Quilts to Ishinomaki

Since April, the Lord has been working to bring more than 1,100 hand-stitched quilts from the States to Japan for distribution to tsunami victims.  This story started when Marilyn Lewis from Vacaville, CA, contacted me by email looking for a ministry she could connect with here.  The Lord told her to make quilts and send them over.  Her journey is tracked on her own blog:
http://northhillsquilter.blogspot.com/

I brought the idea to my pastor, Chizuo-san, who gladly endorsed the idea.  The biggest hurdle was finding out how to ship the quilts and also finding a site to ship them to.  After months of searching, FedEx agreed to ship the quilts for free to Japan, and a friend of our church agreed to have them shipped to his non-profit business, a condition FedEx insisted upon.

It has taken a long time, and the story is far from over.  The quilts, which came from ladies all over America, were shipped from Vacaville to us in Tokyo.  Here is a newsclip that Marilyn posted on youtube about it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwYCg9ZxB-Y

Once we received them, it took a little while for us to deliver them up to Ishinomaki.  But they are all there now and being stored safely, and distribution has begun for the last four weeks.  The Lord has shown us that the place to start is to go to the many temporary home areas that have been built and that are still being built there, and to give them as house-warming presents to the residents, explaining where they came from, and also sharing the Love and Hope of Jesus Christ with them.

The response has been absolutely tremendous, and the Lord has confirmed this direction.  I have not been to Ishinomaki myself to take pictures and get a more details about the distribution, but every report I have received has been the same; the residents are truly surprised, blessed, thrilled to receive these gifts.  They understand exactly how much time, effort, and love went into each one, and they are cherishing them.  Hundreds have already been given out, with more planned every week.

Laura and I at our house with the first of quilts about to head to Ishinomaki.

A family our church has been ministering to for months with their quilts (one of them is the same one Maxx was holding)

The most recent distribution, done this last week, in Ishinomaki.

A lady enjoys her gift.  Now, in America these quilts might not be used for sitting up, but here in Japan they are an absolute blessing from the Lord, and here's why.  In these temporary homes, the floors are made of Pergo, which is a very unsavory substance for flooring to most Japanese people's tastes.  So to have a wonderful cotton quilt to sit on, especially in the summer with no air conditioning, is a total luxury.

As I said, the truth is we don't have the amount of pictures and recorded stories of receiving these quilts to the extent we would like to have.  Things have been moving too fast for that.  Still, all the quilts are now in Ishinomaki and are being steadily distributed to extremely grateful recipients.  We have also been blessed to be able to transfer a small number of quilts to sister churches who are doing similar distributions in other towns.  The Lord has a complete record of this project, though, and as always we surrender the ministry to Him, to His will, for His glory.

Kids event at Godsey Castle

Two weekends ago we were blessed to have our home used to host an outreach event for the elementary school-aged kids of our church.  We also invited some neighbor girls and it turned out to be a terrific party!  We are praying to host another couple before we leave Tokyo.

What party would be complete without a bouncy house?  Plenty of these to rent on the American Air Force base close by, but a very unusual sight at a Japanese home.

Ladies from the church came and had some great activities lined up for everyone.

Singing worship songs during snack time.

A terrific Gospel presentation capped the event.