rry for so long between updates.
We’ve been super busy working on our houses. We now have 1 done 2
started and 7 on the wait list.
Since the earthquake our homeowner,
Mrs. Endo, has warmed even more to us, which is hard to imagine. We
really prayed hard for one house to work on so we could gain the
trust of the community and God delivered big time.
She stops us daily at 10 and 3 and
forces us to sit down and eat pastries and drink all kinds of
refreshing drinks. In and effort not to be rude we’re forced to
partake. The afternoon usually includes ice-cream. It is really
amazing at how receptive she is to us and how grateful she is for our
presence. She thanks each of us at least a dozen times a day.
For the last two weeks she has been
bringing in friends, neighbors, and family members daily to show off
our work. She is defiantly our best saleswoman as I think 7 of the
10 houses on our list have been direct referrals from her.
Last week while I was tearing down old,
moldy wallboard I made an amazing discovery. At the top of the
panel, inches above the waterline I found a small envelope with a few
old Japanese characters and the word “Photograph” in English.
I stopped working and immediately went
to find our new friend.
As a whole, the Japanese are very
reserved with their emotions. And since the last big quake the same
has been true of Mrs. Endo. When I handed her the envelope she
slowly opened it and as she took the photos out a tear appeared in
her eye.
She quickly wiped it away, but I knew I
had found something special. It turns out the pictures were of her
father-in-law, who is Grandma’s late husband. He passed away in 1985
so finding them was a huge blessing for the both of them.
She was so excited she told us her
whole family history and told us about the amazing charcoal paintings
of her ancestors that are hanging in her house.
She later shared more of her story from
March 11. Immediately after the 3 minute long quake ended, the
tsunami warning came loud and clear. They knew what was coming.
Grandma urged her to go ahead to high ground and leave her behind.
However, Mrs. Endo would have none of that.She ran outside and found
a young man heading up the hill to come and convince her to evacuate.
The tsunami waves flooded the entire
region for hours and communication was down so she had no idea if her
husband was ok. It turns out he was working on the hill that we live
on, and was worried about his wife and mother.
He waded though the muck and climbed
through forests for hours to reach the hill where he knew they would
go if they had made it. I can only imagine the scene as they were
all reunited. After many hours the water had still not receded so a
helicopter came to take them to a shelter. It was a very small
chopper so they had to leave their blankets behind even though it was
near freezing.
Grandma needed some kind of heart
medicine so as soon as they arrived at the shelter she was separated
and taken off by the Japanese Self Defense Force. The shelter was
overrun with people to the point that everyone had to sleep on their
side because there was simply not enough room for anyone to sleep on
their back. Mrs. Endo described having a mans head right next to her
face and someone’s feet squashing the top of her head. They got one
cup of rice for breakfast and dinner and a powerbar for lunch. They
stayed there for almost a week.
After days of searching, they finally
found the hospital where Grandma had been taken to and were reunited
once more.
Life is not all work and sad stories
though. Last Sunday afternoon the sun was out and the waves were
perfect so we grabbed a few boogie boards from under the house and
headed to the beach. I really love the ocean so it was a treat to
catch some waves. Even in such a joyful moment, it is still
impossible to escape the reality of what happened here almost 6
months ago. We had to constantly move down the beach to avoid the
tide carrying us into the shredded cargo containers that littered
much of the beach. Happily most of them were removed this week.
