2 years before the March 11 disasters, there was a fire in the church building and the building burnt down. The small church of 30-40 members moved to the central part of the City of Iwaki, to a building which became vacant after a pachinko and a business inn went bankrupt. They did not have enough money to renovate the old pachinko facilities to church facilities, so they started gathering on the second floor and left the first floor empty, hoping that God would give them a chance to use the whole building one day.
Such a time as this, God opened a door for this church to live up to its name: Global mission Center (GMC). Immediately after the disaster happened on March 11, Pastor Ikarashi, who had some experience in disaster relief work, went to the City government to seek ways to collaborate. Then GMC started working closely with and giving advice to the Iwaki city government as a major relief operation center. The first floor of the building was quickly turned to a warehouse where relief goods were stored and distributed to Iwaki and other parts of Fukushima and the church started organizing volunteers among its members first, then volunteers from all over Japan and all over the world.
In the first three months after the disaster, they reached out to over 15,000 evacuees in 150 shelters in Iwaki city, and others affected by the disasters but remained in their homes. During this time, they coordinated 20 to 100 volunteers every day.
Midori and I went to visit the church on Monday (Aug 1) to meet with Pastor Ikarashi and see the progress of the work so far since my last visit in late April. The warehouse on the first floor has been transferred to a café for the community, and it is now named, “Life Support Café.” Volunteers were serving visitors; young children playing and the elderly coming for tea and companionship, and parents coming to pick up small supplies that GMC still distributes from the storage after phasing out the major relief operation at evacuation shelters.
After his staff meeting was over, Pastor Ikarakshi came to meet us at the café and he gave us a tour of the building and explained the vision of GMC.
Behind me, you are looking at the central part of Iwaki City, called Taira. The white building is Iwaki City Hall. On the right side, the white building with an antenna is the branch office of Fukushima Prefecture government. Our original church building got burnt down [2 years ago], so God sent us to the central part of Iwaki city. After March 11 disaster, I went to the city hall immediately. I tried to connect with Emergency Disaster Response Department. So I went there to get some information about what’s going on. Iwaki as a city had never experienced natural disaster before. The city government staff were confused themselves, did not know what to do. Since 40 years ago, quite a few towns merged into one City of Iwaki, there are so many small communities and towns scattered all over the city. Since all the telephone lines were cut off, the government couldn’t collect any information about the disaster situation. The city government did not have any alternative means to collect information either. In the end, the city couldn’t function well. Then as a local church, we tried to relate with the city as effective as we could, we tried to visit the places where the city couldn’t reach out. Because we believed that it was what Jesus had done to search for one lost sheep. As a church, we responded by visiting each shelter and did what the city couldn’t meet the needs of evacuees. We distributed goods which the city could not supply. We visited the affected areas and developed relationships with people in the areas personally, and we helped them there.
I gave a couple of suggestions to the City Disaster Relief Department because I had worked for disaster relief work for 3 years in the past. I tried to help that department to function effectively. Especially when so many supplies came to Iwaki, it was an overwhelming situation for the city government to handle. People outside the shelters did not have any opportunities to receive necessary goods. Some people got angry at the City because they could not receive any stuffs. We were visiting places and listened to people’s needs. We knew what we should do. We suggested to the city that they should make each community center a distribution centre for those staying at home but still needed supplies to survive. Now, there are huge left-over relief supplies, we now distribute some of those goods to people in the café we run here [in the church building]. From now on, our main focus is on rebuilding the community. When we visited all affected areas and communities [in Iwaki] we met many suffering people and we listened to them. We are ready to move forward with them to build a community together with their ideas in the process.
Like Daniel’s three friends in the fire: No safe place without Jesus
“Global San.”
(This means “people of GMC church” - Japanese people love to create short nicknames out of long foreign words.)
That’s how the GMC is now known in the city of Iwaki. People remember Global san came to help them before the government came, and these Global San came as their friends in the time of hardship and suffering. Many people have left permanently soon after the disaster because of the fear of radiation as the city is located only 40 KM south of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi. But GMC decided to stay and actively mobilized thousands of volunteers to serve not only the people of Iwaki but also to collaborate with the City’s effort effectively.
“We want to create a revolution of love in the city of Iwaki,” says the Pastor. During the Fukushima Future Forum, he shared his passion for the church to ‘act quickly’ in times of disaster and how Daniel’s three friends in the Old Testament gave him strength to stay in Iwaki when many people were moving away.
DANIEL 3:25–27
He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the
fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and
shouted “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come
out! Come here!”
So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire,
and the satraps, perfects, governors and royal advisors crowded around them.
They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their
heads signed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on
them.
From [March] 12th to 15th, hydrogen explosion happened [in Fukushima Daiichi], more and more people escaped. From my past experience of relief work, I sensed this is a tremendous opportunity to testify [our faith]. Usually cult groups or yakuza would come to the affected area first and the church was always the last one to come. Because this time God allowed the nuclear power plant accidents, nobody came in – no NPO, no NGO, no religious groups came. So I was convinced that this was a God given opportunity. This is a time the church would make a testimony. Then my Christian friends came [to Iwaki]. The bible verse that encouraged me during this time was Daniel Chapter 3, Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshac and Abednego. They were protected even after entering the burning fire. I was ready to die, but because of this word, I thought I could be protected even after being exposed by radiation.
I would like to share this story from a friend of mine who recently moved to Iwaki as a pastor. We did the relief work together. His wife’s father, who was also a Christian, lived in Shizuoka. He called my friend and shouted at him, “Immediately bring my daughter and my grandkids back here!” Even my friend was yelled, “you are a killer!” We, together, tried to make him understand that we do not have any desire to be killed. We are observing [monitoring] the situation closely, we are ready to evacuate our families whenever the situation would become too dangerous to stay. We have no plan to become a prey of the enemy. Then, God has done amazing things. The next day after my friend’s father-in-law called, there was a level 6 earthquake in Shizuoka. We told him that “It’s too dangerous to stay even in Shizuoka.” As they discussed that maybe Nagano might be better because Nagano is a mountain area. The next day [after the earthquake in Shizuoka], another level 6 earthquake happened in Nagano. So what do you think God was telling us at that time?
It’s not the place where we need to look for our own safety. The safest place to be is where we are with Jesus.
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