The last one.

Hello everyone
The last few weeks have been full of adventures, but first things first.
I'm not sure why both the beginning and the end of this experience has been marked by death, but it has. One of the Samaritan's Purse staff members I knew (although not very well) passed away a few days ago without warning. Even though I never worked with him in person, he very obviously was a man of God and worked without any complaint. I ask for your prayers for his family and his fiancé. I cannot imagine what they are going through right now, but I'm sure it is incredibly difficult for them, since it's difficult even for me, even though I didn't know him very well. Our only consolation is that we will see him again in heaven, and we praise God for bringing Josiah to Himself before this tragedy occurred. 


This event has put a sobering touch on the last few eventful weeks. I've been through a typhoon, stuck in a Shinkansen (bullet train), stuck in the Minneapolis airport, stuck in an elevator, and a couple of other adventures over the last three weeks. While it's been fun and exciting, I need to remember that this is not the end of my ministry. There is no end to it. Everywhere I go and everything I do needs to be my ministry. In the last few weeks I've recognized some dreams that I have for my life, and I have realized that I absolutely cannot afford to put my ministry on hold for those dreams. I have to work towards my dreams while ministering to those around me. 


The time I spent in Japan taught me so much. I learned about serving those around me in the most simple ways and the most complex ways. I learned how to mud out a house, and how much bleach to use in which situation. I learned a few words in Japanese that I didn't know before, and a few phrases that got me through the time I was there. I learned how to use power tools! I learned that friends don't always come when you think you need them, but they usually come when you actually need them, when you really can't keep going without a friend. Above all, I learned that God uses any and every individual, team, or situation to do His will, whether we/they/he/she realize it or not. And that is such an encouragement to all of us. That even if we don't realize it, God is using our actions to work towards His will, even if we don't necessarily see it.


I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say here, or how it all relates to Josiah's passing, but I do know this: I have been so blessed by the opportunity to be in Japan and to serve, and each one of you made it possible. I have received so much encouragement, prayer, and support than I've ever had in my life. And I realize now that none of that is going away just because I'm not in Japan anymore. I now have friends all over the US and Canada that I worked with, and many friends in Japan, especially up north, that I met while I was there. I know that God has already made beautiful things out of the dust, and He is continuing to do so, not just in northern Japan, but all over the world. 


One of my relatives gave me a hymnal when I saw her last week. She told me that while it seems like a strange book to give, she received one when she was 10 years old, and it was a great encouragement to her. I was flipping through it the other day and came upon a hymn called God, You Spin the Whirling Planets. I'm not sure how well-known this hymn is, but I was struck by the lyrics, which are as follows.

"God, You spin the whirling planets, 

     fill the seas and spread the plain,
         mold the mountains, fashion blossoms, 

            call forth sunshine, wind, and rain.
We, created in Your image, 

    would a true reflection be
        of Your justice, grace, and mercy 

            and the truth that makes us free.

You have called us to be faithful 

   in our life and ministry.
         we respond in grateful worship 

            joined in one community.
When we blur Your gracious image, 

    focus us and make us whole,
       healed and strengthened as Your people, 

           we move onward toward Your goal.

God, Your word is still creating, 

    calling us to life made new,
        now reveal to us fresh vistas 

            where there's work to dare and do.
Keep us clear of all distortion, 

    fashion us with loving care.
        thus, new creatures in Your image, 

           we'll proclaim Christ everywhere."   

                                Jane Parker Huber, 1978

And this is where I will leave you all. Thank you for your loving support of me over the last 5 months. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to my friends, family, and supporters. I pray that God has used my experiences written here on this blog to touch your life in ways you never imagined. I love you all dearly.

Blessings,

Chloe

PS. I do apologize if this blog post is a little scatter-brained. As I read it over, I feel like it doesn't make sense, but I'm not sure how else to express what I want to say. 

Hello again everyone!
What an incredible few weeks it has been.
When the "mega team" came up north, they picked me up on their first day of work. We started one house and was able to finish it in 7 days. We started three other houses and finished one, and almost finished a third house. One top of these four projects, we had several members of our team working on kitchen cabinets for the very first family that accepted Samaritans Purse's help, as well as a few doing gardening with a homeowner. We also did a cafe in Shintate (Dean's "neighborhood" that he works in almost exclusively), and sang some songs for the people there. We sang an English song, a Hawaiian song, and a Japanese song for them. The Japanese song was "Seek Ye First" translated into Japanese. We sang it last so that they could hear the message of the song and remember it.
This mega team was made up of people from Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota, Grace Fellowship in Hawaii, and a few extra members who have connections to people from those churches. It was Yas's last team, so we did a lot of sharing together at night after dinner. Despite the total amounting to 19 people on the team, we all became like a huge family living and working together for two weeks. It was a great time of fellowship and work in Ishinomaki. I gained an entire family in Hawaii, and many good friends on the team from Minnesota (plus rides to church if I so choose!).

The whole "block" plus mega team!

