Hope for Japan

We are happy to now have our telephone working again. We finally were able to get in touch with Miho’s parents and find out that her whole family is safe. One of her brothers did not get home until 11pm, though the quake was at 3pm. Last night we continued to feel some aftershocks as we slept.

There are now over 600 confirmed dead, with over 1,000 people still missing. Trains are just starting to get going again. We heard from some of our fellow missionaries that it took them 12 hours to drive home, which is usually only 90 minutes. Another family, the Haworths, who live north of Tokyo had the most damage. Their home suffered from the quake, leaving Ellen to sleep in her car for the night. We talked with a few people from our church and found out that one guy was on the subway in Shibuya, central Tokyo, and was able to get out and walk home, which took 3.5 hours!

Grant had already finished his sermon for tomorrow. In light of this disaster though, he has felt compelled to hold off from preaching it and come up with something timely in response to how everyone must be feeling. With only a day to prepare, please pray that God will give him the words to speak hope and courage into the lives of those coming who need to hear words of comfort as their world has been literally shook.