Thank You!

April 30, 2011 – Vancouver.

I am home now. Thank you everyone for your prayers and encouragement for the past couple of weeks!

Now my trip is over, I feel I need to bring some sort of closure to this stage of my blog. At the end of our time together last week, my Japanese team and I met to reflect on our visits in Fukushima and to seek wisdom how God might lead us in the near future. Among a few things that are now developing to help Fukushima more practically, my team in Japan would like me to continue this blog in Canada for one important reason: To get stories of Japanese churches out to the rest of the world. We sense that it is important to make these stories of Japanese churches known to the world about how they are serving their neighbours by directly hearing God’s call through dreams, visions and prayers, and then taking risks sacrificially in this time of great suffering and needs. Understanding the stories correctly will help us to know what and how to pray and what kind of assistance we might offer from outside.

Seven weeks passed by after the earthquake and tsunami. Now these disasters have disappeared from media, but the work of building communities of Easter Hope quietly continues. The small, strong churches will make a big difference in Fukushima and beyond. The Friends with the Voiceless International (http://www.karashi.net), my partner organization, will continue to walk with these churches in Fukushima and churches throughout Japan for this purpose.

World Fukushima Day – the 11th of each month

The FVI will commemorate the 11th of each month as a global prayer vigil, World Fukushima Day (or World Eco Day in Japan), until a solution is found to stop the radiation from the broken nuclear plant in Fukushima Daiichi. We will turn off lights between 7 and 9 pm on the 11th of each month and pray for suffering people of Fukushima and for our renewed lifestyle of less dependence on energy and more creativity.

Before the 11th of each month, I will post an update from the churches we visited. Till then, I am now taking a pause on this blog and from blog-adrenaline-rush!

I am deeply grateful to each of you, readers.
Soohwan Park


The sponsor organization for my trip to Japan: Food for the Hungry Canada
www.fhcanada.org

Who am I and what do I do in Vancouver? Please visit Regent College Marketplace Institute, www.regent-college.edu/marketplace

Radiation: Fear, Fact, and Faith

April 27, 2011 – Galiano Island, Canada

“Karen, tell your mom that I’d be coming back only with the radiation dose equivalent to 2 or 3 CT scans in a worst possible scenario, like if I would stay outside all day long for the whole time, right near the nuclear plant! That’s still less than what your mom’s had for the last 4 years!”

Before I went to Japan, I called my cousin to tell her and my aunt about my plans. After having so much difficulty of figuring out the technical jargon about radiation when I was reading articles and websites, I ended up translating those to the language which my family could understand. I knew in their minds they could picture about me ending up in a hospital with my hair falling and vomiting upon my return to Canada. But I am here enjoying peaceful water on the opposite end of the Pacific Ocean on Galiano Island for a few days before returning to my "normal" life in Vancouver.

My aunt is one of my heroes of faith. After her breast cancer surgery in 2006, she recovered remarkably well. Since then she’s traveled to Cambodia, Thailand and Africa for short trips. I thought if she could do it and face each day of her life, I should be able to do this. After all, I had lived in some countries where we had been through some politically tough situations. I had enough rationales to fight fears of radiation until the moment I got off the plane in Narita Airport when fear finally kicked in from a totally unexpected source, at least for my generation. Then I realized my true fear was not radiation or Japan, but the nature of uncertainty, all coming from inside of me: not knowing what was going to happen. I was not in control, and I did not like that at all.

So I waited to the end of my trip to write about radiation, or fear, to be honest. I waited partly because I wanted to make sure I would complete the trip as planned (yes, the fear factor did work in me) but more importantly, I wanted to know how I would feel about radiation having crossed that bridge. Do I feel relieved to know that nothing happened to me while I was there? Do I feel scared and unsure about any effects that may come later in life? Do I feel proud of having been there and done that? I do not know what to say at the moment simply because I do not know what tomorrow will be like for people in Fukushima until TEPCO can finally stabilize the current situation. But for us those who are trying to understand, trying to help out, and at least offer prayers, we need to understand what is going on in a different light than what media portrays and convinces us to believe.

As it was part of the purpose of my going, I would like to share just a few facts of radiation that I experienced. First, this is based on the things I heard from Mr. Suzuki in Yamato in my first week and I also checked more from Wikipedia before writing this.

- 1 Sv = 1,000 mSv. This level can cause radiation sickness and nausea but not death.
- 1 mSv = 1,000 μSv.
- 10 mSv: Radiation dose of a full body CT scan
- 0.1 mSv: Radiation dose of a chest X-ray

The rate an average person is exposed to radiation per year is approximately 2.4 mSv and it varies from country to country. In the US, it is around 4 to 6 mSv, which translates to about 1 to 1.64 μSv /hour (that is if you were outside for 10 hours per day for 365 days). And if you smoke a pack of 20 cigarettes every day, then you will end up accumulating about 20 mSv or more per year.

So, how bad was it in Fukushima while I was there?

This map on the right side is our itinerary (blue arrows) in Fukushima (area within the red borders), and our team had a Geiger counter, so we could check the reading everywhere we went.

Here is a brief overview:
1. April 18: We arrived in Koriyama town (A) from Tokyo. We also spent our last couple days there.
2. April 19: We went to the coast of Iwaki(C), and the central part of the city (B).
3. April 20: We went to the south end of Iwaki city (D).
4. April 21: We drove about four hours to go to the north of the nuclear plant. We passed through Fukushima city (E), the capital city of Fukushima Prefecture. We stopped briefly at Ryozen (F), a mountain town, because it had the highest radiation reading of all places we visited. Then we visited Soma (G) for a couple hours and went to visit two churches in Minami-Soma (H), one of which is located in 23KM north of the plant. The ranges of the radiation readings on the Geiger Counter showed as below (and on the map):

Koriyama: 0.7 - 0.9 μSv / hour
Iwaki City: 0.1 – 0.4 μSv / hour
Fukushima city: 1 μSv / hour
Ryozen: 2.8 - 3.2 μSv / hour
Soma: 0.4 – 0.6 μSv / hour
Minami-Soma: 0.4 - 0.7 μSv / hour

For my seven day trip in Fukshima I was exposed to a total amount coming to less than 0.1 mSv. It was just about a dose of one chest X-ray. Did I go to only safer places and avoided all the bad places? Or was I lucky to get good winds and clean rain on my side (because many people prayed)?

As you look at the map above, one common misperception I had before coming out (and you might too!) was that the closer you go to the nuclear plant, the higher the radiation you get exposed to. That is simply not true. Iwaki, located in the coast between 30 -50 KM zone, gets a lot of wind from the ocean, so the radiation reading is lower in Iwaki than Ryozen, a place the middle of a mountains outside 50 KM zone, where air continues to accumulate. Except for Ryozen, everywhere we passed by has lower radiation reading than what I am exposed every day simply by living in North America. (So I was safer over there, did I make a mistake of coming back to Vancouver?)

