6/28: Ishinomaki and Onagawa

And they're off!  A good day of orientation to what's happening these days with the Gilberts and their team ministry. 

Slept pretty well but up at 4 am - not bad considering jet lag.  After some breakfast, we headed over to the Long's house to meet up with Gordon and Mike there, along with Jonathan and Katherine Long, and Tobi, and Mattias & Gabriella, the other members of the current team.  After all getting acquainted, Andy gave us an overview of their outreach history and development, along with some plans for future progress. 

 
It was cool to be in the Long's house, because we had been there before during it's reclamation and rebuilding by Samaritan's Purse.  It's great to see it all done and functioning well.

Long's house now

Long's house in March, 2012

After lunch, we headed into Onagawa. WOW, what an amazing sense of change.  This once-beautiful little town of 10,000 had been virtually obliterated by the tsunami with 5000 losing their lives in the disaster.  Many survivors have moved away, so the remaining residents have been clinging to what? hope? desperation? determination?  Something is motivating this town to resurrect itself.  The town was going to keep some of the iconic buildings as a memorial park, so nearly everything else is cleared away and new development is underway for a new town.  The plan is vast: the nearby hills will be leveled off and the valleys will be filled raising the ground level 20 - 50 feet in different areas. 

Onagawa harbor now

Onagawa harbor March, 2012

Across the valley - fill starting to happen

Across the valley, April, 2011

Starting to fill in the valleys

At the hospital parking lot - the now famous viewpoint

The high-water mark at the hospital, some 100 feet above sea level

Temporary housing near the main elementary school - 3 story housing is unusual

Andy's neighbor, Kimura-san (tan coat), used to live here in downtown Onagawa

Katherine, Andy, Kimura-san, Lorna, Gordon, and Endo-san (Onagawa friend)

My sense is that this place of destruction is now a place of construction.  Some businesses are either resuming or starting up in small temporary buildings on the edges of the valleys.  The Gilbert's plan is to do a cooperation approach for a community center and their location is up on the edge too.  It'll be in a temporary building, but wonderfully set up to serve the townspeople.  

Site of Gilbert's future community center

From the site down the valley to the harbor - amazing clean up and prep for future construction

From the site up the valley

That afternoon, we returned to Longs, and chatted through the plans for Mike to video the stories of growth and people's expression of how their lives have been impacted.  Just reviewing what the team wanted was amazing.  Some stories are full of joy, others are deeply sorrowful.  It'll be a challenge to capture all that in a video.

Video planning with Mattias, Lorna, Gordon, Jonathan, Mike, and Katherine

That evening, we went to a "yakitori" spot for supper.  It was also in a temporary building, and one that constructed by the builder of the Gilbert's eventual building.  Nice to see how well these things work.  No photos - sorry - because I was literally sleeping on my feet, and in a fog of jet-lag.  Home and collapsed into bed at 9pm.  Zzzzzz…..

6/26-27: Seattle > Tokyo > Ishinomaki

Great to be back in Ishinomaki, but what a loooooong trip to get here! 

Overall, travel went well.  We 4 got to SeaTac at 10:30am (thank you, Corey, for being a great shuttle driver), got checked in without hassle at ANA, through security, and out to the gate by 11:30.  Plenty of time to hang around for our 1:30 flight, but would rather do that then be running late or stuck in traffic - yuck! 

The flight across the Pacific to Japan was typically long - approx 9 hrs - but uneventful, and we arrived around 3:30 pm Japan time.  Immigration, luggage, and customs at Narita airport went smoothly too. During our 3 hour lay-over, we visited Starbucks (yea!), got some obento supper (yum), and tried to figure out the international SIM card on Gordon's phone (got stumped).  We caught a 6:55pm flight from Narita up to Sendai, arriving there an hour later.  Lorna Gilbert met us, and we drove over to Ishinomaki in about an hour.  That's huge improvement in the timing of that route, because it used to take 2 hours or more!

Another huge improvement is that Gilberts are living in Ishinomaki now instead of at Takayama (which is a marvelous location for scenery, but a 60 - 90 minute drive to Ishinomaki).  The story of their house is incredible, but has to wait for another time. Gordon and Mike are staying at the Long's house (they are team partners with Gilberts) about 5 min from here.

So repeating myself, it's great to be back in Ishinomaki, and we're really looking forward to these days here.

6/25/13 Tuesday: Woodinville

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..."

Yes, we're heading back to Japan again.  Tomorrow morning we're leaving on another relief team trip to Ishinomaki and Onagawa.  This time the team will be 4 of us: Gordon Jensen, Mike Harvey, the ever-wonderful Sylvia, and Yours Truly.

Gordon is a multi-talented Microsoft guy who has been to Japan before as a short-term missionary (up in Hokkaido with Tim Clark - small world!), and will be our lead musician.  Mike is a pro video/TV guy who was on our previous trip a year ago, and he's going to be doing a bunch of video work this time too.  This will be Sylvia's 3rd trip to the disaster area, and it will be my 5th trip leading relief teams into Tohoku.

It's been two and a half years since the earthquake/tsunami/and nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011.  And yet, even though all the clean up is done, very little restoration is done, and many survivors are still living in temporary shelters.  

So our primary work on this trip will be to connect with survivors and community folks in the general Ishinomaki area, and especially in the town of Onagawa.  This is the place where cars were left on top of 4 story buildings, train cars tossed up on top of hillsides, the seaport dock level dropped under the water line, and 1000s of homes and businesses were totally obliterated.

I go back to Onagawa on each of my trips, and my heart always hurts when I'm there.  Part of the pain is that so little focus had been given to Onagawa by the relief workers and ministry groups who were rapidly developing outreach in Ishinomaki.  

But the good news is that our local ministry partners, Andy and Lorna Gilbert, who now have moved to the eastern side of Ishinomaki, are doing a lot of work in Onagawa.  I'm really excited to be part of it on this trip, and to see what is happening and what the future plans are for their work there.

So stay tuned, and I'll try to keep this blog up to date as we go.  Thanks for joining the trip with us!