Eight cups of short-grain Japanese rice. Rinse it, drain off the cloudy water. Fill to the 8-cup line with water. Push the red button with the Chinese characters on it, that I think says “zuo fan” – “cook the rice”. Ready for Japanese curry lunch.
Cartwheels and front handsprings out front of this building where CRASH Japan has set up the Ichinoseki base. Sun is out and it’s a beautiful 50-ish degrees. I love being here. So, so much; I really love this.
Our new friend Andy plays the guitar lightly in the corner. Katie and Christina are sending some emails right now. Anna and Amanda are getting some time alone. I am inspired as I do the same, caught by Father’s heart for the Japanese people: “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God…When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them” (Deuteronomy 4:24, 30-31).
I will carry the hope of this word and of the jealousy of Kami-sama – Father – for the survivors of the disaster in this area as we spend time with them this afternoon. Preparing a mobile cafe right now – coffee and waffles to provide a platform for fellowship, laughter, tears and stories…
Just returned from the mobile cafe. My team, we’re all sitting with our laptops, using the wireless connection in a little office here at the CRASH base. About 30 survivors of the earthquake and tsunami gathered together with us, sitting around tables, drinking coffee and tea and eating small, heart-shaped waffles made by one of the CRASH volunteers. I sat with the Japanese base leader as we listened to an 83-year old woman share: She sat down and immediately told us that she’s lived for 83 years old and has never experienced a tsunami like this, and she still can’t believe it happened.
She had a lot of good friends who went back to their houses to gather possessions before the tsunami swept in, and they didn’t make it. She started crying and went silent for some time, just two minutes into our conversation. Sharing her story of trauma and grief, expressing some of her hurt and pain with two strangers, one of us a gaijin. She shared too how she’d recently visited her doctor, but this man who was a bit overweight prior to this was suddenly quite slim. She learned that his wife and daughter had died in their car during the tsunami. We teared up with her.
Jetlag. It settles in my head right now, and my yawns are big. My feet and nose are cold in this chilly little room. Dinner is being prepared; Japanese hotpot.
My life continues on. Not sure how to feel except that all I can do is to be myself with Him in me, sowing seeds in love and prayer wherever I go…
“Be myself with Him in me, sowing seeds of love and prayer wherever I go…” Amen to that… for all of us who love and cleave to Him. May His fiery love in you continue to heal, restore, comfort, revive, reveal, unburden and save hearts in Japan.
what a privelege Wendy to support and help these people who have been devestated..praying for you..Rebecca
[...] stories and thereby providing a release for their pain and despair. I’ve blogged about what a day at the CRASH base looked like for us, as well as about one story of a man named Kanno-san, whose life was literally [...]