The amount of radiation in the air changes everyday depending on the weather and the direction of the wind. There is nothing we can do to change that until the situation at the plant can be stabilized. And it will take at least 9 to 10 months according to TEPCO. The real fear facing the people of Fukushima is this uncertainty of tomorrow and being told to leave their homes without knowing when to return. This is now causing greater wounds than the natural disasters. What will follow is the apparent economic downturn due to land contamination and the loss of a significant number of young people in communities where aging has already been a big concern for the whole nation.

Our world today depends on nuclear energy far more than I had ever realized before going out to Fukushima. I took this photo from TIME magazine issued on March 28,2011. The horizontal arrow shows the number of nuclear plants in each country and the vertical arrow shows the % of energy dependency on the nuclear power. Perhaps what we can learn from Fukushima is applicable for the rest of the world. It boils down to the issue of choosing a lifestyle.

Choice.
I know I have freedom to choose, first internally about my own life how I am going to live, and then externally how we can together resist the forces of evil that keep ordinary people powerless, voiceless and ultimately in fear. That is an old lesson I had learned from Dalits in Bangladesh, and this time from the Sangas in Koriyama, the Sumiyoshis in Iwaki, and the Sasakis and many others I met in Fukushima. Some days I will do well, and other times I may fail. But I have a choice to get back up and carry on. And the power to choose comes from much deeper source than fact, it comes from faith. That's what elderly people in Iwaki are experiencing from Nakoso Christ Church and others.

EASTER GRACE: GRIEF, COMPASSION, UNFAILING LOVE

Easter Monday, April 25, 2011

TEXT: LAMENTATION 3: 19-21

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I will remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

BUT, GETTING UP IS GREAT.

“In life, there are many elements you can choose, but there are others you cannot do anything about. When I found out that I was orphaned, I didn’t like it. I thought it was not what I intended, and for some time my state of mind was unstable. There were moments I could have fallen away from a straight, just path. But gradually I realized that this was my life, that I could not exchange mine for any other person’s. I have come to realize I have been supported by many people, and I owe my existence to them. Being an orphan was my background and backbone. If I had not lost my parents and I had led an easier life, I would not be the person I am now. I think of my past in a positive way.
“These days, I visit prisons in my role as a chaplain. I always tell people there that it is very good if you do not fall. But people are apt to trip. If you get up back on the right track, then the experience will enrich your life. If you don’t get up, you reach the end, and you lose. But getting up is great.”

-- Toshiro Ogura

Hiroshima in the Morning by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto.


PRAYER

Lord, we praise you for your unchanging love and everlasting hope for Japan. We thank you for their resilient, diligent nature and for their love for beauty, community and peace. We believe people of Fukushima will get up again. With your hope and strength they may embrace the surprise and the grace each moment of this new life will bring to them, we pray. Amen.

What Failed with Human Mind is Cured with Human Heart

April 24, 2011. Koriyama, Fukushima.


The bright Easter sun rose this morning in Fukushima after the darkness and rain all day yesterday. I looked through the window this morning and a Shinkensen, Japanese famous bullet train, passed through Koriyama Station, 200 meters away from the hotel where I stayed for the past three nights. Just like the hotel in Iwaki where we stayed, this hotel reopened soon after the disaster last month, and is now packed with business men from outside (not a single woman I saw yesterday!), emergency relief workers, and delegates from large construction companies from other parts of Japan in attempts to repair damages. How long will it take to finish this task of repairing and restoring? Plans were already finalized and actions are moving forward for rehabilitation and restoration from the earthquake and tsunami in Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures now. But, because of radiation, it is a totally different story in Fukushima.

The prolonging negotiation and plans around TEPCO (Tokyo Electrical Power Company)’s compensation to victims are now enraging local people. The central government’s budgetary adjustment and their plans to increase taxes in the new fiscal year have been generating much heated debates and argument in this world’s most affluent nation. The late afternoon of March 11 is remembered by all Japanese for the inconvenience in the half of the nation going through power-cut and traffic chaos as much as panic of the disasters. We the outsiders heard more vocal complaints from the capital city Tokyo than the silent cries of people from Fukushima where the nuclear plants had been producing electricity for consumption in Tokyo until the morning of March 11. TEPCO executed power-cut each day in some of their serviced areas because they couldn’t meet the demands sufficiently with this major breakdown of one of their nuclear plants in another part of the country. The complication of energy distribution system by monopoly of private utility companies are now causing much distress and anger among all residents in Fukushima, not just among disaster victims. Since my arrival in Tokyo, I’ve been fed with so much information about the true nature of this multiple disaster: A human-made disaster to feed our greed and convenience.

Scientists and geologists found evidences that a similar degree of earthquake and tsunami had happened in Tohoku area a thousand years ago. They were warning a potential massive disaster for some time and alerted the nuclear energy producers and other businesses to take necessary protective measure, but no one listened in the interest of their own profit gain. Most people who lived in 20-30 KM radius from Fukushima Dai-chi made their livings either by jobs created around the nuclear plants for the past few decades or by traditional jobs of farming and fishery that they had been handed down for generations. After the earthquake, local residents were told to get on the emergency bus only for a two hour long evacuation from a potential danger of radiation. Since then, weeks have gone by without any promise to return home. Now the government made it illegal to enter the 20 KM zone since three days ago. The central government has been making promises of temporary housing for and TEPCO announced their plans to stabilize the situation with radiation in 9 to 10 months. Over 130, 000 evacuees in different shelters in Fukushima still quietly wait their Easter hope. Many more people left their homes and children started going to school in spite of stigma and discrimination. It will be a long journey of silent battle for people of Fukushima.

I will be on Shinkansen tonight to return to Tokyo. A week after the earthquake, Japan Railways East Corporations quietly announced that there was no derailment of Shinkansen on March 11 even at the shock of this massive earthquake. Through years’ of experiences of carrying passengers, this world’s most advanced road transportation technology has now reached the level to stop the bullet train of over 300 Km per hour speed at any major earthquake warning in a matter of a minute.

Thousands of people were confined in the unmovable trains for the rest of the day, but no one was hurt. I wondered what might have gone through the minds of the people in that train with their cell phones unable to connect their loved ones for hours? Were they even able to reach anyone to tell them they were safe but only delayed? After hours of waiting in the train, passengers were disembarked and they walked home for miles and miles in the dark. After that long walk, where they able to find their homes? Did they find their families safe? Were children evacuated to if they were all at school? Is anyone still looking for their loved ones after weeks have gone by? The memories of my waiting in the afternoon of December 26, 2004 started flooding in my head as I am packing again to leave Fukushima. I spent hours and hours staring at my cell phone as I was waiting for Carole’s call from Phuket, but she never came back alive.

