Sunny Day

After a couple of days of rain, it sure was nice to see the sun shining today.  The kids played outside a lot, the three older girls biked to a shopping center and enjoyed lunch and shopping together, and Chris didn't get as muddy and wet working at the park.  I got to help next door at the Nozomi Project for a bit doing some cleaning and organizing.  It's been a blessing to meet and chat with these ladies.

The gazebo at the park project is coming along.  Chris has been glad to be able to serve in this way.

For dinner we went out to a Japanese yakiniku buffet.  It was great!  Yakiniku is where you grill your own meat and vegetables at your table.  I loved getting more of my fill of Japanese food!

Thank you for another wonderful day, Chad and Jennifer.  We love you so much!

Nozomi

I've shared on Facebook about a neat ministry that has grown out of the recovery efforts here in the Ishinomaki.  In short, Japanese ladies are making jewelry to sell, using shards of pottery and dishes that have been found along the beach in this area.  This has provided not only needed income for these ladies, but also a place to share life together post-disaster, and to be encouraged by Jennifer and the other teammates working here to show Christ's love to them.  Nozomi means hope, and the opportunity to work and be together has helped immensely with the healing process. 

This video is a few minutes long, but it is a great documentary about the Nozomi Project.  If you can take the time to watch, you will certainly be blessed:

So, today Johanna and I had the opportunity to help with a few things next door where the Nozomi ladies are working.  It was such a treat to be able to meet and chat with them.  Each of the ladies has lost a family member in the tsunami, and a line of jewelry is named after that loved one.  I especially enjoyed chatting with Yuri.  Jennifer sent me a necklace at Christmas that was made by Yuri and I pray for her every time I wear the necklace.  These ladies are hearing about God's love, are studying the Bible, and their lives have been profoundly impacted through this ministry.

Shards of pottery are cleaned, sanded, polished, and turned into beautiful pieces of handiwork.  Their business has really exploded and they are working hard to keep up with the demand.  A neat problem!

Please check out their website and feel free to make some purchases  :)  http://nozomiproject.com/

The 10 Crazy Cousins had plenty more fun today.  Gideon regularly visits a grandma next door.  She has suffered and lost much from the disaster and was very discouraged.  She said that having Gideon's visits have cheered her up so much and given her reason to carry on.  Ami went over for a visit with Gideon and ended up spending about 5 hours with her today!  They went out for lunch, got fed lots of treats, played games, watched some cartoons, and just had a great time.  Ami has almost no Japanese language, but Gideon, at just four years old, is pretty fluent.  They had a great time!

Here at the house the kids made slime, played games, played outside in the rain, and just enjoyed being together.  Chris helped get some more work done at the park.  This evening Jennifer and I fixed dinner for 24....our fourteen, plus four volunteers, plus a teammate's family that was in the process of moving to a new home today.  Jennifer has become quite talented at preparing dinner for mass crowds.  I admire how she just goes with the flow, always welcoming whoever comes to the door (which happens SO many times a day), is constantly interrupted by calls and texts that need answering, etc.  Chad and Jennifer have such a heart for what they are doing here....amazing, and only through His power that they can sustain the pace at which they go day after day.

Looking forward to sharing more life together tomorrow with the Huddlestons and the beautiful Japanese people that they are serving here!

More Work and Play

Today we got a good taste of what life is like for our family here....crazy!  They seem to constantly have volunteers in and out, various ministry projects to oversee and coordinate, school functions to attend, etc., etc., etc.  I am amazed all over again at the many things that they juggle, the way they are intertwined with the lives of so many here, and the selfless energy they expend because of their love for others.  It's a powerful testimony, something that must be so difficult to do day after day after day.  We met several people today whose lives have been touched here by God's love in a powerful way.  It's a beautiful thing in the midst of such a physically devastated looking area.  There are still SO many buildings and homes that are waiting to be torn down, abandoned places that have yet to see any life, vehicles piled high at dump sites, water lines on buildings that withstood the earthquake and tsunami.  It's so overwhelming just to drive through areas, even two years after that terrible day. 

Today Ami and I got to go with Jennifer, Katia and Gideon to meet up with Katia's classmates.  They are on spring break right now but had scheduled a play date.  We spent about three hours with them and the mothers.  There are only 7 students in Katia's class, only a third of what would have been the norm before the disaster.  Each of the families in this group had lost their home.  Everyone has suffered.  Yet what I saw and was greeted with was great comradery, life being shared, children laughing and playing, warmness and kindness.  Hope is returning, although I can only imagine the scars and sadness that will forever remain.