Our last day in the neighborhood was a Thursday, and we decided to have a "block party" since all of the houses we worked on were pretty much on one block. We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, the neighbors brought fruit and other snacks, and we even had American mustard (Japanese mustard is very spicy and is nothing like what we have in America)! We were able to include many people that I've worked for in the last four months, as well as some new friends we worked for during the time the mega team was here.
One other super awesome thing happened with this team. On Sunday, as usual, we went to Abe san's church and had a wonderful meal there. Afterwards, before our customary tour of the damage, we went around to local houses and temporary housing and gave out some mini walkers to the elderly. While we were at the temporary housing units, some of the kids I have taught English to and done special events with recognized Nate and I and were excited to see us, so we began playing with them. Some of our team members joined us, and we had a great time of playing with the kids, even though it was short. After we played with the kids and finished giving out the mini walkers, we went on our normal tour of the damage with the team.  Later that evening, over dinner at the mall in Ishinomaki, one of the team members (from Chicago with connections to the MN team) named Makoto asked me if we could get things for the kids to play with. He said that while we were playing with the kids (we played one game the entire time we were with them), he asked one of them what other things they like to play. One of the boys said that they'd really like to play dodgeball, but they don't have any balls. Makoto really wanted to be able to give them something to play with, so we went to the store and bought a soccer ball, volleyball, dodgeball, hula hoop, soft baseball bat, frisbee, etc., plus some indoor games like Jango and Uno for the kids. Makoto stayed a few days after the rest of the team left so he could be there when we gave the toys to the kids. It was so fulfilling to see them that happy about things that we take for granted in America, like a ball with which to play dodgeball. We had such a fun time playing with the kids, and because it was my last time to see all of them, they all said thank you to me in English and hugged me. Only one of the kids really hugged me, since hugging in Japan is not very common, but it honestly broke my heart. She was crying when she hugged me, so then I started crying... It was very sad for me to have to say goodbye to the kids, but I told them that I want to come back next summer (2013) and that I hope to see them then. They were excited about that :)
The night before the mega team went back to Tokyo, they dropped me and another member of the team off at Grace Mission Tohoku. She and I have been staying here since then. She will be staying here for another two weeks and will continue to do mud outs and other ministry here in Ishinomaki (she was on one of my grandparents teams last summer, is Japanese, and lives in MN teaching Japanese at Macalester College). I am leaving here tomorrow, which will be very bittersweet for me. I have come to know and love the staff here, and many of the volunteers have touched my life in a very deep way, even if they do not realize it.
This week we've had crazy amount of volunteers staying here. We had teams from Arkansas, Georgia, Virginia, South Africa, Chiba/Saitama (prefectures in Japan), and Juilliard (yes, the one in New York City). I've mostly just been helping out around GMT, since I know how things work here and never really rested from all of that physical work the three weeks before (weeding, mud outs, etc.). We put on Cafes in the temporary housing and here at GMT with the Juilliard students (and grads) performing at each cafe. The people who came loved the music they played, and I did too :)
I'm heading back to Tokyo (then Chiba) tomorrow with the team from Arkansas. It will be really hard for me to leave Ishinomaki one last time, but I have faith that I will be back soon. God works in mysterious ways, and none of us can pretend to understand His timing. My heart is here in Ishinomaki. I want so badly to stay and help more, to make a difference since I know I can help, but right now God is calling me back to Boston for the summer, and then back to school in September. I'm not entirely sure why right now, but I'm praying I find out soon.


One last thought (I love doing this!):
For some reason, God has been putting the theme of love on my heart recently. These two verses have been floating in my head/have been shared with me recently and I wanted to share them with you all.
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13
and,
"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:12-14
I'm not sure right now why these two passages have been on my heart, but I'm wondering if any of my readers have any thoughts on them? They are both fairly well-known passages, but has anyone gleaned any special meaning for their lives from these? I'm trying to figure out what they mean for me, but I'd love to hear what they mean for you!


This will probably be my last blog post from Japan, so I want to thank you all for reading my blog, though I know I can get long sometimes - okay, most of the time! Thank you so much for your encouragement and support for me as I put a hold on my life back home and in school and came to Japan to serve God and the Japanese. I will never forget this adventure, or your help. May God bless you all.


Chloe Milhous


For more pictures of the mega team and my last week in Ishinomaki, here are links to my photos:

Mega Team: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150882813671234.409236.608216233&type=3&l=a0c5f4e160

Last week in Ishinomaki: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150895993056234.410568.608216233&type=3&l=ed4ede18dc

Writing from Ishinomaki once again...

My time in South Korea was productive, and it was fun to see some friends as well. I got back into Japan with no problems and didn't even need to show my proof of flight back home in June. Praise the Lord for his wonderful provisions!!!

After South Korea I headed to Iwaki, where this trip started for me back in July 2011. As my Dad aptly explained on Facebook for me, "Iwaki is where this whole adventure started for Chloe, when we went there last summer and visited a section of town devastated by the tsunami. That is where she started sensing that she needed to come back to japan and help out." Thanks, Dad!! In Iwaki, I helped with their daily projects in the community. I helped out with a cafe in the temporary housing units and then got a "temporary housing tour" from one of the staff members at the church. I also helped out around the church (which is also a volunteer housing center currently) cleaning up and talking with some of the volunteers. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but I'm planning to go back during my "travel week" for a day, and will hopefully get some pictures then. 

When I cam back from Iwaki, I stayed in Chiba for a few days because I was exhausted from traveling so much. On Sunday (the day after I cam back to Chiba) I shared my testimony at the Ellison's church, Chiba New Town Baptist Church. I shared about how I became a Christian and how I came to Japan, with Mary Lou translating for me. It was a privilege to share with them what God has been doing in my life, and a few people talked to me afterward about it, which was encouraging :)

On Wednesday I took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Sendai, then took an hour and a half bus ride up to Ishinomaki. Ms. H, who I will be working with very soon, had to go to a conference for a week, so instead of staying at her apartment, I've been staying at Watanoha Christian Church (Watanoha is a neighborhood in Ishinomaki). While staying here, I've been weeding, teaching English, and doing Samaritan's Purse mud outs. There is another girl staying here with me. Her name is Naomi, and she is also going to be living and working with Ms. H. She is Japanese and grew up south of Tokyo, but speaks English very well because she has been a student in Portland, Oregan for almost 5 years. Naomi and I get along very well, which has been a relief, because we were both a little worried about living with someone we didn't know. 

