Pray for Japan

Shalom all:

In a wonderful answer to prayer, a church in Taiwan has invited the Ikarashi family to visit Taipei for a week.  They arrived today.  It is a much needed break from the intensity of the last several months.  Especially for Nagisa, mother and wife, we believe this is an important time of healing and rest for her.  Please pray for them.

IN Him,

alb

Shalom to all of you dear prayer partners:

Thank you so much for standing with the Ikarashi family in prayer over the last several days.

In keeping with the story in John 11, many faithfully prayed for 4 full days for little Erina’s soul to return to her body and be “resurrected.”  Despite the faith of many, the Lord chose to withhold is blessing and power this time.

Yesterday at 3pm, they cremated (Japanese Law!) her body and conducted a funeral service.

We spoke with mother and father a few days ago, and we were encouraged by the peace in their heart amidst this storm.  Please continue to pray for the Great Comforter and Encourager to be with them at this time.

In Him,

Ariel Blumenthal

Very Urgent Situation and Prayer Request from Ikapi!!

Please read: John 11:39-43

Today, I’m sending you a very personal, family prayer request.

Both my oldest son, Zion, and our newborn daughter, Erina (5 months), were born with cleft palates. On May 10 we drove from Iwaki to Tokyo for an appointment with a specialist doctor the following day.  I’ve always believed that God can heal them and so yesterday we decided to delay Erina’s first operation until June 30.  On the 12th we had an appointment at 10 in the morning for Zion as well, and so we woke up at the hotel room at 7:30.

As I looked at the children’s faces I noticed that Erina’s was very white, and when I touched her body it was hard and I noticed that her breathing had stopped. We immediately ordered an ambulance, and while waiting I tried, in faith, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her: she made a few sounds and so I was encouraged to continue.

We have no idea how this happened.  My wife remembers moving her in the bed at 3 or 4 in the morning and her body was warm then.  So something happened between then and 7:30 in the morning– and it is strange that we did not hear her crying or struggling.

She was quickly taken to the hospital and seen by a specialist who declared her dead at 9:30am.  They told us that since this happened at a hotel, we must hand her over to a special Medical Police Inspector. I decided that we wanted to pray for her resurrection, so we did not do this. “But,” we were told, “you must hand her over for a full autopsy.”  Since we wanted to pray for a resurrection, we did not want to hand her little body over to be dissected.

From there we returned to the hotel and the police station nearby, in order for the police to inspect her and make an official declaration.  Here, they also urged us to do the autopsy.  I explained to them that since I am a Christian pastor, I am not willing to give up an inch in my faith that God can do a miracle, and so I pleaded with them to somehow cancel the autopsy.  We left her there in a special coroner’s niche, and went with the police to take pictures at the hotel.  They continued to urge me to have the autopsy done as soon as possible.

“Can you do nothing but quote me the rulebook, while ignoring this family’s particular desires?” I continued to plead.  “What’s more,” they told me, “the Coroner is finished working today and so Erina must be kept in the special room at the police station until tomorrow morning, and the family is not allowed to enter this room!”

“Okay,” I said, “I’ll give you two choices:  either the Medical Inspector can look at her now and then hand her over to us right now; or my wife and I will stay at the Police Station with her body all day and night until the Coroner comes tomorrow morning so that we can pray.  You decide!”  They granted my first request, canceled the autopsy, and handed our daughter back to us. From there we moved to the Shibuya Gospel Church where many friends gathered and where we have been praying for the last 24 hours.

We have been so helped by everyone’s faith and love. Since Lazarus was raised on the fourth day, we will not give up but continue to pray. This afternoon (May 13), we will return to Iwaki. Please come and join us in prayer, or pray from wherever you are in the world. We praise God that the same Jesus who raised Lazarus from the dead is alive and still working today.

–

ALB’s comment: The Lord is using our brother and his family in incredible ways right now, and we want to stand with them in faith during this trial.  Since I first heard of this, the verse from Psalm 34:19 comes to mind: “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.”

