Seattle Bound

From the time that the decision for me to leave was made, it was a scramble to figure out how to get me to a safer area. Thanks to Yoko, this hurdle became much more manageable. Yoko is the daughter to Pastor Hisashi and Junko, and she is a travel planner guru. She planned my trip to Korea, and has booked bus rides for me down to Yokohama a few times. This time, the travel arrangements were much more difficult because the transportation picture was very different then the other times she planned for me.

Due to the mass number of people trying to leave, trains not running, and the airport that was damaged by the tsunami, our options of finding a way out were limited. It was around 3:15 when we began to figure out a game plan for the first part of my journey. Our goal was to get me to the west side of Japan. There I would be safe from any earthquakes, but more importantly, it will bring me a safe distance from the radiation. We found an airport in the town of Tsuroka that flew to Haneda International Airport in Tokyo. According to Yoko, flying out of Tokyo would be the best way to go. I really wanted to leave town that night, just incase the radiation got worse. There was a flight leaving Tsuroka at 2pm the next day. Since that was the earliest I could head south, I said I’d take it. We checked the bus schedule and there was a bus leaving Sendai at 4:30. It was time to cram because now it was around 3:30 and I needed to go pack. I ran home and swapped some stuff from my emergency backpack for clothes. I ran back to the church were I quickly said my goodbyes to the Sasaki’s and my 3 friends at church, hopped in a car and headed for downtown.

We were already pushing my luck with this bus because it did not have reserved seating. We were praying that the line would not be too long. If I didn’t get on this bus, I wouldn’t be leaving town tonight. We got there around 4:20, and there were about 20 people in line in front of me. The bus dude seemed to think that there would be enough room for me. When the bus came, I said my last goodbyes to Yoko and Hiromitsu and found my seat. I was now on my way to Yamagata, and then I needed to get off and wait around a couple of hours for another bus that would take me up to Tsuroka. When I got on the bus in Sendai, I had no where I was going to sleep, but Yoko told me she would find a hotel for me to stay at and would email me the info once she had one reserved. While I was in Yamagata waiting for the next bus, I got an email of telling me the hotel that I was going to stay in for the night. Thank God I was able to get a place for the night, because Northern Japan was being hammered by a winter storm. It was -7 degrees centigrade and dumping snow.

Once I got all checked in at the hotel, I hopped online and tried to get in contact with my friend Billy. Billy, if you haven’t heard this sub-story, came out to visit me and was flying into Tokyo at the time of the earthquake. He then was rerouted to Nagoya, and unfortunately, we were unable to meet up. But, that was about to change. We had plans to meet each other at Haneda International Airport, and then figure out how to leave this country. We had heard that the US embassy was flying Americans out of Haneda and Narita international airport to “Asia Safe Zones.” We figured this would be the easiest way to get out. We began figuring out a game plan for the next day when I arrive in Tokyo. We wanted to figure out these US Embassy flights, but we knew that there would be TONS of people and probs TONS of people thinking the same thing as us. Anywho, I eventually went to sleep. I woke up bright and early at 6:00, went up and ate some breakfast and checked out of the Washington hotel (which I thought was a very fitting hotel for me to stay in). Because I didn’t want to get stuck waiting in super long lines, I thought it would be a good idea to get to the airport at 9:00 for my 2:00 flight. When I got there, I realized that it was a super small airport, and getting there that early was pointless, but I went inside to check it. As I was checking in, I noticed that there were 2 seats available on a 9:30 flight. Apparently it was no problem to switch to that flight. So, I called up Billy, told him that I would be in Tokyo at 10:30. And just like that, I was movin’ south.