On Sunday, two teams from America will be coming to Ishinomaki, and I will work with them for the entire two weeks they are here, with a few possible recesses if Ms. H needs me for anything. I'm excited to get to know these two teams while they are here, and to see what kind of jobs we will be doing this time. With so many people (total = 17) we may very well be doing a number of different things each day!

It's strange to think that I only have three weeks left in Ishinomaki, and four left in Japan. I'm not entirely sure what to do with that information yet, but I'm working on it :)

One thing I'd like to share with you all. While I was in Iwaki, someone read James chapter 4 out loud to everyone. I caught up later, but one short section really stuck with me. James 4:13-15 says, "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.'"

While the idea itself is perhaps a little disheartening, I feel that I'm able to relate to this passage well. I had all of these plans for my life - where I was going to go, what I was going to do, etc. - but God had other plans and showed me that my plans for my life were not the best for me. 

This passage and revelation reminds me of the Casting Crowns song, "Who Am I". The chorus declares:

"I am a flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours"

What a powerful and comforting thought! Even though we are "mists that appear for a little while and then vanish," God cares so deeply about us that He listens to every word we say, and He helps us through every situation and every struggle.

Thanks for reading my blog. As my time in Japan comes to a close, my blogging may slow as well. Hopefully I will be able to write a "finishing up" post when I arrive back in Boston at the end of June.

God Bless,

Chloe

PS. If you want to see photos from my time in Ishinomaki this time, here is a link to what's happened so far: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150866661091234.407575.608216233&type=1&l=ec8dc70ec1

Hello!

After the Sylvan Way team left, Nate and I stayed in Ishinomaki. I stayed with Ms. H, and Nate stayed in a house specifically for Christian volunteers. There was a lady staying with Ms. H for one night who was there when I arrived, and we spent that night and the next day (Wednesday) together. She spoke some English so we talked a lot. We went to see some of the devastation because it was her first time to see it, and we talked to a man who said that his mother and father's home washed away in the tsunami. After we saw the devastation, we went to a fish market and bought some tuna, which we make maki with (the kind of sushi that has seaweed wrapped around it). Such a good dinner!

Fish market!

 On Thursday a team from Kokubunji Baptist Church came to Ishinomaki. It took them 13 hours to drive there, but they finally made it (usually it takes about 6 hours from Tokyo to Ishinomaki) around 1 in the afternoon. They were all really tired from traveling so we had a relaxing day just spending time together and getting settled. On Friday morning we drove to Minami Sanriku and helped mud out and build a Christian Center there. Our sensei's included a 17-year-old guy who had just become a Christian two months before. While the guys mudded out a gutter, the girls and I became 大工さん (carpenters) and helped put finishing wood on the walls.

Our Sensei's

Carpenters for a day!

Nate mudding out a gutter

After we had lunch, we went back to Ishinomaki and prepared for a kids program in the temporary housing units that we did later that day. For the kids program we made カラフルだんご (colorful dingo - dango are small pounded rice balls that usually come four on a stick with some kind of sauce on top) out of tofu and flavorings, like green tea and pumpkin. Then we played with the kids outside, which was really fun :) Here's a link to all of my pictures of it and of our time together afterwards: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150798461996234.403310.608216233&type=1&l=59757c4280
After the kids program it was raining hard, and then there were flood warnings. At 9 pm there was an evacuation of the place the guys were staying, so we ate a quick dinner, packed the guys up, and moved them to a church in a different neighborhood where they could sleep overnight. In the morning the evacuation was over and the sun was out, so we decided to proceed with our plans. The guys cleared out a park and planted sunflowers while the girls did some errands. For lunch we ate at a chinese restaurant, which was really good, and then we went to the temporary housing again for a homework help time, along with some playtime :) I did a short English lesson on food, and then we had a snack and helped the kids with homework. This past week was Golden Week so a lot of the kids didn't have too much homework, which meant that we got some more playtime in before it was time to leave :)
We left Ishinomaki at about 7:30 pm and drove straight through to Tokyo. Usually the drive is about 6 hours, but it took us closer to 8 hours this time. We arrived in Tokyo at 2:30 am Sunday morning. Half of the group went to their own home and half of us stayed at the church for a night. We all attended the church service a few hours later and then went our own ways. I was provided a place to stay last night and will stay with my Uncle who lives in Tokyo tonight, then will head back to Chiba to stay with Tom and Mary Lou again. On Friday I will be heading to South Korea for a few days for some business.

Please pray for the kids in temporary housing, that they will gain hope from the volunteers who come, and that they would see the love of Christ shining through us as we continue to work with them.
Please pray also for safety in traveling as I go to many different places in the next week and half.

Hello all,

The "bathroom"

Well, the Sylvan Way team will be on their way to Tokyo tomorrow morning, half of them via van and half of them via Shinkansen (bullet train). We had a very productive week and completely finished cleaning the house we started when we arrived in Ishinomaki. It is such a blessing to see a house go from dark, dirty, and depressing to bright, clean and encouraging in just a week and two days.

The floor before

Look at those clean floors!

The entire trip was uneventful (I mean this in the good way where no one got hurt) except for one event: Lutheran Brethren Missionary Dean Bengtson, who is basically our boss when we work on a house somehow fell about 5 or 6 feet down and ended up laying on his side, shoulder, and head in a hole. Many of us thought he had seriously injured himself, but it turned out he only dislocated his pinky! He obviously has some bruising, but he was well enough to come to work again the next day and do an outdoor cafe for the neighborhood.

