We went to Rikuzentakata to see the Tree. On the coast of the beautiful and busy city, there was 2 kilometers of more than 70,000 pine trees. After the Tsunami hit, all the pine trees fell, except for one. This one pine tree, is the symbol of Kibo (hope) in all of the devastated cities in Japan. We had a chance to prayer walk around the whole area around the tree. It was awesome, we continue to pray for restoration of the city, not only a physical restoration but also a spiritual restoration. We pray that these past 5 months of hope and positive thinking in the Japanese community is not just a honeymoon stage, because we know that it is going to take a long time to build anything. I pray they will continue to find hope in You, and allow You to be their backbone of strength and support. Be the light in their soul and their blanket when they are cold.  you said….

“Come to me all who are weary and burdened, I will give you rest.- Matthew 11:28”

There is a man who I met since my first day at the volunteer center. He was my driver and his name is Oikawa-san. Everyday I went to the center, I always looked for him, hoping to hear more about his story. The first 7 days of volunteering, I didnt get to talk to him that much but just heard his encouraging words. Then he told me that His family was OK but his clothing business was ruined. He said the water came and flooded his store, and ruined all his merchandise and he has been struggling to get the business back up. I asked him, why he is here at the center, when he knows that there is so much work to be done in his store, to provide for his family. He told me that, he chooses to work part time at the store, and part time at the volunteer center, because people need more help than himself. He says that he has a big van, that can help transport volunteers to job sites and also load big furniture and equipment. From that first week, I admired his sacrifice. We talk everyday, and I always wanted to share the gospel but since he was very busy it was hard for me to get into a good conversation with him. Today was the last day I got to see him. When we went to the site, I waited there for about an hour, no show. I was sad because it was my last day and I wanted to pray for him and say my goodbyes. Luckily, 2 hours later, I see him coming out of a car! YAY! i was pritty excited. Oikawa-san always has a bubbly smile and just a great vibe. He always tells me to work hard, keep pushing and keep hoping for his people. Before we said our goodbyes, I told him that I will pray for him and his store. He told me to pray for my family, and keep them close and precious. He then told me that he lost his brother in the tsunami and that he regrets not taking better care of him. When i heard him say that, I was so moved by his Japanese sentences like I can actually understand him without translating. I thought to myself.. how can this guy still be sacrificing so much, and show no grief about his own brother. Let alone, how come he tells me this the LAST day out of the 15 days we were together. I prayed every night that I can get something deeper and deeper out of Him. And finally the last day I did. I admire his energy, his courage and just his heart for serving. I got to pray for him and for his brother. I pray that although we did not talk alot about the gospel, that he can truly see why we were there those two weeks. (above picture of my greatest friend oikawa-san)

Today, we said by to our friend Rieechi and we got a chance to lay hands on him and pray for his 12 hour trip back to his city.

There were thunderstorms, lightening and rain ALL MORNING. it was the scariest thing, besides the earthquakes we have everyday. The lightening was actually right on top of us and I could see it flash every 15 seconds, it went on for about 30 minutes. The volunteer center wanted us to still work outside on the field. first thing i thought.. ” UH. are they serious. this is so dangerous. we are with metal shovels, around alot of trees.. no way.” But the Japanese staff pretended it was another work day. I was so surprised but also broadened my view of how these people will work actually rain or shine or even lightening. We worked near the coast in Rikuzentakata, behind remains of a house where a garden was once there. It seemed impossible to do the work, with little shovels and cutters, luckily God answered our prayers and it stopped raining while we worked. We cut down plants and weeds on a really steep slippery hill, it was muddy and the weather was humid and hot. There were bees bigger than the size of my thumb and my thumb is HUGE. Later on, we saw an old women carrying groceries walking down the hill to us. Her name is Takosaun. She told us that her son and his family use to live in the house that we were working behind, and the garden that was there, she planted on her own. She told us that During the Tsunami, since she had experience with a disaster like this before, she dropped everything and climbed the highest hill. But she said her daughter in law, her sons wife did not survive. She said, since she had no experience, her daughter in law, drove back to the house, and tried to gather possessions and money. The Tsunami hit her once she pulled into the garage. and the water went through her car and wiped up her body. ( in the picture is the silver car, that is where she was when the tsunami hit and on the left is where they found her body washed up, next to the tree). She then told us that when there is an emergency, drop everything, it is not worth your life no matter how you make time judgements. She told us that she walked 30 minutes down the hill, bringing us drinks and desserts. She carried 2 cases of vitamin C water and 5 packs of desserts (this 80 year old women is STRONG!) it started to rain after and we drove her home where she stayed at temporary housing, her home was definitely further than a 30 minute walk and it was up a steep hill.