Shalom all!  Sorry for the long break in updates, but we were busy with the Passover holiday here in Israel.  Plus, Ikapi wrote a full fledged article for a Japanese Christian Magazine, which has taken me some  time to translate.  This is an excellent summary of what the Lord has been doing through our brothers and sisters in Iwaki during these terrible and awesome times.  So here it is….ALB

“An Earthquake is Coming!”

The Great East Japan Earthquake hit on March 11, 2011.   At that time, I was working at the offices of the Iwaki Dairy Company that was recently advertised in the March edition of Revival Japan. (ALB: the same magazine where this article was published in Japanese) Suddenly, a strange sounding voice message was emitted from the cell phone of one of my coworkers: “an earthquake is coming! an earthquake is coming!..;” and a few seconds later we were overwhelmed by a strong side to side moving earthquake that continued for several minutes.

In Iwaki-city it was a strong six-point-something earthquake. Many things in our office fell over, computers fell off of their desks, but happily the damage was not severe enough to interfere with our work–and most of our dairy supplies inside the refrigerators were unharmed. Also at the church that I attend – the Taira Christ Evangelical Church — there were many cracks in the plaster and broken dishes, but no major damage to the building. Even though the municipal gas line stopped working, we had water and electricity and so church members were able to gather in the building, and started to live communally as they waited for the restoration of the utility services to their homes. 

Since I am involved in the management of the dairy company, I was forced to think about how we could continue to work after most means of cargo delivery had been compromised; and, at the same time, I had to check on the status of our customers. Our company distributes widely up and down the coast, from Hitachi-city in Ibaraki Prefecture, northwards to Soma-city in Fukushima Prefecture; and we have several major distributors and direct customers in the coastal areas.

What’s more, many of these areas are close to the area of the Fukushima nuclear reactors.  So in addition to the earthquake and tsunami, the radiation scare forced many residents to evacuate outside Fukushima Prefecture.  We came to realize just how much damage our distributors in the coastal areas had incurred, and most of them have no idea when they might be able to start functioning again. One of our employees has a home in the Ena area of Iwaki, and his house and father were swept away by the tsunami.  Now, he sleeps over at our company premises. Another employee lives in Naraha-machi, somewhat close to the Dai-ni reactors, and was thus forced to move to an evacuation center in another part of the city.

Along the coast, the city of Iwaki experienced tremendous damage from the tsunami — from Hisanohama in the north, to Nakoso in the south. From the earthquake, most communities lost water, gas and electric service. These utilities are still being worked on today. There were at least 50 homes that were toppled by the earthquake. The Japan Rail Joban line was seriously damaged, and most highway bus service also stopped.  The highways were shut down and so hospitals and other care facilities were put in extremely compromising circumstances. As a whole, the city ceased to function.

The Church as Volunteer Base

 As we began to grasp the enormity of the disaster, we realized that we could not work or live in a normal way, but must dedicate all of our time towards relief work.  And so our minds were made up to help the citizens of the city with humanitarian aid.  We decided to make the 3-storey building of the Taira Christian Church, with its large parking lot, our “Relief Center.”  The Church has a missions dept. called the “Global Mission Center” (GMC), and that became the base for volunteer activities and helping evacuees. 

Immediately, we decided to visit the Disaster Response Dept. of the Iwaki Municipality, in order to get a fuller picture of what was happening throughout the city.  However, we found that City Hall was in a state of confusion.  Iwaki had been well known as a city that has never experienced significant disasters, and so they were without experience and real countermeasures.  As a result, their efforts were unable to keep up with the scope of the disaster, and a rapidly expanding “gap” grew between their data and responses on the one hand, with the reality “on the ground” on the other hand. 

So, we began to think about what we could do. First, we were able to donate about 1,000,000 yen worth of milk products that we had in our inventory, and deliver these products to the needy using the 7 small trucks that our company owns.  The day after the earthquake (March 12), we called all the local milk producers and found that all their factories were significantly damaged and they had no idea when they might re-open.  In addition, starting that same day, all cargo delivery to Iwaki was stopped, and milk products that were supposed to make it to Iwaki were being stopped in Koriyama-city.  And as if that weren’t enough, that was also the day of the first hydrogen explosion at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Plant—making matters suddenly even more complicated!