Midori read yesterday's Asahi Shimbun (newspaper) to me that a new voluntary organization was formed to send flowers to evacuees in Fukushima every Friday with words of encouragement (picture at the top of this post is copied from www.asahi.com). Japanese people are known for their stoic, reserved, calm personalities. It warmed my heart to see there are people who would care to fill the hearts of people in Fukushima as I soon leave this nation which I came to appreciate in a very new light: fears, history of deaths and hatred, but more importantly the ever growing friendships in Christ.

JESUS CALLS HIS FRIEND IN THE GARDEN

JOHN 20:15-16

“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she sad, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher)


THE DANCE OF OBEDIENCE

Strike up the great orchestra of your designs
Wherein everything you allow
Sends its strange music
Into the peace of your will.
Teach us every day to dress
Our human condition
In the dancing gown you love to have us wear
Adorned with all its details, like so many priceless jewels.

Make us live our life
Not like a game of chess, where every move is calculated,
Not like a contest, where everything is difficult,
Not like a math problem, which makes our head hurt,
But like an endless celebration, where our meeting with you is
Constantly new,
Like a ball,
Like a dance,
In the arms of your grace,
In the universal music of love.

Lord, ask us to dance.

We, the Ordinary People of the Streets by Madeleine Delbrêl.


PRAYER

Lord, you created and placed our ancestors in the garden. You grieved for our sins in the garden. You, again, meet us in the garden. This is the first Easter after the tsunami and the nuclear disaster. Lord, reveal your presence to the people of Fukushima in your love today with your promise to turn their land into a garden of hope.

PRAYER OF DARKNESS - 7 pm to 9 pm

Holy Saturday, April 23, 2011 - Koriyama city, Fukushima.
(Please scroll down to read today's prayer guide in Japanese, English and Korean in order.)

A prayer of solidarity with People in Fukushima

In Fukushima, we keep hearing from pastors and church leaders that this multiple disaster in Fukushima is a wakeup call for Christians to repent before we can expect God to renew us. We will stand together with people of Fukushima by turning off lights wherever you are locally between 7:00 and 9:00 in the evening (or choose any time later if convenient) and offer our prayers of darkness to God as we reflect Jesus’ death in the dark tomb.

If you are interested and willing, you may leave your comments of encouragement and prayers for people in Fukushima on the blog. Midori and I will put them together and share the Easter Hope message to the churches we have visited this week as a gift of the global body of Christ to suffering people in Fukushima.

　今週、私たちは訪問した福島の教会の先生方から、今回の福島の多重災害はキリスト者日本人に対して、新しくされるために悔い改めるようにという神からの呼びかけであると痛感しているという発言を繰り返し、聞きました。2011年4月23日（聖土曜日）夜7時から9時まで（または適切な時間を選んで）すべての電気を消し、キリストが墓で眠られたその日に神に暗闇の中での祈りをささげることで、福島の人々の苦しみに与りたいと願っています。
　このための祈りのガイドは、このブログに掲示されています。この試みに関心があり、参加したい方は、是非、祈りと励ましの言葉をお寄せください。私たちは皆さんのメッセージをまとめて、世界のキリストの体から福島で苦難に遭われている方々へのイースターの希望のメッセージとして、今週、私たちが訪問した教会へお届けしたいと思います。


安息、眠り、沈黙
マルコ15:46-47

ヨセフは亜麻布を買い、イエスを十字架から降ろしてその布で巻き、岩を掘って作った墓の中に納め、墓の入り口には石を転がしておいた。マグダラのマリヤとヨセの母マリヤとは、イエスの遺体を納めた場所を見つめていた。


聖土曜日の共同の祈り

　今日という日、地上で不思議なことが起きている。深い沈黙と静止。地球のすべては静まり返っている。なぜなら、王の王が深い眠りについているからだ。地球は慄き、そして静止した。なぜなら、肉体を持った神が眠りにつき、そこで宇宙創始以来、眠りに着いたすべての人間を目覚めさせられたから。神が肉体を持って死んだので、地獄は恐れに慄いた。

　彼は、さ迷う羊であった私たち人類最初の両親を探しに、そこへ赴いた。暗闇と死の陰に住む囚われのアダムとイブを訪ねたいという深い願いを抱いて、彼らを悲しみから解放するために出向いたのだ。神であり、イブの子どもである方が。主は、勝利を約束する武器である十字架を背負って彼らに近づかれた。人類最初に造られた人であるアダムは、この方を見て恐怖のあまり胸を打ちながら、皆に叫んでいた。「私の主がここにいるすべての者と共にいてくださいますように！」キリストは彼に答えられた。「そして、あなたの霊と共にいるのだよ。」キリストは、アダムの手を取って起き上がらせ、語られた。「目覚めよ、眠れる者。死者から甦れ。キリストがあなたに光を差し出すから。」　　　
ユージン・ピーターソン「牧師の覚え書き」から


祈り

主よ、命からがら津波から逃げることができた方々、そして、原発事故のため何も持たずに避難した方々は、この一か月、眠れぬ夜を過ごしました。家にいつ戻れるかわからないまま、避難所から避難所へ移動を続けています。彼らがあなたの休息と平安に憩えますように。どうか、あなたご自身が彼らの住まいとなってくださいますように。

SABBATH, SLEEP, SILENCE

MARK 15:46-47

So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus saw where he was laid.

THE READING FOR HOLY SATURDAY IN THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS

Something strange is happening on earth today – a great silence, and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captive Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him, Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised up him, saying “Awake, O sleeper and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

The Pastor: A Memoir by Eugene Peterson.


PRAYER

Lord, those survivors without any belongings after tsunami and evacuation from nuclear plants have spent nights of little sleep for the past one month. They move from one evacuation shelter to another without any clear promise of when to return home. Please give them your rest and peace and be their home wherever they are.


안식, 잠, 침묵

마가복음 15:46-47

요셉이 세마포를 사고 예수를 내려다가
이것으로 싸서 바위 속에 판 무덤에 넣어두고
돌을 굴려 무덤 문에 놓으매
때에 막달라 마리아와 요셉의 어머니 마리아가 예수 둔 곳을 보더라

성 토요일의 성시 낭독(THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS 중에서)

오늘 이 땅에서 대단히 심상치 않은 일이 벌어지고 있다 - 거대한 침묵, 그리고 고요함이다. 왕이 잠들어 계신 오늘, 온 땅도 함께 침묵을 지키고 있다. 온 세상이 흔들렸다가 이제는 고요해졌다. 그 이유는 하나님께서 육체 가운데 잠들어 계시며, 그 분은 세상이 시작된 이래로 잠들어 있는 모든 일들을 일으켜 세우셨기 때문이다. 하나님은 육체 가운데 숨지셨고, 지옥은 두려움으로 떨고 있다.

