Interesting facts and information about Japan and ministry in Japan.
Before and After (but not over pictures)
A friend sent me this link to an article on 3 months after the triple disaster on 3.11. Several of these places I have worked, one with Elaine. We have seen a lot of change in the cosmetic nature of the disasters but for many people they are stressed, some even more so, as time wears on and wears them down. As the article said there are billions of dollars that will take to repair…
Pray for our ministry partner Dean Bengtson, Lutheran Brethren Missionary. Today I was pointed to a nice article and photos of our ministry partner Dean Bengtson associate with Samaritan’s Purse. I have known Dean and his wife Linda for many years but we never teamed up for ministry before. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Samaritans_Purse_Today/post/equipped_to_help/ Several photos in this article include people from both Converge Worldwide/Rengo teams that ministered in Shintate in May and June. You may recognize some of…
Thanks to God we are doing well. These last few months have been far from normal. Living in a country where the largest natural disaster has occurred changes normal significantly. For many people here their lives and businesses are ruined and they have to start over. We have been doing our best to mobilize our Converge Worldwide family along with our Rengo partners to be engaged in this process of transforming Japan. This has led…
A high school assistant principal, an artist, a business woman, and an engineering student made up the first Converge Worldwide disaster response team. Workers were based at the Samaritan’s Purse’s Tone base and worked with missionary Dean Bengston and Mr. Abe of the Ishinomaki House of Prayer in the Shintate neighborhood of Ishinomaki City. Team members have taken out walls, floors and removed mud from homes affected by the tsunami. Also the team cleaned yards,…
In a few hours our first Converge Worldwide disaster response team will head up north for the first assignment. The team of 7 people, all from different States, will be working in the Shintate neighborhood of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. Ishinomaki is one of the hardest hit areas where nearly one-half of the city was swamped by the tsunami. Over 5,000 people were killed or are still missing, making this city about 1/5 of the total…
Last week John was with four of our Tokyo pastors, a lay couple, and Phil Tsai, short-term missionary, serving with a team in Iwate Prefecture. In John’s previous trip with the Nerima church they worked with the Iwate 3.11 Church Network. This time they stayed at Pastor Kondo’s church where he outlined his vision for church ministry throughout this prefecture. Iwate presents several large challenges to mission ministry. There are only a few existing churches…
John will be leaving today with Phil Tsai, short-term worker, to work with a Rengo Disaster Response team in Iwate prefecture from the 15th to the 19th. The eight member team will include Pastor Sasaki, Rengo Board member, Pastor Kurashima of the Masago church, Associate Pastor Yamauchi of the Chuo church, the Wakaos of the Ishikawa Kita church and Pastor Yokota of the Minami Urawa church. This team is loaded with pastors! John and Phil…
We are back home from the disaster area of Rikuzen Takata City Iwate Prefecture. We are safe but have lots of sore muscles. We worked at shoveling 6 inches to over a foot of dirt, sand, mixed with oil and other debris from the sidewalk that the elementary kids will walk on starting today. The school has been closed since the 3/11 disasters and is opening on Friday 5/6. The side walk is along a…
Last month John joined a team from the Kokubunji Baptist church that did volunteer work in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture April 17-20. Pastor Nakano from the Crossroad church also joined the team. There has not been time to develop a video yet, but some pictures and video with English are at the church webpage http://homepage2.nifty.com/kbch/new/tohokusupport/tohokusupport.html. The trip was very successful in completing several projects. John and a short termer from America will also be joining a…
Churches in Kessenuma Miyagi Prefecture celebrated Easter yesterday. For these churches there was a need for resurrection of their facilities to be able to use the church again. http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japans-christians-celebrate-easter-amid-disaster Some of these churches were helped by CRASH teams and some from the B1 network that missionary Jeff Chapman has been working with. See my previous post http://www.gospelrest.com/churches-shattered/ In Ishinomaki the city where John volunteered the nearest church to the neighborhood he worked had water up…