New Churches in Tohoku

While most people around the world were interested in how the relief work was going in Japan, God was quietly working in people’s hearts.

After the 3.11 triple disasters, the Japan Assemblies of God (JAG) started three relief centers in Tohoku through the impetus of three local JAG pastors. In Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture; Higashi Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture; and Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture.

Kamaishi

The relief center in Kamaishi started with Pastor Shibuya and Aomori Christ Church members driving to Kamaishi to distribute relief goods. Through the miraculous provision of God, JAG was able to rent the first floor of a building right next to an evacuation center. Thus the Kamaishi Amazing Grace Relief Center was started even at a time when renting buildings was next to impossible.

The drive to Kamaishi from Aomori was a five-hour one-way trip and Pastor Shibuya and members of his congregation were also reaching out to two other disaster-stricken towns. So they were only able to go to Kamaishi once or twice a month. During this time, the center was only open a couple of times a month, whenever Pastor Shibuya and church members were able to make the trip to the town.

However, two years and three months after the disaster, a team of six members from the First Assembly of God in Honolulu came to work at the Amazing Grace Relief Center for one year. They were able to establish relationships with various people in the community by going door to door with invitations to special events. The team taught Hawaiian dance and held special events including concerts at a community center across the street.

Although the team was not able to share their faith at the community center, people started coming to the Amazing Grace Relief Center as the team developed relationships. Most of the people who came were elderly. Keizo, the team leader, said, “People were filled with hopelessness and despair and were glad for the chance to share their stories and just have someone to talk with.” These informal times of sharing gave the team members opportunities to share their faith and tell their stories of coming to Christ.

Keizo became the pastor of the newly-formed church after the rest of the team returned to Hawaii. He reports that an important turning point for the church plant was when the team announced the Amazing Grace Relief Center was a church and they began to have worship services on Sunday. Until then people in the community did not know the relief center was also a church. At first only team members were there for Sunday morning worship services, but people they had had contact with at the relief center during the week began coming to church on Sundays. When they first started having church and no one was coming, God spoke to Keizo’s heart and promised that he would send people to them if there were believers in the church who would share the good news about Jesus to those who came.

At present, five to seven people attend Sunday worship, although sometimes ten people come. Two people have been baptized plus about four or five of those in attendance have truly believed.

Higashi Matsushima

A second JAG relief center was established in Higashi Matsushima in Miyagi Prefecture. Pastor Ito and members of the Izumi Gospel Christ Church in Sendai began making weekly trips to the area. They helped clean up debris, distributed aid, and 10 days after the disaster they started to serve hot meals (takidashi) at a local park.

Several months later Pastor Ito gradually introduced the gospel during times of distributions, takidashi, and community festivals. Christian outreach literature and Bibles were also made available during these events.

In September 2011, they began to have worship times, testimonies, and shared the Word of God along with relief aid. Pastor Ito reports that the Lord began to open the hearts of many people to the gospel at that time. Doing relief support and sharing the gospel at the same time was effective.

In November 2011, they were able to rent and renovate a store that had flooded during the tsunami. Higashi Matsushima Amazing Grace Relief Center was born. This allowed the church to minister to many more people. They used a coffee house approach with a tea time meeting (ocha nomikai) once a month to provide a peaceful place for those who were suffering from trauma.

In March 2012, 70 people from Higashi Matsushima attended a Franklin Graham convention and some people decided to receive Jesus into their hearts while many others opened their hearts to hear more about Jesus. Concerts, seminars, and Christian movies were held at the Amazing Grace Relief Center with the help of volunteer guests. There were many opportunities to show the grace of God through these events.

The church held an Amazing Grace Relief Center Festival three times (with the help of Convoy of Hope),¹ with one thousand people attending each time.

In June 2012, Sunday afternoon services were started at the Amazing Grace Relief Center twice a month, along with Sunday school. Worship, Bible teaching, and prayer filled the Center.

“Amazing Mother’s Club” was started with the help of an Asian Access missionary in April 2014, after learning that young mothers living in temporary housing were going through a lot of stress. They have been able to reach out to individual families in surrounding cities, visiting them in their homes and have seen family members come to Christ.

Now, around 40 people attend the church each week and four people have been baptized, although about 30–40 have expressed faith in Christ.

The Amazing Grace Relief Center has recently bought property and is constructing a church building that will also enable continued relief work. The new church is located half a block from the park where they first began relief work.

Koriyama

The Koriyama Christ Church was an established church that also became a relief center. Pastor Sanga and his congregation reached out to thousands of displaced families that were evacuated to Koriyama. The church supplied relief goods through the Convoy of Hope, and also gave out “Starter Kits” to families who had lost everything. A Starter Kit included basics such as a refrigerator, cooking stove, microwave, washing machine, pans, dishes, etc. Outreach festivals and ocha nomikai were held and the gospel message was presented.

Unexpected joy

Convoy of Hope, the Samaritan’s Purse, local churches of the Japan Assemblies of God, and the American Assemblies of God provided relief supplies, which allowed them to reach out initially and in an on-going way to these three cities. Teams from within Japan and outside of Japan came to evangelize and present the gospel message.

One of the things that amazed me after having made many trips to two of the three relief centers over the course of several years is the unexpected joy of salvation I saw on the faces of some of these believers. After going through the trauma of the earthquake and tsunami devastation and experiencing a deep sense of hopelessness and despair, these new believers experienced now the joy of newfound salvation. The joy and thankfulness of unexpected joy and freedom in Christ radiated from their faces. Unexpected because prior to this they had never experienced it nor known it was even possible. 

1. Convoy of Hope is a relief mission organization that focuses on responding to disasters around the world with immediate relief aid, and then ongoing rebuilding for the long haul, helped supply relief aid to the Amazing Grace Relief Centers.