잃은 양 한 마리를 찾기 위해서 떠난 목자처럼, 하나님은 우리의 첫 부모를 찾기 위해서 가셨다. 흑암과 죽음의 그림자 가운데 사는 사람들을 만나기를 간절히 바라시며, 슬픔에 사로잡히 우리의 첫 부모, 아담과 하와를 자유케 하기 위해서 떠나신 그분은, 하나님이시며 하와의 자손(즉 예수 그리스도) 이시다. 주님은 십자가를 지시고 그들에게 다가가셨다. 십자가는 그분에게 승리를 가져다 준 무기였다. 아담은 자신을 첫 사람으로 창조하신 하나님을 보자, 두려움가운데 가슴을 치며 모든 사람들을 향해서 울부짖었다: “나의 주님이 여러분 모두와 함께 하시기를 바랍니다”. 그러자 그리스도께서 응답하셨다.: “당신의 영혼과도 함께 하기를.” 하나님은 아담의 손을 잡아 일으키시며 말씀하셨다. “깨어 일어나라. 오, 잠자는 자여. 사망가운데서 일어나라. 그리스도가 너희에게 빛을 비추일 것이다.”

회고록 , 유진 피터슨.


기 도

주님, 쓰나미로 인해 모든 재산을 잃고 원전 때문에 대피한 생존자들은 지난 한 달간 거의 잠을 이루지 못하는 밤들을 지내고 있습니다. 그들은 언제 집으로 돌아갈지 뚜렷한 약속도 없이 여기저기 대피소를 전전하고 있습니다. 바라옵건대 그들이 어디에 있든지 당신의 안식과 평화를 누리게 해주옵소서.

The Risk of Keeping Friendship

April 22, 2011.

"We are asking you to go because of your qualification and experience," said Miyuki, the Director of International Programs in Food for the Hungry Canada in our last meeting at her office in Abbotsford. We became very good friends since I moved to Canada in 2007, but she wanted to make sure our work ethics are not compromised on this relief project. I worked with the same organization for 12 years before I moved to Vancouver. While I was serving in the global HR for the organization, the tsunami hit several nations in South Asia. During that time, I received, trained, sent and managed relief staff to tsunami affected countries. With these professional conditions, I was being sent to Fukushima, Japan. However, I had an important reason to come: I am a Korean. The local organization in Japan was ready to receive a Korean and they wanted to start building an international partnership by receiving another Asian among them.

“You are going to Japan now? And is that OK that you can go as a Korean?” That’s the most common reaction I received when I was getting ready to leave Vancouver for a short two week long trip here. Most foreigners already evacuated from Japan because of the fear of radiation, and I was coming in. So people were first surprised to hear about my plan, and my being Korean surprised those who knew the last 150 years of history between the two nations.

“Oh, you are Korean. Why are you going to Japan now?” asked the man who sat next to me on the plane from Seoul to Narita as he was staring at my handwriting on the immigration document. “All Koreans already left Japan,” he continued. I didn’t want to get into a long conversation, so I just said that I was going for business. That’s when finally the 1923 Kanto Great Earthquake came to my mind. It was an earthquake of magnitude 7.9, the second largest one in Japanese history after this year’s Tohoku earthquake. But for Koreans, it was one of the most tragic events that took place during the Japanese occupation in Korea. Panic and fear after the disaster created a lot of rumours among Japanese and Japanese massacred ethnic minorities. Nearly seven thousand Koreans were murdered at the time. One of the worst anti-Korean sentiments that ever existed.

As the plane crew started getting ready for landing, the tearful voice of my pastor in Korea started echoing in my ears, “Are you ready to die?” he asked me over the phone three weeks ago when I told him of my decision. With that question in my head, I didn’t remember hearing any announcement until everyone stood up to leave the plane. The immigration was nearly empty as I was the only foreigner flying in on that flight from Seoul. I finally understood the fear through the voice of my 82 year old pastor was not from radiation, but from the Kanto earthquake, and his childhood and young adulthood living under the colonialism. That moment, radiation suddenly became so small to me. But I was thankful that I didn’t remember about that part of the tragic history between the two nations while I was packing and getting ready to leave Vancouver. I was excited to work again with Midori, and it’s too late to turn around and get back on the plane any way. “I have Midori and others to protect me here,” I had to hold onto something hopeful for peace of mind.

Midori and I worked together in Bangladesh for several years in 1990s and we were roommates when we both lived in Dhaka. My Asian friends often asked me why I was living with a Japanese with cynicism in the tone of their voice. That always reminded me that we could be friends with anyone in Christ, and Midori and I have been always very intentional about that and not afraid to talk about the history between the two nations.

Every church we visited this week, my Japanese colleagues have been very careful about giving a long introduction about me to pastors and church members. “Soohwan works in Canada now, but she is a Korean. We are very glad that she could join us in this disaster relief effort with us.” Was I in their face to remind them of the sins that their parents and grandparents committed to my parents and my grandparents? Is it a good thing that I didn't even remember what that history meant to both nations every day of my life until two weeks ago when I stood all alone facing the Japanese immigration officer with no one behind me other than waves of Japanese people?

Fear became real in that I was no different, but an ordinary person. Most Japanese people did not seem to remember the Kanto earthquake tragedy until they asked me why all Koreans left Japan so quickly last month. I had to answer honestly with the historical fact. Silence was the only response we could exchange. Ordinary people’s biggest fear is the powerlessness that we didn’t do anything about it.

The fear of being nobody and fear of being powerless.
The sin of doing nothing when the world is shaken and innocent lives are killed.

Friendship is a risky gift, and it is not a commodity we can simply exchange with mere networks and partnerships. That is the message of the cross for me today.

(PS. All my blog pieces are posted after Midori’s review – we are in this together!)

BY HIS WOUNDS WE ARE HEALED

Good Friday, April 22, 2011


ISAIAH 53:6

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


BY HIS WOUNDS WE ARE HEALED.

By his wounds we are healed.” In the wounds of Christ is humanity’s healing.
Do our wounds also heal? This gaping wound in my chest – does it heal? What before I did not see, I now see; what before I did not feel, I now feel. But this raw bleeding cavity which needs so much healing, does it heal while waiting for healing? We are the body of Christ on earth. Does that mean that some of our wounds are his wounds, and that some of our wounds heal?

Is our suffering ever redemptive? I suppose the blood of the martyrs sometimes was. It was an instrument of God’s peace. But my suffering over my son, which I did not choose and would never choose: does that bring peace? How? To whom?

