Thank you for the restoration of Japan. Healing bodies and souls, restoring relationships, putting the solitary in families, comforting those that mourn, binding up the broken-hearted, healing their diseases, providing housing, food and clothing. You will heal this nation and bring them back to you. Forgive their sins, destroy the works of the enemy in their land, restore your throne and dominion over this country.

We continue to stand will all our friends and fellow-believers in Japan as they face this great tragedy with great faith! Read about a few great pastors’ efforts there to encourage you in your prayers and your giving. To donate here are some places to do that:

Ray Mercer: If you want to also give, please consider giving to our fund at www.everynation.org/japan They will send the money to our relief efforts here in Japan and it will translate into a tangible statement of God’s love through the local churches.

Steve Kaylor (via MFI): We are opening a benefit fund, “Japan Disaster Relief Fund: Churches Helping Churches to Rebuild Japan” at the MFI offices for a quick and easy way to get help into Japan.  Donations can be made through the MFI website, www.ministersfellowshipinternational.org, or by mailing a check to the MFI office (please note “Japan Disaster Relief Fund” on the check).

Pastor Paul Bostrom:

We CRY OUT FOR PRAYER AND SUPPORT. The Japanese will politely starve to death rather than inconvenience others, something Westerners cannot comprehend because of cultural differences. The situation is the same or worse than World War II, no exaggeration. The news has forgotten them and reports on radiation in Tokyo which is MINIMAL, and people have plenty to eat there. Those north are literally starving. Some, especially the elderly, are starting to die. Almost nothing is being done! We weep for them.

From Pastor Ray Mercer in Yokosuka, Japan

Dear ministry partner,

Many of you have given towards the relief efforts here financially and I thank you. We have received donations and prayers from sister churches all over the world. I was amazed when I slowed down and realized how many people around the world are praying for Japan. We have gotten donations from China, South Africa, even Haiti. It is amazing how our nation has changed in two weeks. Satomi wrote on her facebook, “Do you feel like you are in a disaster movie?” I laughed but sometimes it feels like a disaster movie that will not end.

To this point we have sent 10 tons of supplies in 4 trucks to various places in northern and eastern Sendai. We now have key contacts at churches, refugee centers, and even made two stops at a Buddhist temple where many homeless families were staying temporarily. Young James went up with the second team and took 2 tons of supplies with one of the leaders from our church in Yokosuka and a driver from the church in Shimada. Thank you for your prayers for him – I watched closely on the GPS and prayed a lot while he was in Fukushima and Sendai. The land north of us is totally devastated, especially along the coastal areas where the tsunami hit. He shared with me that in the worst hit areas it is getting dangerous. Because of lack of food, shelter and basics, there is looting and even talk of murders and other crime. There are still many places which have not received relief and it has been two weeks since the 9.0 earthquake and 30+ ft high tsunami.

Through a providential connection two days ago, I found a church in Setagaya Tokyo which was in contact with an old-folk’s home in the northern part of Sendai which was low on food. They had received no supplies since the earthquake and there are 70 residents and 50 care-givers living in the rural facility. I was able to call my friend Keisuke and Pastor Rick Justus who were just then making a delivery in northern Sendai and direct them to stop by the old-folk’s home with much needed food and supplies. Please pray for the residents and caregivers there as I hear some have the flu now. We want to bring masks, rubber gloves, adult diapers and other needed supplies in the next truckload.

This Saturday P. James Coble from Yokohama will be leading team #4 into Sendai. They will stop at Yokosuka Church, where we have collected another 1 or 2 tons of food and supplies to load. The week following we are hoping to set up a base camp in central Sendai on the property of a local church which was wiped out by the tsunami. We are negotiating now to buy a small prefab house and bring it up to the property for the pastor and his wife to set up a base for relief efforts and ministry in the community. Today I found and rented a covered two-ton truck for one month. Once we set up the base we hope to begin regular deliveries up to this base an others that we have already established. Also providentially a man in my church has offered the use of his 4-ton truck with crane to help us set up the prefab and move old damaged containers to the base camp site to use for storage. We have the beginnings of a good long-term plan but need lots of prayer!

