Getting closer

Just arrived LAX. We have air conditioning!

Location:Reading Ave,Los Angeles,United States

Heading to Tokyo

On the bullet train heading to Tokyo.

Location:越田,Fukushima,Japan

Sushi!!!

We are sitting on the floor of a sushi restaurant in Sendai waiting for our fish.

Location:３丁目,Sendai,Japan

Initial rating

The first rating I have seen puts the quake at 6.5.

Location:３丁目,Sendai,Japan

The Earth Is Shaking

Just had what felt like a good size earthquake.

We are ok!

We are finishing lunch in the basement of a huge department store.

More Pictures & A Status Update

I know we are a little short on stories, but we do have a new set of pictures ready.


https://picasaweb.google.com/112709148669760799875


Yesterday we spent a few hours mucking (we have pictures of it).  It is hard work, but also very rewarding.  The team is really unified and we made great progress with the strength and inspiration from our Heavenly Father.


Today we are doing a BBQ and movie outreach to one of the temporary housing communities in Ishinomaki.  Our last BBQ outreach was for the community around J's Cafe - the base for Committed Relief in Ishinomaki.  Tonight we will have music, bingo, BBQ, a movie, and a message afterwards.  These outreaches are a lot of fun and touch a lot of people (ourselves included).

Mucking for Jesus

Yesterday we had a BBQ outreach. It went well and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Right now, we are on our way to muck. We should be there in 30 more minutes.

We should have time tonight to catch up on blogging and posting pictures.

Pray for strength, endurance, and good weather.

Location:Sendai,Japan

Pictures Are Online!

We have uploaded our first set of pictures.  Please check them out.

We have a few scenic shots, some examples of the damage that still remains, and the team in action.

The prayer, emotional support, and financial support from all is what has made it possible for our team to be here.  We are all doing God's work - those of us here and everyone who helped to send us.  THANK YOU!

God Bless!

Keep us in prayer.  You are in our prayers.

https://picasaweb.google.com/112709148669760799875

Day 3: Mucking In Ishinomaki

8/15/11 - The Details . . .


We started with a nice breakfast, followed by worship and devotion.  We will be doing this every day to keep us focused and centered - to keep our priorities straight and to unify us as a team.

While we are stationed in Sendai, our work and service is in Ishinomaki - one of the areas hit by the tsunami.  The tsunami wiped out 300 milies of coastline, but this city had the greatest loss of life.  We commute 1-3 hours each way (it really depends on traffic).

We got to tour the tsunami area.  A lot of cleanup has been done, especially further from the coast where mud and deris was in the 'inches'.  The areas nearest the coast still have a long way to go.  You still see boats in yards (blocks from the coast) and whole houses sitting in lots where there is no foundation (with no idea where the house came from - only knowing it wasn't there before).  In parts, the land dropped 4 feet and now floods at every high tide.

Our first job was mucking.  We cleaned out a storm drain along one side of a street.  With this cleaned, the houses in the area will no longer flood when it rains.  Some people may ask why the locals are not doing this themselves.  In this neighborhood, there were only 9 survivors.  They are trying to put their lives back together - dealing with traggic loss and the horrible disaster.

Yes, it is hard work.  Yes, it is very rewarding.  We have to move concrete covers, loosen debris, shovel it into bags, haul the bags to a designated pickup location, cleanup after ourselves, and put the street back together.

After mucking the gutter, we canvased the neighboorhood and handed out fliers inviting people to a movie/BBQ night at 'J's Cafe' in Inshinomaki (which is our local base in the area).  Janett cookup up some excellent spaghetti under less than ideal conditions and fed the whole crew.

Catching Up

We have now posted for the first couple days of our mission.  We hope you enjoy reading and keeping up with us.  Above all else, please keep us in prayer.

We will post more soon.

God Bless!

Day 2: Fuchu/Sendai

We all awoke early and had breakfast and a short devotion together.  We then cleaned up the church in record time (mop/dry the floors, windows, setup chairs, etc.).

The worship was great.  Some songs were in English and we sang some in Japanese - they provided phonetic translation slides.  It was really beautiful.  The message was uplifting and is always bilingual - held in English and translated into Japanese.

After a quick lunch with the church, we ran to our train.  We missed the train, but caught the next one 12 minutes later.  Let's call it a buffer built into the plan.  The train ride from Fuchu to Tokyo station was unventful.  Tokyo station is where we caught the shinkansen (bullet train) that took us to Sendai.  The train travels at 275 km/h (170 miles per hour).

In Sendai, we rendevoued at Starbucks with Roy and Glen.  They took us to a noodle house for dinner then on to the committed Relief house to unpack and prepare for our service.