It was great to finally see Billy, a little ironic that he met me at the airport, but it was good to finally meet up. I guess earlier that morning, Billy heard that the US embassy was flying Americans out to Taipei, Taiwan at 7pm that night, but only out of Narita airport. Since there was noting to loose, we thought we’d shoot for it, being that we had not plan at this point. So we hopped on a bus and traveled an hour and a half east to Narita International airport. Upon arrival, a sea of travelers and long lines met us. It was a bit overwhelming, but not as bad as the news was making it out to be. We looked around for these US Embassy people who were supposedly warring “bright eye catching orange vests.” We couldn’t find these people anywhere, so we started to ask around, but no body seemed to know what we were talking about. At some point we realized that we were wasting time trying to find the embassy people. So instead I started asking different airlines about flights out of the country. I was shocked to hear some of the prices they were asking for a one-way ticket back to America. The most expensive was $7,000. The average price for a one-way ticket was $6,500. It was time to slow down and think. Billy pulled out his computer and started looking at flights on orbits. Billy is another person who is super good at figuring travel stuff out and was able to find a flight on Air Canada that left the next night at 7:30.

Now that we had a way out of Japan, Oh, I should mention that Billy’s return ticket was scheduled to leave 2 hours before this one that I had just bought. We hadn’t really eaten much that day; so we decided to find a place to eat, and then find a hotel. The next morning we came back to the airport and waited around for a long, long time. I had plenty of time to get my family souvenirs, but I was becoming very anxious to just fly out. When I checked in, I found out that this flight was not direct to Vancouver like I originally though, we had to drop down at Osaka first. It wasn’t a big deal, but it just meant that I was going to be waiting around longer, thus delaying my arrival to Vancouver by 3 hours. Luckily I was able to sleep for a lot of the flight, so it went by pretty fast. It was great to finally arrive on North American soil. I was a customs and Immigration agent away from meeting my family. I’m almost home.

I have some sub stories from this main story that I won’t write about, so if you’d like to hear them, you can ask about my last meal in Japan, or Air Canada’s in flight entertainment. The most important part of this story is to see Gods faithfulness through it all. He was with me every step of the way, opened up all of the right doors, and most importantly brought me home safely. Now, not to sound braggy or anything, but as stressful sounding that this trip back may sound, I was not worried any step of the way. There is one reason for that. It was simply, God. I knew that if God wanted me to come back to Seattle, he would get me there. I was able to rely on him to take me every step of the way, so there was no reason for me to worry, or become stressed about what might happen next because I knew and had complete faith in God that he would protect me.

Learning how to live in the peace of God has been the most valuable learning experience of this past year. I have realized that if we listen to God’s voice, and do what he wants us to do, there is no reason at all to get worried. God has a plan for us, and he will bring us to the places that he wants us to be. That is such a great thing, because it is not our problem or our responsibility to know how we will get there. The only thing that we are responsible for is hearing and obeying Gods voice. God will provide everything else.

Radiation Can Create Difficult Decisions

When Wednesday night came to a close, the Sasaki’s and I had a very long decision about how we could use this earthquake to reach out to so many people that needed to feel Gods love and how we could continue to focus our efforts of outreaching to students now that my English classes would be put on hold. We also talked about my future in Japan through this disaster. I shared with them that I would stay and continue to be a support to the church in every way possible. Since I am a healthy able body, they could use my strength if they needed it, and they could also use my light hearted spirit in this time of fear and sadness. I had a new type of excited energy inside of me, ready to continue my service at the Ayashi Church…or so I though.

When I woke up Thursday morning on March 17^th, the US Embassy had put out a report advising US citizens within a 50 mile radius to evacuate the area, or if that was not possible, to stay indoors. I obviously needed to figure out how far away I was. According to Google Earth, the church is 52 miles away from the reactor at question. Great! Right on the fence of safety. If the winds were to blow up north, how much more at risk of being exposed to radiation would I be. It also didn’t help that it was dumping snow, which apparently picks up a lot of radiation.

I went online and started chatting with my dad who supported me in whatever decision made to make. This was great for me to hear because I have a hard time listening when people tell me what they think is best, especially in this situation because no one could understand what was going on around me, or feel the emotions of those around me. All anyone outside of Japan could understand were the frightening images cycling through every news channel.

What people didn’t understand was that we as a church has come together and become a close family. During the week I slept at the church with some friends, ate all 3 meals at the church with the same friends, and played with little kids at the church since they did not have school. Despite all that was going on around us, our church had turned in a place of refuge for children to distract their minds from all the devastation that was happening around us. I loved being apart of this and this was something that I did not want to part from, and it was a side of this disaster that friends and family were not aware of.

