This morning began with a Skype call with my mom, filling her in on some of the details I left out of our blog (if you can believe there are actually more details after reading all my wordy ramblings!) It was so good to hear her voice and see her smiling face. The boys were both happy to see her and it was good for me too. Sometimes all you want is your mommy, even if she's an ocean away! An hour after we finished our call with her, we got the opportunity to Skype with Pastor Wordell, our main contact for this project here in Japan. He was calling from Hong Kong as he travels for business. We had a great opportunity to touch base, ask questions now that we have our feet on the ground here, and structure a bit more of the game plan for the center. It was a really great call and Dan and I walked away after our 40 minute conversation feeling more direction as to what, where, and how. There's still much to be decided as things come up, but we've got a better grasp on what they think would work best and we can adapt as necessary!
Pastor Wordell filled us in on what the LECC mission has been doing up here so far since the disasters. Shortly following the earthquake and tsunami, they rented a 2 ton truck filled with relief supplies to distribute. They made a total of three supply deliveries up here. The church has committed to sponsoring 13 children that were orphaned on March 11 through an established scholarship fund (each child receives approximately $1540 per year until they graduate from high school). They also were able to donate about $65 to every student at the girls' high school in Kessenuma to help with small costs of personal loss in each girls' family. There also were families on Oshima island (a large island just off the coast of Kessenuma that took much of the brunt of the tsunami) that are living in pre-fab housing (similar to FEMA housing after Hurricane Katrina). The small size of the houses doesn't allow for much storage space, so several large storage units were purchased and shipped up here for the community's use. In the process of these actions of love, Pastor Nidaira and Pastor Wordell were able to make good contacts up here and opened up doors for continued relationships in the community with the church.
The biggest ongoing project now, though, is the distribution of donated quilts from America and Canada. The Lutheran Women Missionary Society (LWMS) organized a quilt donation project for the people in the heavily devastated areas. As of right now, we have 45-50 quilts at the center sent in by individual congregations, 120 down in Tokyo, and 60 more on their way! I busied myself with folding and sorting for a few hours...
I was blown away by the outpouring of love and generosity by these women. As a knitter, I know the amount of time that can go into a project... but to have well over 200 quilts that these women made for the people of Japan... wow. What a fantastic outreach opportunity for us and the volunteers to follow - and each quilt has a label with the LECC logo as well as the QR code for more information on the church so they can find out who donated the quilts and why. The quilts that I sorted through today were of all colors, patterns, sizes, and quilting styles. A few jumped out at me especially; one with butterfly fabric had stitched in the words, "To Japan with love". Another child's quilt had a very silly alien motif in really colorful and fun patterns. Another's quilting had words like "courage," "perseverance," and "love" worked into the design. Absolutely amazing work! It was incredible to think of the hours of time these women put into the projects to help strangers! Thank you, Lord, for your faithful servants. May they be blessed over and over for their service to You!
Another high point of the day was our walk to the center. Up until today we had driven the van back and forth between the hotel and the center in the setting up process. However, this morning we decided to bundle up and all walk together and take in the smaller details of our neighborhood. There are so many little shops, ranging from produce vendors to ceramic shops, to a small fish market (Kai has made it known quite clearly he does NOT like the fish smell. He still can't help his fascination with the various types of fish sitting in buckets on the sidewalk though!) There's a local supermarket along the way too. We make it a point to say good morning to each person we encounter along the way (often followed by some surprised expressions after hearing Japanese come out of our very foreign mouths!) And this afternoon we stopped in and bought a few apples from two ladies in one shop and bought a few more supplies from the supermarket. It's slightly more expensive to shop this way (rather than going to Aeon for all our shopping), but the boost to the local economy is just as important. It also allows us to make a presence for the center and let people know we are here. To me, it was so wonderful to feel the fresh, humid air on my face as we took in the familiar sights and smells of rural Japan. We could not have asked for a better location to come and help!
As another day comes to a close, I am filled with gratitude that we have been given the privilege of doing God's work in a country that we love so dearly. It's far from home and it has it's own challenges, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Please continue to pray for our family that we can help LECC make a positive impact on this community by meeting their physical needs so those after us can meet their spiritual needs!
Knowing how Japanese people love to give and receive gifts makes these quilts all the more precious.
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