Is there something more to say than that death is the mortal enemy of peace? Can suffering over death – not living at peace with death but suffering in the face of death? – bring peace?

Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff.


PRAYER

So many people lost their lives in the eastern part of Japan, on March 11. Many more people now grieve the loss of their loved ones and the agony of missing family members and friends by the tsunami. The cherry blossom on the streets of villages and towns in all over Japan is piercingly beautiful to remind us of your love for this nation. Lord, hear their cries and heal their wounds by your blood.

From the Death Valley to a Garden City

April 21, 2011 – Soma & Minami-Soma cities.

Today was a long day of driving and visiting a few churches. If the 20 KM mandatory evacuation zone was not created, we could have enjoyed our trip on the road near the coast straight up north from Iwaki city and saved a couple of hours. We had to make a detour to get to the churches in Soma and Minami-Soma cities, located 20 to 30KM north of Fukushima Dai-chi.


Rev. Sasaki has been a pastor for 55 years and during that time, he experienced four major disasters in Japan. He moved to Kashima Eiko Church in Fukushima last April and he strongly feels this is where God has called him to be right now.
“The 30 KM radius zone from the nuclear plant is a death valley. Like Galilee, it is over this valley of death where Jesus proclaimed his Kingdom,” says the courageous pastor in anticipation to see Fukushima coming under the Kingdom reign.

Compassion Fatigue.
This is what relief and development professionals call physical and mental exhaustion due to the heavy, intensive nature of relief and other humanitarian aid work. It is called compassion fatigue because of the core nature of the work involves compassion. But we as limited human beings do not have unlimited compassion like God. We get tired, stressed, and if waited too long, we experience burnout and other worse consequences. At some point we need to stop and rest as God commanded.

A few years ago, three UN personnel published a book based on their experience with ineffective multilateral organizations’ approaches and how these workers survive on the edge “professionally.” The title is called Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story of Hell on Earth. (No, I am not joking, you can look it up on amazon.com, if you wish!) Sadly, a vocation that could be holy and compassionate seems to have turned to some kind of adrenaline junkies inside what may appear to be glamorous to many of today's young people who seek adventure combined with professional skills.

When I was first asked to come to help the local partner organization in Japan last month, I became excited by the opportunity but also worried as I began collecting information on the local context and capacity in Fukushima. Turning these ordinary pastors and congregations to relief workers? I was excited first because that seemed like a strategic long-term solution in a unique situation like Fukushima right now. But I was worried what if they were already too burnt out without appropriate skills after the initial few weeks of high adrenalin rush and suddenly collapse with no adequate follow-up? I prepared what I could best any way - how to rest amidst chaos.

Today, I felt in my gut that I might be wrong. The small, resilient church in Japan was built on the blood of martyrs several hundred years ago. These ordinary folks in Fukushima are ready to face fearlessly whatever the future holds. I felt like I was witnessing to some Stephens in Acts 7. I felt deeply privileged and humbled by their faith and their lives.


Japanese people love gardens and they know how to make things beautiful, especially small things beautiful. On our way out after our short visit with Rev. Sasaki, I noticed there were a few flowers growing in his rather barren garden with an old cross stained glass on one side of the wall. They looked to me as if the 30 KM zone of the Death Valley will soon turn to a garden city with flowers and trees as people like Rev. Sasaki and his congregation will fearlessly continue tending the land.

THE GREATEST LOVE

Maundy Thursday, April 21, 2011

JOHN 15:12-14

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.


THE PARTAKING

Often we taste the
granular body of wheat
(Think of the Grain that was buried
and died!)
and swallow together
the grape’s warm, burning blood
(remembering First Fruit!)
knowing ourselves a part of you
as you took part of us, flowed
in our kind of veins,
quickened cells like ours
into a human subdividing:
now you are multiplied –
we are your fingers and your feet,
your tender heart – we
and your broken side.

Accompanied by Angeles: Poems of the Incarnation by Luci Shaw.

PRAYER

Somebody, during the tsunami in East Japan quietly set aside their life to save their beloved ones or someone they did not know. Lord, only you know what happened and is still happening. Giving food, giving water in your name is to share the communion with you. Lord, we ask you that you may redeem their acts of kindness to eternal hope for Japan and for the whole world.

Turn off lights for Fukushima! A prayer of darkness on Holy Saturday

A prayer of solidarity with People in Fukushima on Holy Saturday, April 23:

In Fukushima, we keep hearing from pastors and church leaders that this multiple disaster in Fukushima is a wakeup call for Christians to repent before we can expect God to renew us.

On this Holy Saturday, April 23, 2011, we will stand together with people of Fukushima by turning off lights wherever you are locally between 7:00 and 9:00 in the evening (or choose any time later if convenient) and offer our prayers of darkness to God as we reflect Jesus’ death in the dark tomb. The prayer guide for this will be posted from Friday in English, Japanese and Korean on the blog. If you are interested and willing, you may leave your comments of encouragement and prayers for people in Fukushima on the blog. Midori and I will put them together and share the Easter Hope message to the churches we have visited this week as a gift of the global body of Christ to suffering people in Fukushima.

　2011年4月23日（聖土曜日）、夜7時から9時まで（または適切な時間を選んで）すべての電気を消し、キリストが墓で眠られたその日に神に暗闇の中での祈りをささげることで、福島の人々の苦しみに与りたいと願っています。
このための祈りのガイドは、金曜日から英語、日本語、韓国語でブログに掲示されます。この試みに関心があり、参加したい方は、是非、祈りと励ましの言葉をお寄せください。私たちは皆さんのメッセージをまとめて、世界のキリストの体から福島で苦難に遭われている方々へのイースターの希望のメッセージとして、今週、私たちが訪問した教会へお届けしたいと思います。


Follow-up Action: World Fukushima Day – the 11th of Each month

The Friends with the Voiceless International (http://www.karashi.net/), my partner organization here in Japan will commemorate the 11th of every month as a global prayer vigil, World Fukushima Day, until a solution is found to stop the radiation from the broken nuclear plants in Fukushima Dai-chi. We will turn off lights between 7 and 9 pm on the 11th of each month and pray for suffering people of Fukushima and for our renewed lifestyle of less dependence on energy and more creativity.

Thank you everyone for your encouragement and participating in this for suffering people of Fukushima!

Soohwan Park

Jesus, the Greater Power Than the Tsunami

April 20, 2011 - Iwaki city.

A flurry of visitors came to the church while we were meeting with Rev. Sumiyoshi at Nakoso Christ Church, located in the southern end of Iwaki city, nearly 70 KM away from Fukushima Dai-chi. A few women came to pick up some vegetables and canned foods from the piles of relief goods. Some elderly men came to see the pastor because they were curious about these fearless Christians. Two of the old men sat with us for awhile and we stopped our meeting and started listening to them.