With all of that being said, I know that this was a decision that I could not make on my own. It didn’t matter what I decided, my decision would have a huge impact on both parties. If I decided to stay, I know that the hundreds of people praying for me would continue to worry about my health and safety amidst all of this radiation. If I were to leave, I knew that I would be creating a big hole in the church that I’m serving and that many students would have a hard time with my absence. There came to a point where I realized that there was no “right” decision, but there was a best decision. Well then, what’s the best decision?

Back in May upon my decision weather or not to move to Japan I realized that there are two questions that I needed to ask myself. Is this what I want? Or, is this what God wants? It is easy to follow and get what you want, but sometimes it’s not in the best interest for you. I have found great peace in living for God and doing what he wants me to do. If you do what God wants, you can live with the peace of mind that he will protect you and take care of your every need. So far, in the past 8 months God has show me his protection and he has in fact proven that in the past weeks 9.0 earthquake and tsunami. So, I started praying and seeking direction. Now, I did not hear a deep voice in my head saying, “Kris, I want you to go back to Seattle.” Instead, many little pieces started coming together and once enough pieces were put together I could see what God wanted me to do. Now, I could probably write pages and pages about this, but I will try to keep it short to a few things that were reviled to me that afternoon.

Since the time of the earthquake and news of the Fukushima nuclear reactors in some sort of melt down, my inbox was being flooded by friends, parents of friends and extended family encouraging me to come home. At first glance when I read these, I felt touched and overwhelmed by all the thoughts and prayers that were going out to me. I appreciated their concern, but I didn’t want to be persuaded by the wants of other people because that is not what God wanted for me. But on March 17^th, I started thinking about the value of my life and why God has put me here in Japan. I believe that one of the major reasons why I was here in Japan was to be a light in darkness and to share his love through my ability and wantingness to serve and love others. With this new development of being 50 miles away from the reactors, I saw this as a warning for me. I had complete faith that God would keep this church and the people who serve here safe, but this was something that people on the other side of the ocean to understand. This was the main reason why I didn’t want to leave because I knew that God would keep me safe. But then there was the overshadowing thought that if the winds were to change, I could possible be quarantined inside where I would no longer be able to be a light, thus my work would have stopped. I also realized that if anything tragic were to happen to me, many people state side would be affected by my stubbornness to stay.

An idea popped into my mind. It was an idea that would be difficult for me to work out, but I believe this realization came from God. I realized that the thing that was keeping me here in Japan was me, I wanted to be here. Where and what did God want me to do? I believe that he wanted me to go back to Seattle and continue my ministry there, where I could be more effective. God has given me a great story to tell, and my faith has grown so much in the past eight months, I could share my story and encourage others and continue shining Gods light to those who have been praying and supporting me.

Later that day, I sat down with pastor Hisashi and his wife Junko and had a 2 to 3 hour conversation expressing my concerns about staying, but also explained how difficult it would be for me to leave. The understood where I was coming from, and we eventually came to a mutual decision that I would continue to serve the Ayashi Church as a missionary to Seattle until it was safe for me to come back to Japan. This was no easy decision by any means, but the fact that it was what God wanted me to do, made it so much easier to leave.

Getting out was no easy task either. It would be a race against time and weather to get out of there before the possibility of winds changing that could possibly delay me departure from Sendai. But, I had no worries. I believed that God wanted me to come home, and if he wanted me to come home then he would bring me home safely. The Next 48hrs would be an adventure that I will never forget that led me to take 5 buses, stay in 2 hotels, ride on three airplanes and visit 5 airports…but more on that later.

Thanks so much for the prayers!

Easter Japan Earthquake | Saturday, March 12

After a rough nights sleep of waking up to earthquake alarms, my eyes no longer felt heavy. Junko made some tea for me and Isa san, an older church member that also slept at their house. Being that the power was still out and we had no working stove, we kept ourselves entertained by keeping ourselves warm and listening to the news reports. We continued to feel a number of earthquakes, each of us questioning weather or not it would be another big one. When we got the morning newspaper, we were able to see for the first time many of the images of the communities and towns that are not too far from where we are. We continued to realize how blessed we were. Perhaps it was just me, but I could have never imagined seeing that amount of devastation compared to how intact everything is around here. The news had started reporting that they were finding hundreds of bodies here, and hundreds over there. We still couldn’t believe how fortunate we were to have a place to shelter us, and that we were all safe.

