Into The Mud, March 23

Clearing the parking lot.

Clearing the sanctuary.

Storing relief supplies.

Into the Mud- Finally. Wed., March 23, 2011

Having spent the night in Morioka (Bible Baptist Church) with the Sapporo OMF team

(Mike and Rowena McGinty, Dieter Schmidt, Sam , Pascal, Chai), we set Wed. morning for Kamaishi. There had been snow in the night, and the scenery was wonderful- until we reached downtown Kamaishi.

Before working on the church, we took the team to see sonme of the devastation. We visited the Ohgaguchi shelter, and left some of the things the team brought down from Sapporo. We visited the Ando school shelter, and met up with two of the people we talked to two days before; the ones trapped at the back of their valley. Pastor Ohtsuka had visited them the day before. They were feeling better about things, but it was obvious there were still problems getting enough stuff to people. Then we went back to Kamaishi.

The town center was trashed completely. The Kyodan Church we went to help (Kamaishi Shinsei Church) was flooded to just below the second floor. The parking lot had two cars floated on to it, and there was a large truck and three cares blocking the front. As the city was clearing cars that day, the ones on the curb were removed, but we still had no place to park or do our soup kitchen. By using long pieces of wood that were liberally strewn around the place, we were able (using all available hands) to roll the upside down van onto it's wheels, placing it close enough to the curb that the forklift operator took pity on us and removed it, as well as the minicar. It was on it's wheels, so we put it into neutral and rolled it down to the curb behind the van. Once they were gone, work went faster. We were also able to clear the sanctuary, help neighbors clear their homes and stores. We set up camp on the undamaged second floor. There was water, and we had a generator for lights. A truck of supplies from Mrs. Sasaki in Itayanagi came late that night. We stacked the things in the sanctuary- we had gotten it clean just in time!

Mud, mud, everywhere. We couldn't get away from it. Mud mixed with everything conceivable. Move that mud!