Below is an elementary school where the water came up to the second floor.  It is not being used for classes and is slated to be torn down.  But, they are temporarily being allowed to use the space on the second floor for meetings and such....this is where we joined the play date.

Chris worked with Chad and some other volunteers to dig out an area under a pavilion, preparing it for tiling and a picnic table.  They live near a public housing area with several apartment buildings that had two nice park areas before the disaster.  They have been working little by little over the last two years to clean up, then recreate a beautiful space where children can play and just be kids again.  They are just about done!

Below is the end of one of the park areas where the guys were digging.

Below is the first park area that has been completed, and if weren't a rain day, there would be plenty of kids running around.  

Chris got the boys to help with some digging, too.

 

Chad and Jennifer treated us to an Indian restaurant for dinner and it was delicious!

Again, so tired tonight and my thoughts are scattered....not going to take the time to proof this post.  Thankful for the time with dear family here, and so admiring of their amazing dedication to helping the people of this area.  A variety of emotions today....meeting folks, putting faces with names I have heard, hearing more stories of hardship and overcoming.  So much to process.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Arrival in Ishinomaki

This morning Dad dropped us off at the airport so that we could take a short hour long flight up to Sendai.  We were all very anxious to meet up with the Huddleston crew there.

Flying out over Osaka was quite different than when we flew over Sendai to land.  Below is Osaka, but when we got near Sendai, you could easily see where the tsunami had hit and wiped out anything in its path.  As excited as we were to see our family, it was sobering to remember that we were coming to an area that had been so devastated just two years ago.

Outside of the airport, you can see Benjamin in the middle of the picture with a blue sign above him marking how high the water from the tsunami had come up.  You may well remember Sendai airport being on the news quite a bit, but this wasn't even the hardest hit areas.

Hurray for cousins! 

It was an hour drive from the airport to Ishinomaki where my sister and her family now live.  They moved up here after the earthquake/tsunami to help with relief efforts.  On the way to their house, they drove us through some areas of the city that had been particularly hard hit.  We stopped at this makeshift memorial, which had once been a store on a busy street.  All around was just bare wasteland.  The white pole has a blue sign at the top where the water line hit.  It was hard to stand there and think of the many lives that had been lost in that immediate area.  The city of Ishinomaki lost over 6,000 people.

A local woodworker made these three benches in remembrance of the three children that he lost.

We pulled up to a neighborhood where this elementary school (white building) still stands.  A gentleman was on his bicycle where we pulled up to park and immediately starting chatting with us and sharing his story.  He ended up taking us on a walk around the area and telling many details of that horrific day.  So heartbreaking.  His home was across the street from the school, where we could still see the foundation.  His family survived, he pushed his elderly mother up the hill in her wheelchair, but as they saw the tsunami coming she managed to walk as best she could.  His neighborhood had 41 people, 21 of those lost their lives.  He pointed to foundations around his home....2 people there lost, 1 there lost, etc.

Many vehicles washed up on the grade school yard and the gasoline caused fires to erupt.  The school burned for three days.  His house ended up in the school yard and burned for three days.  All of the school children and teachers were able to escape to safety.
  

This sign says, we will not forget.

There is a graveyard on the hill next to the school.  The lower graves had been destroyed by flood and fire, even the headstones had exploded from the heat.  New names from two years ago were on many of the stones.

This is looking from the side of the hill out to the ocean.  On he far left is the blue shell of the swimming pool that was left in front of the school.  Our new friend said that he learned to swim there as a child.  So many years of memories in this place.  I can't imagine standing on this hill, where he said he escaped, and looking out to the impending water, fire, and cries.  He was such a kind man to share his story so willingly.  I wonder how much time he spends here, how many times he has shared his deeply personal trauma.  This was just one man, with so many more thousands that have their own stories, but I will not forget him.  No, I will not forget.

In the evening we had dinner, then went to a missionary teamworker's home for a birthday party.  The kids enjoyed playing and really got into the dress up for the party.  :)

My sister, in the pink, and the birthday girl...Lora.

Good night from Japan.  I'm too tired to proofread this post, but wanted to get it blogged while it was still fresh in my mind.  On my heart are the survivors of 3-11-11.  I pray that we can be of some small service and encouragement during our week here.