Gene Grounds and I recently returned from what is the third trip into Japan. As the photo attests to, the debries and shattered remains of cars and boats and foundations of homes and buildings have been scrapped up, collected and put in organized piles and categories.
The people for the most part have been placed in small but comfortable housing units stacked side by side.
Highways are open, people are traveling to and from. Life looks "normal" on the outside, but there is a "new normal" on the inside.
Nuclear Radiation continues to show up in water tables and in agricultural fields, there are few fishing boats in the devastated ports as nearly 97% of the fleets were destroyed or sunk, the area relies on fishing and tourism, and very few tourists are coming in to areas without hotels- the outlook for the economy is rather bleak.
VRM continues to work in partnership through the local churches and pastors in the northen prefecture of Iwate and with Somebody Cares Japan and other ministries, bringing in donated funds and focusing on teaching on grief and trauma and encouraging the local church community.
But as I wrote on the 6th month anniversary of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake- Giants are roaming all over Japan bringing a sense of hopelessness, despair and bleakness. Suicides are a cultural norm and the rate is on the increase. So as debries are cleared, and people are housed- please continue to remember the people of Japan through your prayers on their behalf and as Doug Stringer of Somebody Cares often says- "That the Land of the Rising Sun will know the Risen Son!"
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