Then, on the 14^th, the roof was blown off the #3 reactor by an explosion—and unlike the first one at the #1 reactor, the smoke was an ominous brown color.  From this moment, the real fear of nuclear contamination spread in Iwaki, and the citizens began to flee the city in droves.  I remember March 15 as the day when the fear of the radiation was at its height–and this caused even greater confusion to spread in Iwaki.  The Nat’l Government issued a recommendation to evacuate; but the Mayor of Iwaki announced that it was sufficient to simply stay indoors.  Those citizens who thought to evacuate went to the gas stations to fill up their cars, but they found that in keeping with the Mayor’s decree, the majority of the gas stations were closed up as their owners and workers stayed at home–indoors!

Can’t buy gasoline..the stores aren’t opening (little left in their inventories anyway!), and confusing information about a potential nuclear disaster!  Indeed, Iwaki began to feel like a ghost town.  At that time, it had not yet been decided where to organize the material aid that was beginning to arrive from the Nat’l Government—so those who dared to go outside, amidst the radiation scare, found that help was not coming. Goods were just constantly on the decrease, and people’s anxieties on the increase.  Most of the local NPOs and NGOs had evacuated the city, as well as many of the social workers. Thus, it was impossible to discover the conditions of those people “stuck” inside their homes who had not successfully made it to one of the evacuation centers.

Now is the Time to Just Serve!

Since radiation levels were quite low in the area of the Taira Christ Church (central Iwaki-city), the “indoor evacuation” decree was lifted, and the Global Mission Center (GMC) was able to function in a mighty way as a base for relief work.  Precisely because other relief and reconstruction were so slow in coming to Iwaki, the work entrusted to us who chose to stay was enormous.  We really felt that this was a unique chance that God had provided for us.

Next, Christians from all over Japan began to mobilize for Iwaki and NE Japan.  On the fifth day after the quake, a group from the Oyumino Christian Church in Chiba (Pastor Daniel Iverson) arrived with material aid and gasoline.  From that day forward, we were able to use our trucks to deliver aid to those people struck by the disaster.  And even though gasoline was not available locally, Christian groups trucked in enough diesel fuel in small containers to keep our trucks on the road. 

Beyond that, we began to receive phone calls from local hospitals and various care centers.  “No food, no adult diapers, no water…please deliver what you can!”   So many places, and so much need!  Gradually, the name “Global Mission Center” was becoming well known throughout the city. 

I am fortunate to have had experience in volunteer relief work over the last 3 years: Sumatra Earthquake/Tsunami; Hurricane Katrina, Noto Peninsual Earthquake, Niigata-Chuetsu earthquake, etc. As I explained this background of mine to the Municipality, I said, “now is the time for the People, the Municipal Gov’t, and Private Companies to work in tandem!!”  In fact, there were many instances when the data and first hand reports from our work in the disaster areas were reported to the Disaster Planning Bureau, and then further “upline” to the highest levels of the Municipal Gov’t.  As we continued our relief work, we were also becoming a significant intermediary voice between the hardest hit people and the Gov’t. 

A particularly telling thing happened one day, when one of the church staff visited the local stadium where the material aid from the Gov’t was being kept.  He witnessed one of the truck drivers getting very angry over the fact that some of the foodstuffs he had delivered had since passed their expiration date.  Our staff member was stirred in his heart to see the seeming disregard for those people who, while their homes were not too damaged, were still without many basic necessities for daily life—while huge amounts of material aid just sat there running past its date of expiry!    

Immediately, we went to the Disaster Relief Bureau, to the Director of the Citizen Volunteer Dept, and said, “If we don’t do something, there will be people who die of starvation here in Iwaki!!”  He went straight to the Mayor, and starting that evening we helped distribute some of this material aid to the various evacuation centers, with the goal of reaching the needy people more or less stuck in their homes. 

Next, we began to see a developing time lag between people’s needs at the various points in the crisis.  “There is not enough of this or that,” the media would declare, and then a few days later there was so much of whatever stuff they mentioned that there were usually leftovers!  But, as we visited and delivered to the evacuation centers each day, we saw how people’s needs were gradually changing: soon the people’s biggest complaints were “we need a bath or shower” and “we would love to have some hot food to eat!”

