I know it has been a long time since my
last blog. So here is a quick update.
We now have 113 houses on our list to
do. We have finished 30 and are on pace to finish them all up before
March 10, our new end date.
One thing I keep hearing from
homeowners is how we have brought them hope when they were hopeless.
It is hard to understand from a distance how someone could loose all
their hope. Number one is they don’t know Jesus. The source of my
hope. The other big reason is everyone around here lost someone they
loved. Everyone. Some people were fortunate enough to not loose a
family member, but at least a few friends or acquaintances were swept
away. It is hard to fathom.
If were purely looking at the material
losses. Their house, the pride and joy of Japanese families for
generations, is damaged to the point that they live in temporary
shelters. Their car is likely gone. And a good number of them had
their place of work or their family owned business lost on that same
day.
When I was raising money for the World
Race I sold shirts that said sending hope around the world. They
were great shirts (thanks Wesley), but I never felt like I was in a
place that didn’t already have hope. That is not the case here. I
get the honor and privilege of actually sending people hope.
Time after time people here tell us
about how they had lost hope and felt depressed after the tsunami.
They mark the day they met us as a turning point. The day we meet
is always memorable, but the day we start work really begins the
change that I can see. It is one thing to meet a strange foreigner
promising to help you. Its another to actually see them doing it.
After each house is completed, we have
a ceremony and invite a local pastor to speak a message and ask for
God’s blessing on the family. At the very end we give the homeowner
a chance to speak. This is a video from one. I started the camera a
little late and I missed the part where he talks about how dark and
depressed he was after the tsunami. It is perhaps appropriate as
this is where God steps further into the story.
Hope from Craig Thompson on Vimeo.
It is really interesting that as we are
careful to try to never miss an opportunity to share God with the the
people we meet they notice it. More than once we have forgotten to
pray and the people who aren’t believers have reminded us to. They
say that praying with us gives them peace. A homeowner said today
that he is sure the reason we are able to do such good work so
quickly and without injuries is because of our prayers. What an
amazing testament to God breaking down communication barriers that he
can see the Lords hand in the work and give Him the glory!
What a blessing it is to give hope to
the hopeless.
This last video is just for fun. I
spent most of yesterday taking loads of rubble to the local dump.
The guys working there noticed a couple of “gajins” (foreigners)
struggling to unload the only truck around without a dump and helped
us out. I always get a kick out of the cranes that are on every
street picking up trash look so much like dinosaurs. This one is a
pretty good example.
