We wanted to thank many of you who have prayed for the friends we have shared about in our blog.  We just heard from Reiko that her parents in Fukushima are staying put and doing better- after three weeks they finally have water coming into their home.  This is a huge relief – they were needing to bring water in from an uncle’s home and go there to shower.

Last night when Kent and Eric came home, they said that most of the damage that they saw was from the tsunami much more than from the 9.0 earthquake.  But when I saw these pictures of Reiko’s parents home – a few hundred kilometers away from the epicenter – I was shocked.  She wrote that it took them over a week to clean up the inside.

Here is their tile roof that they are waiting to get repaired:

I like this picture because in the left corner you can see the Japanese writing on the front door of the  little church that is right across the street from them.  This is where I spent one summer in the early nineties while working as a summer advisor.  Reiko lived right across the street, and became a wonderful friend that summer.  God used our friendship to connect her to God and another local church, pastored by Mori Sensei and his wife.  Reiko has been a great friend ever since.  And I love it that it  is that it has been a local church that has been coming into her parent’s community when others are afraid to (because of radiation) and bringing fresh produce and daily needs.

The church where Reiko got involved in Iwaki was my “command base” that summer.  Mori Sensei and his wife were wonderful models to me then and since.  Last year, the Mori’s church burned down.  They built a larger facility and have since understood more of God’s purposes – they have been using it as a warehouse since the tsunami to bring relief to the community.  Even though they are near the nuclear reactor, they have announced that they aren’t leaving but will stay and care for the community.  Watch how they are caring!   I saw this video made by some missionaries working with the Moris and once again the tears flowed.