Sometimes our perspective is too narrow  We make judgments, or base our feelings on the little porthole we’re looking through.  But there is a wider picture we should be looking at.  Even the wider perspective can be scary.  This is an observation I made after seeing the devastation first hand in NE Japan.  The porthole shows a container that escaped from the port in the tsunami.  It’s full of goods which keeps it dragging on the ocean floor.  Other debris floats nearby; two houses stuck together, tangled fish and seaweed nets.  But when we broaden that picture, the marooned container almost becomes invisible.

A wider view is also deceiving.  Just looking at the devastation as I turned around 360 degrees was quite different from seeing it from one angle on TV.  But this perspective of the devastation is deceiving.  There are bright spots, namely the smiles of friends.  Again, the smiles are deceiving.  I heard the unbelievable stories of everyone.  While visiting Mrs. Hashiura who has been bedridden for about a year, the Wata family came by.  They each had their own story but are all glad to be alive.  Shiina, the youngest, a 6th grader, saw the water rushing into the rice fields from her school window.  At that same time, her mother, working at a hotel watched as her car floated away and crashed like a bobbing toy into other cars.  Everyone spent the night just where they were, not knowing about the whereabouts of other family members.  Shiina still has nightmares and the others wake up every morning thinking that life is as it was.  Then with a jolt, they awaken to another day of struggle.

I made the rounds, visiting all the members of the Shichigahama Preaching Place in NE Japan, also visiting two extended family members who were dealing with the loss of a home, a deceased wife, missing nephews, missing friends.  I brought fruit to everyone and passed out packages of seaweed I bought at Costco!  The seaweed was the most appreciated.  Shichigahama’s major industry is seaweed.  I’m not sure which was most spectacular, seaweed ropes and nets on trees and telephone wires or the ship on the fishermens’ shack.

Future:  Each community faces its own unique set of circumstances.  Shichigahama is relatively small compared to some other communities, with its population of 22,000.  In addition, the loss of life here is less, with 70 confirmed dead and 800 in shelters.  But what about the future?  Build back across the street from the sea or build on someone’s salty rice field which can’t be used for 3-4 years>  Although 60% of those who no longer live in their home want to rebuild on higher ground, building on the local low mountains is not an option because 60% of Shichigahama is protected as national forest.  The options are slim.

The bright light is the little church there.  It is the only church in town.  Supplies pour in from all manner of Christian groups making it possible for Rev. Oyama to pass out supplies to the neighbors or to shelters.  Pray that it and churches like it will be the very lighthouse that these conservative, tradition-bound communities need.  I do pray that their Easter was truly the beginning of resurrection and I pray that it was the same for you.

He is Risen, Indeed,
Roberta