The simple things can mean everything in the aftermath of a disaster. That’s why the woman at the Yamashirocho Church began crying when a team from Samaritan’s Purse arrived with hygiene kits and blankets.

“She was really, really stoked that we were here,” said Dan Junker, a missionary helping our team distribute relief supplies in Japan. “She said that they’ve been giving all they have to the locals, and today they had almost nothing left. Then here came all these vehicles coming in, and they are just blown away. The littlest things such as wet wipes mean tons.”

A Samaritan’s Purse disaster response team is supplying aid in the devastated area around Sendai, the major city nearest the epicenter of the twin disasters that hit northeastern Japan on March 11.

“We’re moving supplies out through mostly local partners,” said Paul Chiles, a team member who arrived in Japan within days of the disasters. “They take the supplies out to the local church leader, and the church knows who in the surrounding communities needs help. They go out and provide that help. It’s effective.”




In addition to buying supplies locally, Samaritan's Purse airlifted 93 tons of aid to Japan on a 747 jumbo jet just a week after the disasters. So far, our teams have helped thousands of families by giving out hygiene kits, soap, blankets, jerry cans, buckets, socks, boots, clothing, and heavy-duty plastic tarps. We have also provided cooking supplies, bags of rice, boxes of milk, and baby food.

“Shelter plastic is used to fix leaky roofs in the usual disaster situation,” Chiles said. “In this one, there’s so much mud on the floor, and these are people that are used to being clean. People are rolling out the plastic, so they can at least have a place to sit down, to lie down, just to stay a little bit cleaner. The hygiene kits contain things you need to feel a little better about yourself. There are some water trucks around, and a few water points. We’ve got buckets and jerry cans, so they can collect water and bring it back with them. These are just general things to make life possible at this point.”




All the supplies have one thing in common. They are evidence that someone cares.

“We are so, so thankful for all the help that Samaritan’s Purse is giving us,” said Ayako Lawrence, a Japanese Christian working with our team. “We have serious problems, a lack of necessities. I am so grateful that Samaritan’s Purse responded so immediately like this. We are really, really thankful.”

Teams are going out from our warehouse in Sendai to surrounding communities such as Ishinomaki, one of the hardest hits towns, to deliver the supplies to people in desperate need.

“They want things as basic as toilet paper,” said one of our partners. “The hygiene kits are perfect.”




As they travel, our teams are seeing incredible amounts of destruction.

“It looks like the whole world was put into a blender and poured out on the ground where the wave came in,” said Ken Isaacs, Vice President of Programs for Samaritan’s Purse and the leader of our team in Japan. “There is just a tremendous amount of debris and garbage. You see a few homes that are standing. Everything between them is gone. The loss of life is huge. The entire country is overwhelmed. The fear, the panic of the nuclear situation has a lot of people on edge.”

Yet as our teams continue to work through our church partners, they see glimmers of optimism.

“We’re hopeful,” Chiles said. “Every day there’s a little more hope.”

Despite the challenges, it is clear that God is at work. Our staff has seen His hand in the assistance of a Japanese senator from Sendai, one of six Christian senators in the Japanese parliament, who personally helped our team obtain travel permits for limited-access highways and priority gasoline rations. His hand was also evident in the cooperative effort of the U.S. and Japanese armed forces, who facilitated our emergency airlift by unloading supplies at the U.S. military base in Yokoto and quickly transporting them to Sendai.




"We have much to be thankful for," Isaacs said. "Please join us in praising God for the help of the U.S. military, Japanese government officials, and local Christians. Thank Him that our charter flight arrived safely in Japan. Thank Him that our team has remained safe and healthy."

Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham has led evangelistic Festivals in the Japanese cities of Osaka and Okinawa. The events were organized by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in cooperation with local churches. Samaritan's Purse is working with Japanese churches and the BGEA in this relief effort.

“It’s never happened in Japan where Christian churches, with partners like BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse, are able to bring help and healing to their whole country,” said Chad Hamond, a member of the BGEA team in Japan. “The rest of the country of Japan can look at these Christians with much more credibility when they see how we are working together to bring positive change, but doing it in the Name of Jesus Christ.”

Northeastern Japan was struck by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake followed by a giant tsunami on March 11. Huge waves engulfed towns and villages, sweeping away houses, cars, boats, and trains. Strong aftershocks have continued to rock the area, hampering relief efforts. The misery is compounded by fears of radiation leaks from damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima power plant, about 60 miles south of Sendai.

The official death toll has jumped past 11,000, and some reports indicate that it could go as high as 25,000. Japanese officials have said that more than 15,000 people may have died in Miyagi Prefecture, where Samaritan’s Purse is based.

In Japan, evangelical Christians number less than one-half of one percent of the population, according to some estimates. Please pray for the men, women, and children affected by this catastrophe, especially that they will be touched by the love of Jesus Christ through the ministry of Samaritan's Purse, the BGEA, and our Japanese church partners.

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Samaritan's Purse , Japan , Emergency Relief , Supplying Hope in Japan