Later that morning, one of the Sunday school kids that live near by rode his bike to the church and wanted me to come outside and play with him. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining. I was torn on what to do. I really wanted to keep trying to somehow find Internet or a phone connection to better report my safety to friends and family, but alas, I gave up and played with Kazuki. A couple of friends named Chikara and Josh came out as well and we all played a round of bocci ball.

Later that day, we had our normal church staff meeting because we needed to prepare for out Sunday morning service. We did our normal Saturday cleaning but this time we changed the look of our sanctuary. In order to keep people warm in a cold sanctuary, we brought in a kerosene stove and had the pews horseshoed around our only source of heat. After we accomplished our normal clean up of the church, we stayed a bit longer to clean up the mess that Friday’s earthquake made of the libraries. In our small English library, both bookshelf’s had tipped over, making big piles of books that needed replacing. In the Japanese library, many books fell off the shelf. In our photocopy room, reams of paper had fallen off the shelf making a decent sized mess on the floor. As inconvenient as it was, it by no means compared to the devastation that had happened to many families. I couldn’t help forget how thankful I was to actually be sleeping and eating under a roof, in a bed.

We didn’t think that any children would show up for our weekly Saturday School, but three kids ended up coming, despite the constant earthquakes throughout the day. Along with the 3 children, there were many young adults that help out at the church to entertain them. Eight of us had a blast running around the church playing a Saturday School favorite, Capture the Flag. When 5:00 rolled around, the kids went home and I stood there and reflected on the day, I had so much fun. But a sense of guilt quickly filled its place. I felt terrible for forgetting about those thousands of people that were missing, and people looking for loved ones and people that no longer have a home. But again, I said a prayer of thanksgiving to God for protecting us and giving us so much.

Since it was around dinnertime, Chikara, Tomoari and I were invited to join the Sasaki’s for dinner. Junko had prepared a delicious spaghetti dinner. This time I was not only thankful for food, but also very thankful for being around people that treat me like one of their family and care about me.

After we ate our meal, we all thought that it would be safest to stay in large numbers. So Tomoari and I slept over at Chikara’s apartment. Before we settled in at Chikara’s for the night, we stopped by my apartment to grab some supplies and to stock up as much water as I could. I filled my bathtub and every pot and empty bottle I had, incase of our water being turned off. I also found my big hiking backpack and packed some clean underwear and socks, my ski clothes (the nights have been dipping below freezing), some extra clothes, non perishable food, my passport and anything else that I might need incase of another devastating earthquake. The other guys gave me a hand carrying my bedding up to Chikara’s apartment, and after we made our beds. Since we had all got such little sleep the night before, we quickly fell asleep.

Eastern Japan Earthquake | Friday, March 11th

I had just returned to my apartment after coming home from the convenient store. Billy was on his way to stay here for a week visit, so I needed to pick up some food to last us a few days. Around 2:45 had just finished eating my lunch when all of a sudden everything around me started shaking. I gathered a few important items, threw them in my bag and stood there waiting under my door jam. Up until this point, the biggest earthquake I experienced was that one back in 2000 or 2001. I don’t remember how big it was, but it was only like 20 seconds long. So after 20 or 30 seconds of this one, I thought that it would start winding down. But, as we all know, it only got worse. The sound of the earth rumbling and the squeaking coming from my apartment walls only grew more intense. Things started rattled off the shelf’s and banged on the ground, a couple of my shelf’s fell down, but those were all minor things. I was wondering about the condition of the studs and the floor joists above my head were handling all of the torque from the twisting of the apartment building. I was standing there and the sight of my interior walls swaying back and forth was a little disconcerting. So, with the possibility of my apt collapsing, I also began to worry about the huge concrete retaining wall cracking and that whole hillside come crashing through my apt window.

