Ora Et Labora

This famous Latin phrase means Prayer and Labour.

It summarizes Benedictine Monastic spirituality and its impact on the western civilization for the past 1600 years. Prior to Benedictine monasticism, Eastern orthodox monasticism viewed the commitment to Jesus as devotion to an ascetic, spiritual life away from the civilized world, alone out in the desert where you encounter God. That is what we know as the life of desert fathers and mothers in the first five centuries of the church history.  Ascetic monastic life was a symbol of following Christ in suffering and detachment from the power and corruption of the religion of Constantinople.  

St. Benedict of Nursia (AD 480-547) wrote the Rule for his followers and began a different kind of monastic life, a communal life devoted to prayer to the heavenly father and study of Scripture, and manual labour on earth. The monastic life was not only connected to heaven, but also depended on the earth. By getting their hands dirty and relying on what the earth produced and dedicating their life of prayer and study, they left a legacy of abundant spiritual and material wealth for the generations that came after them. Benedictines accidently became the leaders of Western civilization and cultural and scientific inventions. (They invented eye glasses, clock, and beer, and many more. There are famous artisan craft beer brands using the methods developed by ancient Benedictines!)

Benedictine monks take land and stability seriously: wherever they are placed, they are there for the long haul. Stability is the most profound foundation for whatever Benedictine monks did for God and for their neighbours and in creation. For Benedictines, cultivating the land was a form of prayer as much as prayer was a form of labour, as they called prayer “divine office.”

Why does this matter to Fukushima? 

Many of the evacuees from the 20 Km evacuation zone around Fukushima Daiichi began to return to their homes, many others decided not to return. Yet, many more, mostly young people and families with young children, left Fukushima for good. As of the 2017 census, about 7000 people returned to the reopened area in the evacuation zone. That’s roughly 10% of the population before the disaster.

A nuclear power plant and its surrounding communities were a symbol of power and money, of materialism and consumerism of our culture today. But the 20 km zone surrounding Fukushima Daiichi, has become a man-made desert in the 21^st century. That is Futaba district (consisting of 6 towns and 2 villages shown on the map) today. 

Since I met Rev. Sumiyoshi for the first time in April 2011 he has been serving the disaster stricken areas in various ways with his unbending vision of "Gospel (fukuin) for Fukushima, Happiness (kofuku) for the people of Fukushima, and welfare (fukusi) of Fukushima." The common concept in all of this is "fuku" in kanji, which can be translated to happiness. Every time I visit him and his wife at their church, they share with me the unique ways God has been leading them to serve the people in Fukushima, beginning with the remarkable encounter with Jesus in Rev. Sumiyoshi's dream soon after the disaster (click here to go to the story in April 2011) 

Through the last seven years of experience and trials and errors, Rev. Sumiyoshi has gained wisdom and built a network of pastors, theologians and other Christian leaders for ministry and accountability. He is now moving forward with a new season of ministry, especially with an inviation to start a prayer house, which will eventually become a local church in Tomioka twon, just 10 km south of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. 

This time Rev. and Mrs. Sumiyoshi invited me and Midori to visit the prayer house and join them in the repair work. The neighborhood was not located on the coast and was protected from the tsunami. But it was badly affected by the earthquake; we could see the empty lots in what used to be a typical Japanese rural town with high density housing. 

View from the second floor of the house

View from the second floor of the house

Front yard of the property: Empty garden

Rev. Sumiyoshi explaining the vision

   "Our vision is to repair the house by the hands of volunteers who are sent by God. Our plan is to rely on God's flow and do whatever we can to obey him. I am glad that you got to go join us in the labour today!" Rev. Sumiyoshi showed us around the property and the vision for each room in the house. Then we prayed for the work we were about to do and Rev. Sumiyoshi joined the three men fixing the roof. These men were pastors who were too busy in their church ministries to do any "manual work." In today's church life, pastoral ministries such as teaching, preaching, and pastoral care, have become everything that one's congregation needs her pastor to fill, but that doesn't seem to include manual work. This is not simply a phenomenon in Japan, but in many other places the gospel has become truncated to a gnostic, spiritual message only. 

Three pastors fixing the roof

Midori, Mrs. Sumiyoshi and I got to dust and clean whatever that was not broken by the earthquake. While we were cleaning the house, we discovered many shamanistic charms hanging in the rooms, also hidden between the roof and the ceiling. The powers of the earthly gods couldn't protect the house or the people in it from the earthquake. As we were taking those charms down, we prayed not only for physical cleansing, but also for spiritual cleansing of the house and its neighbourhood. 

That night, my hands were tired after dusting and cleaning, and my throat was sore after inhaling the dust gathered for seven years. But my heart was filled with joy after seeing a vision that testifies to a powerful God when the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached through the work of hand fixing a roof and cleaning the dust and cobwebs.