Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from one the first updates provided by Kent Muhling, an A3 misisonary based in Osaka who recently headed up to Sendai on a team with two additional A3 missionaries. We will be posting more updates from Kent and the other team members.
Dear Praying Friends,
We just pulled out of the CRASH headquarters (March 19), on our way north to Sendai. Here is what has been happening:
The original plan was for our 3-man team from A3 to go up to Ibaraki, south of the nuclear reactor area of Fukushima, and scout out a couple possible base camp locations, then begin networking with the churches in that area, in order to create a distribution network once supplies and volunteers begin to arrive.
We we're about to leave for the night when the head of CRASH came back in to tell us that he had just gotten off the phone with Samaritan's Purse – a 747 is coming into a US airbase here in Japan with about 90+ tons of relief supplies, which the military will fly up to Sendai airport. Samaritan's Purse wants to get it into the hands of Christians to distribute in the name of Christ. Otherwise the Japanese civil service will take it to distribute – not a bad thing, but then no one will know that the relief came from Christians and there will be no testimony to the love of Christ.
So everyone was scrambling to try to come up with a plan for how to transport and distribute that amount of relief supplies. When you consider that CRASH is a small volunteer organization, the task is a bit overwhelming.
Then, later this morning we found out that Samaritan Purse had arranged for three (I think) huge trucks to transport the supplies. Praise God! One huge problem answered.
Next, those trucks will deliver the supplies to… that's where we come in. There is one base camp in Sendai already, plus another base being operated independently by a Japanese church. How much storage space do we have? How much. Do we need? Who else might be willing and able to help store and distribute that much relief? That’s what we’re going up to figure out.
So basically we’ll help take delivery of the supplies, then scout out the base camp situation and start networking with churches in the area to begin setting up a distribution network.
Let me try to give you a picture of what we're really facing. There are less than 1% Christians in Japan, but over 100 denominations, and generally, there is little communication or cooperation outside of each group doing its own thing to help. So one major challenge is coordinating a larger organized effort by the Japanese Christian community as a whole.
CRASH and A3 are two groups trying to help in this regard. A3 has a network of churches through which we are trying to coordinate our aid efforts. CRASH is a volunteer ministry of Grace Church in Tokyo, but has partnered with the Japan Evangelical Missionary Association (JEMA). JEMA is connected with many churches associated with any of a number of JEMA mission organizations.
Still communication is an issue. When someone offers 90 tons of relief supplies, though, where in the world are you going to store it, and who is going to distribute it? This is an all-hands effort, but it is a huge challenge to get "all hands" communicating and working together.
Pray for the proper distribution of the tremendous relief supplies donated by Samaritan's Purse. Pray that the Lord would work mightily among the churches in Japan to bring unity and motivate them to action in huge numbers. As the head of CRASH, Jonathan Wilson, said, "We want to help get the 'big wheel' of the entire Japanese Christian community rolling."
Thank you for praying! I will try to provide more updates from Sendai.
Kent Muhling
