Home Sweet Home

It's almost 10:30pm.  This is Barb writing for Dave, who is soaking in the tub and I think has fallen asleep!  I know I can speak for him and all the team and say thank you for your prayers and for following them on this journey.  May God receive all the glory!  Sleep well, weary guys!

Japan Relief Trip - Day 8 - Thursday

This morning we left our beloved Takayama cabin and made the trip back to Chiba in 7 hours and 40 minutes.

 Front view of the cabin

A wildflower in our front yard

 Lots of highway workers

 More tsunami damaged vehicles

 GPS not working anymore

 On the highway. Look closely - he's plugged in!

A cemetery 

 All these next pics are of people we passed on the highway. Just a little fun on a long trip...

 OK, enough of that! Here's a few more pix...

Japanese apartment buildings called danchi

You have to read and think quick

Red parts indicate where the traffic jams are at the moment

At the toll booth

Finally back in Chiba and ended the day with a visit to the "kaiten zushi" place - motorized revolving sushi counter

Sweet dreams, and see you tomorrow!

Japan Relief Trip - Day 7 Wednesday

Today was our last day of work in Ishinomaki. It has been a great time of kingdom service.

The project leader was Jordan Foxwell, an MK who knew our children Dave and Erin back in CAJ (Christian Academy in Japan) days. 

Each house crawl space has several inches of tsunami mud sediment that has to be removed by shovel and bagged for disposal.

Some bags of mud stacked outside

This is what Dave fell through, trying to carry too heavy a bag in a late afternoon darkened room when he was too tired.

 But it's all worth it when a house comes together...

...and a family gets to move back in. This is the Abe family, a mother, daughter and grandchild. They were swept away in the tsunami and separated. The mother was able to swim to an unknown house and got into a second story window where she spent the night till the water subsided. The daughter became exhausted and lost sight of her daughter and was ready to give up when the daughter suddenly popped to the surface, and they too were able to get into a second floor window, and were all finally reunited. The mom is holding the family nameplate which is affixed to the entry gate. She is waiting to be able to attach it to their newly refurbished house. Thank you for your generous gifts which make all this possible!

Jim standing in the doorway of another house we worked on

This is a house dedication ceremony, the event we all wait for when songs of thanksgiving and prayers are offered to the Lord. The families don't seem to mind. This is another example of how the tsunami "washed" the gospel into homes we would never have had the opportunity to enter otherwise.

This is a place called Matsushima which translates as "Pine Island," a bit different from the Lake Murray place by the same name!

May there come a day when not one of the over 4,000 islands that comprise Japan has not heard the gospel of grace of our Lord. Thank you again for your prayers, money and love given to the dear people of Japan.

Tomorrow we head back to Chiba, a 5 to 9 hour trip, depending on traffic and how often we have to stop.

Japan Relief Trip - Day 6 - Tuesday

 Starting the day tearing out sheet rock, flooring and digging out tsunami mud

 We tore out all the way to floor joists and then got down between the joists to shovel out tsunami mud

And of course we had to eat

The Samaritan's Purse truck - we worked through their office in Ishinomaki

They have done 60 houses out of 100

Obento lunches were delivered to us

Inside walls cleared of sheet rock

David and son Tim from Austin TX - the team we joined up with

My lunch

 Lunch time!

The owner's god shelf intact - we respected her wishes

Wilson and Jim lunching in the van

Piles of trash sorted and bagged

Another Samaritan's Purse house - just met this team

Paul and I walked around to find people we had helped during our first trip back in April, and found 3 of the 4 home! It was a great reunion and good contact with them.

 Paul with Chad, another guy on the Austin TX team

Stefan tearing out sheet rock

Evans cleaning up sheet rock, preparing for the new stuff

Floor coming up

Then Dave fell through the floor and hit two joists. He has five sore spots and is not looking forward to waking up tomorrow. Wait, let me rephrase that.

Paul took me to a nearby clinic where the doc and nurses seemed to have a great time fixing me up. We made them pose for a picture. 

Thank you for your continued prayers!