• Praise God for the old women, Continue to watch over her, mend her heart, give her strength and give her Kibo (hope), thank you for her genrousity
• Pray for the strength of our team, we are getting weaker and weaker. lol.. more of our body is sore and the work is getting harder
• I thank God for humbling me everyday. When i look around, the work i do is so small compared to everything that needs to be done. Even though thats how i feel i know that everything our team does is so significant. I am thankful for even be apart of it.

Our first work day after our two days of break! We prayed for a new task and a new way to connect with people during our work. We met a man named Reiichi Suzuki at the volunteer center. He was sitting in chair in the tent by himself, and one of our team leaders introduced us. When I saw Reiichi, I knew God wanted me to go talk to him, so a bunch of us went over and introduced ourselves. He spoke Japanese, AND Spanish ( i didn’t know Japanese but I did know Spanish so that was awesome). He went to school in Honduras or a year. Rieechi, is 19 years old and he traveled 12 hours on his motor cycle all night to come volunteer for a 6 hour shift in Kesseunuma. He told me that he slept in a sleeping bag on the fields next to the volunteer center because he had no place else to sleep. He told me how he was very tired, but he had a passion to help the city on his day off before he had to go back that very same night to go to work at a gas station the next morning. We asked if he wanted to tag along and work with our group today and he happily accepted. I was inspired by his motivation and passion, this 19 year old student, who drove 12 hours on a bike to come help for a little awhile, definitely started my day very positive. (picture above)

Today was by far the hardest work. Our project was to help restore a rice farm, that was damaged by the tsunami. There were boats that came to the outside of the family’s house and spilled oil all over their rice field. We had to dig in very hot weather, put the oily soil into bags, and wheel barrow it across the street. We didnt even finish a corner of the field before we left. The woman who owned the rice farm, was very generous, but I could tell that she was very depressed no matter how many people she saw were there helping (28+). We prayed for her and her rice farm, it would have been easier with a tractor, but since it was on private property, she would have had to buy her own tractor separate from the cities to remove the residue. I thank God that she is still hopeful (picture of the boat and work)

We drove back to the center and it started to pour CATS AND DOGS. We asked Reiichi where he was staying that night before heading back in the morning. He told us that he didnt know and since it was raining, it was a problem. So we invited him back to our home base, and offered dinner and just anything he needed, shelter to stay the night and a place to bathe. It was a perfect opportunity to witness to him, get to know who this kid really is. Reiichi and I definitely created an interesting friendship, it was fun learning new things about him, and our team definitely had a great time. We had a chance to share the gospel with him and answer any questions he had about our God. Reiichi is buddhist, but he wants to check out a church near his house (PTL), he showed alot of interest in Jesus Christ. God definitely put Reiichi in our lives, and it was fun having him fully witness who we are and what we are doing here. I asked him why he came and he told me that it was literally spur of the moment and that He feels that someone called him to come to volunteer for a good reason. He now knows that Our God can do these things that fit everything together so perfectly. we were definitely blessed with his presence.

• pray for Reiichi and his drive home, also his interest in Jesus Christ
• pray for the rice farm and the family, that they can find more help to restore the field

Today was our day off from Work, but it did not stop us from wanting to go out into the city. We had the pleasure of visiting one of the under privileged high schools in Ichinoseki. We walked in the classroom, being welcomed by the school choir we saw the other day, they were singing A Whole New World, one of my favorite songs! We had a chance to sit down, like a panel, and share things about ourselves to the class. Unfortunately, the school did not have a lot of time for us to meet all the students, so we just had a friendly exchange with the all girls music class. When we left, 4 girls in the class, took the initiative to follow us and wanted to meet us personally in the teachers room. I got to meet three lovely girls (SenMai, Coconetsu, Takaisu) , and also a girl (Yayoicha) who reminded me a lot of myself, VERY LOUD. We got to mingle and even do ballet turns in the office. Showing each other what kind of dance we like to do. We exchanged emails, hopefully they know how to use the internet email address because Japan has a different email base. I got to share How Jesus Christ’s loves them so much and how he has moved in our hearts for volunteering.

After Fujiwara (a reporter who wanted to thank us for our cooperation), took us to an osen. Osen is a public shower/ spa, fully naked, it was THE BEST bath, and it was so relaxing, exactly what I needed to relax our sore muscles and cramps we got from working.  After we were greeted with a bowl of pork ramen, where we saw two men at the next table. Their names were Manabu and Firefighter. It was cool because they were volunteers also, and came up to Kessenuma to volunteer for two days. One was a firefighter, who came sharing stories about how many of his friends had PTSD from the work they had done. We were both inspired by our passions of why we are here serving in this country. We got to share about our impressions of the cities we saw; our thoughts and affects. We told them about how we get support funding from many people all over America, and by our Provider, God allowed us to be in Japan physically. They just asked deep meaningful questions, which was awesome. PTL that they felt compelled to ask, and we had a chance to answer. picture above right side

• pray that we can continue to share with each other on Facebook and email
• pray that the Lord will start to move these students hearts of Interest to strive beyond what they have

These are just a couple of the many things of what we saw in Rikusentakata today.

