The Café... from the Japanese Viewpoint

Tonight I received this translation of a report written by Tanaka-san, one of the women who came up to help with the "café" yesterday and wanted to share some of it with you. While it is frustrating to me to not be able to understand so much of what people are saying here, it is wonderful to get reports like this that give so much more depth to what is going on around me. I'm inserting some of the pictures they took of the day yesterday as well.

The four of us accomplished our tasks and returned safely to our homes about 9 PM tonight (December 21st).  It was a hard schedule and we are a little tired, but we are all thankful that the fruits of our work were greater than we imagined.  We returned home, rejoicing in all the blessings that God gave during our two days.

We arrived in Kesennuma at 10:59 AM (December 20).  It was snowing, and it was cold.  We delivered tracts, cleaned up the center, and made preparations for the coffee hour ("cafe") taking place the next day.  Because the sign in front of the center was not all that easy to see and read, we quickly made a new handwritten sign. We also decorated the center to give it a feeling of Christmas.

The signs in the window for the center and the event

Tankaka-san (left) and Miyazaki-san

The "café"

 On the day of the cafe, we were blessed with fine weather beginning already in the morning.  With joy we entered the center about 9 AM and got ready for people to come.  We cleaned up some more and arranged on plates the homemade Christmas cookies, poundcake, stollen, etc. which we had brought from Tokyo.  We prepared the coffee, tea, and other drinks and waited for guests to come.

The spread... seriously yummy confections!

The LECC label sewn onto the back of each quilt

Right at the open (10 AM) a woman stopped in on her way to the hospital.  When we showed her the quilts that our American ladies had made in the US, she expressed surprise at such warm kindness.  With a thankful attitude she looked at the quilts and picked out one she liked.  She thanked us many times as she went on her way to the hospital.  There is a tag on the back of the quilts that has the name of the LECC and a message of encouragement.  It can easily be seen through the clear plastic bags.  We point that out to people and then turn the bag upside down so they can see the spectacular colors and patterns of the quilts.  When they have chosen a quilt, we also put in a copy of the booklet Kibou (Hope) and a short explanation about the opening of our center.  

(Left to right) Kato-san, Kai, our second visitor of the day, Miyazaki-san, and Tanaka-san

Another of the quilt recipients with Tankaka-san (right)

The second person who came said, "Coming here to talk to you seemed like more fun than waiting at the hospital, so I decided to drop in."  She was also very happy to be able to choose a quilt and said, "It is hard to believe that people in the world would be so kind to do something like this."  She also said, "These are the best snacks I have ever eaten."  She happily talked to us for quite a while, thanked us many times, and then returned to the hospital.  We went with her to the door to send her on her way and noticed that right away she was saying something to someone who was passing by.  Sure enough, that person came in to the center.  In this way, by word of mouth, people came in one after another.  We started the day with 44 quilts at the center and we were able to distribute 23 of them.  There are 21 left. (Note: many are scheduled to arrive on the 27th.)  There is a sign-up sheet for the people who received a quilt, but we did not put pressure on them to do this.  Some were cautious and wrote only their name, without writing their address and phone number.  One person did not want to write even their name.   

When we had gone to the center to get it ready in October, we had bought something at the little pottery shop down near the city offices.  We had not stopped in because the store and the goods looked great; instead, we wanted to help the local economy by buying a little something.  In casual conversation with the shop owner that day we heard from him that he had lost his mother and his wife in the tsunami on March 11.  Wanting to encourage him, with Pastor Wordell's approval, Mrs. Miyazaki and I chose what we thought would be the best one for a man and walked to his shop with it.   He is a man in his 60's or 70's.  When we entered his shop, he remembered us from our visit in October.  

He was so happy that people would pour time and love into quilts and send them to Japan, and he was pleased that we hand-delivered one to him.  He invited us from the shop-part of his building into the home-part of his building for a visit.  We told him we had stopped by our way to buy lunch for the workers (and visitors) at the center, and not wanting to impose, we told him we could not visit long.  As he sent us on our way, he thanked us. We could see that he was trying to fight back the tears.

I will write a few of the things we felt about our trip to Kesennuma this time.

1)  We heard from a couple people, "Even if we know the day and time when relief goods are being distributed, there are many people who cannot get there to pick them up."  Some of them are working alone and can't leave their shop.  Some of are not well enough to go out.  Some of them are too old to go out on their own.  Some people have no way of getting there.  It would be good if we had a way to deliver things to them.  

2)  Many people are looking for someone who will just listen to them.  They are looking especially for people from outside the Tohoku area to come and talk to them.  Because people who live there have different ways of thinking about the disasters, it is difficult for them to say to each other the things they want to say.  (Outsiders can remain neutral and just listen.)

(Left to right) Miyazaki-san, Mr. and Mrs. Komatsu, Kato-san and Kai

3)  The cafe today was scheduled to be until 2:30 PM, but right at that time a married couple (Komatsu-san) came from a nearby prefab housing community.  The husband said that about 100 of the people living in that housing community do not have enough winter clothing.  They are trying to withstand the cold by putting on many thin layers of clothes and socks. 

4)  Mrs. Sato (our member who lives right next door to the center) was not feeling well enough to visit with us the first day, but did participate the day of the cafe.  Also the person who lives across the street and another neighbor joined us for lunch (rice balls and sandwiches), and we enjoyed friendly conversation.  The next door neighbor brought us pickles and dried persimmon.  They said that it had been a while since they could just sit and visit with others in the neighborhood.  We were very happy they came.

We are thankful for the Jaspersens who were willing to come from a long ways away, in winter, with their children, to do relief work in Japan.  We are thankful for all the opportunities the Lord is providing.  May He bless our Christian witness!

This is my rather long report.

Tanaka Chiharu