Thoughts From Ishinomaki

From The Cammacks:

Walking along the sea wall in Ishinomaki, enjoying the ocean breeze, is surreal. The memories come rushing back. However, this is not last year. We cannot expect it to be like last year.

It was only 17 months ago that destruction hit this land – tearing apart families, obliterating property, and spreading despair and hopelessness. It was a land torn apart by the power of the sea. Nothing was where it should have been. Many places simply did not exist any longer.

Now we see houses are being repaired and rebuilt, and there is a semblance of normalcy returning to this community.

Things are far from normal. As you look to the ocean, the seawall is still filled with debris and wreckage. Near the seawall, the roads are still broken and there are piles of broken boats and debris. A lot of the land here is still empty – either abandoned or ownerless. All the empty lots have been cleared, but they are now overgrown with grass – growing long and uncontrolled. There is almost a beauty in the how green and lush it is; yet heartbreaking reality strikes with the memory of how this came to be.

This is a land and people still in deparate need of healing.

We cannot believe that the Lord has brought us back to Ishinomaki – to this land and to these people – so soon. There is something we need to learn here, a lesson that needs to be taught. We wait eagerly to hear from the Lord.