They had been coming to the church to pick up foodstuffs and other items a few times since the earthquake and tsunami from this small church they had found through the word of mouth. A church in the small neighbourhood which no one had ever paid attention to its existence for years until March 11.

When the disasters hit, these elderly people had only a short moment of feeling relieved in knowing that they were saved from the devastating disasters. But the real fear began flooding in their hearts when they heard about the explosion of the nuclear plants and radiation. After March 11, communications stopped, shops closed, no gas available for cars, and the government services were out of their reach. Neighbours, especially young families with small children, started leaving the town one by one because of the fear of radiation. The real battle for survival in a small old town, which began rapidly shrinking, came with the rising fear and anxiety among those who decided to stay – or, more precisely, those with no choice but to stay. For such powerlessness they started experiencing, it was beyond their imagination to hear the small church not only staying but also serving sacrificially to its neighbours. “I wanted to know what kind of power they have that is greater than this tsunami,” one of the old men said.

Rev. Sumiyoshi and his wife first got connected to a para-church relief coordinating centre that started delivering goods and food stuffs to the disaster-affected towns. In Iwaki city, there were about 30 churches before March 11, but some of them evacuated, others were merely surviving. Nakoso Christ Church was one of the few that stayed and opened the church doors to serve as relief distribution centre for the local community. More and more people started coming to the church not only to receive relief goods, but to ask the same questions one after another:

Where do these Christians get the power to live in times like this and what kind of power does Jesus have to give them?

Their curiosity about the greater power than the tsunami led them to come out of their doors and drive 20 to 30 KM in search of answers. I shared what I had witnessed in Thailand with the two elderly men. How Thai people had started knocking on the doors of churches in Phuket because of the unstoppable fear and nightmares the tsunami victims had been having. They could not understand why their Christian neighbours had been so different. The real paradox had become the moments of baptism of these new believers. The fear of water which had made them question about life and death could only be calmed by going under water again – to die to their own fear and anxiety and to be born again to a new life in the Prince of peace.

After these visitors left, we carried on with our meeting and the pastor told us his dream.
“I had a very vivid dream one night soon after the tsunami. I saw Jesus walking toward the nuclear plants. With that dream, I could not leave Fukushima. It was a call from Jesus that I must stay. I need to be where Jesus is and go where he goes.” He now has a very high vision to see the reign of Jesus Christ come to every corner of Fukushima in this time of great suffering.

“I want to understand the theological meaning of this nuclear disaster and why Jesus walked toward the nuclear plants. That must be the way of Cross he took for our sins. We Japanese Christians must repent our national sins, especially the sins of the Second World War, the wrongs we’d done to other nations, and idol worships like Yaskuni Shrine."
The pastor couldn’t stop telling us about his vision from Jesus why he and his church must stay and serve this dying neighbourhood in fear of radiation and the aftermath of the disasters.

That moment, Midori looked at me and told the pastor, “My friend, Soohwan, is a Korean and she discovered a book of Yaskuni Shrine yesterday at the house where we went to see the tsunami affected areas. I explained what that meant to Japanese and we were wondering why God allowed her, a Korean, to discover that in the pile of tsunami’s debris.”

After Midori finished summarizing all that in English for me, we all became silent. Then I told my team and Rev. Sumiyoshi that I had to come to Fukushima precisely because I am a Korean and it was a call from God I could not resist. Then he shook my hands with a big smile on his face. I did not understand his Japanese, nor did he understand my English, but we knew that we’d somehow find ways to support for this tsunami recovery work together from both nations in future.

SEEKING GOD’S PRESENCE AMIDST CHAOS

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

ISAIAH 63:9

In all their distress he too was distressed,
and the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.


SOLITUDE

We the ordinary people of the streets, do not see solitude as the absence of the world but as the presence of God.

Encountering him in all places is what creates our solitude.
For us being truly alone means participating in God’s solitude.
God is so great that nothing can find room anywhere else but within him.
For us, the whole world is like a face-to-face meeting with the one whom we cannot escape.
We encounter his living causality right there on the busy street corners.
We encounter his imprint on the earth.
We encounter his Providence in the laws of science.
We encounter Christ in all these “little ones who are his own”: the ones who suffer in body, the ones who are bored, the ones who are troubled, the ones who are in need.
We encounter Christ rejected, in the sin that wears a thousand faces. How could we possibly have the heart to mock these people or to hate them? This multitude of sinners with whom we rub shoulders?
The solitude of God in fraternal charity; it is Christ serving Christ, Christ in the one who is serving and Christ in the one being served.
How could apostolate be a waste of energy or a distraction?

We, the Ordinary People of the Streets by Madeleine Delbrêl.


PRAYER

In the midst of the shattered hope and losses of loved ones, our only response to suffering people in Fukushima is silence and solitude. No questioning, no human words will do enough. Lord, you see ordinary people in Fukushima suffer. They search for the Divine One to know the meaning of their seemingly meaningless life. Lord, please whisper your hope in their hearts, so they may rise again from the ashes.

Recovery of Humanity for an Advanced Society

April 19, 2011 – Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture

Missionaries to Japan over centuries have studied and taught about the spiritual condition of Japan. Today’s western secular societies have adopted Zen and other natural spiritual practices from Japan for decades. I am not an expert on spirituality or mission to Japan, but I learned one thing from living in Thailand at the time of tsunami and from sending relief workers to tsunami recovery sites in different countries at that time. When such massive natural disasters hit, spiritual quests rise from all corners of society and we find ourselves often without adequate answers.

After spending the first night in Fukushima, I got up this morning with much confidence to start the journey. As the temperature dropped closed to 1 C with wind and rain, my body started shivering. We headed to Iwaki, a coastal city located around 30 to 50 KM south of Fukushima Dai-chi. We first went to see areas affected by the tsunami. We could clearly see high water marks on the buildings (close to the top of second floor) that survived the tsunami, otherwise the area seemed like an empty ghost town with some broken houses. The cleanup work was already complete, and a few businesses have reopened with hopes for their customers’ return, but many houses were empty as residents left in fear of radiation.

I got out of the car and walked along the embankment in the thought of my friend Carole who was killed by the tsunami in Phuket in 2004 and others killed by the tsunami in this neighbourhood in Iwaki. One has to think of the final destiny of our fragile human life faced with such power of nature. I went into a house that was still remaining with only one corner of the walls broken open. I entered the room through the broken wall and found a piece of sculpture and art supplies, and a few books on a table that seemed to have shifted around by waves. I found “The Return to Yaskuni Shrine” on the top of the stack of books.

