
As we get further from March 11 and we continue to find out more information on the damage that has been caused....over 10,000 deaths, more than 17,440 people missing, hundreds of thousands homeless, about 250,000 living in shelters, and the continued concern of how bad the radiation really is....please continue to pray for these people. With less than 1% of Japan being Christian, please pray that through all of this God’s glory will shine brightly! With people loosing literally everything they have, pray that they will realize they can turn to a God of hope. Pray for the Christians in this country to continue to come together and be a light of that hope in God that these people need and able to help provide for both people’s physical AND spiritual needs.
Now with spring break coming to a close and I await my return to Japan I pray that God will show me how I can personally help the people in Japan. Spring break came at the perfect time, with a ticket already planning on coming home for a week I had to assure some of my parents I was not evacuating but already had this trip planned before everything happened, but I was most definitely returning to Japan at the end of the week. It’s been a relaxing time in America and a wonderful break, but now please pray God will help show me how he wants to use me in this country to continue to help. I am so encouraged and grateful for all of your support and prayers, it really has meant so much, THANK YOU!
Well it's almost time to board...next stop Tokyo, then Nagoya!
*More to come soon :)
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