The Committed Relief house is a large house (by Japanese standards) in Sendai.  The house has no air conditioning and is very warm.  The ladies sleep downstairs and the guys sleep upstairs.  Each room has a small fan - which helps as long as you can save a seat in front of it :)

Day 1: Tokyo/Fuchu

Everyone arrived safe this morning and thus began our adventure.  Pastor Rich (from CC Fuchu) met us at the airport and took our bags back to the church while we went about some business.  What a blessing to not have to drag our bags around on the trains (as the train stations usually only have stairs - no elevators or escalators).

What happened on our first day?

Breakfast was our first adventure - we found a small cafe in the train station.  The waitress didn't speak any English.  The really interesting thing is that the menu had only one item on it . . . a scrambled egg, a piece of toast, a thin slice of ham, a few drops of ketchup, and coffee.  That was it, only one item.  Everyone in the cafe was eating the same thing.  It was still a challenge communicating - was there anything else?  How many did we want?  Did we want hot or cold coffee?  The waitress was fantastic and was trying so hard to help us.  The food was good.  The coffee was actaully espresso and was very smooth.  Perked us up.

Is it  alive?.......Octopus balls?  Yes!  We found a restaurant at a food court and we were watching them be made.  The pans and the process looks like eibelskebers.  Ordering is usually pretty easy when you can point and a picture and then indicate how many you want.  These octopus balls are covered in fish flakes.  The heat from the balls made everything look like it was alive and dancing - both the fish flakes and the octopus tentacles.  Yes, they were actually moving from the heat (or was the octopus still  alive?  not so sure).  However, they were delicious!

Corn ice cream - tastes a lot better than it sounds.

Wolf in sheep skin.  Is it beef?  A little bit of Japanese would have been helpful at that time.  It was a beautiful piece of meat. Looked so tasty and delisous and so beefy.  It is funny how you can be fooled by chicken livers.  Someone (who shall remain nameless) purchased a fresh kabob and thought it was beef.  As they chewed off the first chunk, it became very obvious - beef does not taste like chicken livers.  It was really quite funny and the livers did not go to waste as someone else got to enjoy them.

Lucas, Aaron, and Steve went for a nice walk in the afternoon.  Actually, we all went to a park and in order to get home we split into two groups for the ride back to the church.  The van broke down as it pulled into the church on the first trip.  Rather than waiting for reinforcements, they decided to walk home.  Going to the park seemed like 6 or 7 blocks.  That turned into a 40 minute hike through the city of Fuchu through the heat and humidity.  It was a good adventure.

Vending machine are everywhere.  Are you walking through side streets in Fuchu and feeling a little thirsty?  Look ahead, there's a vending machine!  Yes, they pretty much are everywhere and they mostly sell beverages - iced coffee, water, iced tea, etc.

In America, it is easy to find trash cans.  In Japan, not so much.  They really are rare.  The odd thing is, you don't see much trash or litter.  Most of the people take trash home. The process of disposing of garbage is pretty complicated. Japanese citizens must separate their garbage. Plastic things go to pink bags, which you buy from the city, burnables go into green bags, plastic bottles seems the most complicated: caps off to separate bags, labels MUST be taken off, bottels MUST be washed and smashed and go the white bag. That is why country is so clean. Also the goverment is encouraging people to go ECO(green).

So many things happed in one day. It is like a puzzle, so it is hard to put everying in one beautiful picture. On Saturday we had a dinner with some of the church members and passed out.

We are ok

We are now in Sendai and we are all OK. We will be posting more soon, so please stay tuned.

Location:Sendai, Japan

First Day In Tokyo

Here are a few pictures from Tokyo.  It is a beautiful, metropolitan city.  The city is very clean - even though there are no public trash cans that we can see.

Japanese people are very kind and polite.  English is not that widely spoken, but they still try to help.  We haven't gone hungry yet :)

We are looking forward to seeing the rest of the team (who better be at the Sacramento airport right now).

May God protect them and give them traveling mercies.

Tokyo Update

It is hot and humid. We are enjoying the day and are looking forward to the rest of the team arriving.

I had my beef jerky confiscated and disposed of in the airport. That was unexpected. They are really strict with animal products.

Just Landed in Tokyo

More details later.

Location:２丁目,Ota,Japan

Getting underway

Marina, Steve, and Raisa are sitting in LAX waiting for their flight to Tokyo. Departure is in one hour.

It was nice to escape the airport for a couple hours - we took the shuttle to Marriott for dinner.

Location:World Way,Los Angeles,United States

Leaving Soon for Japan

Departure day is getting close and everyone is very excited.  Fundraising is done, suitcases are filling up, and everyone is focusing on preparations to go and serve.

Steve, Marina, and Raisa are leaving on Tuesday evening to figure out logistics and local travel options (monorail, subway, trains, etc.).  The rest of the team will leave on Thursday and we will all meet up in Tokyo.

Continue to pray!