After three minutes of violent shaking and squeaking, it finally ceased. Looking back, I think the best way to describe the earthquake from my perspective would be similar to the sound of sitting in a runaway train, careening down the tracks. Extreme shaking and the sound of squeaking train cars trying to slow down on the tracks. Mix that with the feeling of riding in a small sedan going full speed onto a dirt road full of pot holes, making it hard to keep your balance as your being tossed back and forth in your seat…I think that would pretty much match my experience of standing under my door jam for 3 minuets, wondering if I would all of a sudden have to make a quick dash out of my apartment before it collapses on me or before I get taken out by the wall outside my window.

The first thing that I needed to do was to walk up to the church and make sure that everyone was ok, and to let others know that I was ok. Hiromitsu and his wife Ayumi met me as they were getting in their car to listen to the news reports. Being that the power was out, sitting in the car was warm and we could safely hear the news reports. There were immediate tsunami warnings. They initially reported a 6m tsunami, but that number was changed a number of times. As you have all seen the terrible video footage of the tsunami hitting eastern Japan, you probably have heard or figured out that it was a 10m tsunami. I later heard that in some places it was an astonishing 20m high. That is hard for me to even comprehend...all of a sudden the ocean rose 60ft? Unbelievable! After listening to a quick report about the earthquake. Hiromitsu, Joshua and I walked around the churches neighborhood to see if there was any damage, and to make sure that our church members were safe. Fortunately, and unbelievable, we did not find any damage, only things fallen over in peoples yards or in the road.

Well, as you might have guessed, the rest of my English classes were canceled and I was not going to be picking Billy up because all forms of transportation were shut down. As for Billy’s current where-abouts that afternoon?...I had no idea. I didn’t know if he had already landed in Narita, or if he would be diverted to a different airport. Like I mentioned earlier, the electricity, internet and phones were knocked out at the time of the earthquake so there was no way to find out what is flight was doing or for that matter, let family and friends in America know I was safe.

When it got dark, I took refuge at the Sasaki’s house where they fed me dinner and let me sleep on their couch. Being alone in these situations is not safe and not healthy for ones mind, as it was easy to relive the feeling of those frightening 3 minutes. The aftershocks and rumbling of the tectonic plates continued through the afternoon and into the evening. We had candles lit and sat around a wind up radio hearing about the devastation that was going on around us. Since I can’t understand Japanese, I really had no idea what was going on outside of Ayashi. All I knew is that the tsunami came and took out the airport…but I had no real idea of the result of todays earthquake. As we were sitting there listening to the reports I remembered that my friend Chikada has a pocket wifi devise. There was a minimal chance of it actually working since the cell phones weren’t working, but I thought it was worth a shot. I knew that this earthquake was big enough to make immediate news in Seattle, so I needed to let my family and everyone know that I was ok.

We were able to get a small signal, and I was able to get online. I immediately went to facebook and saw that close friends and family had flooded my wall with their prayers and thoughts. I was so touched by those that were thinking about me and saw the need to let people know that I was ok and in a safe place. At that time I was able to update my status and actually chat with my mom. I told her that I was ok, and that I was staying at the Sasaki’s. Then Billy popped on chat and I was able to talk with him. I found out from him that his flight was rerouted to Nagoya before it touched down in Narita. He was safe and in a hotel, but still had no idea how to meet up being that all transportation coming and going from Sendai was shut down. It was then that I took a look at the images that BBC had published on their website and share them with the eyes of those surrounding me. All of our jaws dropped and we could not believe that all of that devastation was going on 20 or 30 min down the road from us.

As we turned in for the night, it was difficult to get any sort of good sleep because it felt like the earth was shaking more then it was being still. At times I was not sure if it was my body trembling from being cold or if it was actually the earth trembling. Nonetheless, after the images that I had seen, I knew how lucky I was to have a place to sleep in, and was so thankful to have food to eat. Throughout the night we were woken three times by “big earthquake” warning alarms. Right when we heard these alarms we gathered are things and ran outside for safety. After all of that excitement, it was difficult to calm the nerves enough to get any sort of good sleep. Eventually by 5:00 am, the sun was starting to light up the inside of the house and I couldn’t sleep anymore.

