Sunday, March 13, 2011

Rocking and Rolling in Japan - Michael

It has been quite a show the past few days. It began with a base-wide exercise. We were pretending something bad was happening in the world and we had to get there to make a difference. This requires a whole lot of moving parts to work together. The day the exercise began, internet connectivity died. It was wild and slow from the get-go. My time finally came to do the formal part of "getting there," and they had

things flowing relatively smoothly. Went over to the Torii building to drop off all of my paperwork, and things changed. It began with a little shake. Usually these come and go fairly quickly, but this one did not. It took a momentary break that I thought was the end, but, no, it was merely reaching for the next gear.
Things got really wild for a long time. I began to wonder if the building was going to start coming apart. Fortunately, after what seemed like an eternity, it slowed and then quit.

During the shaking, there was a lot of shrieking and yelling - some of the women were shrieking, too. Others took a more laid back view. They went to the window to watch the street lights in the parking lot sway and toss about - you would think it would be the guys doing this, but you would be wrong. :) Soon, the lights flickered and went out - everywhere in the northern end of Honshu (Japan).

I busted out of there and went to the Chapel to drop off the rest of my gear, and then I headed for home to check on the kids. I found them a bit frazzled (OK, maybe a bit of an understatement) and hiding under the dining room tables. Well, not all of them were under the table. The house was quite a mess.

There was one bit of levity in the midst of all of this. Jared had come downstairs after the first tremor had past, and found everyone under the dining room tables. He stood in the doorway when the earthquake managed to grab that "next gear." Alex was screeching and contributing greatly to Stacia's angst, and naturally, Jared is trying to keep things from getting out of hand so he tells Alex, "Calm down, this is no time to get hysterical!"
Alex responded right back as books are falling off of the baker's rack, things are clattering off of the walls, our wind chimes are loudly clanging, "This is the perfect time to get hysterical!" Gotta love it.

That night the boys elected to sleep upstairs, but the girls were not interested. Rather, they insisted on sleeping on the floor in the living with the dining room tables placed
over them. It was well-worth the effort knowing they were going to sleep a bit better.

What is hard to conceive at this point was the devastation that resulted from this quake. We thought maybe we were in the middle of it or at least not far from it. None of us were even close nor could we imagine the immense amount of damage and destruction and the astounding loss of life that came as a result of this quake and the ensuing tsunamis. Even after watching numerous accounts on youtube, and various news channels, we have not even begun to realize how this is going to change life in Japan, forever.

Please pray for wisdom and strength for Japan's leaders and all those involved in rescue efforts; pray for grace, mercy and healing for those all who have been impacted, and pray that through this, many will come to salvation in Jesus.

Blessings
Michael


Choosing Joy!
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~Coram Deo~
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