I was involved in a summer program with Life Ministries called Scrum Dendo when I was in college-- I think it was the summer of 1993 or 1994. I served at a church in Haramachi, Fukushima prefecture (Haramachi Christ Gospel Church), which I have now realized is very close to the nuclear plant which is having all the problems. If I remember correctly, my home-stay host, Mr. Yasukawa, worked at the plant. I have tried various methods of getting in touch with people I met when I was there, with no success so far. I am seeking info on the church itself, (in Japanese it is called Haramachi Kirisuto Fukuin Kyokai)the Yasukawa family, the Kanno family (my other hosts) and Pastor Motoichi Ishiguro, his wife Motoe, and their family. If anyone has any info, I would be very appreciative.

Hello Amy,

Thanks for sharing, have you heard anything yet? I do not know myself but will let you know if I hear anything about Haramachi Kirisuto Fukuin Kyokai.

Robert

No, I have not heard anything. I did get in touch with a young man named Jun Kanno (the Kanno family's son)on Facebook. It turns out that he is a different person by the same name who also lives in Fukushima (Koriyama). Although he is not the one I met when I was there, we have had a little communication and I am glad to know that he made it through the disaster unharmed. I think maybe God meant for us to "meet"online for some reason.I have been trying to find a list of earthquake victims online (hoping of course that my friends' names are not listed) with no success). I did hear that the church split for some reason in the years since I was there, so it's possible that it had a different name at the time of the earthquake. I looked and did not find a website for the church. One more thing to note is that on many maps the town of Haramachi is called Hara-no-machi or Haranomachi. Do you know anything about the condition of that town after the earthquake/tsunami? Thank you, Amy

Amy I was out of town when this was posted on our internal server. Sorry about the delay but here is a update on your friends I believe.

"Pastor Ishiguro and his wife were visited on 29th of March by Eisuke Kanda. They are doing fine just outside of the 20km zone. Pastor Kanda (Food for the Hungry former director) plans to go back and visit again."

Thanks to Dorrie Takazawa for passing on the good news.

Sorry again for the delay but glad we could pass along some good news.