Yaskuni Shrine is a Shinto temple dedicated to Japanese deceased soldiers and military leaders during the Second World War. I do not know who lived in the room or if he or she is alive or dead, but all I could tell was this person was in deep soul searching as you can see the hand was reaching out for help on the picture.

Japan’s effort to modernize the nation began in the Meiji era of mid 19th century and it was an effort to copy the modern Enlightenment of Europe. "Spiritual endarkenment" continued while the nation economically developed through their much praised virtues like diligence, orderliness, group-oriented mindset and so on. Do Japanese people believe all these deceased souls gathered around the shrine or gone back to the Mother Earth? Or as some Christians outside Japan have criticized, were they punished by this multiple disaster as God’s judgement? All I can say is the Bible tells us more about God who suffers with the afflicted than his judgement over his creation, and he loved enough to die for such a sinful world.

With my heavy heart I returned to the car, and we headed to our next destination; Global Mission Chapel, a church that is now serving as one of the city’s major relief operation coordination centers. With volunteers from all over Japan, we headed to a nearby evacuation shelter set up in a local high school gym. Mostly elderly people were sitting around kerosene heaters and some of the evacuees went back to clean or fix their homes during the day. There were no children in the shelter as young families with children left for wherever they could put children in school. Having lived in the shelter for more than a month now, they were used to seeing volunteers. This afternoon was scheduled for foot-washing and companionship to elderly people as these evacuees are without any facilities of shower or bath (by the way, if you don’t know how much Japanese love bath, it’s time to google for yourself!).

There were no signs of distress or trauma on their faces. Thankfully I had been educated well by my colleagues in Tokyo about the special characteristics of people in Tohoku region: their resilience and independence from the long history of living in harsh climate of the north. They even prepared a little eatery to thank the volunteers.


A total recovery of humanity.
That’s what Tadao Ando, a famous architect, calls for the Japanese society to take action to build a post-disaster society, as Midori reads a newspaper clip to me. “For the last few decades our society built economic wealth but we gradually lost our true wealth of humanity,” says the architect. He urges his country people to rethink the whole education of people for a new humanity of creativity, ingenuity, love for community and harmony. We do hope and pray that people of Fukushima will rise up beyond the tragic disasters and against fear and uncertainty of future. It is only possible to recover and sustain the lasting wealth of humanity only by the true source, the Creator God.

GOD MEETS US IN OUR POWERLESSNESS

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

PSALM 22:24

For he has not despised or disdained
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.


A THOUGHT TRANSFIXED ME.

A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth – that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and human belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way – an honourable way – in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, “The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.”

Mans’ Search for Meaning by Victor E. Frankl.


PRAYER

We have no words for those who go through the devastation and for suffering of the people in Fukushima from the triple-disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and destruction of the nuclear plants. We believe that only your love will heal them and restore them in your time. Lord, be with them.

Build Houses and Settle Down; Plant Gardens and Eat What They Produce.

April 18, 2011 – Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture

Tsunami recovery work is unique comparing to other natural disaster relief work like flood or earthquake because everything is washed away by powerful waves in a matter of minutes. When tsunami hit in South Asia in 2004, the cleanup and recovery work began rapidly in villages and coastal towns in Thailand but the spiritual and mental recovery was a slow and silent battle. Local fishing villages gradually picked themselves up again because fishermen knew what it meant to take risks as they had been living all their lives depending on water and boats, if they were able to overcome the fear of water again.

What Fukushima is experiencing now is totally different because of the radiation from the broken nuclear plants after the massive tsunami. Among those survived, many people (including farmers) have evacuated temporarily and they are now considering whether or not to leave their home towns for good. Those staying in their local communities suddenly found themselves too busy caring for victims and evacuees to face the unknown future ahead of them. Land recovery from contamination by radiation, evacuation and resettlement of people. That’s what caught my attention from when the early stage of radiation alert started coming out. I started praying with Jeremiah 29 for rebuilding local communities in and around Fukushima as I prepared for my trip out from Vancouver.

Our team left Shinjuku this morning for Koriyama city, about 250 Km away from Tokyo and approximately 60 KM west from the nuclear plants in Fukushima Dai-chi. While we were on the Tohoku highway, I mostly slept in the car but I started paying attention to the landscape for the last 1 hour drive of our journey. As we were headed north, there were still cherry blossoms on both sides of the high way, and the destructions from the earthquake became apparent. Four hours after we left Tokyo, we arrived at Grace Garden Chapel in Koriyama city, led by Pastor and Mrs. Sanga.


“Garden” in the middle of a church name caught my attention and I took a note on the Japanese handout I received and added “Jeremiah 29”next to it. As soon as we sat down, Pastor Sanga started talking and my Japanese colleagues were listening. Midori occasionally summarized in English for me. The Pastor and his wife organized some of their church members to serve in various locations already within the first few days after March 11 earthquake and tsunami. They now plan to reach out more systematically to the largest evacuation shelter in Fukushima, located in10 minutes driving distance from their church building. They hope to help people to re-establish their lives even at the shelter no matter how long it would continue without clear signs of being able to go back home. As I was listening to Midori’s interpretation, and reading some Kanji (Chinese character part of Japanese writing system), I started taking notes again “Jeremiah 29, build houses, plant gardens…”

Our focus of action plan immediately became the recovery of local economy and how to protect local farmers and other small businesses as Fukushima’s economy is said to be frozen already and it will only go down due to the radiation and prolonged solutions about the nuclear plants. As we were talking with the pastor and his wife, it became obvious to all of us that expanding relief action (distribution of handouts) would only keep the local economy inactive and keep the evacuees passive. We realized that we should find ways to turn that trajectory as quickly as possible and start building actions toward building a long term future. Of course, the conversation got animated and I lost track of Japanese and English interpretation. Mrs. Sanga spoke very good English, so she and I started chatting when there was a pause.

I told her about my reflection on Jeremiah 29 in connection with the church’s name, Grace Garden Chapel, and the action plan they made to reach out to the shelter. She suddenly got so excited and told us that Jeremiah 29 was the passage her father gave her when she married Pastor Sanga 20 years ago as they were moving to Koriyama to work in this church. A native of Hiroshima, Mrs. Sanga feels God has prepared all of her life for this moment to work in Fukushima.


Her eyes immediately filled with water as she shared her prayer about this disaster, “Recovery is not the big issue. We Japan must repent first. Repent of our greedy lifestyle, our sinfulness, stubbornness away from God.” She continued, “The continuing radiation is a reminder of our sin.” I turned around to whisper to Midori because that was exactly what we wrote for our friends to pray for Fukushima today.

I turned again toward the pastor’s wife and spoke to her, “Mrs. Sanga, this must be God’s work. What you said is exactly how our friends around the globe are praying today. You said it almost verbatim.” There was a holy silence for a few moments.

