Disaster response—learning from the past

On October 25, 2022, Rev. Takao Nakadai spoke at an online meeting co-sponsored by the Committee for Aid and Cooperation of the Japan Evangelical Association (JEA) and the National Christian Disaster Network. This presentation was translated and adapted by Helen Kwak for this article.

Beginnings

During his talk, Rev. Nakadai recalled one early experience with work he’d done with other teens from his church, singing songs and telling Bible stories at an institute for disabled children. While they were there, he glanced out the window and saw other high school kids out in the heat, pulling weeds and cleaning up the grounds. He remembered thinking about the difference: “Of course, as Christians, we were worried about saving their souls, and I didn’t really think it was ok to stop doing that and do regular volunteer work. But I felt something lacking in the way we were serving. We were nice and cool inside with the children talking about the Bible while they were outside in the heat. For me this was the first time I really thought about service to society as a Christian.” Just as his own understanding of relief work has developed over time, so has the evangelical response to disasters changed and deepened.

Within JEA from 1968–1986, there were some mutual support activities among the member churches during times of hardship. After its reorganization in 1986, JEA launched standing committees to deal with ongoing issues, including the Relief Committee (later called the Committee for Aid and Cooperation).

In response to the eruption of Mt. Mihara on Oshima near the end of 1986, JEA collected donations and supported the pastor and members of a church who had evacuated to Tokyo, even though the affected church was not a member of a JEA denomination. Offering support outside of its own membership was a new development for the association.

Expanding to give monetary relief overseas

From that time, JEA worked with specialized organizations that had experience in disaster response including World Vision, Food for the Hungry (now Hunger Zero), and the Salvation Army. Through these connections at meetings and interactions with the World Evangelical Alliance and the Asian Evangelical Alliance, awareness of disaster relief work grew. During this period JEA gathered donations to contribute to organizations doing relief work overseas, responding to a typhoon and volcanic eruption in the Philippines, an earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, an earthquake in Taiwan, and a project digging wells in Burkina Faso, Africa. Sometimes JEA sent people to visit local churches and see the disaster areas.

A shift towards action

Several years later, in 1974, the Lausanne Movement confirmed that service in the world and evangelism are two wheels on the same vehicle and that social involvement is also part of Christian duty. From this point on, Rev. Nakadai began to think that some concrete action for the betterment of society is also important and necessary alongside the preaching of the gospel.

In 1989, Nev. Nakadai attended the International Congress on World Evanglization (also known as Lausanne II) in the Philippines. During this conference, the attendees made a declaration called the “Manila Manifesto” which included the need to “demonstrate God’s love visibly by caring for those who are deprived of justice, dignity, food and shelter.” The next year, Rev. Nakadai was asked to be part of the JEA Committee for Aid and Cooperation, and little by little, both he and JEA began to look at the situation inside Japan and began to include concrete action as part of its response to disasters.

In 1995, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake struck Kobe and the surrounding area. JEA received lots of gifts and made sure they were distributed. At this point, World Vision, Food for the Hungry International, and the Salvation Army were members of the committee; they met regularly and worked alongside each other.

Rev. Nakadai did not go to the disaster zone right away. He told of a fellow pastor who rented a mobile phone from NTT and headed there immediately, traveled around the area by bicycle and reported back regularly. Rev. Nakadai stayed in Tokyo, gathering donations and making sure they got delivered. Some of the youth from his church went as volunteers, but he convinced himself that doing logistical support was enough. About a year later, he went and looked around, comparing what he saw to the photos from immediately afterward. He explained that he regretted making excuses for not going and realized there is great value in showing up. He credited this regret with helping him respond quickly in 2011.

Supporting government relief efforts

In 2004, the Chuetsu Earthquake occurred in Niigata Prefecture. JEA gathered donations and distributed support to affected churches and camp facilities. However, the donations they had received were more than could reasonably be used by the local church. So after some discussion, JEA introduced themselves to the people handling the relief efforts at the local government offices and donated money there too. This was the first real interaction with government in the area of disaster response and the first move to use donations for the public outside of the control of a Christian organization.

All-out response

This brings us to the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011, which many of the people listening to Rev. Nakadai’s talk had experienced themselves, either as responders, survivors, or both. This period saw lots of collaboration and cooperation but was on such a big scale that no matter how much any one organization worked, there was still more to do. There were a lot of developments during this time, but two main ones emerged.

First, individuals from the evangelical missionary community and from local churches joined forces under Jonathan Wilson’s leadership, and CRASH (Christian Relief, Assistance, Support, and Hope). It was originally designed as a trauma support program for children experiencing disaster, but expanded overnight with an influx of donations and workers to roll out a disaster response that lasted for several years.

The other development that stands out is the creation of the Disaster Relief Christian Network (DRCnet). This was centered at Ochanomizu Christian Center in Tokyo and formed with the idea that there could be value in having a central hub for all Christians involved in disaster relief, including Catholics, National Christian Council (NCC) churches, evangelical churches, and Christian businessmen.

The DRCnet functioned for ten years, focused on three main directives:

• The development of a Disaster Response Chaplaincy Training program with the help of the Salvation Army.
• The development of local disaster prevention networks based on neighborhoods and locations, not denominations (which, during the first few days after a disaster strikes, are too far away to be helpful).
• The development of the International Theological Symposium, an ongoing activity sponsored by Fuller Seminary for the development of thoughts and theology relating to disaster response.

Since then, there have been disasters in Hiroshima, Kyushu, Kumamoto, and other locations around Japan. Good connections and cooperative relationships have grown up in these areas. In response to the earthquake in Kumamoto, the Kyushu Christ Disaster Relief Center was established, and in various places around Japan local networks are growing. When the Nationwide Christian Disaster Network (Zenkisai) was established in 2019, it became the forum for all these networks to connect. DRCnet’s job was done.

Today’s work

Overall, Rev. Nakadai said, “Our work has gotten deeper little by little, our response has grown more collaborative, and our theology has become better at handling the gritty questions that arise.” While disaster relief used to be limited to monetary donations within a single denomination, it now involves pastors being directly involved in outreach with local survivors. Cooperation is not only across denominations but even outside the church and a collaborative network is prepared to respond to the next disaster. The Great East Japan Earthquake International Theological Symposium still meets annually. It has risen to the challenge of addressing issues such as training leaders in difficult times, supporting healing from trauma, and representing Christ to survivors.

But the work is ongoing. Rev. Nakadai added a few comments about things we know from looking back on the past: “Immediately after a disaster, there is a hearty response, but it is difficult to maintain the enthusiasm for long. We need to keep a few live coals, like a pilot light on a gas stove, to enable us to fire up quickly when something happens.” To this end, regular communication with likeminded groups, individuals, churches, and social services is valuable. We can all think about our homes, churches, schools, and communities and consider how well we are prepared for upcoming disasters, anticipating ways to demonstrate God’s love visibly to our neighbors.