On Sunday we attended Abe san's house church and had an incredible meal afterward, as always. Yas then took us to Minami Sanriku, which is one of the largest worst-hit areas in northern Japan. This was a new experience for the Sylvan Way team, and we all went home with a new understanding of what the tsunami did to these communities along the Pacific coast.

It was such a blessing to get to know the guys from Sylvan Way. I know that I will never forget them or the good times we had as we worked hard together.

Eric from the Sylvan Way team
is showing how we felt about our
Yakiniku lunch after we finished
the house! :)

I am staying in Ishinomaki now until June 15, and will be taking a few short trips to other locations during this time. While living here, I will be assisting Ms. H set up a children's ministry. Please pray for communication between us and for the ministry opportunities that we will come in contact with in the next two months.

Blessings to you all,

Chloe Milhous

What a long time it's been since I've written on this blog! So much has happened in the last few weeks. I cannot recount all of it, but here's a brief overview.

Mrs. T's septic tank, taken from inside

 After the Canadian team left, Nate and I, along with another man from the Canadian team who decided to stay longer, continued to work in Mrs. T's house. Nate and I found an old partially covered septic tank in Mrs. T's house. We spent three days cleaning it out with her. She was so grateful that she took us out to lunch twice and bought us bentos another day. She loved holding hands and hugging, so after every work day, we would gather in a circle, hold hands, and pray with her. If we forgot and started to leave before praying, she would say, "Aren't you going to pray with me??" and then we would pray and she would hug us when we were done. Mrs. T was such a blessing to me as a homeowner. To receive that kind of love and kindness while working is so encouraging and fulfilling. I didn't want to stop working for her because she is such a sweet lady, but alas, we finished work on Mrs. T's house and said goodbye.

The famous (or should
 I say infamous) field!

After we finished Mrs. T's house, we moved onto some odd jobs that Dean Bengtson (a Lutheran Brethren missionary that we as a mission work with when concerning relief work), had on hand. Some of the things we did included doing yard work at Dean's house (since he doesn't have time to do any himself - he's always in a different city an hour and a half away one way, doing relief work and building relationships, so we helped him get ready for spring), getting a roof ready for painting, sifting through dirt in a field to get out cell phone parts, and pulling trees out of a few people's yards, at their request. One thing I would like to point out is that the field we worked in has been worked on since the early summer, and it is the exact same field that my grandparents worked on when they were in Japan for two months last summer leading teams up north to do volunteer disaster relief. I am happy to announce that the field is completely clear of cell phone parts and of hedoro, or toxic mud, in this case specifically from the tsunami. That night I went with Craig and Yas to Tome where Nate and I stayed the first time we went up north. We visited the Samaritan's Purse Tome base, since we knew it would be closing soon, and got to see lots of familiar faces. Wayne (do you all remember him?) gave me a picture in a frame of Okaasan (the homeowner I worked for with a carpenter team) and the rest of the guys on the team that they had taken the day of the house's dedication. When I get home I will put that picture on the wall or on my desk to remind me to pray for Okaasan and her family's salvation. 

Me with some of my friends from
Samaritan's Purse Base Tome

The next day we worked with Grace Mission Tohoku (the place we were staying at) and did some of their jobs for a day. We sorted, packaged, and weighed wakame (a kind of seaweed) for an hour, then strung oyster shells on a rope for about two hours. The oyster farmers put the rope into the bay area and grow oysters on them. Come December, this locally owned business will harvest hundreds of delicious oysters which they then sell to a local processing plant.

After all of this, we all went back to our respective "bases" for a week to rest. I was able to see some beautiful cherry blossoms (sakura), even though they were at the very end of their blossoming and viewing time, and I gained a brother in the form of one of the Ellison's sons, Phil. He came to visit them and to see their new one in Chiba for three days. I also had the opportunity to meet with Don Wright, retired missionary to Japan, and current director of RJC (Reaching Japanese for Christ, an organization that my family, specifically my father, is very involved with) and talk with him about the things I've been experiencing as a volunteer here in Japan. I got to see Roy Peacock, pastor of Raging River Community Church in rural Washington state, who is a friend of mine. I was also able to spend some time with the Short family and have dinner with them before I went back up north. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces, as well as new faces, while I was in Chiba!

Now I'm back up north with a team of five men from Sylvan Way Baptist Church in Bremerton, WA, which is Yas's home church. Pastor Ric, his son Eric, and three other men from the church came to volunteer for two weeks. We are staying in Taiwa, a city just north of Sendai, and we commute 45-90 minutes one way to Ishinomaki every day. Right now, and very likely for the rest of the time this team is here, we are working and will continue to work on one house. It is Mr & Mrs A's dream home, and they built it four years ago (three when the tsunami hit). While they are not all that excited about living there again, since now there is almost nothing between the house and the ocean, they may not be able to live anywhere else due to financial reasons, so we are helping to mud out their home and help them feel some sort of hope about the situation. The house has barely been touched, except to clean out the first layer of mud right after the tsunami, so we are starting from scratch. Yesterday was our first day, and we got most of the ceiling out, as well as many of the walls. The house is well on its way to being rebuildable now, and hopefully the homeowners will be able to see that as we progress further each day.

