I (John) leave today to head to Ishinomaki City in the hard-hit area to join a team which left on Thu. Would appreciate your prayers for strength, health, and a big heart.
TODAY BACKUP TEAM LEAVES FOR ISHINOMAKI
The relief team from the Kokubunji church arrived safely in Sendai Miyagi Prefecture on Thursday. They have been busy in several locations in Ishinomaki (see http://groups.google.com/group/Pray4Japan/browse_thread/thread/2c34f33bbdc99cba) working cleaning out houses and dealing with water damage from the tsunami. Today (Sunday) Pastor Nakano from the Crossroad church and missionary John Mehn will join the team bringing more supplies and tools. PRAY for preparations and safe travel and that they may be encouragers to those already there. The team along with cleaning homes and churches will be making special Japanese stew to serve to the people they have contacted. The team is expected to leave the hard-hit zone on Weds 4/20. PRAY that in these last days deep relationships will be formed with people of the community and connections for future team visits would be encouraged.
OTHER PRAYER REQUESTS
1. Pray for the people they will contact over the next week. May they show the love and compassion of Jesus.
2. Pray for healthy team relationships, may they support and encourage one another.
3. Pray for the health of each member of this team. May they be strong to deal with the conditions in the hard-kit area.
4. Pray for many other Rengo churches to be involved in team ministry in the affected areas. Pray that Converge Worldwide would be a valuable partner in relief and recovery in the affected areas. Maybe you and your church.
PRAY FOR ISHINOMAKI
Until 3/11 nearly 165,000 people lived in Ishinomaki. This city only has 7 churches which average only 19 in attendance each Sunday. Imagine the difficult task of these nearly 130 Christians sharing the gospel with all their neighbors. They need our help! Imagine the challenges that this disaster has brought to each of these churches, their facilities, their pastor and members families. This is a great opportunity for the rest of the church, in Japan, and around the world to make an impact in a community that has great needs at this time. They deserve your prayers.
MORE INFORMATION
Updates on the disaster response in Japan, the spiritual climate, Christian relief efforts, and daily prayer items at this website but we have moved mission related prayer information to a new location (next below).
We have also set up a website for general prayer for the Converge Worldwide Response to the trio of tragedies. Please encourage everyone to interested in praying for our response to this disaster to sign up as a member. http://groups.google.com/group/Pray4Japan
Please also note we are looking for short-termers and teams to come to Japan. It would be great if some from your church could come over the next year. http://www.convergeworldwide.org/reach-nations/japan-relief?utm_source=Converge+Worldwide&utm_campaign=3ecd9eba5b-Mission_Japan_041311&utm_medium=email
Also we will need funds for relief and restoration as well (same website).