Seeing the devastation everyday breaks my heart over and over again. Its been about 5 months this busy city use to be the top notch of the community. It looks like I took pictures of landscapes, but if you look real closely, you can see the outlining of the buildings that were once there.

1-2. City wiped clean. NOT LANDSCAPES. flood by the tsunami.

3. A stairs leading to no where.

4. Tsunami reached up the bottom of the fourth floor

5. A floating house

6. SHell station

7. Destroyed baseball/soccer stadium

8. A mourning woman, reminiscing on her house.

Today Pastor Victor prayed for a “SPIRITUAL Tsunami.” A tsunami that can flood the cities with love, hope and revival. A tsunami that will encourage people working together to hold this nation strong and rebuild it back on its feet. A tsunami that will GIVE life and not Take it away.

I wanted to refrain from posting pictures like these, but how can we really get a sense of what is still happening if we dont see it for ourselves?

We had many earthquakes this past week, we just had another 6.2 earthquake and it was really scary. I pray, no matter how scary it is, we can somewhat get a glimpse of how the Japanese live their daily lives pray for security and safety in Japan.

I prayed all night, and when we got to the volunteer center early in the morning, we were hoping to find a work request from the restaurant we worked at yesterday! The Lord answers prayers FAST, the owner called for 10 workers this morning! The volunteer center didnt want to send more than 10 since other places need people, but luckily our team of 11 was a team of 10 today because one of our members had to stay at the base to clean the area! SO PTL for allowing all 10 of us to go back to the restaurant and finish God’s work! It was definitely the holy spirit that gave us this opportunity!

Today, I got to know the restaurant’s only employee, her name is Kanokumi. I met her yesterday, but I was blessed that she was open to talk to me today. I asked her to share her experience with the Tsunami and I had my team mate Ben translate for us. Kanokumi was working at the restaurant when the tsunami was coming, she immediately dropped her chores and ran to her daughters elementary school. Maru is 8 years old and is currently in the third grade. Kanokumi, ran to her daughters school, picked her up and ran up a high hill, fortunately that is where her house is. Kanokumi told me that she was very lucky that she got to her daughter in time before the waters came, because the schools have a policy that they are not allowed to let the students leave school without their parents coming to pick them up. Especially in emergencies, parents are responsible in picking up their children. Since the schools hear tsunami warnings all the time, I’m sure if the school actually knew it was coming, then they would have let the kids run for their lives. Kanokumi told me about some of the children from different schools near by did not make it, and she saw the children get washed up by the waters. She told me the hardest part was writing to her friend in California, who has a daughter going to one of the schools in Japan, about the tsunami and that her daughter did not survive. Kanokumi has such a special place in my heart, shes such a hardworking single mother, I told her that I will continue to pray for her and her daughter Maru.  I was able to say… “Iesusama wa anatawo aishiteimas” Jesus Christ loves you.” she replied, ” I understand”. Her picture is above.

We had another earthquake today, it was 5.8 mag. It was the hardest hitting earthquake I have experienced, Everything was rocking so hard, cups shaking and window ceil rattling. The city also had a tsunami warning, PTL that the warning was cancelled.

I was also praying for the volunteer driver, who drove us yesterday, his name Oikawa. I was able to share with him TODAY where we were from and he told me more about his clothing store, and how hard it was to restore the business. I asked him why isnt he at his store working now. He told me that he chooses to have the business part time and use his other time in volunteer work to help others who need support. He says that he has a big van, and he can help move furniture and transport volunteers to work fields. I thank God so much for his servant Heart. I want to see him more next week. =D

• pray for Kanokumi and her daughter Maru, that they will see the deeper meaning of our volunteer work, and that they find hope in Jesus Christ. Pray that she can allow God to be her provider and protector while she is raising her daughter alone.
• pray for Oikawa that he can continue to ask questions about our work and that the Holy Spirit will allow more fruitful conversations about Our God.
• Pray for our safety, and the townspeople, that although we have had many earthquakes this past week, To keep Hope and Find Faith.

Just a moment ago, I experienced a short but really awakening rocky earthquake. Ive never experienced this before, especially while bumping up and down on the roads of Japan, that fact that I could feel it, think about it for 1 minute, and realize there was an earthquake going on, surprised me..

