Texans help in Japan tsunami recovery

ISHINOMAKI, Japan—Tears flowed as members of a Southern Baptists of Texas Convention disaster relief team and their Japanese Baptist co-laborers finished four days of mud-out work with a worship service in a home once submerged by the March 11 tsunami. They cried for God to pour out his spirit on Japan as the nation struggled with the enormous loss of life and property.

The service, held June 27 as the second of two SBTC teams prepared to go home, was part of the ongoing ministries by Tokyo Baptist Church and Baptist Global Response in the Tohoku region of Japan.

Christians make up only 1-2 percent of the Japanese population of 126.5 million people. Reaching Japan with the gospel has proven difficult since the once-isolated nation opened its ports and culture to the influence of foreigners in the mid-1850s.

But since the spring earthquake and subsequent tsunami, the population of new believers has grown, even if only by numbers counted on one hand. Those numbers are encouraging to the members of the Tokyo Baptist Church and its Northeast Japan Team who have worked in the Tohoku Region since the area was opened to volunteer service crews two weeks after the devastation hit.

The inclusion of two SBTC DR teams in June was an experiment of sorts by Tokyo Baptist in using international teams in the ministry work in the cities of Ishinomaki and Kamaishi. Joel Cuellar, the church’s pastor of evangelism and missions, said its first such deployment was a success.

It was the destruction and loss of life that brought the nine-member SBTC team to this island nation the third week of June, as they replaced a team from First Baptist Church of Brownsville. To date, just over 15,000 people are confirmed dead and another 8,000 still unaccounted for. Meanwhile, natural disasters closer to home—tornadoes in Alabama, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Missouri and flooding along the Mississippi River and in Iowa—have taken their toll in life and property and pushed Japan from the headlines.

Everyone on the second DR team was familiar with natural disasters. All combined, they had served 65 disaster locations, many times deploying to the same site but with different units. All came to Japan having been to Tuscaloosa, Ala., following the tornadoes that left 238 people dead.

The nine-member team include team leader Julian Moreno and Jean Ducharme of Del Rio-Uvalde Association; Dewey and Glenda Watson from First Baptist Church, Leonard; R.L. and Elaine Barnard of FBC Duncanville; Charles Grasty of Concord Baptist Church in Palestine; Sharon Grintz of Bois D’Arc Creek Cowboy Church; Nathan Pike of FBC Keller; and this reporter from Nassau Bay Baptist Church in the Houston area.

Upon arrival in Tokyo on June 20, the team received their deployment instructions. The Watsons and Barnards traveled to the Iwate Prefecture and served near the town of Kamaishi. Moreno, Ducharme, Pike, Grasty, and Grintz went just south of there, staying in Sendai and traveling each day to Ishinomaki, 20 miles east. The teams traveled with members of Tokyo Baptist Church’s Northeast Japan team.

Early response teams from Tokyo Baptist distributed necessary supplies, cooked meals, and contacted residents in order to facilitate future ministry efforts.

Aside from Moreno, this was the first international disaster relief deployment for each of the team members. There was slight apprehension about cultural differences and the language barrier but they all were eager to begin work.

Each team drove daily about an hour and a half, one way, in order to reach their ministry locations.

Upon their arrival the Tono City team, though exhausted by jet lag and the 10-hour drive from Tokyo, prayed as their Japanese-speaking teammates shared the gospel with a young woman who had been contacted during a prior visit. Ferdie Cadabay, a church member and team leader, said they met Sachie Nakazato in Kamaishi following a concert sponsored by the church. She was weeping for the loss of her sister and home. Tokyo Baptist member Hiromi Kakehashi prayed with her and got her e-mail address, beginning a long-distance relationship.

Prior to their latest deployment the church’s Northeast Japan Team gathered to pray for the trip and Kakehashi asked that they pray for the salvation of Nakazato. The Texans and Tokyo Baptist members had dinner with Nakazato upon their arrival. The SBTC team could only listen and pray as they fought back sleep. Finally, after 10 p.m., Cadaby said the group broke up and the Texans went to the van to leave for the community center where they would sleep. But the Japanese Baptists continued to speak with Nakazato, telling her it was no accident that they had met. Soon she prayed to accept Christ. Cadabay said the woman finally understood she was not alone in her struggles.

R.L. Barnard, of First Baptist Duncanville, said God taught him patience that night. Though they were all physically spent, he said he saw an endurance and perseverance in the Japanese brothers and sisters.

Cadabay added, “It’s amazing how God can put together different people from around the world to do this.”

