Japan - Day 9

We started the day with prayer for the Lord's leading, and especially in providing the means (vehicle, fuel, and driver) and the government permissions for us to go into impacted area. No surprise, He answered that prayer and then some.
We are leaving very very early in the morning to drive to Sendai, stay overnight, then return back by way of Iwake and coastal towns south of Fukushima. We will be carrying in a truck load of supplies, and will meet with local pastors in the region.

We also found a local Japanese church in the Tokyo region, whose leaders met the day after the earthquake, and we're compelled to mobilize to respond to those in need. They have a Kingdom minded approcah to helping churches in the impacted recover and also to see the Kingdom expanded through the planting churches in the region. Shortly after we arrived, a truck showed up with a load of supplies, (pictured) including 1000's of liters of fuel, which will allow for our trip tomorrow morning. The truck that made the delivery was just purchased and the dealer, a non-Christian, when he heard what it was going to used for, said he'd deliver it full of relief supplies. Praise God.

This church is also using their response to connect with lost neighbors. They have dozens of people who have never come to the church, now showing up to play some part in the 'quake response. We were able to spend several hours with some of their leaders

Additionally, tomorrow we'll be making final arrangments to network a load of hygene kits from partners in Hong Kong to get delivered through this local chruch for distribution later in the week in the impacted region.

We had a big aftershock today. There have been 52 aftershocks that have been greater than 6.0.

Pray for safety as we travel, divine leading by God to the place and people He desires us to see and meet, and for hearts to be touched with the tangible expression of God's love that the truckload of supplies represents. I learned today that the Japanese represents the SECOND LARGEST unreached people group in the world. Pray for the mission field that follows crisis. ml