Today, was again filled with so many blessings. We got a chance to meet the Taiwan Campus Crusade group who also traveled to Japan to come volunteer. Our task today was to help clean and restore a family restaurant that was damaged by the tsunami. The restaurant was called, “West Coast”, owned by a lady and her husband in Kesennuma. The old couple was very grateful because she only expected four girls at most to come wash dishes, but instead she got our whole team of 11. When she was giving us instructions, i saw joyful tears coming from her eyes, I was excited to take any task at hand! We were able to fix the window ceils, clean bathrooms, floors, clean the walls and move furniture. My job was to be the best human dishwasher and show that Americans DO WASH their own dishes!! Washing dishes consistently, from 10am-3pm, with a 45 minute break. It was hard because their was alot of Sand residue and scratched plates from the rocks, we had to make all the dishes and cups look presentable before the opening day! even if it was washing it 4 times and again. We still did not finish even with 5 people helping with the dishes. Though the old woman had little to spare, she bought us cup noodles, ice cream, coffee and boiled eggs for us. While they offered us food, we got a chance to talk with the old couple. They told us their story of how they had no idea what to do when they saw that everything had been damaged. They also said that when they hear any type of sad music, even when it wasn’t related to the tsunami they cried. She shared that she used to be Christian and go to church, but not so much any more especially when there was so much work to do. Before we left, she let us pray for her and her restaurant. We are hoping to go back tomorrow to finish more work! There is a before and after picture above!

After volunteering we went to Volunteer Central to return some items and met two half-japanese half-french brothers (Romain and Joel Ito). ( VERY VERY cute accents by the way, they had hazel eyes, with a hint of yellow and honey brown ;D ) I got to share with them what CRASH meant, and how we got to Japan, how our team just met earlier this week and why we wanted to come help. We didnt have time to go into depth, but Romain shared how he was an exchange student at PACE University in NY, and how him and his brother Joel, decided to drive up to Kesennuma to Volunteer for a couple of days. Its really encouraging to see these blessings. We are now friends on fb =), you can see a picture of them above on the right hand corner! you cant see his eyes tho. =(

• pray for the restaurant and that it will be up and going ASAP
• pray for the safety of earthquakes and travels for volunteers who have come from afar to help
• pray for the Ito brothers, that they will grow in our friendship and ask more questions =D

We had another earthquake this morning, but that didn’t discourage us from going out to work today! Thank you so much for your prayers, I felt really sick and dizzy after working in the affected area yesterday, But with the hope for Japan and the strength of God I feel so much better.

Today we had the honor to go clean up around the houses along the coast of Rikuzentakada. These were the first houses that got hit in that region. It is shocking to see one of the busiest towns fully destroyed. When i take pictures it looks like landscape, but if you look closely you can see the linings of the buildings and houses. You see stair cases that lead to nothing. Everything completely demolished and wiped out. The houses along the coast, is no longer meant for homes. The government does not want any building going on in that area, instead requested that the area will be designated to plant sun flowers, which symbolizes hope and new life as the townspeople drive by. We dug into the homes of families who did not survive. Seeing treasures, stuffed animals and text books left in the rubble. Many of the plants that were planted a week before already died because the soil contained to much salt from the tsunami. We had to take buckets of water from a well about a 5 minute drive away from the flowerbeds. The soil was so hard, crusted, and felt like hard stones and rocks. We took many trips going back and forth from 9am-3pm, and we were not able to finish. We got the chance to meet some of the families who once lived in that area. Mr. Yoshiyra (70+) told us that he was born on the corner of the house we were near and that he lived two houses down. Praise the Lord that Mr. Yoshiyra was at the hospital during the tsunami, which he survived by going up to the roof of the 4 story building. He came back to look at what the waters did to his house. His wife came and asked us who we were and what CRASH (on our shirts) stand for. We explained that Crash was Christian, Relief, Assistance, Support and Hope, and through CHRIST is why we want to be here. Christ showed us grace and was very good to us so we want to pass that along. We also met a boy named Malo and his dad. They told us that the flowers we were planting were on his house that he used to live in. He said he lived there for 8 years before he moved to France. We exchanged emails.

Pictures above, you can see 4.5 months later, there are still houses and roofs floating in the water. Houses totally swept up. The two houses that we worked on today, 8 people died, 2 people survived and 4 are still missing.

• pray for the towns people, of who we witnessed to and got to share Christ’s story
• pray for strength and emotional healing for my teammates/community
• pray for deeper connections with the volunteers at the station who do not know Christ, relationships that were already built. PTL.