After the team from Sylvan Way leaves and goes back to Tokyo, I will stay in Ishinomaki and live with Ms. H from Kokobunji Baptist Church in Tokyo. She is moving here and will be working on starting a children's ministry, which will include sports camps, crafts, Bible lessons, and fun and games as well. I will assist her in getting the children's ministry up and running, and will be staying with her until the end of my time in Japan.

I also have plans to visit Iwaki city, where this entire journey started for me last summer, for five days in the middle of May. I plan to arrive in Iwaki May 15 and depart May 20, after a church service there.

Please pray that Mr and Mrs A will see progress in the work that we do each day and will gain hope from the things we do, and that the Lord would provide safety for everybody for the next two weeks as we do physical labor, travel, and minister to those around us daily.

Please pray for my transition to living with Ms. H, as we don't know each other very well and language barriers could be very difficult. Also pray for the children's ministry I will be helping set up. It is a wonderful ministry that is desperately needed here, and the sooner it is up and running, the better.

Please pray for my trip to Iwaki, that I would not be a burden and would be able to effectively help their ministry.

Please pray for Okaasan and her family, that they would see the Lord's love and hope, and would surrender their lives to Him.

Hello again!
I know I've been pretty quiet for a while. Here's what's been going on for the last few weeks.
After I came back down to Tokyo, I stayed with a fellow missionary who lives there. A few days later, I moved to my Uncle's house in Tokyo, and stayed with him and his wife for two days. Then, I finally made it to Chiba, where the Ellisons had just moved into their new home there. I unpacked my two suitcases into drawers, which felt wonderful, and helped the Ellisons unpack and organize. I even got to put some flowers outside my window!
The neighborhood the Ellisons live in now is filled with kids. When we went around to the neighbors to introduce ourselves (a very old tradition in Japan), Mary Lou told all of the kids to teach me Japanese. We'll see how well things go with that! I'm looking forward to playing with the kids on our block, and learning some Japanese from them.

A view of Mt. Fuji from the lake

Last Wednesday, Nate, Tom, Mary Lou, and I drove for about four hours to Yamanakako, a town at the foot of Mt. Fuji with a large whale-shaped lake in the center. We went there for our missions Field Council, a meeting of all of the missionaries currently on the field (Japan, for us). Most of the time there was spent in business meetings, but Nate and I got to spend some time with a few missionary kids on the field. We went out on the lake (Yamanaka Lake) in paddle boats and had fun chasing each other around. After a walk partway around the lake, we got ice cream, and I tried the local specialty, sweet potato! It was very good, and definitely tasted like Japanese sweet potato, which is different from American sweet potato. If you'd like to see more pictures from Field Council, click on this link to see my album on Facebook. You don't have to have a Facebook account or even be my friend on Facebook to see them.
After Field Council, Nate and I, along with his dad, David, drove up north to Ishinomaki. This time we are staying at Grace City (run by Grace Mission) located in Ishinomaki, the city we often work in. It's nice to wake up a little later and to have some time to relax before work each morning. The past few days have been both busy and relaxing in many different ways.

The Short Family and I

When we arrived at Grace City, we came into the main house first to see where our rooms were going to be. I heard someone say, "Chloe?" as if they were amazed to see me, and I saw Randy Short! He and his family attended our church when I was a little girl. His oldest daughter, Cana, is the same age as me, so we played together a lot and share several childhood memories. It turns out that they were only up north for a few days, but had been volunteering here. They also live about 5 minutes away from where I just moved to in Chiba. I'm planning to visit them sometime when I get back to Chiba. I love crazy little connections like that!
On Saturday night, the same night we arrived, we went to the temporary housing units with Pastor Miho Hirata of Kokobunji Church in Tokyo. She is moving to Ishinomaki to start a Children's ministry called SOLA, sponsored by Kokobunji Church, especially directed towards kids who are living in temporary housing and/or were directly involved with the tsunami. At the temporary housing, we helped with a Chidren's study group where kids go after school for help on homework. Nate and I taught them parts of the body with the song, 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,' and then we helped the individual kids with their English homework. At one point, we tried to explain what cotton candy was to one of the girls who had gotten that flavor in a dum dum (little lollipops). That was a very fun and rewarding experience, not one I will soon forget.
On Sunday, Nate, his dad, and I went to the House of Prayer in Ishinomaki for church. The lay leader of this church is called Abe-san, and there is a pastor who comes sometimes to preach and give Abe-san direction. Since it was Palm Sunday, we had communion after the service. I thought they did it in a very cool way - We did the breaking of the bread and ate it, and then we ate the wonderful meal the church ladies had prepared for us. After we finished eating, we did the "cup" part of communion. They said that in the Bible, it says that Jesus broke the bread and ate it, they all had supper, and then they partook of the cup, and they wanted to recreate that scene a little bit for us. After we were all done, we left church and went on a drive to Minamisanriku, one of the hardest-hit areas on the coast. The weather was really strange, but we were still able to see much of the damage there. There is nothing left there. Some frames of buildings, but only the steel frames. It is heartbreaking to see. You can see some of my pictures from our drive there by clicking on this link. 
Today (Monday), we worked with a Converge team from Canada. It was their last day working, so we finished up in the house they were in, said some tearful goodbyes to the homeowner (I'll write more about her once I know more about her), and took off for a late lunch of Yakuniku (All you can eat meat barbecue). This restaurant was really cool: you pay one flat rate per person and all the meat is in a buffet-style. You get as much meat as you want, bring it to your table, and cook it right there. They also had sushi, cotton candy, ice cream, and dango, among others. After we finished eating, we all piled into two vans and took off for an onsen! This was a real hot spring in Ishinomaki, and was super nice. There were a bunch of different baths, including some with jets. There was also a really nice outside area, which I thought would be super cold, since it was kind of a cold day, but was actually just right. The cool temperature felt nice, and the hot bath was perfect. Usually I'm not a huge fan of public baths, but this one was really nice, and I'm even beginning to feel like it's not as bad as I always think it is. I wish I could have taken pictures of the inside of this place, just to show you all.
The rest of this week will be filled with working in different areas, but for now I'm going to sign off and go to bed. Thank you for your prayers and love for me as I continue to serve the Lord in the disaster zone.
More to come soon!

