Okinawa & National Office Team Outreach to Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, August 16-22

In mid-August, one Okinawa team member and one National Office team member volunteered to help clean and prepare a Christian facility for its future use as a community center in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture.

For the National Office team member, this was the second outreach to this particular area of Tohoku. Her first outreach had been shortly after the March 2011 disasters. Nearly one and a half years later, she could observe the progress and what remains to be done. On one hand, much clean-up has been finished. Garbage and debris have been taken to local collection sites. New temporary housing units have been built for evacuees and survivors. New temporary stores are operating out of single-wide mobile homes.

On the other hand, no new building is permitted in the areas where the 2011 tsunami flooded the land. Road signs mark the beginning and end of areas where no new building is permitted.

Estimated tsunami inundation area sign.

Because no new building is permitted in the tsunami-hit areas, damaged public buildings have become memorial sites, as well as sites where ruined vehicles are dumped.

Ruined building and ruined vehicles in Rikuzentakata (August 2012)

 

Tokyo DTS Team Outreach to Tohoku (Interim Report) 2012

Since the spring of 2012, the Tokyo DTS team has participated in several outreach efforts in the disaster-hit region (Tohoku) of northeastern Japan.

In the spring, two team members went on a short-term outreach to meet with other disaster-relief network contacts.

In early summer, two other team members volunteered for one month, helping to build houses and assisting with other construction projects. One of these team members had received a vision of building homes in Tohoku and was able to see the beginning of that vision fulfilled.

In August, the Tokyo DTS students and some staff went on outreach to Tohoku. (Hopefully, some photos and details will soon be able for that report.)

YWAM Japan National Office Team Outreach to Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, December 26-28, 2011

One YWAM Japan National Office team members went to the Global Mission Center in Iwaki City for a few days after Christmas.

Global Mission Center, Iwaki City

The outreach included taking a variety of supplies, participating in morning prayer drives along the devastated coast in the Usuiso area, taking provisions and gifts to an orphanage, and visiting evacuees now living in temporary housing units.

Concrete foundations remind us that there were once homes and buildings here in the Usuiso area.

Please pray for the remnant in Japan. Please pray for the pastors and ministers who continue to pour themselves out to serve others who survived the disasters. Please pray for those evacuees who have been relocated into temporary housing, that the love of God will be made known to them, that they will find fellowship and belonging in the local churches.

YWAM Japan National Office Team Outreach to Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, December 12-14, 2011

Two staff members from the YWAM Japan National Office went on outreach to Ishinomaki. They distributed Christmas DVDs, Bibles, Jesus Manga, and sweets to evacuees now living in newly built, temporary housing units.

Christmas Gifts to Evacuees

Temporary Housing Unit in Ishinomaki