Sharing Christ in the Earthquake’s Long Aftermath

In a former dental office turned Christian community center in Yamamato, Japan, missions organizations and Japanese Christians are offering much needed support to people devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake.

Through their care, Nozomi Center (Center of Hope) staff and volunteers are pointing people to their only true source of hope — Jesus.

World Renew (in collaboration with Christian Reformed World Missions), the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), and the Korean Presbyterian Church opened the Nozomi Center in October 2011 in partnership with the Reformed Church in Japan (RCJ).

The earthquake and tsunami had heavily damaged the Yamamato region. Since the RCJ had a small church in the area, the RCJ and its partners thought it would be a fitting place to minister to earthquake survivors.

Nozomi Center serves many purposes. Volunteers helping with disaster clean-up live at the center. Many people come to the center for community events and children come in after school.

Staff and volunteers organize tea times, crafts, and other activities for young and old, continually looking for more opportunities to serve. Through their care, the center’s staff and volunteers have established bonds with the community.

Mrs. O, an elderly Japanese woman, was initially leery of Nozomi Center. She once told a staff member, “If you are not planning to stay around here for a long time, do not stay at all.”

But as she grew to know the staff and volunteers better, she began to trust them. After volunteers cleaned her water-damaged home, she began stopping by the center with tips on how to get supplies. She told people that the center was truly there to help. Her support, along with the praise of a well-known national journalist, lent Nozomi Center credibility.

“We always prayed with the people with whom and for whom we were helping,” says Cal Cummings, an OPC missionary and the center’s director.

Mrs. O and her husband were no exception. Neither she nor Mr. O, who had recently become wheelchair-bound, followed any religion. However, when they found out Mr. O had inoperable cancer, they approached the center for support.

The Nozomi Center staff responded. One staff member, Yui Hamada, who had regularly visited them beforehand, joined in the visits.

Mr. O had once seen the 1956 movie, The Ten Commandments. From that “he came to believe that there is a God who is angry with sin and who has the power to save his people,” says Cal. “He also believed that his cancer was God’s way of punishing him.”

Yui and Cal shared with Mr. O that Christ had paid for his sins. In time, both Mr. and Mrs. O realized that Jesus had freely given himself to save them. With joy, they put their faith in Jesus and were baptized. Mr. O has been eagerly reading his Bible ever since.

“It’s just amazing that after such a short time, these folks from a very conservative part of Japan that is extremely resistant to evangelistic efforts should take the step of being baptized,” says Larry Spalink, a Christian Reformed World Missions missionary in Japan.

“It is a vivid testimony to the trust that has been established [between the center and community].”