Before we left the church, Mrs. Sanga made a few phone calls and made arrangements for us to come back on Friday for a meeting with local business leaders to talk about creating local currency in Fukushima and other alternative actions to revive local economy. It felt as if Fukushima was already turning to a holy garden and as if Jesus was speaking to each of us, “Yes, I am coming soon” (Rev 22).

CRYING OUT

Monday, April 18, 2011

PSALM 55:4-5

My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death assail me
Fear and trembling have beset me;
horror has overwhelmed me.

NUMBERS - 3

An intersection, at once cadence and overture,
Hinge and turning point, the moment when
The pasts we shape begin to shape our future.

Etty Hillesum recalled how her father had said
‘Jews in a desert? We’ve seen the landscape before.’
Babylon, the Temple’s fall, six million dead.

Give ear to my cry, don’t hold your peace at my tears.
Is this the moment where testimony and story meet?
A passing guest, an alien like all my forebears.

Teach us, cries the psalmist, to number our days.
The exile, the scattering, now the ovens and marches.
Isaiah’s world still stumbling onwards in praise.

Have I not told you from old you’re my witnesses?
The desert through which we pass will bloom again.
I did not speak in secret in a land of darkness.

The Gosamer Wall: Poems in Witness to the Holocaust by Mhceal O’Siadhail.


PRAYER

We confess that what we had created to meet our greed and selfishness has now resulted in this human-made disaster after the natural disasters. Jesus, you know the agony of Fukushima people in this unimaginable fear of radiation and unknown future with the nuclear disaster. Lord, hear our cries.

A New Paradigm for Super Power, Strong Nation

April 17, 2011 - Yamato, Japan

The defeat of the Second World War devastated Japan not simply because of the physical destruction. But more importantly because it shattered the spirit of Japanese nationalism that its emperor and his empire was no longer the strongest power in the world as they had been told to believe. A few intellectuals, artists and novelists gathered in a war-struck town of Yamato, near a US army base, an outskirt of Tokyo. They were searching for a new source of their aspiration to build a strong nation and they started studying the Bible. The religion of America. They thought that Christianity must be the secrete power of the strongest nation in the world who shamelessly defeated the nation of the rising sun.

That’s how Koza Community Church began in 1947 by a group of hungry souls for a new philosophy to save their war-torn nation. Koza means a high throne in Japanese and it indeed became the throne of new influence in the community as they opened a kindergarten to educate young minds for future Japan. (The picture below is taken at their first Easter celebration on April 16, 1947)


For the past sixty years, the nation worked very hard. It has not only recovered from the ashes of the war, but also become one of the world-leading economic super power, but the nation’s Christian population still remains less than 1%. The paradigm of the strong nation came from the national agenda-driven capitalist economy, not from the Bible. Perhaps it was a good thing that the paradigm of the intelligentsia, which was “Bible = [American] military power = a strong super nation,” did not materialize.

This church is where Midori was baptized nearly thirty years ago and is now serving as one of the leaders. Today, Midori and I were at the second service of the three Sunday worships together with other 500 members. Considering the small Christian population in Japan, Koza Community Church is a large church. Resembling the large portion of elderly population in the nation, the church was filled with elderly people and only a handful of youth who haven’t yet left home for a better job or education.(The picture below was taken this morning during the worship)


Rev. Matsumoto, the pastor of the church, just returned from his visit to Iwaki, a coastal city in Fukushima Prefecture, which was struck by the recent tsunami. He carefully planed the church worship and each member of the congregation was given a four page long insert in the bulletin with a list of 38 detailed prayer items prepared by the prayer ministry team. The elders met to decide the church’s responses to this disaster and a recently formed disaster response team met to prepare practical steps which the church would take after next week when Midori and I will visit the sites where they will partner with a local church in Iwaki.

An elderly man came up to me to say hello in English after the service. Mr. Suzuki, a retired energy plant expert, worked in Chernobyl for six months in 1999 on an international delegation to propose a new solution over the nuclear plant. For about an hour, he gave me and Midori a very practical, first-hand education on radiation: what actually happened in Chernobyl, how long it took his body to get rid of radiation after he drank contaminated milk without knowing, how land contamination could be treated, and what to worry and what not to worry about radiation (I will write a separate piece about radiation after I arrive in Fukushima). In short, Mr. Suzuki’s advice was that it is not as dangerous as one might think, and it is not impossible for ordinary people to go and offer necessary assistance to victims. He already answered one big part of my quests and reason to come all the way from Vancouver. Ordinary people can go, and must go. That’s the only way to fight fear and start reducing the anxiety of unknowns.

Lazarus means “God helps me,” Rev. Matsumoto spoke based on John 12:1-11, the passage of Mary and Martha celebrating their brother’s coming back to life and honouring Jesus for his mighty work. The reverent concluded his message with the following words, “In our weakness, God shows his strength.”

A church that began with the hope to build a strong nation of super power has now come to hear this message of paradox: God’s strong and mighty work to build his unshakable Kingdom is through our weakness. Japanese people understand very well that a nation lives by a big story, and that their nation needs one that is strong and big enough to hold them in such a time like this. On the train back to the hotel, I prayed that they may shine a strong light in both cities, Yamato and Iwaki, the light of the true Kingdom of the eternal King.

JESUS, THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING

Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011 - Tokyo.

MATTHEW 21:9

"Hosanna to the Son of David!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

THE MIND OF CHRIST

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. IT was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death – and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.
(Philippians 2:5-8, Message by Eugene Peterson)

PRAYER

Jesus, you are the beginning and the end of the history. You are the center of everything and every moment of our lives, even in this time of disaster and suffering. We ask you to reorient our hearts’ desires and commitment to you again this week.

Via Dolorosa - en route to Fukushima

April 16, 2011 - Tokyo, Japan.

I am not a blogger - let's begin with that. Unlike most Koreans, the techno-savvy, I even struggle to change my own voicemail on the phone. But I decided to use this media for only one purpose during this Holy Week and Easter - to mobilize prayers for the suffering people in Fukushima, or "to storm the Heaven" as Mother Teresa called this sacred duty of her friends around the globe.

I intend to stop this blog shortly after the Easter when I leave Fukushima to return to my home in Vancouver, Canada. If my Japanese friends and I perceive the need to continue after the Easter, I may. But at the moment, I envision that this blog will have a short web life expectancy.

Via Dolorosa.
I am off to Fukushima Prefecture with three dear Japenese friends on Monday for a week long visit to local churches. We hope and pray that this blog may offer you a small help to encounter Jesus on this road to suffering that he took two thousand years ago and continues with suffering people around the world, especially with those in Fukushima Prefecture, in Japan in this time of multiple disasters.