Early this morning the Executive Secretary for the Japan Baptist Convention was able to pull together a short update regarding the state of the convention and status of response efforts in the affected regions. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will continue to monitor the situation. We will share potential engagement opportunities as they become available. It is still far TOO early for this level of response. The most effective ways to respond at this time continue to be through monetary donations and prayer. As you read the update below, please continue to bathe this entire situation in prayer.
On behalf of the Japan Baptist Convention(JBC), I would like to express my deep gratitude for your concern and prayer support for the suffering Japanese people following yesterday’s large earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan. The Christ-like love and support expressed by Baptist brothers and sisters around the world is indeed a great encouragement and comfort.
Following the 8.9 magnitude earthquake, towns along the northeastern coastline of Japan were demolished by powerful tsunami. The American Baptist affiliated Japan Baptist Union(JBU) has several churches near that coast, and we are waiting for news concerning their safety. We are concerned that they may have had great damage.
The large city of Sendai with a population of one million was hard hit by the earthquake, the repeating tsunami, and fires. Of our four JBC churches in Sendai, we have only been able to communicate with two of them. Both telephone and internet connections are down in most of the damaged areas. We are deeply worried about the safety of those thousands whose lives have been disrupted and are suffering from the shock, the cold, the wetness, and the lack of shelter and food.
Even the cities and towns in this region that did not experience much direct damage from the earthquake have still lost electrical power, gas, and water supply, causing a miserable situation for people during this cold weather.
At this point officials are expressing growing fear concerning two nuclear power plants in Fukushima. The cooling systems and backup systems have shut down, causing a dangerous rise in the temperature of half of the nuclear reactors. While the pressure is being slowly released to reduce the temperature, officials have advised evacuation of the residents in that vicinity.
As we learn more details of the situation of our churches and the people in the area, Japan Baptist brothers and sisters are anxious to provide relief supplies and relief work to help the thousands of victims. At this time, the vastness of the provinces that have been damaged is overwhelming, compounded by the disruption in transportation, including trains, planes, ships, and roadways. We are anxiously waiting for a means to travel to the stricken area.
Here at the JBC office building in Saitama City, Saitama Provence, we were holding a workshop for 25 missions’ volunteers. Yesterday during the closing worship, we experienced the tremors of the huge earthquake. With transportation down, most of the workshop participants and leaders were unable to travel to their homes, but were able to spend the night in the warm, safe JBC building. Last night and again this morning, we gathered to have an urgent prayer meeting for the victims of this disaster. One by one, the participants were able to return to their respective cities.
Yesterday the JBU Theological Seminary located in Yokohama held their Graduation Ceremony. Following the earthquake, about 25 people were unable to travel home. Today with gradual resumption of travel, they have been able to go home.
Prayer Requests
Pray for the efforts to rescue the many isolated people who are suffering in the freezing cold, waiting to be saved from the debris wrought by the earthquakes, aftershocks, tsunami, and fires.
Pray that the Lord will provide His peace, comfort, and hope for the thousands of
persons experiencing grief, despair, and emotional pain.
Pray that the Lord will provide a means for dedicated Baptist men and women to serve in the disaster area.
Pray that the Lord’s church will know and follow God’s leadership during this crisis and faithfully serve the victims of this disaster, to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In His Service,
Makoto Kato
Executive Secretary
Japan Baptist Convention
Dear; ini the nameof Load Jesus Christ,
Receive warm Christian greeting in the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I hope you are doing fine.
I am writing to request you and your friends to come and help us here in Morogoro , Tanzania with evangelism and medical treatment to the poor. The medical team can also include the mission aspect upon which a local or international evangelist would witness to the people before they meet doctors for medical treatment.
The evangelism team would be assigned to work with local or national evangelists in given or selected mission points. The aim is to enhance the work of evangelism in Morogoro and to address the issue of human suffering in medical-mission terms.
According to my experience in mission outreach I have come to realize that when evangelism is mixed with medical treatment many people in East Africa and particularly in Tanzania become ready to accept Jesus Christ than when it is conduced without medical treatment. This does not mean that we must have medical team, but rather it helps us to review our methods in doing evangelism and music. Sometimes, the medical team can just provide simple medication that addresses the tropical diseases such as malaria and eye infections. Owing to African culture, most of Tanzanian people respect the visitors or guests, therefore with involvement of your team members into our evangelistic programmes, and then I believe that the impact of evangelism would be great.
For the sake of clarity, I wish to let you know that I request you and the team to get ready to minister amongst the Masai. I think you have information about this nomadic tribe that depends heavily on cattle keeping and other livestock keeping. For many years the Church in Tanzania has been working amongst this tribe with little success. Please consider this as I see it as an opportunity to serve. I have working with Masai but I think and believe that it is now a time for us to join hands in serving the LORD Jesus Christ through joint evangelism campaign in Masai areas.
Please feel free to ask me if you have any queries or questions in relation to what I have written to you. Also feel free to suggest any other approach that you think it can work and we will discuss on that.
Be assured of my prayers to you all as we continue to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
thanks
Email; chiyawi@yahoo.com
Pastor Haruni Chiyawi
I look forward to hearing from you