Howzit everyone. I just wanted to write down some thoughts, some prayer points and some info regarding what has been going on here and how to help.

Sorry, it will be a long read because I just want to get as much as I can down on "paper" and keep you all informed to the best of my ability. Excuse me ahead of time for the scatterbrainedness... if that's even a word. Lots of stuff.

I will at the end of this share some practical info on what you can do to help. So if you scroll to the bottom for that, that's fine. But hopefully everything else written here will put all of it into context.

Before I begin I just need everyone to understand that this is solely from my perspective, being here in Tokorozawa, across the northern border of Tokyo, about 180 miles or so from Miyagi Prefecture and Sendai where the most damage of the quake and tsunami is. We were actually 231 miles SW of the epicenter.



First thing I want to clarify something. Tokyo the prefecture is one thing. Tokyo Metropolis is another. When I talk about Tokyo, I am talking about the actual prefecture. When the news talks about Tokyo, many times it is including the whole metro area, including other prefectures such as Saitama, where we are in, Kanagawa, Tochigi, and others including Ibaraki and Fukushima which are much closer to the epicenter and are in the news lately with the nuclear power plants which I'll get to later.



How are you? How is it there?

As far as where we are from, we are safe. Tokorozawa is in Saitama Prefecture, walking distance from the northern border of Tokyo prefecture. At the time of the quake, stuff shook pretty good. Enough that people left their buildings, the train system stopped, and everyone began calling relatives and watching the news. The electricity and the rest of the utilities were still on. I've been here in Japan for almost 10 years and we've had many quakes, but pretty quickly we knew that this was much larger than usual.

Many people commute to work in downtown Tokyo, Tokorozawa being sort of a bed town of Tokyo, and because of the trains shutting down, they were left stranded at their work places. The cell phone network here was inundated and it was difficult to get in touch with people. Somehow over the course of a few hours we were able to make contact with all the people we know, with church members and relatives. By late that night, and early the next day, everyone we knew who were stuck in town were home and safe with family.

I would have to say, though, Japan has a very advanced system regarding these natural disasters and it is definitely something we sort of take for granted living here. We heard right away of the tsunami warning and in fact we watched the surreal scene live on TV as the first tsunami roared through.

Since the initial quake on Friday, there have been numerous aftershocks. And for sure people have been on edge. I am from Hawaii and growing up I've learned that during hurricane warnings people head to the store in panic for water, rice, batteries, etc. Here was no different. The supermarkets began to sell out quickly of certain things. A day later gasoline at the stations was sold out. Does that mean we are in a shortage? I don't know for sure but from my perspective it seems that the demand was just more than the supply at the moment. Frankly speaking, there are a lot of people here. I'm hoping very soon things will be restocked and available. Check that, I'm pretty sure soon things will be restocked and available.

Beginning Monday, Tokyo Electric Co. announced that they would be placing Tokyo and neighboring areas on a scheduled blackouts. 3 hour blocks, twice a day. It's a first for me, first for Japan. First for everyone else, hence certain foods, like ramen, flying off the supermarket shelves. Essentially everyone here has gas stoves so just because the electricity goes out, it doesn't mean people will starve or eat cold sandwiches. People still have access to making hot meals. Just not with the microwave. Well, today is Wednesday and where we are the power has not turned off. Apparently we were under the quota of power consumption and so there has been no need to shut off the power in our area. I do have to mention that yesterday I was driving some people around since trains are still on a spotty schedule (praise the Lord we still have gas in our car), and about 30 minutes away the lights were out as I drove through pitch black streets. But we have been essentially unaffected. In fact, our kids are still going to school. We've been able to contact people on the computer. And granted, though the phone lines have been a little busy, we've been able to call around and contact people.

We've been watching the news and getting info from there as well as people in the neighborhood. I admit, even though I can get by fairly well in Japanese, getting local info through the news has been a little bit of a challenge. But we praise the Lord for communication with others we know.

So anyway, right now, in our immediate area we are fine.



Now on to the nuclear issue... I am not an expert. I have heard from people who kind of are. Michael, a missionary at our church has an older brother who is a nuclear engineer back in the states. I asked him to call and get as much info about what is going on as possible. We know a few people in the military who are getting front line briefings. And there is the news. There has been some emergency activity going on. In the general area they are taking precautions. Even here people are, but actually, nothing is too out of the ordinary here. From my understanding and those people giving me information who are in the know, that we are not in any danger. At all. In fact if anything I have been reassured numerous times that Japan is the foremost country when it comes to these nuclear things. Call it national pride, but we live in an island country that doesn't want to be dependent on others. And nuclear energy has been one of those things that has allowed Japan to keep other energy resources at arms length. So the research, technology, handling and everything else is top notch. I am all for safety. Especially for families and kids. I don't want to downplay anything that doesn't need to be. I won't judge people's responses here to the news or anything else, but I'm not worried. Of course from the fact that I know God is in control... but also from the practical info I've been getting from people who know about these kinds of stuff.

So that is what has been going on here.



What about the damaged areas?

Honestly, I see the same footage of the same area as you do. Over and over again. I have had contact with a couple of people we know in the area. Of course the damaged areas are damaged. But I've been told no one is living there now. Already in Sendai electricity is available according to those folks we know. Again, this is just a teeny tiny perspective from a teeny tiny portion of what is going on, but that is what I know for now. I talked on the phone with a gal who used to be at our church before she moved up there. She lived in the place where the tsunami did major damage. The place where they found a couple hundred drowned bodies. Praise the Lord she was able to get out and was staying with a friend. She even attended her church on Sunday. When I talked to her on the phone she was in line at a market getting food. Not exactly sure where, but good sign for sure.



