The start of what could be considered a miracle

Sunrise! It is going to be a good day!

Well... as I predicted this week proved to be the most challenging of them all. I left Kesennuma on Saturday after sleeping on the LECC Center floor because logistics had not been correctly handled leaving me no place to sleep in Kesennuma. Worked out pretty well actually because it resulted in me having the opportunity to camp out at the beach a couple days later.

I arrived in Tsuchiura on Saturday afternoon, where my Child hood best friend greeted me… Tomita San (the Church Secretary) we were able to grab a bit to eat that night and that was pretty great!! The plan was to have me attend church in Mito about 40 minutes away by train in the morning and then return for church in my hometown in the afternoon.

This portion of the Blog post is available upon request. Send me an email asking to see the four paragraphs that have been removed from here, for the time being, and I will be more than happy to provide it to you. My email is hieb.jah@gmail.com.

Camping on the beach. It was perfect!

So that is why at the end of the day I had a significant amount of weight on my shoulders. I knew full well that what I had been feeling for the last two months had just been confirmed. I knew that all my fears were closer to becoming true than I had expected. And in fact I felt terrible for telling people in Kesennuma that the Church was going to continue to be a support for them… when in fact I had no proof that there was any plan for this to actually happen.

Visited with two of my home church shut ins. I have a lot of memories involving these two!

But enough about that. I want to tell you about what gave me the biggest smile I had received in nearly two months. I was able to have lunch with Pastor Haga and his family after the church service. Pastor Haga was at the seminary when I was in grade school. I remember him always playing at recess with us. I considered him to be an ideal role model. And today it was evident that that was still the case.

Pastor Haga introduced me to his children. When he got to his youngest child he explained that he had been diagnosed with Autism a few years prior. My face lit up (awkward I know), what he followed with made me want to hug the guy. He explained that at first they though that this was a bad thing but as he grew older and they learned more they came to realize that their son had some really amazing talents particularly in regards to his memory. He explained that they began to start seeing the blessings of their son’s current diagnosis.

I should briefly explain why I was so excited about this. A few years back I worked with Jesus Cares Ministries. This was my first experience working with people diagnosed with a developmental/intellectual disability. Since then I attempted to learn more about Autism and Aspersers specifically as I had been assigned a few cases in my job as a case manager where my clients were diagnosed with Autism or Aspersers. I had had numerous negative experiences with parents ho did not have this same opinion that Pastor Haga and his wife did. Finally getting to meet some one that felt that their son’s disability was actually a blessing was like getting to have a little slice of heaven.

hard to beat this morning view.

Pastor Haga and I talked about some resources available to him, it turned out that he had already ordered some of the Jesus Cares materials and wanted to translate some of the stuff into Japanese!! What is crazy is that I had been working on this while I was up in Kesennuma! Although I didn’t get as far as I had liked and my purpose was a bit different it was a wonderful way to connect resources. Pastor Haga explained that in Japanese culture having a child with this diagnosis pretty much means you are being punished for a relative’s sin and that the appropriate care for the child is rarely done. Pastor Haga wants to change this. In fact he explained that he wants to make it a focus at the spring joint church festival/day/service. BOOM! That is what I am talking about!!! Pastor Haga wants to get the rest of the LECC church on board with recognizing the benefits of reaching out to those with disabilities.

We talk for about two hours on this topic and we only touched the surface. I wish I had had more time to talk about some of the things I have learned over the years. But in the mean time what I promised to do was to get as much of the information I have on Autism and Jesus cares materials sent over to Pastor Haga. But it can’t end there. We can’t just give him the stuff… it’s a lot of stuff. So I am hoping we can figure out a way to give some training to Pastor Haga about how to do a worship at the cross service and how to use the materials that are available.

Plum Blossoms

This is what had got me so excited that I couldn’t sit still on the train ride back to my hometown. So many ideas were going through my head. What went through my head the most was… what if I had never come to this service? God has such ridiculous ways of showing you that he has plans for you… it really shouldn’t be this extravagant. Honestly I did not need to travel across the world to get this information and get excited about it. But the fact that I was made it 100 times better.

In the last post I asked you to pray for the contacts made in Kesennuma. This post I need you to kick your prayer into double time.

Rather than just pray for the church in Japan I want you to pray “ Please give the leaders of the church in Japan the ability and willingness to work as a team with their church and to build communication with their congregation so that they are able to spread god’s message of hope with those affected by the Tsunami. Please give the members of the church in Japan the compassion and support for their leaders that is so desperately needed at this critical moment. Please if it be your will allow the young and the old members to work together and to recognize the value that each member brings to the table whether they are a man or woman and old or young. If it be your will let them work together to develop a plan to help those in need by using the gifts they have to the maximum glory possible.”

And second I need you to pray this:

Tanaka San and I, We had the best day one could ask for.

Lord if it be your will be with the Haga family as they approach the blessings that you have put in their path. Give them the motivation and the love that is so necessary for those that you have given this blessing to. If possible let us be able to support pastor Haga and his congregation as they explore the benefits and challenges of doing outreach to those with Disabilities. If it be your will bless the challenge of translating materials and learning how to successfully share your love with those who have a disability. The Haga family has a long road ahead of them. Give them the constant encouragement that they need and the will and the energy to fight every day for their son.

Don’t just pray for the church and for the Haga family. Get specific that is why I gave you details. You have what you need to really pray hard for them. Please do it. Then, after you pray, ask yourself if there is anything else that you can do. And then do that!