Today, we worked with Samaritan’s Purse to bring relief to those in Tohoku. Yes, it’s been over a year, and there still is help needed.
We split up to two teams: the mud-out team and the bleaching team.
I was in the mud-out team—I’ve never done so before. I had only done bleaching and drywall removal.
Our team worked at two places in the same neighborhood—the Takahashis’ and the Oonos’.
Both families were extremely nice. We had tons of snacks—despite the fact that we were pretty much snacking the whole time during our car ride to Tohoku.
Mrs. Takahashi even “adopted” me as her grandson! She said that she loved my sense of humor and that I made 70s songs references. She is now my grandmother in Tohoku.
The Oonos were very grateful also
Both families had beautiful gardens despite the fact that the tsunami brought in vegetation-killing dirt.
The contrast between everything is amazing—there were new houses, completely destroyed houses, and empty lots. Daniel said that it was very surreal. The thought never occurred to me because I had become so used to it.
I feel like we made good connections—both families were amazed at the youth of the team, as the previous team averaged an age of 60, while we averaged lower 20s.
After finishing a day’s work, we headed to the sento, or a Japanese public bath.
I had a great time of meditation there. I’ll write more in another post, but a lot to do with keeping my eyes on God.
All in all, we had a great day. I’m writing this on my iPod laying on a couch, while three others on my team speak almost nothing to each other. It’s all good because in sure we’re all tired.
Pray for:
- Rest. We’ll be needing it a lot in the next few days.
- Bonding. We’ll have plenty of opportunity to do so the next few days between work and long drives, so pray for that.
- Courage. We need more courage to speak more about Christ to the home owners in Tohoku.
- Wisdom to use finances wisely. Our team is by far the most expensive because of transportation, including gas and tolls.