後でお会いしましょう！

See you later!

~Chloe

Moving on, but God's got this

I wrote this post on Thursday: I'm in the car right now on my way back to Tokyo. While this is a very bittersweet car ride for me, I'm excited to go back to the city and spend some time there.
     Yesterday was a pretty emotional day for me and others. Until then, I was unsure whether I was leaving or not. The night before, things were finally figured out and I knew that I would be leaving today. I went to my worksite as normal with the carpenters, had devotions with our homeowner, and got to work. At break time (10am) all the guys 'ushered' me into our drywall room, where we'd been eating lunch for the past few days, and showed me a cake that they had gotten for me at a bakery. They had my name written on it in frosting and they said that they wanted to tell me how much they liked having me on their team and that they're going to miss me a lot when I leave. I was completely speechless when they said all of that. I had had so much fun working with them, and I knew I was going to miss them a lot. They all said they would be praying for me, wherever God places me next.
     At the end of the day, I told the homeowner that it was my last day and that I had an amazing experience working in her house for her and her family. At that point we both teared up a bit and then I said that I would be praying for her and her family all the time, and then we were both crying. Then I told her that I have been so blessed by working in her house and being able to see her all the time, and by then most of the team was crying. I'm not sure why it was such an emotional moment for everyone, but I do know that I will never ever forget Abe-san (or Okaasan as I call her, which means Mom in Japanese) or her family, and I will forever cherish the memories I have of working in her house. I hope that God has used me to make a difference in her life, whether through a devotion I did or just by being there... I pray that she will know our God and that she and her family will come into contact with Him in an incredible way.
      I've made many good friends during the past three weeks that I've been at SP, and I have met so many incredible, God-fearing people. I'm completely overwhelmed with how many amazing people God decided to put into my life during my time at SP, but I am also so grateful for all of them. I've met people with insane testimonies of how they turned to God, people like me who feel like they belong to two or more cultures, and people who simply want to help. I've met engaged and married carpenters who have been here for months and are praying about going to another country to volunteer after the SP bases in Japan close on April 30th. Everyone there is amazing, and many of them are sacrificing significant time and money to be there and to volunteer.
     Wayne is an amazing Christian man who, once I started working with him, looked out for me all the time. He very obviously cares about your faith, and a few days after I started working with him, he told me he considered me his adopted daughter :) It was wonderful to work with his team for my last week and a half at the SP base.
     Mike is another great Christian man who was also on Wayne's team. He teased me constantly but was also concerned about me and how I was doing emotionally and physically. I learned a lot from Mike, and hope to keep in contact with him, even as he goes back home to California.
     Daniel was a guy who worked on our mud-out team for a while, and then started working with carpenters as a translator. It was really cool to get to know him and to work with him. He is definitely a God-fearing man, and I learned a lot from him even though we didn't work together for very long.
     Julian came on the same night Nate and I did. He's staying with a host family instead of at the SP base, so every morning we drove him to our work site and got to know him fairly well during our drives. He's 18 and taking a gap year between high school and college. This past winter, he taught at a school in Chiba (just north of Tokyo), and then decided to come back to do relief work until the middle of April.
     Moe is a girl who came about a week and a half, maybe two weeks before I left. She's a missionary kid (kind of) who grew up in a bunch of different places, including England, Ethiopia, and the US. We clicked right away when she arrived, and even though we never worked together, we spent a lot of time together before and after work. She lives in Japan, so I hope to be able to spend more time with her before I leave Japan. She is an amazing woman of God, and I've already learned a lot from her.
     Ron is a super fun guy. He teased me constantly, just like Mike, and he definitely cared a lot about me. he was always looking out for me and making sure I was okay after every day of work. It was apparent to me that he had a real heart for helping people in need. He was always around to brighten up my day if I was having a rough morning or had had a bad day working.
     Marshall was another amazing man who was at the SP base. He's from Georgia, and he was at the base for two and a half weeks. Marshall was kind enough to let me hang out with him after we all came back from work. We had lots of fun talking about various things, including the houses we were working on.
     Carrie is also from Georgia. She and Marshall are from the same church and have known each other for several years, but she came about three weeks before Marshall did. Carrie was one of the only women volunteers there when I arrived, so she became a friend very quickly. She was such a comfort to me - I could talk to her about things I was thinking about, especially connected to the work we were doing. She kind of took me under her wing, since I didn't know anyone and am younger than a lot of the people there. 
     Marshall and Carrie left on the same day about two weeks ago, and the night they arrived in Tokyo (they had ridden the bullet train from Tome to Tokyo), Marshall proposed! Carrie accepted, and they went back home to Georgia. I am so excited for them both!!
     There are so many other people I could talk about, but it's late, so I'm going to finish fairly quickly. Overall, I met a ton of amazing people up there, even if they were only there for a few days. I will never forget everyone I met - the Americans, Japanese, Koreans, Australians, and MKs from all over the world.
     So on thursday we drove back to Tokyo from Tome, and I stayed with a fellow missionary who lives in Tokyo. Then yesterday night (Monday), my Uncle came to pick me up from her house, and I'm staying at his house until Wednesday afternoon/night, when I will take a train to Chiba to stay with Mary Lou and Tom. I will be staying with them until our missions Field Council (meeting of all Converge missionaries in Japan), which will be taking place at the foot of Mt. Fuji (called Fujisan here in Japan) from March 28-30. After that, I will be heading back up north, although I'm not sure how long I will be staying this time.
     I realize this is a long post, so thank you for reading through all of it. I am so incredibly thankful for all of your prayers for me. This resting time in Tokyo has been emotionally challenging as I process my experiences in Tohoku, but it has also been an amazing time of God's reassurance that everything will be okay. He knows exactly what we need when we need it - that includes Skype dates with friends and family, an email, or even just a post on my Facebook wall! He knows what scripture we need for every day, as I've been seeing over and over again. 
     I need to go, as it is getting late and I'm tired, but I hope to be in touch again soon, with probably a much shorter post.