While we could not literally provide warm baths, we saw that there must be some way that we could at least provide a little “refreshing” for the people –and lo and behold, “foot washing” came to mind !  I wrote this idea up on my e-mail list/blog, and a certain company offered to donate 2 tons of firewood for the effort. Quickly, we bought a bunch of large metal buckets, went to the evacuation centers, boiled up the water, and had the privilege of washing many evacuees feet.

The first leader to provide a place for foot washing was the principal of the Yumoto #2 Junior High School — one of the evacuation centers. Pastor Mori has known this principal for over 10 years.  While praying for the love of Jesus to flow through us, we were able to minister to many people there. Then, we started to do foot washing almost everyday at various evacuation centers around the city.

Presently, Christians from around Japan and around the world continue to arrive at the GMC. They stay overnight at the church and volunteer during the day. The majority of the work consists of: delivering material aid, checking on the welfare of the people, serving hot meals, foot washing ministry, music ministry, playing with children at the evacuation centers, and helping with the removal and cleanup of the wreckage and debris.

As I think about it, the volunteer work and outreach is happening not at our “pace,” but by simply putting ourselves in the place of the other and first becoming their “neighbor”.  Pastor Mori says, “we are not looking to missionize people in their weakest hour. Right now it is simply time to love and serve them!” The people at City Hall have started to tenderly call us “Global-san..” (ALB: a term of familiarity, and even affection)

Towards the Establishing of the NPO

There are two reasons why we have stayed on in Iwaki: providing material aid to those who remain; and to be ready to help evacuate people if the nuclear radiation problem should significantly worsen. In either case, our church has a lot of work to do. The local Christians who have continued to gather at GMC are living a life of prayer and standing in faith.  Among such people there are 2 American Christians. Even though their government issued an evacuation decree for an 80 km radius from the reactors (which would include most of Iwaki!), these brothers chose to stay in Iwaki and help.  Also, five days after the earthquake a young brother was resting next to me at the church when he received a phone call from his boss at work. His boss explained to him that there are not enough workers at the nuclear plant to help with the work on the radioactive water, and that they are now looking to employ anybody they can find.  Was he interested?  They were going to pay a lot of money to such workers.  But my friend decided that no amount of money was worth the danger to his life, and so he turned it down.

Soon after, the amount of radiation in the air decreased and people began to make more rational decisions–not simply based on all kinds of hearsay.  Then, people began to return to the downtown area even though many of them had lost jobs, or their companies were suddenly in danger of closing down or going bankrupt. Especially hit hard were those in the fishing, agriculture, and dairy industries. We were saddened to hear of one farmer who committed suicide.

Thus, we began to pray about the need for reconstruction work following the relief work. Might not we be able to rebuild Iwaki by means of new methods and new values? At this point I remembered the voice of some victims of the great Sumatra earthquake and tsunami: “We have enough bread. We need boats and fishing rods. We have to rebuild our lives!”

It is the same in Iwaki. Actually, because of the continuing radiation problem, when one thinks of how many people will be unable to return to their previous livelihood, the situation is even more serious. The church leadership began to talk and pray about how we might contribute to the twin issues of reconstruction and unemployment, by creating work in construction and social welfare.  Indeed Pastor Mori, of the Taira Christ Church (which operates the GMC) is also the director of something called Translink for Japan. Translink is an international network that seeks to bring “transformation” (to bring the spiritual kingdom of God to bear on all aspects of society) based on nations where this has already happened, like Fiji and Kenya. This church has been praying for just such a transformation of Iwaki and Japan for some time!

Furthermore, intercessors have also been arriving from all over the world. A brother from Revive Israel Ministry in Israel; a sister from the International House of Prayer in the US; Vineyard churches worldwide have declared their support for us and prayer is now going out from Iwaki to the whole world. Many people from around Japan have simply come to pray with us as well. As a result of the nuclear accident the name “Fukushima” has become infamous around the world. Amidst the despair of potentially becoming another Chernobyl, Iwaki has so far remained outside the radius of the kind of radiation levels that can negatively affect the human population. I believe this is the result of the many prayers for us from around the world. (Even my blog has been translated into Hebrew, English, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, etc.)

