Love in Action

You've seen the pictures. You already know. The needs in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami are incalculable. What can we as a school do to reach out to those in need? What can I personally do? Love in Action isn't just our school theme. It's the Jesus-way of living life.


Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) is focusing our assistance primarily on one area of Miyagi where we have developed a relationship with a middle school. Many of the students lost their homes and loved ones in the tsunami. That deprivation represents an accumulation of thousands of smaller losses as well. When we asked the principal of the Japanese school what we could do, he asked for recorders for the students. The CAJ volleyball team sold tee shirts to raise money for the recorders and now the students can make music again. But how do you make music at such times?

There are moments in all our lives when our hearts are so heavy that we need to just do something fun to help us think about something other than pain for a change. This past week a group of staff and students went up to the affected area offering soccer clinics and craft sessions for the children. Fun is great, but work is also satisfying. In the mornings our students cleared rocks from a field so a farmer could replant his fields and helped get a boat out of a tree so a fisherman could resume his trade.

For the last few months staff members have gone up on weekends taking fresh fruits and vegetables to people eating only rice balls. One weekend they arranged for a big cookout. An elderly gentleman wasn't quite sure what to do with the ketchup so he squirted it on top his hamburger bun. His buddies behind him in line followed suit. City folks are used to hamburgers and hotdogs. It was a new experience for these country folk. They ate with great gusto.

I often have this yearning to go up north myself to help with the relief effort. God keeps whispering in my ear, "Hold the fort. Hold the fort." So I'm still in Tokyo working in my office at school, caring for my husband, and hosting the people God brings to stay with us. Last week our summer worker and I made cookies to send with the high schoolers to pass out to the kids at the soccer camp.


The CAJ community is much more than a school. Many have commented on how our faith influences how we cope with tragedies like the earthquake and death of a student just three days before graduation. We hurt. Oh, we hurt. But we rejoice because God gives us strength and peace and clarity about what our part should be.

Ending or Beginning?

The last few weeks have been filled with endings and beginnings.


Our nephew finished well at CAJ graduating with awards in sports, music, academics...even in "collaborating." He's a well-rounded young man who loves Jesus. We're proud of Jared and praying for him as he finishes his last few weeks living in Japan by being a counselor at Joy Bible Camp. Then he's off to the US for college.

Thursday I watched the fifth graders say their farewells to elementary school. As they bowed in Japanese fashion and then youthfully skittered across the stage, I thought about their stories. If I were a kiddie lit author, I'd have plenty of fodder for fascinating tales. It's just plain cute to watch them jabber away in multiple languages.

One fourth of the students at our school have come through School Support Services, the division of Christian Academy that I oversee. I feel a special kinship to these students.

At the end-of-the-year staff party, both of my co-workers received awards for 10 and 20 years of service to CAJ respectively. After working with Jeannie for the past twenty years I can't imagine what it's going to be like next year when her family is on a one-year home assignment. Thankfully Gina will still be my able co-worker and God is sending us a young, talented, tri-lingual CAJ graduate to work with us for the year Jeannie is gone.

Even though we've officially ended another school year, I'm still working in the office tying up loose ends and planning for next school year. Our theme for next year will be Love in Action. In my next blog I'll tell you about some of the ways God is using CAJ staff and students to help out in areas affected by the tsunami.

Beauty in Rough Places

Out here in the suburbs of Tokyo, our city of Higashi Kurume sprinkles nature trails amidst modern ten-story apartment buildings.

Yesterday I went on a walk to show our house guest a nearby bamboo grove. To preserve the natural walkway, the path was somewhat treacherous in parts. A man with a leg brace similar to Russ' walked on that path using his cane. Disability could not keep that man away from beauty. He gave me courage to think that Russ could still improve if we don't give up.

Further into a secluded area along a brook, I noticed the artistic way pieces of wood had been placed to make a little foot bridge. Each board individually was worn and even appeared rotten. But together it was beautiful. These days almost every thought takes us back to the earthquake. I wondered, "Can God bring beauty from the ravages of the tsunami?"

Yes. God can. Just as Paul found "a great door for effective work" opened up for him in the midst of opposition, (I Corinthians 16:9) so God is opening up the way for beauty in the wake of unbelievable destruction.

There is a Christian retreat center in the picturesque Ome area. They have conducted successful ministry at this site for fifty years. Unfortunately, the neighbors have resented having Christians in their neighborhood. They can't get rid of the Christians because they own the land.

A Baptist church in Fukushima was totally washed away by the tsunami. People cannot live in the area because of the close proximity to the nuclear power plant. The pastor went around and gathered his people together.

The retreat center invited them to come stay in their facility. The days turned into weeks. The camp canceled all their guests for the rest of the calendar year to provide housing for these refugees. Food donations have come in to feed the people. The neighbors got wind of it.

The Christians are providing housing for Fukushima refugees? Suddenly attitudes changed. The towns people are proud that their town is actively helping their nation in this tangible way. The Christians turned from unwanted intruders in this tight-knit community into heroes. God is bringing beauty to rough places.