On Mar. 11, a horrific earthquake and tsunami struck Japan with effects reaching from Tokyo to the north edge of Japan, hitting the area surrounding the city of Sendai hardest. The catastrophe destroyed homes and stores, roads and utilities, ending many lives and ways of living.

Included among the many people left homeless were several members of the Sendai Reformed Church, pastored by Rev. Takashi Yoshida who is also the moderator of the Reformed Church of Japan (RCJ) Northern Presbytery. Several churches in the Tokyo Bay were damaged and are still struggling with plumbing and liquefaction. The Inage Kaigan Reformed Church and the Shin Urayasu Reformed Church, as well as the homes of several members, still do not have usable pipes or drains.

Despite the destruction, Christians have stepped forward across the country to help. Some of the churches that escaped damage from the disaster have opened their doors to host community members who have nowhere else to go. The Canaan Reformed Church in Sendai and the Higashi (East) Sendai Church have both reached out in this way.

The RCJ general assembly and presbytery diaconal committees, as well as RP Global Missions, are working tirelessly to provide food, water, living supplies, and shelter to those who need it in Japan. These efforts have caused sincere gratitude and increased interest in the gospel, report Japanese Christians and missionaries. Both the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) are accepting donations to be sent to those laboring in Japan.

Many people have traveled to do what they can and help those in need. Megumi Takiura, daughter of one of the RP pastors in Kobe, rode her motorcycle three days to Sendai to serve. On the way there and back, she spent the nights at friends’ homes. Megumi’s purpose was to help and support Mrs. Uomoto, the wife of the pastor of Sendai Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Uomoto was exhausted from meeting needs surrounding the church.

“I wanted to help the people who are helping—whatever they needed.  Many goods and supplies were coming into the home so it was full of stuff,” says Megumi. She helped to organize the supplies and take care of the house, relieving the burden on Mrs. Uomoto.

After the provisions and equipment were arranged, Pastor Takiura and Pastor Uomoto introduced Megumi to Food for the Hungry International. That organization had helped the people of Kobe after the Great Hanshin Earthquake 17 years ago. Megumi was able to serve alongside them when she was not helping Mrs. Uomoto.

Food for the Hungry was using an old store, where the large first floor was shared with the Samaritan’s Purse organization. Megumi helped to organize supplies and hand out food and goods to the survivors and refugees. A huge amount of women’s clothes arrived from Korea while she was there, so Megumi was able to help take them to the refugee camps in Sendai. While in the Sendai area, Megumi and several others also traveled to Higashi (east) Matsushima City, north of Sendai, and to dig out mud from the damaged houses. They also visited Ishinomaki City, northeast from there, which was the city with the most casualties.

“The area smelled bad from mud and the many things that flowed into the city with the tsunami. We handed out ohagi (balls of sticky rice covered with bean paste) made by the members of the Chiba church, and gave them out with a tract, fresh raw vegetables, and baby supplies to people who came for them,” explains Megumi, describing how hard it was for the people to find fresh and raw foods. “They were so glad.”

Megumi was not the only one to go to Sendai to help. As the members of presbytery’s Relief Committee for the RPCNA, Pastors Sumito Sakai and Katsunori Endo visited the area from May 3–5. They sought to see the affected areas and to meet with OPC missionaries and RCJ pastors in the region to better understand the situation. Their goal was to gain the information that would help them serve those in need better and distribute donations wisely. They were accompanied by Rev. Cal Cummings Jr. and Rev. Murray Uomoto of OPC’s Sendai Megumi Mission Church, who served as tour guides.

During those three days, Pastors Sakai and Endo visited the Nobiru District of Higashi-Matsushima City and RCJ’s Ishinomaki Mission Church on the western side of Ishinomaki City. The church building of the Ishinomaki Mission Church was severely damaged by the tsunami, and the congregation is still deciding whether to renovate, rebuild, or relocate.

“We had a chat with a family cleaning up their own house [in the Nobiru District] where the tsunami reached the ceiling of the first floor.  They are still living in an evacuation site provided by the local government.  The father shared with us his own testimony of witnessing an unrelated mother and her child in a car being swallowed by the tsunami as they too were running away from it,” writes Endo.

Much of Sakai and Endo’s work consisted of visiting churches and pastors in the area and asking in what ways they needed and could use support.

“When I asked what a Reformed denomination like the Reformed Presbyterian [could] do to help them, Pastor Yoshida indicated that their greatest need would be for a Japanese pastor who [could] work alongside local RCJ pastors and to share the Word. [This] is most needed in the long run, while the current works are mainly relief and recovery,” explains Pastor Endo in his report. “Christian counseling is also needed.”

The men saw Higashi-Sendai Church pastored by Rev. Tateishi, which is functioning as a base camp for relief volunteers and the Food for the Hungry’s temporary warehouse in Sendai. They also had the opportunity to meet Rev. Ogata, co-pastor at Sendai Megumi Mission Church, at an OPC prayer meeting. In addition, Pastor Endo met with pastor Moriya at Sendai Baptist Seminary, which is currently being used by various relief operation teams.

Another pastor, Shigeru Takiura of Okamoto Keiyaku (Covenant) RPC and representative of Kobe Theological Hall (KTH), spent a few days in the Tohoku region. He describes the destruction with these words:

The cherry blossoms were so beautiful—quite a contrast to the state of those towns. It was hard to take pictures. The destruction appeared suddenly when the car drew closer to downtown Kamaishi, the seaside city famous for its steel mill. All shopping streets were hit by the tsunami, and I felt sinful and too painful in the heart to gaze on the massive debris of so many people’s precious living.  While driving I found my throat dry, but it was just the beginning of the shock.  I could not say a word. It was just like driving into a theme park of destruction and death.

Takiura and his companions, including his son, had brought supplies to give away that included tomatoes, fresh vegetables, four bags of rice, grapefruit, two big boxes of toilet paper, lots of little boxes of corn flakes, thirty Hanshin Tigers kites for the children to play with, batteries, diapers, about 2000 gospel message tracts, and 12 Bibles (Japanese NT). The place where Pastor Takiura’s son works had provided the toilet paper, rice and kites. Refugees that they talked to asked for food, vegetables, and clothing, sometimes specifically boots.

“When I mentioned I was from Kobe, an immediate bond was formed because they all know about our huge earthquake 15 years ago.  Doors and hearts seemed automatically opened to us,” marvels Pastor Takiura. “The RP relief committee is working through the RCJ, OPC, JIFH, and the Conservative Baptist church. The RP pastors and relief committee are thinking about how they can help continuously. Yuko Shiotsu from Mukonoso RPC is working with the CRASH team in Nasu using her accounting skills to help them organize their books.  Satoshi Kosaki and Nozomu Taguchi, KTH students, went to the Sendai area and helped with JIFH’s relief work.”

Pastor Takiura asks that Christians everywhere continually pray for the salvation and aid of people of Otsuchi town, and for Mr. Shintaro Miura and Mrs. Mariko Michimata who are laboring there.

“Please pray for the Spirit to work in their hearts through our correspondence. Please pray for His leading for the RP Japan relief ministry and workers,” Pastor Takiura asks.

—Bonnie Smith

Bonnie is an intern with the Reformed Presbyterian Witness. She is a senior at Geneva College (Beaver Falls, Pa.), where she has written articles for the public relations department.