Introduction: SRCFC Member, Brad Waters, is a missionary in Japan with an Adventure Sports ministry called Northstar.   What follows is an email written on March 17^th to family and friends who had shown concern for him and the Japanese people after the tragic natural disasters of March 11^th.

On the day of the earthquake and tsunami, instead of staying downtown after school I decided to head back home fairly quickly.  I am living about an hour and fifteen minutes away by train from my school where I teach English in a hub city of Tokyo.  I had only made it home when the largest earthquake, I pray I will ever experience, occurred around 2:45 in the afternoon.  At first, it seemed like an ordinary quake which commonly occurs anywhere across a seismically active country like Japan.  But the longer the quake continued, the more intense it became.  I made my way to the front door listening to objects fall inside the house and watching the pictures sway.  It lasted about 5 minutes as the ground continued to role like waves in the ocean.

Knowing the quake was a bit out of the ordinary, I called my parents to let them know before going to bed in the U.S. that I was OK.  I assumed that if anyone saw the news in America the following morning, some might begin to wonder what was happening.  I would only need to pickup fallen things around the house, but the situation seemed to be relatively fine.  During the phone call, a second major aftershock of 7.2 magnitude struck and I began to wonder if my perception of the situation was accurate.  I said goodnight to my Mom and began to look for any immediate news of what has escalated to the current crisis.

That evening, news was still limited as events were still unfolding.  I was only aware that Tokyo had become a paralyzed city as train services came to a halt and millions of people were stranded all across the Kantou area (the plain in which the greater Tokyo area expands).  We only began to see video of fires consuming refineries, and a small glimpse of the magnitude of the tsunami's impact as it devastated the eastern seaboard.  As the sun set that evening, we had no idea of what would await us on the news the following morning. 

Read more at Brad's email post on his blog.  While there, you can read some of his follow-up reports as he has already, with his coworkers, been on three different trips into the area. They have been assisting efforts of CRASH Japan (Christian Relief, Assistance, Support, and Hope), Samaritan's Purse, and Food for the Hungry all of whom strongly affirm working with existing churches if there are any.

In a recent email he shared this, "One of the areas we have been focusing on is Minami Sanruku.  We learned after delivering a few items and a cordial but not necessarily appreciative greeting to a small group of people taking shelter at the areas foremost temple with roots dating back some 600 years that the people of this area consider themselves children of the temple. It appeared that virtually everyone in the area probably had family buried at this particular temple, and even though we were introduced by a local to the people there are indeed strongholds.  No church exists anywhere near this community so our search was more for the "men of peace" in this city who could introduce us to people and places with needs."

Brad's Prayer Requests

(To contact him to let him know you are praying, his email address is bradarb@gmail.com.)

· Pray for the efforts of those delivering aid to the areas where it is most needed.

· Pray for the ability of the believers in Japan to be God's hands and feet in a time of need and so much hurt.

· Pray for the hopeless that they will seek God in a time of despair.

· Pray for God's healing in a nation that so deeply needs His deliverance and restoration.

· Since we had a lot of cancellations at NORTHSTAR from groups of all kinds for the spring, we will be making several more trips north to help.  Please pray as we try to figure out how to best help where needed at this time while also coming up with a plan to continue ministry and work even within our own community.

Like to help by giving?  If you have a desire to make a donation in the relief effort, Brad suggests you make it to CRASH (see http://crashjapan.com/)  He feels the organization has a greater invested interested in the holistic health of the effected communities and are there for the long term.