Art 4 Fukushima

Friends, the readers of this blog!

I am now working to bring the Art Exhibit from Fukushima (read the story here) to Vancouver next year. Details are available on this website. Go check it out: http://art4fukushima.com .

Most importantly, pray with us. As Mother Teresa would say, "We need to storm the heaven."

Thank you!
Soohwan

A Very Special Harvest and Thanksgiving

When I decided to go to Fukushima only 20 some days after the disaster in 2011, I knew the impact of the Fukushima triple disaster was going to be larger than we knew at first. It has been going beyond Fukushima, beyond Japan. The nuclear disaster teaches us how closely connected our world is and how every life depends upon another. To every household that enjoys the easy access of electricity, whether it is from nuclear power or not, and to each one of us who depends on what the earth produces for us to consume as food and survive.

I knew my task was to bring the voice of Fukushima to the outside world, especially from those who are called by Jesus and for his Kingdom in Fukushima. Going to Fukushima many times for the past three  years deepened my understanding about Japan and God's love for Japan.

This summer I encountered a special community of Japanese immigrant church in Vancouver. Soon after the triple disaster in Fukushima they began a new life out of their cries for suffering people and creation in Fukushima. They began to seek wisdom on how to live not simply as Japanese descendants, but as children of God, though far away from Fukushima. This outcry for healing of the land and healing of sinful human ways and repentance of overconsumption and neglecting God's good creation led to a totally unexpected new life which brought them closer to creation, right where they are here in Vancouver and Langley, Canada. They started a ministry called New Eden, a volunteer gardening ministry, to live a life of wholistic discipleship especially to care for the creation.

Permission to use a 20 acre farm was given to the church by an non-Christian Japanese businessman last year and the New Eden ministry is in its second year now. Their vision comes from Isaiah 43:19-21.

See, I am doing a new thing! 

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland.

The wild animals honour me, 

the jackals and the owls,

because I provide water in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland,

to give drink to my people, my chosen,

the people I formed for myself

that they may proclaim my praise.

Every two weeks volunteers from all corners of the lower mainland British Colombia (Vancouver, Langley, Surrey, Delta and Richmond, North Vancouver, New Westminster) gather at the farm and plant, weed, and enjoy one another's company in creation.

As my husband and I started to join the volunteers in the late summer we were blessed to yield the harvest of the labour and love poured out by other volunteers. Children play a big part of the whole program from gardening, collecting the harvested vegetable, serving lunch, and supervising and playing with other small children.

As we sat together for lunch and a time of prayer and reflection on the word of God, I was so overwhelmed by the reality of heaven on earth right in front of my eyes. Twenty some volunteers were gathered in New Eden from many different countries: Canada, USA, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Thailand. All of us came to Vancouver as strangers some time in the past and only the children were born in Vancouver!

I was privileged to share the stories from Fukushima with the volunteers over lunch break and discovered one of the volunteers among us was a tsunami survivor from Thailand back in 2004. Orathai  worked as a medical doctor in Thailand and was working in the south at the time of disaster. We shared tears and smiles together as we shared the stories from the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.

Orathai

On Saturday, October 4, the day of Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, we joined the special harvest and thanksgiving fellowship with the New Eden Garden Ministry in Richmond. We gathered to celebrate the abundant harvest from the garden and to celebrate the baptism of one Japanese brother. 

Rev. Shihoko Warren led the worship and baptism. 

A potluck multicultural feast followed. People from all nations joined with their food.

Ken Warren, a lay leader and the coordinator of the New Eden Garden Ministry gave a report on this year's garden ministry and how it was initiated after the triple disaster in Fukushima, Japan.

We prayed for next year's garden ministry. 

A special harvest indeed, very fitting for the special thanksgiving here for the Canadian thanksgiving season.  

Future From Fukushima

Just like three years ago today, it started snowing this afternoon in Fukushima. For the last three years Fukushima has been a big part of my thoughts, prayers, and work. Many emotions filled my heart even as a foreigner who visited only a few times and I can't imagine what might be going through the hearts of people in Fukushima.

Sadness for what happened.

Gratitude for the recovery work that is taking place, even though it is slow and much more complex in Fukushima than Miyagi and Iwate due to the nuclear disaster.

Hope for tomorrow.

We remember that day.

Being Grateful: Japan Red Cross received USD $1 billion from all over the world for disaster recovery. 

