Partnerships

It has been a productive week. A team of our people including Abi's sister Virginia are up in the disaster area right now distributing bikes and holding a large cookout of hotdogs. Earlier this week, Abi got back from the 10 hour drive up north to meet with the community leaders in Koganehama, a neighborhood of Watanoha in a suburb of Ishinomaki. Above is a picture of the "Love Koganehama" sign. Through it all, we want people to know the message "We will not forget you! We will not abandon you!" We have focused on this area and coordinate with others to make sure something is happening at least every Saturday at the community center we cleaned out and gave an inaugural concert in. A great partnership was formed with Samaritan's Purse where they provide the materials and pay the salaries for professional carpenters, and we help them figure out where the need is in Koganehama. We also provide the volunteers.

I've come to realize afresh how very precious the church's role has been in the relief efforts, as we have been focusing on relationships with individuals, families, and neighborhoods who are hurting since Day 3. Most of the larger organizations took a long time to get involved, and some are still trying to get involved! Now they want to partner with us so that they can put their name to what we are doing, which we don't mind so much if it helps more people. They have the resources, but we have the relationships. Let's hope many more partnerships do happen!

Picture to the right is of house cleaning this week in Watanoha.

Connecting with people 2

As I reflect back on the time with the group from Juilliard, I realize that one of the most important things they did was to connect with people even despite the language barriers. People need love, and music opened the doors for us to be in the shelters and show that love. You can see the smiles on people's faces from these interactions especially over music. I remember so clearly also a 14 year old who was orphaned in the tsunami and a 15 year old who lost his home and baby sister. For a short while, music and relationships brought comfort...

Connecting with people

Got back last night from yet another trip up to tsunami hit areas. The most precious moment of the trip was connecting with Kaori-san. To the left is a picture of her with Steve Sacks, professional jazz saxophonist. This is the second time we've been to the shelter and met her. Her husband, who was lost in the tsunami, was a professional guitarist and wrote the theme song for the town of Onagawa where they live. We spent over an hour talking to her and watching video clips of her husband on youtube. She appeared to be really encouraged to have two professional musicians spending so much time with her.

We also gave a concert in Minami Sanriku and had a really good time talking afterward with a barber, a sushi maker (who kept insisting that only women can really weigh fish in the palm of their hand and cut shushi right!), a fisherman, and a fisherman's wife. We just talked and laughed about many things. This spending time with people seems to be the most important part of musical relief trips....the concerts open doors and allow those relationships to start.
Below are photos found in Onagawa. The sign says to freely take them if you know the people.

The Juilliard group is keeping a blog of their time here in Japan helping with relief work. You can read it here: http://jcftojapan.tumblr.com/

Concert at Koganehama Community Center, cleaned out by Grace City Relief to provide a place for people in the neighborhood to gather. This was the opening celebration, when we passed out coffee and cake. Restoring people's humanity one cup of coffee at a time...Strong winds of a typhoon caused the lights to go out in the shelter at Watanoha Elementary School. Abi held a flashlight so the musicians could see and one lady held a flashlight from above to serve as a spotlight. The sound of the wind outside during the concert was very spooky!