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| Kiyoi Oikawa, 74, draws water from a well near her ruined home in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture AFP/GETTY IMAGES |
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/their-country-may-be-shattered-but-their-spirit-is-unbroken-2266936.htmlThe closing paragraph is worth reading even if you don't follow the above link:
Above all, what will stay with me after these communities are rebuilt, the Fukushima plant is encased in its concrete coffin and the iodine, caesium and plutonium has stopped seeping from its bowels, is the way Japanese people carried themselves during this crisis. I'm thinking now of the smiles I saw around Iwate, of the many old people and children in the prefecture who shoved food into my hands and told ME to keep going. I think these qualities are social, not genetic, built up over generations, and possibly stronger in the northeast where life has traditionally been harsher. But whatever the reason, it works. And I'm staying.So true . . . and yet, at the same time, this is a nation where, every year, over 30,000 people take their own life. That is more than the total number of dead and missing in the recent earthquake/tsunami disaster. Join with us in praying that the good news of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ will go forth with power in these regions and that, by God's grace, many will be born again to a living hope.
1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.2Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,3though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah 4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God . . . .
Psalm 46 (English Standard Version)