I believe that we must seek to rebuild Japan as a nation full of love and mercy, and not return to the model of the economic powerhouse that was built after World War II.  Even some non-Christians from an NPO in Nagano Prefecture said something similar: “it is not simply “reconstruction” that we need, but a total renewal based on a community of new values.”

New community building!  Personally, I have felt the need for, and thus been involved in the setting up of, an NPO which demonstrates the value of community building that is not based first and foremost on financial profit.  Soon, the Global Mission Japan (GMJ) NPO will be set up.  Until that time, we will continue to work under the framework of an already existing NPO which Pastor Mori directs. 

Please, pray for this process as we establish the NPO.  Pray for the primary needs of funding and staff to be fulfilled; pray that God’s Church can take the lead in the rebuilding and renewal process—we are asking for your help in every way: prayer, finances, labor, etc.  Pray that Japan will be filled with the Lord’s glory, and that all the glory will be returned to the name of Jesus Christ.   

Yoshitaka Ikarashi (Ikapi)

Iwaki, Fukushima.  Japan.

Jeremiah 8:21 For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken;  I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.  22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?  Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?

The Church of God—especially its leaders—should be praying with blood-like-sweat just as the Lord Jesus did before the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We need to be praying as if our lives truly depended on it.

Even non-Christians are risking their lives in order to clean and restore the nuclear reactors — not knowing when they might breathe their last.

As I think back about my meeting with the president of the company responsible for the nuclear facilities’ turbines, I cannot help but feel the unspeakable fear and stress behind his words.

For those of us entrusted with the leadership of Christ’s church, ambassadors of the kingdom of God, now is the time for us to put our lives on the line in intercession and action for Japan.

Here in Iwaki, we are seeing people get saved almost every day. In the disaster areas, at the evacuation centers, and at the Global Mission Center people are seeking Christ and praying to receive him as Savior. Through the company president’s daughter, we are seeing many of her high school friends coming to the church. One of these boys received Jesus through the testimony of a local Brazilian brother. It is just like acts chapter 2, 43 to 47, where people are getting saved every day. This young man now comes to praise the Lord at our evening meetings and the song from Psalm 51 on the “Growing Up” CD became very special to him–and he wants the disc for himself.

Prayer, praise, worship, and the fellowship of love causes people to hunger and thirst — not for us — but for the source of all these things who is Christ himself.

Now, our struggle is not to prove that Christians are working harder and more faithful than people of other religions; but rather to humbly demonstrate how natural it is to do good works in such a way that the left-hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, and vice versa.

In the book of Exodus, Pharaoh’s sorcerers were able to imitate the miracles of God through Moses and Aaron right up to the last moment. In the same way Satan imitates and steals from the church.

So, how much more must we strive, by the power of the glory and presence of Christ within us, to bring glory only to the one and only Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth and the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Please pray for the Lord’s church to continue to be able to take a leading role in the restoration of our city and providing means of employment.

Yesterday, a friend introduced me to a NHK reporter who came all the way by taxi from Fukushima City to interview me after hearing about what is happening here in Iwaki.

Before that meeting, I met with representatives from the Prefectural government and other NPO leaders in Japan.  It is so clear that now in Japan people cannot envision the future.  Without Christ’s Gospel, and the word of God we can speak of no hope for the future.

The things is which remain forever are faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love.

Let us pray that God’s love and God’s righteousness will grow brighter and brighter in Japan;

and that many people will repent before the time of God’s final judgment.

What we fear is not aftershocks, nor radiation poisoning — but the God who is able to cast us into the fires of Gehenom (hell).

Now is the time for us to join together and to move forward on the rich foundation of God’s love and God’s word. May the body of Christ huddle together and overcome the suffering and sadness of this time.

That Christ’s name should be glorified — this is our goal and this only is our true victory!

We were created for good works–so let us be full of his love and go to serve the people today. Hallelujah!