So what about helping?

Well first let me share my thoughts on the spiritual and moral climate here. I am American. I remember 9/11 and Katrina. I remember how church attendance grew... the outpouring of assistance. The US is a great country for sure. Just different from Japan. Someone once said that if Japan had a major disaster, sweeping revival would come through here. And at the time I heard that I thought it was crazy, and I still do. People are people and there are needs here after such a devastating natural disaster. And it really is such a huge scale here. But that being said, people that I know, people that we have shared the gospel with, people that we have loved on... no one has come to us to ask for spiritual help. No one has come asking spiritual questions. No one new came to church on Sunday. We continue to pray and seek opportunity to share the Love of Christ, the same today as we did a week ago. I was thinking about everything going on and what I've learned and continue to learn here... Japan is a very efficient, self-sufficient place. And that attitude permeates people's thoughts and actions. In times of crisis, people need hope, but they don't run to the Lord. People run to what they know, what is comfortable and what they trust. So people run together. They run to each other, the government, the system. Family. In the midst of all of this, I'm thinking, The people are going to get through this. And it will make them stronger and closer. Closer and stronger to each other and their ideals and nationalism and everything else. But not toward the Lord. And it hurts to think about it. After all, considering the magnitude of this quake and the relative damage, compared to other recent natural disasters, you can clearly see that Japan is at the top of its game. They know what they are doing here. And they know that they know what they are doing here. Part of me thinks that in no time things will be business as usual and reconstruction will begin without even an eyelash batted toward repentance and Christ. And it breaks my heart to think about it. Because as a forgiven sinners the Lord Christians look at things through an eternal lens.

Maybe it's because I'm in relatively safe Tokorozawa, not Sendai. Maybe if the tsunami happened here, things would be different. Maybe. But I'm here

.

So what can I do? So what can should I do? Pray. I continue to pray for the souls of the people of Japan. I continue to pray for opportunities to show them and tell them about God's love. I continue to pray for hearts to be opened. I continue to pray for the believers here to be equipped and strengthened to be salt and light here in this place. This is another opportunity. On Sunday at church, one of the things we were talking about is the way people think. Japan was due for an earthquake. People need to get through this. You can almost sense a sigh of relief as many people have come through this fairly unscathed. But I needed to share the reality. This isn't the mother of all earthquakes. This isn't the big one. In the long term things aren't going to get better. The Bible is clear that this stuff will happen more and more frequently. On a global scale, this has been happening. So we pray that the Lord will do whatever it takes to get people's attention. I know it sounds harsh, but He did that for me and I thank Him for eternity.





More prayer points...

Pray for immediate needs. For the search and rescue. For those who don't have their most basic needs. Pray for the resucers. Pray for safety. Pray for those who are hurting. Pray for those who lost family members. Pray for kids who lost their parents. Pray for widows and widowers who lost their husbands or wives.

Pray for the churches in the area. Pray for the believers in the area. Pray that they would be filled with comfort and peace and that that peace would be noticeable to others. Pray for opportunities to minister, to be salt and light. To be messengers of Christ's good news.

Pray for things to come. The nuclear power plant troubles. Weather, climate. Pray for logistics and rebuilding efforts in the future.

Pray for spiritual things. Victory in spiritual warfare. That is the reality. Numerous funerals will be done. Families coming together. Mature Christians and baby Christians ministering to their unsaved families. Pray for uncompromising and unwavering faith.



Finally, what can we do practically? Other than prayer?

We at Calvary Chapel Tokorozawa are praying to help out. There are many organizations, Christian and non-Christian already in motion. I'm sure if you google the internet or ask your pastor, they may have some ideas. Off hand I know of some great organizations up and running. Calvary Chapel Lahabra/Committed Missions. Crash Japan. Samaritan's Purse, BGEA. All great opportunities to help out. All help is good help. And there definitely is a need for immediate help. And there are definitely those who can offer them.

As far as Calvary Chapel Tokorozawa, we understand the size of the problem and so while we are praying and seeing how we can get involved with some of the bigger efforts, we have been led to primarily help the immediate and long term needs of those we personally know in the area as well as their acquaintances.

And so right now we're waiting. People are still getting things in order and just emotionally recovering. We anticipate in the near future more practical needs will come up. We are ready to help them with those needs. I know some of you were wondering who else we are working with. Some of the churches that are in close fellowship and communication on this are Calvary Chapel West Tokyo (Pastor Santo), Calvary Chapel Fuchu (Pastor Rich), Logos Christian Fellowship (Pastor Kiyo), Calvary Chapel Ginowan (Pastor Tom), Calvary Chapel Iwakuni (Pastor Mike), Calvary Chapel Okinawa (Pastor Rick), as well as Calvary Chapel Honolulu, South Shore Christian Fellowship and other churches stateside.

I guess to put it in a nutshell, what we are doing is praying and waiting.

I have been asked about donations and the sort. Honestly, I would still say wait. But I also realize that there are people who want to give and give now, so we do have a paypal account on our website, www.calvarytokorozawa.com. Click on the Japanese or English page and it is on the bottom right. Whatever comes in, we will hold and use as specific needs arise. And all of it will go to helping out those guys.



I hope this helped to clarify some things for you. Again, this is all of it through our lens at Calvary Chapel Tokorozawa. Please receive everything in context. My intention is to not downplay anything, or to have all the answers about everything in Japan, spiritually or otherwise, but simply trust in the Lord and seek wisdom in the big picture. If you have any questions or need specifics, I'll try to help you out.



We know how much Jesus loves Japan,

We love you guys,

God bless and Aloha,

Pastor Travis