Tohoku pastors’ testimonies

‘United beyond differences’

by Yoshiya Kondō, coordinator, 3.11 Iwate Church Network / Pastor, Morioka Bible Baptist Church

I’ve served a local church in Iwate Prefecture, and have been involved with the 3.11 Iwate Church Network (“3.11 Iwate”), which was formed in the wake of the disaster. What have we learned since the 2011 earthquake? One of the things I perceive is that local churches have learned to overcome differences and gaps to be equal partners with their neighbors.

Following the earthquake, a number of Christian workers moved to Iwate Prefecture. Over time, the workers began to seek a shift in their role from that of outside helpers to equal partners with their neighbors. Local churches have also learned to share the good news with their communities as equals, instead of offering it from a superior position.

Equal partnerships are spreading into relationships between the local churches, too. Larger churches and organizations are often in a position to help those smaller than themselves. But when relationships are regarded as the stronger helping the weaker, there can be unhealthy manipulations of power. The Iwate churches have learned to discard such a relational view. Instead, they have adopted an attitude of getting to know their neighbor churches as equal partners, sharing their pain, and helping to meet their needs.

New churches have been planted one after another in Iwate Prefecture over the last nine years. When we began disaster relief work in 2011, church planting was not our foremost priority. As Christians developed friendships with people in their community, prayers for church planting began. Some churches were born at the request of a local community. Prior to the disaster, I would often receive news about local churches in Iwate closing down or ministries discontinuing. Having gone through tremendous pain and sorrow, Iwate Prefecture is now experiencing God’s profound mercy. God has revealed his hope through the churches. We are committed to overcoming differences and gaps, denominational or otherwise, as churches under one and the same master, our Lord.

‘A picture of Fukushima today’

by Keiji Kida, former coordinator, Fukushima Christian Conference / Pastor, Kōriyama Evangelical Christ Church

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fukushima Christian Conference (FCC) had to cancel the 3.11 Memorial Meeting that had been scheduled for March 3 this year. Kazuhiro Ishikawa, Director of Café de Fukushima (311fukushima.org) was going to be the speaker. In place of the meeting, FCC live-streamed his speech entitled “Nine years from the nuclear meltdown—Fukushima today based on dialogue with 3,000 people for the last two years.”

Ishikawa is a retired businessman from Miyagi Prefecture. Immediately following the 2011 disaster, he began to help those who were affected by the nuclear meltdown. He regularly visits the reconstruction housing complexes in Fukushima Prefecture to help residents.

During his speech, Ishikawa presented an overall picture of current Fukushima through a number of statistics, and then shared some of the people’s stories he gathered through the ministry of Café de Fukushima.

Around 40,000 people are still evacuated from their homes within or outside of the prefecture. On May 1, 2018, there were 758 elementary and junior high school students in Fukushima towns and villages where an evacuation order was enforced and since canceled; just before the disaster there were 7,710. As of December 2019, the number of disaster-related deaths in the prefecture since March 11, 2011, totaled 2,286. This exceeds the number of deaths directly caused by the disaster in this prefecture, and is the largest among the three most affected prefectures (Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima). The number of disaster-related suicides in the prefecture is almost double that in Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures. The problem of solitary deaths among evacuees has been growing among the residents of the reconstruction housing complexes, as 40% of the residents are 65 or older.

Café de Fukushima has been trying to provide an inviting space for people to connect with each other. Ishikawa invites the residents moving into the new housing complexes and the neighborhood community residents to the café events so that they can mingle. Ishikawa believes that, when his team members walk side by side with the people who have been affected by the disaster, the name of the Lord is glorified right then and there.