後でお会いしましょう！

See you later!

~Chloe

Today was my day off. I want to talk about yesterday, though. 
     It was the one year anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. I helped cook for a memorial service that we held for our homeowners. We spent the entire day cooking enough food for probably 300 people, and after the service was done we served it as well. While it was fun to be cooking with so many wonderful Christian women, it was also a day of mixed feelings. At 2:46 pm, a siren wailed from the loudspeakers spread over the entire town. Even though we were in the middle of cooking, we had a moment of silence while the siren was sounding, and as the last eerie tones faded away, my eyes teared up a little bit remembering that day and how many precious lives were lost, and how many people who survived have permanent emotional scars and have so much pain right now.
     While I am not trying to be mean to anyone, it saddened me to go on Facebook that night. Only a few people said anything about the anniversary, and most of them had some deep connection to Japan. I realize that in America, and in other countries, there probably wasn't too much media coverage, and maybe some people just didn't care, but it was hard to see that almost nobody said anything when it was such a huge deal to me. I suppose I'm just being selfish and narrow-minded, but that's how I felt. 
The lyrics to Hillsong's Hosanna include the words, 
        "Break my heart for what breaks yours
          Everything I am for your kingdoms cause"

I want my heart to break for the things that break God's heart. And He's already working on that. After yesterday, I'm finding it hard to see the houses we work in as just a job anymore. I used to be able to, but now, it's so much more than a job. It's someone's home. Someone's life. Someone who lost precious things. It isn't just a story anymore. This is real, and I'm living in it every single day. And it's hard. But I know that with God I can do it. Not on my own strength, but being fully reliant on God's strength to carry me every day. And I'm okay with that.

     Just wanted to share my thoughts about yesterday with you. It's a new thing for me...

後でお会いしましょう！

See you later!

~Chloe

Hello everyone!
What a week (and a half)!
Short list of what happened:
•Two days of Tohoku Celebration of Hope
•New guy - from Northwestern (my school's rival!)
•Lots of friends leaving :(
•Different work all week
•Leading devotions
•Japanese toilets!
•Learning how to use power tools!!!!!


Okay, so I will address all of these things in order. I'm afraid that this is going to be a very long blog post. Again. Except maybe longer than normal.


First, two days of Tohoku Celebration of Hope. Last time, I blogged about Friday night, which was the inaugural night of the Celebration. There isn't that much to report about the two nights following, except that they were fairly similar, save a difference in songs and order of artists, and the passage changed a bit but the message was still a salvation message. After the last day, SP Tome helped strike (for those who don't know theatre terms, this means dismantle everything) and we stayed until about 10 pm. We all came home Sunday night very tired, and many of us took Monday off, so it wasn't quite as boring as normal. We also took a trip to downtown Tome-Towa (the city the SP base is in) and went to a secondhand store (Second Street), a hardware/home store (Homac), and the mall (Aeon Mall). In the mall we shopped around for a bit just exploring and then we all met at Mister Donut and got donuts there.


Second, new guy! On Monday before we went downtown, I came out of the sleeping area, went to get breakfast, and noticed a new guy sitting by himself reading a Japanese-English bilingual Bible - this version I've seen many times as my mom has one and our church has a few as well. I decided to sit on my own just in case he was in the middle of a bible study or something. All of a sudden he sat down across from me and asked me if I went to Bethel (my university). I said yes and he told me that he goes to Northwestern, which is my school's #1 rival. We laughed about that for awhile and ended up talking for almost an hour about a lot of different things. I showed him around the base and then we all went downtown. He's been working with our team all week, and is leaving tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon, and I will be sad to see him go. I already think of him as one of our team, and he definitely added a lot to it.


Third, lots of friends leaving :(. There was a team from Kansai, Japan who was here for a week, but one of their team members stayed behind. She's staying up north until the bases close on April 30th because she wants to help. However, because she doesn't have her own transportation to work sites, and ours are usually an hour or more away from the base, she has been moved to another base where the work sites are walking distance from the base. I was sad to see her go, even though we didn't communicate much (neither of us spoke each other's language very well). She was such an encouragement to me because she's sacrificing her time to volunteer, even though she could be working, making money, and living much more comfortably back in Kansai instead. Also, the guy from Northwestern is leaving tomorrow which is sad :/, but I talked about that before, so just go up a bit if you forget :)


Fourth, different work all week. This week, a couple of carpenter teams needed mud-out crews because the houses they are working in are also being lived in by the homeowners. They have to do each house one room at a time, doing demo, then mudding out, then bleaching, and then finally starting on the carpenter work - insulating, installing drywall and floors, etc. So, this entire week I've been working with the guy from Northwestern at one house with a carpenter team. It has been wonderful to work with some different people and to do some carpenter work. I've done so many new things this week, including cutting and installing insulation, bleaching room by room, and learning to be creative with problem-solving. 