In Yokosuka our local FM radio station has been to the church to interview James, Satomi and me after he came back from his trip to Sendai. He is praying hard about possibly taking a semester off of college since it looks like it will be months most people have shelter in the affected area. Even in Yokosuka we are still living with daily aftershocks, many of them in the M5 or M6 range. We are also facing radiation and rolling three-hour power blackouts which are scheduled now to last through August. At least we now have gasoline and the panic buying of bread and other staples has stopped for now.

The kanji character for crisis is ?? which means danger + opportunity. Please pray for us to have the love and peace of God to meet the danger part fearlessly. The opportunity part is obvious. This is the reason why we are here – God wants to show how much He loves Japan and we are privileged that He wants to use us. Thanks for all your prayers, love and financial gifts. You are our partners – expect to hear good news from Japan because God is here.

Together for Him,

Pastor Ray Mercer in Yokosuka

Here is a brief update of some of the things that are happening here. We have been overwhelmed with love, prayers and financial support for the relief work. We have been contacted from many Churches and friends from all over.

**Yesterday, we took our first truck load of $15,000 worth of food, and goods up to Sendai. We were able to deliver this to one of the 100s of evacuation locations. This place is especially housing the elderly and those who cannot take care of themselves. We had dozens of volunteers from Hope Church come out to help us get the goods for the truck ready. One of the guys in our church is a truck driver so he was able to pack everything in without any wasted space. The truck left at 4:00 am and returned at 10:30pm.

**My Brother Joel coordinated to bring up a truck and van load full of goods from the Osaka area. Several churches participated with him to make this happen. They drove 9 hours to deliver these goods to us. We loaded their goods into the big truck that went up yesterday.

**Our truck will reload again tonight and take the 2nd trip up tomorrow morning. The need for food and relief goods are still very great. The more we hear of the enormity of the devastation the more overwhelming it is. The road to recovery is going to take a very long time.

**We had a young family that attended Hope Church this last Sunday. We discovered that they had evacuated from the disaster area as well as from near the Fukushima nuclear plant. It was amazing to hear how they lived near the ocean and how their entire family miraculously escaped the horrible tsunami. They said that they unfortunately also saw many people being swept away in the tsunami. They shared how they and their son are having nightmares every night. We prayed for them and handed them $600 to help, since they had no money.

**I talked with a pastor Friend that has a small church near the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. His house and church did not suffer much damage but everyone in their church has moved away from the city because of the radiation leak. The English school he ran is shut down and he is now left with no source of income. On many occasions he has Hope Church a $50 offering for us. When I found out his need I told him, “You do not have to worry, you are now going to reap from all the seeds that you sowed into our ministry”. I was moved when he wept and thanked us. We just deposited $6,000 into his bank account to take care of his family for a couple of months.

**I was greatly moved by an email I received from Elsie Lherisson that is involved in a wonderful ministry in Haiti. Our friend Jerry Park who is the mission’s director at Brooklyn Tabernacle forwarded her some of the emails we had sent out. Elsie wrote back how to us how the children and youth in their ministry were earnestly praying for Japan. She then said they are sending us $500 from Haiti. Amazing!!

**We have some wonderful connections that we are networking with. My good friend Jonathan Wilson is the founder and director of CRASH (www.crashjapan.com), a wonderful relief organization in Japan. Churches helping Churches (churcheshelpingchurches.com) will be working with CRASH. Jonathan told me they are setting up a long term plan to organize thousands of teams to come work with through Churches to help in rebuilding the devastated areas. I have also connected with Doug Stringer, the president of Somebody Cares (www.somebodycares.org), another wonderful Christian organization. I will meet Doug next week when he comes to Japan.

In the midst of disaster, there are many wonderful things happening. We are thrilled to play a small part because of the wonderful help we are receiving from so many people.

Pastor Steven Kaylor