Country towns rise early: TONO’s chime goes off at 6:00. I got up and had devotions, started my sermon for next week, grabbed some breakfast, and set out with Karen Ellrick, one half of the Tono house team. The Ellricks have no wheels, so Karen needed a ride for shopping. I needed a whole lot of drywall. We asked about drywall and insulation for the Ofunato Church at the information center near the station. We were directed to a building supplier who had what I needed. Half of the total amount was all the truck would carry; I will have to get the rest tomorrow. Karen shopped for household goods at the nearby 100 yen store, and I bought a huge amount of office supplies for the OFUNATO City Office. They are running on paper rather than computers these days, and were running short.
Then it was off to the home center for some odds and ends, and to meet the Aomori pastor’s team ( Pastors Kanno, Igarashi, Oda and Hamada) . We dropped stuff of at the Tono house, picked up some tools, and headed down the mountain for another day on the coast.
A group from the Baptist Church in Kitakami, lead by Pastor Sasaki, was busy cleaning the Ofunato Church. We moved the drywall into the sanctuary, and everyone pitched in. Pastor Kanno and I went to the Ofunato City Office to drop off supplies sent down from Aomori. The pastor talked to officials in charge of shelters, to get an idea what we in Aomori could do from now on. I talked to the people in the welfare tent, and delivered the office supplies. Both groups are trying to keep one step ahead of the situation. It is a struggle, and there will be an ongoing need for consumables for some time to come.
We returned to the church. Everyone was busy washing mud off the salvageable items (not many of those), and cleaning windows (those that hadn’t been broken) and floors (which got muddy again- but a lot less muddy).Finally, we started removing the last of the remaining drywall. As it was in the small rooms, it was time consuming. We were not completely finished when we knocked off for the day and headed back up the mountain.
After supper we had a debriefing meeting. Pastor Kanno had worked on the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake; he feels the response this time is much quicker and more organized. The pastors decided to split up and check for other needy places tomorrow. As we cannot find insulation anywhere, we will buy and store the rest of the drywall, and then they will leave me to work on the church alone.
When we got back to Tono, there was a rental van in front of the house. Ellricks were tired of hitchhiking. This will make their job a lot easier.
Good progress has been made, but there is a LONG ROAD ahead, both for the church project, and for recovery.
Please pray on for all of us here.
John
Places:
TONO – small town higher up , away from the coast where CRASH has its base camp
OTSUCHI – a coastal town that was largely decimated by the tsunami
(Tono and Otsuchi have actually amalgamated – but most people still think of them as separate towns.)
OFUNATO – a coastal city that was very badly hit by the tsunami