Fifth, leading devotions! The house that I'm currently working at is a very wonderful home. The family's name is Abe. The mother is home a lot, but works in the middle part of the day, so she's usually the first and last person we see. She has a wonderful smile and is very sweet to us even though all we've been doing is demolishing her house room by room. Her son is 10 years old and "rides" horseback on an electronic machine, and is also the best golfer in the region in the 12 and under age group. He said he wants to be as good or better than Tiger Woods one day. I don't know very much about the father, and I've only seen him once or twice. Wayne, the leader of the carpenter team, has been doing devotions every morning with Mrs. Abe. This isn't a normal thing at every house, but I think it is wonderful practice if only to get the homeowner acquainted with the Bible at least a little bit. Yesterday, Wayne asked me to do devotions this morning. I was extremely apprehensive about it since I'm not so great at making speeches, but I said yes and prepared my devotion. I used John 14:27 - "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." I shared with her about how anxious I was about this trip to Japan, and how God gave me His peace, both then and in many other situations. The guy from Northwestern then prayed that the Abe family would know God's peace and would know the God we know.


Sixth, Japanese toilets! Me and a few of the guys are super excited about the toilets that are here in Japan. We've been looking them up online to see how much they are. We especially like the one that is in the Abe's house, and so we've been looking for that specifically. Guess what - we found it! It's about $1400 though, and that doesn't include shipping to the US, which would be at least another $400... I'm trying to decide if it's worth it... :P


Seventh, learning how to use power tools!!! Today, Wayne and the guys taught me how to use three power tools. Normally my friends would wonder if I was lying, but I have proof! Okay, not of the third one, but it was a jig saw... I was so proud of myself!

Alright, I think I'm done for now. Sorry for the suer long blog post today. Hopefully the next few won't be quite so long!

後でお会いしましょう！

See you later!

~Chloe

We worked on a house on Wednesday that I've never been to, and we actually finished mudding it out! It is now ready for the carpenters here to take over and finish the house (after a few days to dry out and sit, since we power washed and bleached the whole house). It was really satisfying to actually finish something, even though we didn't start the house and work on it through to completion. 
Thursday we started on a new house - we basically demolished a whole room in a couple of hours (that includes cleanup time). We were knocking out walls and tearing out drywall and pulling out nails, etc. It was actually really nice to be doing work that you don't have to be super careful with the entire time.
Friday was a very fun day. This weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) is the Tohoku Celebration of Hope with Franklin Graham. The Celebration features a bunch of Christian artists including Kirk Franklin, Alfie, Dennis Agajanian, Mai Mizuki, and Tatsuyuki Yanagawa. Franklin Graham speaks each night, and last night (Friday) he did an altar call after his message. But back to the beginning of Friday. Since the Celebration is going on, most of the staff here at SP (Samaritan's Purse) are working on that and are in Sendai instead of here at the base. So, we are not mudding out for the next few days while the Celebration is on.
Friday morning, we all woke up kind of late and had a fairly lazy morning, which was really nice :) We left around noon, and drove for an hour and a half all the way to Sendai. We checked out the Arena from the outside and then went to the nearest mall (Aeon Mall). We all had lunch there (at around 2 pm) together and then spent some time just hanging out in the mall. That was some good quality time with others from the base that we haven't necessarily been working with every day. After we spent some money at the mall, we made our way back to the Arena where the Celebration is being held. By that time it was snowing pretty hard, and we knew it would be an interesting drive back to the Tome base later that night. 
We got into the arena at 5 pm when the doors opened, sat down, and just kind of looked around until some music started. They had some opening acts while people were coming in, and they were all pretty good, so we were excited for the "real" Celebration to begin at 6. Finally the lights turned off and the first musical guests came on stage. I won't talk about every act but this one deserves some recognition. The group was a Taiko group - Taiko means drum in Japanese and is a traditional style of Japanese drumming that is very popular to this day. The group was very good and it was a great opening act for the Celebration. In between acts they played videos of tsunami victims sharing their story and then talking about what Jesus has done in their life since. 
Unfortunately, the videos were only in Japanese, but for those of you who can understand... This is the first Hope Story they showed us... This man is from Akiranakagawa. This is the second one, and the woman is from Kesennuma. 
They also had lots of prayer throughout the entire Celebration. 
Different pastors from the area prayed in between acts and that was very cool. The entire Celebration was just full of Christ! Every artist talked about Jesus and even the MC talked about 神様 (Kamisama, or God) every time he got on stage to introduce the next artist or pastor. 
After Franklin Graham spoke and did the altar call, everyone who didn't go up front for the altar call started to leave. We were some of the last people to leave, just because we were talking to some different people after the concert. We finally left a little before 10, and arrived back in Tome at 11pm. We were all so hungry that we had a bit of food before we all went to bed, completely exhausted. 
Today we had another lazy morning, but two people that I've become friends with are leaving today to go back to America, so I've been spending some time with them before they actually leave. At noon we're going to leave for Sendai again to volunteer at the Celebration - we have to be there by 2:30 so we can usher guests arriving at the Arena and help them figure out where to go. I feel so blessed to be part of this Celebration, and none of it would have happened if Dad hadn't taken me to see Iwaki city last summer, which wouldn't have happened if God hadn't called my parents to ministry in Boston. God is so good!

後でお会いしましょう！

See you later!

~Chloe