Eastern Japan Earthquake | Quick 'I'm okay' message

If you are friends with me on facebook, you have hopefully heard or read that I am ok, and that the town that I am living in was not devastated by the tsunami or earthquake. All of us here at the church feel so blessed and protected by God that no major damage happened here. Here are a few pictures of where I’m at, as you will see, these pictures should calm your nerves compared to what you hear and see on TV.

Our power just turned on yesterday, so now we have Internet and we can communicate. I am unsure of how long we will have this luxury, considering down the road about 20 or 30 min reflects the images you see on TV. We are expecting and prepared/ready for another big earthquake.

Since Fridays disaster, I have constently been thinking and reminding myself how lucky I am and how blessed we are to have water, electricity, and a church family that can come together in this time of sorrow. I will share my story through on this blog when I have time and electricity. I want to share what it was like experiencing a 3 min 9.0 mag earthquake, and how I have been spending my days preparing for the worst, when our current situation could not be better under these devastating circumstances.

Please continue to pray for the safety of the relief workers as they work long hours helping find and save victims.

My apartment is still in good shape!

Even the scary wall outside my window stayed intact...but its a little scary to sleep there with earthquakes still happening...

...so I've been sleeping and spending my days here at my church with friends

A few pics of church property...as you can see, all looks safe :)

Can't Keep Names Straight

I’m sure that everyone can relate to the difficulties and struggles with keeping peoples names straight. In my family, my mom could never get my brother Stephen’s name right. She would always call him Kristephen. It eventually got to the point where she would pay my brother a quarter every time she messed up his name. Well, I am finding that I have a similar problem with my students over here. Its pretty amazing how similar some of these names can be. I sure have a hard time keeping them all strait in my brain.

There are four students in my high school class…three of their names start with the letter “A”…I continually look at a student and call them by the wrong name. For some reason, I can’t keep Arakawa, Arato and Asahi straight in my mind. But that is probably the easiest to keep straight because the names are different enough once you get back the first letter. Here is a list of my student’s names that are difficult to keep straight:

Yuki, Yuuki, Yukine

Aya, Ayaha

Rina, Rino, Shio (Rino and Shio are sisters who sit next to each other in the same class...can't keep their names straight)

Mai, Mao, Miu, Mio, Moe (x2), Momoka, Momone

Geared Up!

I don’t really think there is a very elegant way to start this post. I’ll start of my mentioning how lucky I am to have awesome students with awesome parents. I have a high school student who is a really cool guy. His name is Asahi and he is only 16 years old. It has been sweet to see his English improve over the past 7 months. I also get the pleasure of teaching his mother, who attends on of my ladies classes. Now, it wouldn’t be right for me to put words in their mouth, saying that they like me a lot. But, I would say that have seemed to take a genuine interest in getting to know me. Like wise, I have enjoyed getting to know their family. I have taken me out for lunch and invited me over for dinner, and sometimes they will come to church on Sunday mornings or attend church events. Through some of these outside of class encounters, I’ve had the opportunity to meet the father of the household. He is a very interesting guy and can speak English fairly well. We have had some good conversations together.

One of the most interesting things I’ve gotten to know about him is that he is a professional skier. Learning this excited me a lot, cause I love skiing! I asked him where he has skied and his response was, “Every where, ask me and I’ve probably skied there.” My first guess was pretty week. “Colorado?” He replied by saying a friendly “yep.” He gave the same answer when I continued to ask if he’s skied the Swiss Alps and the Himalayas. I didn’t even know you could ski in the Himalayas…but I guess if you find a local Napoli guide that can take you deep into the mountains, its possible.

We have talked lots about trying to find a time to go skiing together, but no date is set in stone. We are hoping to hit up the slopes in a couple of weeks. Well, I’m sure your wondering why I mentioned earlier that I was so lucky. Well, I think the following pictures will do the talking. He gave me, free of charge, all the outer skiwear I need (with the exception of skis, ski poles and boots). I got the works: Pants, jacket, gloves, hat, goggles, and glasses.