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April 26, 2011 - Help Japan Update from MTW

Thank you for your interest in the progress of our Help Japan efforts—and for your prayers.

MTW sent an Advance Needs Assessment Team (ANAT) to Japan at the end of March to see how our Disaster Response Ministry could best assist our teams in Japan. Dan Jenny, Dennis Hamilton, and Michael Behmer spent several days worshiping with the Chiba church, attending team planning meetings and conducting interviews, traveling with team members to observe their ministry in Iwaki and Sendai, and considering future opportunities. They remain available able to advise and assist remotely, as needed.

At the time of their visit, primary ministry activities involved distributing relief supplies to needy areas. It was anticipated that conditions would improve rapidly and although this has proven true overall, our teams have continued to look for overlooked segments of the population still in need of resources, building new relationships as they go from place to place. The “ministry of presence” has become as important as the initial more urgent need of supplies. MTW missionaries have been leading teams to shelters, not only with needed supplies, but hosting concerts and events that provide a glimpse of normalcy in lives that have little of their former normalcy. Many in the shelters have wept tears of gratitude. One missionary said he said he saw the atmosphere change from one that felt like a concentration camp to a celebration. It is important to feed the soul and spirit as well as the body.

Distributing supplies was labor intensive. So soon after the assessment team departed, a large number of former missionaries to Japan and their grown children, who speak the language and understand the culture, arrived to assist in the ministry and have been a great asset.

In many disaster situations that MTW responds to, we often send follow-up teams of disaster response trained personnel after the ANAT returns. Would you like to be trained and ready for future disaster situations? Disaster Response Training is a week-long course comprised of classroom time and “in the field” hands-on learning. Volunteers are trained to work safely and effectively in unstable environments and to serve those suffering from shock, pain, trauma, illness, and dislocation from their homes. If you are interested in information about MTW’s next Disaster Response training this fall, please email: Response@mtw.org

What about the future? As we mentioned last week, MTW-Japan is beginning to work out a long-term strategy which will include church planting in the area affected by the tsunami, and God seems to be opening doors as never before. Please continue to pray that God would raise up new missionaries to serve in Japan. And pray that the Lord will quickly bring in the remaining funds for approved Japan missionaries who are raising support. They are urgently needed! Jeremy and Gina Sink are long-term missionaries itinerating for Japan. Short-term and intern missionaries include Haley Lebo, Jake & Anna Claire Gee, Triston & Kim Craven, Kendrick Johnson, Jonathan & Alanna Walker, Todd & Michiyo Buckwalter, Ellie Honea, and Richie Lisenby.

Let us continue to pray together that God will keep open this day of opportunity for the gospel and that we will be enabled to respond quickly and appropriately.