Disaster Description
On March 11th 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake – one of the most powerful of the last century – shook Japan to its core. In the aftereffects of the earthquake, a tsunami, in some places 20ft high, inundated coastal towns and washed away thousands of homes and livelihoods along Japan’s northeastern coastline. Months on, the remaining debris and wreckage is still being sorted and cleared. World Relief’s Gary Fairchild recently visited these affected communities and observed the clean-up that is still going on. “Town after town, the scene is the same, but each time is totally unexpected: massive, total destruction, mile after mile, huge piles of debris…In the daylight machines and workers are busy clearing the rubble. At night all is quiet, no lights, no people; everybody has moved or is dead.”

The Response
In the days following the earthquake and subsequent tsunami along the eastern coastline of Japan, World Relief reached out to several long-time partners including the Japanese Evangelical Alliance (JEA), Christian Relief Assistance Support and Hope (CRASH) and Food For the Hungry (FFH). These exemplary agencies have mobilized local churches and volunteers from Japan and around the world to distribute emergency food and supplies, clean up neighborhoods, and to meet with survivors to listen to their stories and needs. As the need for physical and material assistance are met, the long-term mental health and emotional wellbeing of these coastal communities that lost family members and livelihoods will be the greatest concern for pastors and World Relief’s local partners. JEA is bringing awareness to this need for “emotional care” to local church leader, and continues to advocate the Japanese to provide continued and expanded material assistance to the more remote and least aided towns in northern Japan.  

Please continue to pray for Japan. Join us in praying for the people and the organizations on the ground responding to the needs around them while they themselves try to recover. And, pray for God’s love to be evident through those serving so that the people of Japan come to know and experience His love and provision.

Local Partners: Japanese Evangelical Alliance, CRASH and Food For the Hungry.
 

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