“We do not have God in Japan.” I’ve been pondering that phrase a lot in recent months. It’s from a conversation my mom had with a Japanese woman when I was a kid back in Macon, Ga. Nearly 30 years later, I walked on Japanese soil for the first time with members of a mission team representing CRASH Japan and Global Samaritan Resources. (Read my earlier blog posts about the trip.) Our team helped clean up and distribute aid nearly four months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which claimed more than 15,500 lives.

A group of believers from opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean gathered here to practice praise songs for the upcoming Asian Mission Forum, scheduled for late July in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Appropriately enough, the song they practiced is titled “East to West.” It was written by Gary Miller, a founding member of Vocal Union who also sang with Acappella. Miller, 60, died March 12 — one day after the 2011 Japan earthquake.

“The earthquake was not an act of God. Compassion shown afterward was the act of God.” That quote appears in the latest newsletter from David and Mary Nelson, native missionaries in New Zealand. It’s a paraphrase of something an Anglican priest said in the wake of a 6.3-magnitude earthquake that destroyed much of the city of Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island.

New on The Christian Chronicle’s website, you’ll find an updated story on churches’ response to the Japan earthquake and tsunami: Why should Christians in the U.S. send money across an ocean to help a wealthy nation recover from a natural disaster? To put it simply, “No country could absorb a disaster like this,” said Jonathan Straker, a master’s student in missions at Abilene Christian University in Texas.

In the video below, News9 in Oklahoma City interviews Paul and Stacey Herrington, a Helpers in Missions couple serving in Haruna, about 100 miles north of Tokyo.
They are joined by Kent Hartman, a missionary in residence at Oklahoma Christian University. Hartman was an hour from landing in Tokyo when the earthquake struck. Hartman was flying to Japan to visit the Herringtons.

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Other Japan earthquake coverage:
– Facebook group focuses on prayer, relief for Japan earthquake victims
– Christian relief organizations prepare to respond to Japan disaster
– Prayers needed for ‘quite desperate’ situation …

I was in Parajok, a rural community in South Sudan, when I heard about the earthquake in Japan through a short-wave radio broadcast. The Parajok Church of Christ, which meets under the shade of a blue United Nations tarp and thatch, said a special prayer for the victims of the quake.

Chris Rosser, a former Church of Christ missionary to Japan, reports that the situation in Japan is “quite desperate” and that prayers are needed.

A Facebook group designed to help streamline Church of Christ relief efforts for victims of the Japan earthquake has grown to more than 1,300 members. Jonathan Walter Straker and his wife, Michiko, started the Facebook page, called “Working And Praying for Japan Earthquake Victims.” The page contains firsthand accounts of needs and experiences from Japanese church members.