Japan - March 17th Update (from my sister)

Dear Prayer Supporters,

Thank you to all of you who have sent encouraging words, prayers and offers of help!!  We have no intention of ignoring you – it is becoming impossible to keep up!  I (Jennifer) have spent most of the day on the phone working to help communicate with people here trying to take a truck of supplies up tomorrow (Friday) night, as well as communicating with Chad and Beth when possible.  I also spent 2 hours at our local post office (long story for another day!) setting up an account solely for the purpose of earthquake relief so that we can have a place for people to send donations to within Japan, as well as even to wire money from overseas.  Since I don’t have much brain power left at 2 in the morning here, I should probably save giving out those details until tomorrow, so for anyone waiting on a response for that info, give me a few more hours and I will do my best!  With the church working hard here, we have enough supplies and cash on hand to send up our first truckload.

All of the kids except for Josiah are staying with my parents and doing well. Josiah is feeling a bit better, but as of tonight, he still had a fever.  He has been very patient with his busy mommy!  The kids will stay at my parents for another couple of days while we get through this initial push.

As for Chad and Beth, the stories that I have heard today just break my heart! God has led them to the city of Ishinomaki (http://goo.gl/maps/ckAG) where they were able to locate two churches and talk with leaders.  They were also able to distribute the rest of the supplies in the van to people wandering the streets looking for food and water, and after a long search, they were able to gather enough information to assure a friend living in Hokkaido that his aunt and uncle are safe somewhere.  This was after finding the aunt’s address and not being sure whether hers was a house that had been completely blown away or the one that was laying crumpled in pieces on the street.  What a relief, after visiting shelters and asking around to be told that they had been seen and had gone to stay with someone in a different town!

Anyway, they headed back to the Japan Sea coast (a few hours’ drive away) to try to restock the van and plan to head back to the same city.  One thing Chad requested that we send up with the truck was a pair of size 6 shoes for an old man he met on the street!  That’s my husband for you!  (^-^)  They plan to meet up with the truck coming from Osaka sometime on Saturday and distribute more in the same area before heading down to Tokyo next.

Phew!  There is SO much more I could talk about, but in order to function tomorrow, I had better get some sleep.  Thank you for your prayers!  Tomorrow will probably be another busy day, but God has amazingly been giving us all the extra strength we need to run on. It’s a different kind of “high” working for Him!  (OK, I really need to get to bed after that one!)  Good night!

Jennifer