Celebrating

Freedom's calling, chains are falling,

Hope is dawning bright and true.

Day is breaking; night is quaking,

God is making all things new!

- "Jesus Saves"

Blessed Easter!

When students go missing...

Koriyama, I've heard, has higher radiation levels than Fukushima. In both of these areas, schools are not letting children outside for recess. In Koriyama especially, however, the families seem worried for their children's health and are not letting the kids be out and about very much.

Can you imagine being a 4-year-old boy, kept indoors for over a month while waiting for radiation to clear? The kids aren't so happy about it all.

Partly because of this, we all tramped outside to wish a family farewell from English classes yesterday afternoon (seize any opportunity to get some air!), and the boys decided to run races around the block for a bit. The mothers and I were still chatting, and because the boys would run around the block and come back to us, the moms decided to allow them a few minutes of running free before we all had to come back indoors again.

Long story short, running around the block led to all of us scouring the neighborhood for an hour or so, realizing that the boys had gone missing. As the minutes and streets went by, my thoughts changed from, "They're probably just around this corner..." to "Wow...God, please help us find these boys. Please keep them safe!" to "God, they could be anywhere!! Please guide my steps..."

I should comment that I get lost in this neighborhood OFTEN, and at the time of the last prayer, I didn't really know where I was even...but my eyes spied a small alley, jutting off of the main road I was walking on...that alley led to another, curving around a corner...and to another...and brightly-colored playground equipment came into view. And there were our two small, dark-headed boys, calling to each other and romping together, relishing their freedom and enjoying time with friends.

Whew. Thank you, God.

I called to them and they came running, asking first whether everyone was mad at them and then asking how I had found them. "I prayed...and I found you. God helped me." The answer was the truth. The boys then asked if I'd been to that park before. "Nope, never...now, who knows how to get back to church?" was my answer and question. One boy paused in the street and looked at me thoughtfully. "When you prayed, did God answer right away?"

Yeah. Yeah, God answered pretty quickly when I asked Him to guide my steps.

The boys and I both paused then--all of us, I think, struck by very tangible God-presence and the miracle of answered prayer.

We made the phone call back to the others, letting them know the lost had been found. And then we prayed and talked our way back to the church. There were hugs and scoldings and reassurings and tears...and then we trooped in for a prayer of thanks and evening Bible study.

I'm thankful for a living God, who is not just part of a book or story...but who hears and sees and answers.

New opportunities

I was expecting this blog to give an update regarding relief efforts, donations, students, etc. I expected to come back to Japan and do some volunteering, visit the evacuation stations around the city, and join others in prayer. I expected to keep praying for more students, more opportunities for relationships, more connections in the community...

I wasn't expecting to almost double our teaching hours. I wasn't expecting to start spending 75% of my time teaching with a different English company. I wasn't expecting to be emailing information about open job positions to other Christians, asking if they want to come teach in Fukushima.

Apparently, a few new things are being set into motion.

Because Fukushima City falls within the evacuation zone the USA has placed around the nuclear power plant, many English teachers have left the city. Schools and businesses all over the city have experienced shifts in personnel, and two English companies have contacted us to see if we could help connect them with teachers or teach some of their classes ourselves. As of the last 48 hours or so, Cindy and I will be teaching at the two churches (Fukushima and Koriyama) and three other places. I'm not sure how many more students that puts us in contact with--but I know that it's a rather large number! While my eyebrows are still up in the air a little over the changes in schedule and location and teaching this means for us, it's exciting to see new opportunities spring into existence--literally overnight!

Please pray for relationships of blessing and quick wisdom for new classes, and for God's provision and guidance in filling the open teaching positions here! And, as I'm reflecting about hopping on my bicycle and heading to the new school, can you pray that I end up finding these new locations and classrooms over these next few days? :)

Wondering what doors will open next...

Love,

Haidee

Dark uncertainties and sun-lit blossoms

April 12th, en route to Fukushima...

Four different earthquakes/aftershocks have already interrupted my travel. The first two led to a late arrival into Narita airport and the decision to either set out with darkness, rain, and half-working trains or hole up in a hotel for the night and try trains or buses the next day. The darkness and decision was eerily similar to the night I left Fukushima several weeks ago, not knowing how far transportation would get me or where I would stay. There I was--same darkness, same miserable feelings of cold and confusion...

But I awoke this morning, after the blessing of finding a cheap nearby hotel, to the sunrise and cherry blossoms gently swaying in the breeze--dainty pink petals decorating what had been, three weeks ago, bare brown. And it struck me again that darkness and dread do not--will not--last forever. And it's good.

...I'm currently on a train. I still don't know when my train will move or when it will stop, when alarms will sound and the earth will shake...I do know that this is the slowest ride I've ever experienced from the airport into Tokyo. :) And I look at the thinly-masked anxiety on the faces around me and know that dread and uncertainty are real things. BUT...through the window the sunlight streams in, and pockets of pink blossoms are everywhere throughout the city...and I am making a conscious decision to remember that more real and certain is God's creative grace and abundant provision.

A month ago, right before this whole earth-shaking journey started, I began a list of thanksgivings...will you let me continue it now? It seems appropriate timing...and a way to think of "whatever is true, noble, right, lovely, admirable..." (Phil. 4)...

I'm thankful for:

- the beauty of blossoms in sunlight, safe flights, hours of sleep in a warm location, trains moving this morning...

- so many conversations, questions, prayers, gifts, and other encouragement from friends and family in America

- meeting my new niece, hugs from grandparents and others...

- unabashed smiles of joy from my brother and his bride on their wedding day

- walks among quiet birches, mugs of coffee, and shelves of old books

- games of boggle, good-natured family competition, laughing 'til the tears come

- the unique grace and mystery of love

...and now I can add that I'm thankful for bags finally set down on the floor of my apartment, sleep on my own futon, morning coffee with Cindy, and the opportunities (yet unknown) with students today... :)

Love,

Haidee