One Year after Japan Earthquake – Victims Still Hurting, Need Spiritual Care

Joshua Cheng Mar 12, 2012 06:12 AM EDT

Initiated by Chinese Christians and pastors from the San Francisco Bay Area, the Christian Association for Relief and Evangelism (CARE) held a press conference last Friday to report of the last year’s disaster relief and reconstruction efforts in the zone most heavily damaged by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

While urging the public to show their concerns in the spiritual needs of the disaster victims, Jack Yuan, elder of the Silicon Valley-based Home of Christ V and one of the initiators of CARE, reported of the visitation to the CRASH Japan disaster center located in the heavily damaged disaster zone Kesennuma from the end of last November to the beginning of December.

(Top)Kesennuma, originally a harbor, was ravaged by the tsunami, and many of the fishing boats were unusable. (Center) A tanker was washed ashore by the tsunami, but is left unmovable due to its weight. (Bottom) the houses in Kesennuma have been totally destroyed and left like match boxes.

(Top) numerous disaster victims were deeply traumatized that they became mute and did not communicate with others. Volunteers setup events such as Mobile Coffee, where coffee would be prepared and they would go from door to door to invite people to meet. (Bottom) disaster victims are slowly opening their hearts, receiving the care from the volunteers.

CRASH Japan is a volunteer organization that consists of volunteers from churches around the world, who took care of the daily needs of the victims and provided care for their emotional and spiritual needs.

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