“I haven’t met people who go through a tragedy who don’t want compassion,” said Pike, of First Baptist Keller.

Even in a region heavily influenced by Buddhist tradition, the Japanese questioned the benevolence of God. The emotional and spiritual impact of sudden and tragic loss knows no nationality, said Grasty, an evangelist and member of Concord Baptist in Palestine.

“Tragedy,” he repeatedly said, “is a great teacher.”

The destruction in Japan—physical and emotional—was no different then any they had seen in previous disaster zones. But the scope of its impact was staggering. The Ishinomaki team compared the destruction to that of tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Ala., but on a broader scale. Glenda Watson said what they saw looked like a combination of Hurricane Ike and the Haiti earthquake.

Though the SBTC team could not verbally communicate with the Japanese, they were told a smile would go a long way and that the Holy Spirit speaks volumes. Where words were needed, Tokyo Baptist members translated.

But Barnard said a translator was not needed as he communicated with Hiroyasu Hagan during two visits to the Kirikiri Refuge Center. At one point Barnard said Hagan took him to the top of a hill to show him where his house once stood.

A second, unscheduled, trip to the refuge center brought Barnard and Hagan together again for an impromptu exercise session. Following the session Hagan, who seemed influential among the evacuees, invited all those willing to listen to hear a message from the DR team.

Cadabay was caught off guard by the spontaneous invitation but shared the gospel with the small group that gathered, most of whom the team had met and encouraged the day before.

He recounted the event in an e-mail posting to church members: “They were attentive and we believe the gospel seed has been planted in their hearts. At the very end we asked them to close their eyes for prayers and when the invitation was given…the amazing thing happened – Hiroyasu Haga san raised his hand. We do not know if there were others who wanted to believe in Jesus but we went ahead and led him (and possibly others) to pray to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Hallelujah!”

The work in Ishinomaki did not lend itself to as many one-on-one conversations but the work, in the long run, will aid evacuees living in crowded refugee centers.

The main practical task was refurbishing eight small family homes—a straightforward but dirty and laborious job for this team that cut its DR teeth on mud-out jobs in the wake of hurricanes Charlie, Katrina, and Rita. But the task was made easier because the previous crew had already removed the floors.

The houses in the neighborhood had been under 10-12 feet of water and silt dredged up from the sea bottom. Three months later the stench of rotting debris hung in the air.
The mud-out work on the row houses was made possible by the outreach of Tokyo Baptist. Cuellar, the Tokyo Baptist missions pastor, and Yoko Dorsey, the field coordinator, have established relationships with Ishinomaki residents. The owner of the row houses and other rental properties, a Mr. Nakazato (no relation to Sachie Nakazato), lost his wife, mother and grandson in the tsunami. He had planned to raze the homes but was convinced by the church to rehabilitate them and rent them to families with small children living in evacuation shelters. The SBTC team got five of the eight homes gutted so contractors could reconstruct the inside.

“This is light work and clean,” the SBTC’s Moreno said. Most of the heavier work was already done.

Many Japanese, whether residents of the neighborhood where mud-out work was ongoing or casual acquaintances in the hotel lobby, seemed impressed people would come from Texas to help.

Being able to do meaningful work and potentially share the gospel is the primary motivating factor, team members said. Providing a desperately needed service, with no pay expected, is rewarding in and of itself, said Ducharme of Del-Rio/Uvalde Association.

They also admit to a selfish motivation for being involved in DR work.

“I enjoy it too much. I just do,” Ducharme said. “I get a real thrill out of doing it.”

Moreno said he grew up working hard all his life, so physical work “is like therapy for me” despite the back pain he felt at the end of each day. And knowing he is helping someone in need is a blessing, he said.

“We’re not doing it to just rebuild homes or work a disaster,” said Grasty. The lives of those they seek to help are already a disaster without Christ, he added.

Grintz’s primary work stateside has been with the mobile kitchens, a behind-the-scenes job. She doesn’t usually get to meet the people she serves. But she is convinced they know there is a nameless, faceless person who cared enough to prepare a meal for them.

In Japan there was no simple way for the SBTC team to verbally share the gospel. Their new friends from Tokyo Baptist Church were not only co-laborers but interpreters, allowing the team members to get to know some of the people in the communities where they were serving. They learned of the loss of husbands and wives, children and neighbors. They prayed with them and offered smiles. They made balloon hats in restaurants and made children laugh.

About disaster relief work, Pike added, “Not everyone we meet wants to hear about Jesus, but we can plant the seed.”