Roberta writes: Here at the end of the third day after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the numbers arrive with a terrific estimation of 10,000 deaths.  This is so unbearable, if one does not believe in God our rock.  Therefore the distress of this nation is truly understandable.  It’s easy to shrug ones shoulders after a while and wish that this would pass, or even pretend it would.

How does the rest of Japan live while the full impact of the earthquake-tsunami is yet to be felt?  In the nation’s capitol and surrounding area where one-quarter of the population of Japan lives and works everyone is left scrambling to “have enough” for themselves. Gas is short. Stores are running low on goods, because much is being shipped north, and nothing is being shipped south. …This means that you won’t be paid.  Schools are taking an unexpected disaster holiday, which means working parents must make other arrangements.  Schools like Shoshin Gakuin cancel high school graduation.  Nationwide English proficiency tests have been canceled, which will delay many a student’s plans to study abroad.  Our Japan Baptist Women’s Conference to be held next week was canceled. Many who planned to go cannot attend at the time it has been rescheduled for.  People here are made up of the same stuff of people in the northeast.  And yet, we think life is difficult or not treating us right.  In this sense, humanity is truly hopeless.  Who will save us from ourselves!  Well, you and I know!

Today I rested a little easier. I received short messages from several people up north who gave me information about “survivors.”  I tend to keep thinking of the tragedy of loosing everything, but no one says anything about what they’ve lost.  Only, “she’s okay” or “he survived,” even though I know from another source that they’ve lost everything.  I want to ask, “did your house survive” or some insignificant question like that. They’re teaching me a lot.  When you’ve physically survived something like this, you don’t see anything else around you, at least for a while.  This reminds me of what it’s like for a joyous Christian in the midst of a terrible trial or storm:  Just glorying in the only thing that counts, our relationship to Christ.

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