Relief Work is Kingdom Work

1. Presence is powerful

The friends and disciples of Jesus lived with him. That is significant. They experienced the joys and sorrows of life together. Jesus built a trust relationship with them, and they with him. Living in community with our friends in Ishinomaki has built trust and given us the chance to walk with them through the many challenges that followed 3.11. Our presence, possibly more than our actions or words, has been a huge testimony to the people here. Jesus came and dwelt among us, and if we as the body of Christ can go and dwell, we can have a tremendous impact.

As the news continues to report that NPOs and large organizations are pulling out of Tohoku, we are still asked by locals, “So when are you leaving?” Our long-term presence here gives us the privilege of being the hands, feet, and ears of God. Through our lives, people are able to see glimpses of who God is. We were with our friends during the aftershocks. Our children sang next to local children at the reopening of the local school. We shop, share meals, laugh, and cry together. Our presence as God’s body communicates the essence of the gospel unlike any other platform.

The immediacy of the disaster has passed, but we still sense that people are seeking and wanting something. There is a continued longing for meaning and a need for something beyond themselves. We don’t always know how to bring the gospel to meet that need, but our daily presence allows us to explore the openness and hunger.

2. We are called to serve and be served

Early on in Sue’s missionary years, her colleague Takeshi Takazawa expressed the importance of missionaries not being experts and teachers. Rather it is best to build relationships where we allow Japanese people to serve us. Our team has found this principle especially true in seeking to minister to those devastated by the tsunami. Human dignity requires a mutual respect that allows for the give and take of serving and receiving.

We have been blessed by the kindness and generosity of those who have seemingly lost everything. In the beginning, our new local friends found individuals who needed help that day. The neighborhood grandma friends helped us distribute the 25 fans we had to give away. When our teams were shoveling out a home that had been filled with tsunami gunk, the owners would appear with cold drinks and ice cream for us. As we moved into these neighborhoods with our families, we intentionally relied on other moms to help us with such things as the various school regulations, where to buy gym clothes, and changes in bus schedules. We all need God’s grace and help, even when serving the most desperate.

One of the greatest joys of our ministry to date was seeing our Ishinomaki friends lead us into ministry last year at Jōsō, Ibaraki, the city that experienced terrible flooding from a typhoon. Our local friends, who had experienced being helped five years ago, joined with some of our staff to offer assistance for three weeks. It was such a blessing to see one of our newly baptized men pray for home owners who had recently experienced so much loss. We all need to be extenders and recipients of grace.

3. Unity is essential for kingdom expansion

During our early days of ministry in Ishinomaki, the local people did not differentiate between the various church groups and missionaries here, but rather they called us all Kirisuto-santachi—Christ people. They did not need to know the difference between the groups; they saw love being expressed and recognized the heart of Jesus. Amazing things happen when the church body comes together and functions as it’s meant to. It’s been awesome seeing the body of Christ across Japan and internationally ache for Tohoku and come together through prayer, giving, and service. We’ve been impressed to see God’s people want to find ways to serve. We’ve been able to provide some structure for people to come together and serve. Even without all the answers, there need to be leaders during crisis times who can provide openings for the body to move and work.

It has also been a joy to see Christians in Ishinomaki choose to work together to transform the city. While it has not always been smooth, we are thankful for the many opportunities to partner across missions and denominations for the sake of God’s kingdom. This past Saturday, for example, we saw one church group doing an outreach at a local special-needs school—they called up three other Christian groups to help out. That evening we had a prayer-and-worship night in our home in which friends from several groups participated. We want to see this happen more, as we recognize the unique ways God works through his body when we choose unity.

4. Team is vital for maximizing kingdom work

In a similar vein, we have also recognized the value of being part of a team. We need the variety of gifts that a team offers. Relief work is incredibly stressful, and burnout is prevalent. Being a team helps us keep track of the many necessary details. We love and care for each other and our families. We need each other. Working as a team has been a great blessing for each of us serving with Be One.

The team approach also validates our Christian witness. Gary Fujino wrote about the importance of the many layers of Christian witness that it takes to lead a Japanese person to Christ.¹ He conjectured that nonbelievers in this culture are more likely to see the greater picture of who the body of Christ is when they meet different Christians and have different experiences with them. This wonderful layering effect has happened in our local area with the many volunteers, missionaries, and Japanese Christians who have come to Ishinomaki to serve.

Through this layering of Christian witness, we have also found that God has done a wonderful work in the volunteers who have come through our doors. Many are now on the road to being missionaries or are following Jesus in new ways. We’ve seen non-believers come to help, and later return home with a newfound love in their Savior because they worked beside many Christians. Discipleship happens as we live out the gospel together. Kingdom work was always meant to be a team sport!

5. Kingdom work should be centered in faith and grounded in prayer

The work we are called to do is God’s work, not ours. Numerous times over the past few years, we’ve realized anew that it is God who is at work, and we are called to respond by faith.

In all of our team’s combined years of ministry in Japan, we have never had a chance to serve the Japanese like this before. We’ve never experienced the power of prayer so greatly. It has never been so easy or so natural to pray with nonbelievers. And because our community friends have witnessed the results, they come and ask us to pray.

When we first began doing relief ministry, we had no plan. We would gather in the morning to pray and ask God what he wanted us to do. In the evening we would gather and share testimonies that attested to how God had been at work.

God opens doors and prepares the way when we go into new places by faith. It was mind-blowing how much fell into place because we were sensitive to God leading us to the right people and places. We always had enough without being organized. We often felt like we witnessed the five thousand people being fed with our meager loaves and fishes. The power of daily reliance on God and the testimonies that emerged continue to impact how we do church planting today.

6. Our long-term calling is to the deep spiritual needs of a community

We came here to help with the relief and recovery needs after the tsunami. But it is the social and spiritual needs that existed before the disaster that have kept us here. That’s likely the real reason that God brought our families to live here.

We hypothesize that disasters bring out the deep spiritual and social needs of a community. These are deep places in people’s lives that are often well-covered in Japanese society, but the tsunami broke those facades down and revealed the messiness that was hidden away (everyone has it). This gave us an entrance. Broken families, divorce, high drop-out rate from school, suicide, and depression—these are the things that are emerging as symptoms of deep spiritual issues. Jesus has called us to bring his kingdom into the broken areas of this community. This is where we are focused in our ministry as we continue incarnational ministry.

Conclusion

Relief work is kingdom work. Through our involvement in relief work these last five years we’ve seen God’s kingdom expanded, and we have each experienced transformation. It’s been a great blessing to see God work and change lives, including our own, through the power of the Gospel. 

Compiled by Sue Plumb Takamoto with input and help from the Be One team: Chad & Jennifer Huddleston, Eric Takamoto, Joey & Ai Millard, Lora Christenberry, Beth Johnson, Esther Benedict, and Cam & Ayami Hartman

1. Gary Fujino, “Ukiyoe Church Planting: Layers and Evangelism in Japan” Japan Harvest (Fall 2006).