Being Hopeful: Future from Fukushima movement

Local businesses started a movement to encourage economic recovery and sustainability within Fukushima called "Future from Fukushima." One big difference we saw this year is that vegetables from Fukushima are available at local groceries now. Fukushima used to be famous for their high quality produce and the market had been completely destroyed since the nuclear disaster but it is now slowly picking up. At the local grocery store we went this evening, there were two separate stands of fresh produce: one from Fukushima and the other from other parts of Japan. 

Fukushima produce on the right side.

Customers at the Fukushima produce stand.

Shitake mushroom from Fukushima is 198 yen (almost $2).

Shitake mushroom from Toyama is 298 yen (almost $3).

This afternoon we visited Grace Garden Chapel in Koriyama to hear about how their journey for the past three years has been, especially for the last 18 months since we were together. Rev. Sanga and his wife, Toyomi and a few staff at the church welcomed us. Arriving there a little after 2 pm and seeing snow outside, the first thing we shared was about the moment when it all happened three years ago.

Look forward, do not look backward 

"Can you imagine this, I am a Pentecostal church pastor and I work with a pastor from United Church of Christ (liberal denomination)? We are now working in unity and collaboration among local churches. We organize many events together and we are all involved in various networks in Fukushima." Rev. Sanga said in his usual quiet voice with a smile on his face.

"One big difference is that I used to support from the background but now I am a leader up front leading the network. We need to learn from one another and Fukushima will be the ground of new mission to be birthed for this century. We must look forward, we can't just sit and look backward."

When the disaster happened, it was a chaotic time of working in isolation as one local church serving the victims and evacuees in Koriyama. Through the first Fukushima Future Forum that FVI hosted in July 2011 (just four months after the disaster), he met others who were in the same situation: small local church leaders who made tough decisions to stay in Fukushima. 

They cried out to God together (read their prayers here) and they are now working together and building a future together. 

Fukushima, the future is here! 

Gospel, the Best Public Good News

The Exhibition began on Saturday at 10:00 am. All 22 pieces of artwork by 9 artists have now found their corners and are showing their beauty under spotlights in the exhibition room at the Iwaki Cultural Centre. We began with prayers led by Dr. Kanda, the leader of the hosting organization, Friends with the Voiceless International (FVI). FVI did not do any conventional marketing of the exhibition except for their website and small postcards that they distributed to some local churches in Tokyo and Fukushima. Just a few minutes after the opening a reporter from a local Fukushima newspaper showed up.

I've learned that this weekend (March 8 and 9) is very busy all over Fukushima to commemorate the third anniversary of the triple disaster. Many events are taking place throughout the weekend. Iwaki city was a traditionally a small town of fisheries and aquaculture but is now growing rapidly as the post-disaster hub with 25,000 evacuees (20% of all evacuees) coming to the city as part of the government's resettlement strategy from the restricted zone (the first two years after the disaster was free temporary housing).

In this post-disaster context, FVI chose to hold the exhibition at Iwaki Cultural Centre, which is located in the very heart of the city as you can see in the map below. Instead of a local church venue or a private gallery, they intentionally chose this public space in the central location for the art exhibition. How wise and strategic to have this Christian Art Exhibition in such a place to tell the Gospel, the best public good news!

Close-up view of central Iwaki

One of the main roads near the cultural centre

Old buildings which survived the earthquake

Artists know how to tell the story

Miran Rin, a self-taught painter, is a third generation Korean in Japan and she was the lead-artist who conceived the vision behind bringing the artists together for Fukushima. "I wanted to help the suffering people in Fukushima as an artist. We, artists, can bring something for social change that is unique and cannot be conveyed by words," says the young artist. Miran went to India a few years ago to apprentice under a Christian artist who was actively engaged in various social issues by bringing groups of artists together. Miran wanted to start something similar in Japan as she experienced the power of working together with fellow artists, not in isolation.

"When we work together, we artists get encouraged by one another as much we encourage the public by our works. That's what I love about this." It was the first time she tried a group workshop so it was not easy to organize a group with people from difference places with busy, demanding life.

The quiet exhibition hall in the morning started slowly, getting busier in the afternoon. When Midori and I went out for lunch we noticed a big crowd in the lobby because there were a few other events taking place at the Cultural Centre to commemorate the third anniversary of the disaster. One of them was the city-wide Anti-Nuclear Protest.

Anti-Nuclear Protest Meeting Poster

After their meeting in the Cultural Centre in the morning, the protesters gathered in the lobby to start their street demonstration in the afternoon. Three policemen came to speak with the leaders as they knew how loud the voices of the protests can be.

I think the Art Exhibition this weekend was a powerful action to spread the message of hope and restoration in Fukushima. Definitely it carries a louder voice than that of the protest because the good news of Jesus Christ is good for Fukushima and even for the protesters. 

God is Invisible and Art is Visible

 Iwaki city, Fukushima


When we arrived at the exhibition venue, some of the nine artists who are showing their works had already arrived and were ready to set up the room. It is always delightful to meet with people whom you had been praying for without knowing their faces or their personal stories. When I entered the room I got excited even just by seeing their faces for the first time and by the opportunity to get to know them a little bit this weekend.

Midori told us before we came that most of the artists working on the project had told her in their earlier meeting in Tokyo last month that it had been hard for them to work toward this tight deadline since their first gathering in Fukushima last November. Time is always short when you are working on a big project like this. But more importantly, they were personally affected by what they had seen and heard during the 24 hour visit in Fukushima in November. The intensity and devastation of the triple-disaster in Fukushima made them weep deeply. Producing visual images of such devastation and grief and lament isn't easy. Furthermore, crafting a message of hope and future out of ashes and darkness must take some sort of divine creativity collaborating with human hands. I witnessed the power of such occasions today.

We spent the whole afternoon together with seven artists, hanging their works on the wall, putting spotlights, and discussing their works. Of course, I took photos and recorded some conversations.

Bible and Art

Machida Toshiyuki is one of the participating artists. He's also the founder of Bible & Art Ministries in Japan. He produced three works of graphic images from 17th century images of Jesus, one of which is a collage of paintings with a photo of himself wearing the protective suit during his visit to Fukushima. He and the other artists visited highly radiated areas just 4 KM outside Fukushima Daiichi plant, wearing white protective suits for observation and group reflection as part of the preparation for this exhibition (see the photo below).  

"My job as a Christian artist is to make invisible God visible, bringing beauty into our world. Jesus came to earth to make God visible. Even after his resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven in a very visible way. He will come back to earth in the same way too," said the graphic artist who was once a pastor.

Machida accepted Jesus when he was in university as a young artist but he soon gave up the calling of artist because he thought there was only one way to become a "better" Christian: leave the worldly profession and pursue theological education and pastoral ministry. At least, that was the advice he was getting from all Christian leaders and mentors of that time. While he was in pastoral ministry, he discovered that his true calling was to be an artist. He resigned from the church and started again as an artist and founded Bible and Art Ministries in Japan 19 years ago. It was an even more lonely path than the first decision that he had made to follow Christ as a university student because nobody in the church understood his calling to become an artist once again, but as a Christian.

"There is no cookie cutter Christian. When you understand your own gifts and your sphere where God has placed you in the world, you pursue that gift. That's the best way to become Christian, in your own unique way." A costly lesson he learned.

Machida's passion for Bible and Art is now expressed through teaching in university, collaborating with Christian artists and producing his own works. "We, Christians, value only invisible things when we talk about faith. We do not value visible, physical and material things. But that is dangerous. When we deny the visible, we will end up denying the invisible."

Fukushima, Here We Come!

March 4, 2014
Vancouver, Canada

We (me and my husband) will be on the plane in 10 hours to go to Fukushima after 18 months since our last visit there as unmarried single people.

Since I left Fukushima in September 2012, I did not come back to Vancouver, but continued to travel westward: Korea, China, Russia, Ukraine and Spain. Then I finally arrived in Israel just eight days before the war between Israel and Gaza broke out and lived through the war and seven more months. I then went to Sinai, Egypt just before the unrest in Egypt got so bad for most tourists. Finally I returned to Vancouver last June and continued some more travels to Asia since then. Oh, in between the trips I got married to a theologian who has the same passion for Jesus and his Kingdom, and God's continuing work of love in this messy world.

Today we just celebrated our first five months of marriage and we are on the road together now. We looked at each other and said, "How about Fukushima for the honeymoon, part two?"

Our purpose of this trip to Fukushima is to support our dear friends, Midori and Dr. Kanda at Friends with the Voiceless International as they have worked so hard with some Japanese Christian artists for a very special event starting from this weekend. We will be there!

Title: We are born at this very special time～Let us remember Fukushima～

Sponsored by: Friends with the Voiceless International

Supported by: Japan Lausanne Committee and Bible & Art  

Location: Iwaki City Culture Center 3F (0246-22-5431)

Date: March 8(Sat)~13(Thurs) 10:00~17:00

Admission: Free

For Japanese, click this: http://karashi.net/img/project/fukushima/forum_05/image001.jpg