Samaritan’s Purse continues to help the Japanese people recover from the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit on March 11 by mobilizing and equipping local volunteers to clean out homes and remove debris.

“We are working hard to get Japanese Christians engaged in being volunteers,” said Claus Burchert, a member of our Japan response team. “That’s the reason we have not sent out a request for volunteers in North America. We want to give local Christians—who make up about one percent of the Japanese population—the opportunity to serve. They are going to be here long after we leave.”

To recruit volunteers, Samaritan’s Purse is working closely with the Japanese Mission Council, which was formed after the Franklin Graham Festival in Osaka in October last year.

We established two bases to accommodate teams of volunteers that are working in locations where the tsunami filled houses with mud, but did not destroy the buildings. Since April 27, we have hosted 184 volunteers.

Initially, it was a challenge finding space for the camps where volunteers could be housed and fed.

“Because of the devastation, there are a limited number of locations available,” Burchert said. “The government was also looking for locations to build temporary shelters for victims. It was difficult for both of us to find space. We had teams on the road for almost three solid weeks looking for places to set up base camps.”

Once a location was found, we sent experienced staff from our U.S. Disaster Relief team to help construct the camps, and to train local church leaders and volunteers to perform “mud-outs.” We provided pastors with small, inexpensive pickup trucks, loaded with a generator, power washer, and clean-up tools to help in the effort.

Samaritan’s Purse is focused on about 100 kilometers of coastline near Sendai that was hit particularly hard by the disaster.

“The devastation is total,” Burchert said. “The quake and tsunami created as much debris and garbage in a few hours as would normally accumulate in the entire country over a quarter of a century.

“One of the communities we are working in lost 70 percent of its physical structure. In another community, the University of Tokyo measured the height of the tsunami at 37.9 meters, which is about the same as a 12-storey building.”

Samaritan’s Purse has had staff in Japan for over two months. We sent a disaster response team to Sendai, the city nearest the epicenter of the earthquake and tsunami, within hours of the catastrophe, and airlifted 93 tons of emergency supplies.

“Initially, our response was simply to provide the necessities,” Burchert said. “We found a large warehouse in Sendai to store (the) supplies that were flown in from the U.S., and we purchased additional supplies locally. For the first month—working through missionaries and local church groups out in the field—we distributed blankets, hygiene kits, cooking kits, water, food, clothing, sanitizers and other supplies.”

Forty thousand people have received aid from Samaritan’s Purse since we began working in Japan.

Supplies we have provided:

• 41,251 hygiene kits
• 8,037 kitchen kits
• 1,125 rolls of plastic
• 14,540 blankets
• 144 bicycles
• 301 gas stoves
• 120 lanterns
• 10,800 jerry cans
• 379 diapers
• 755 bedding items
• 552 cleaning items
• 1,331 clothing items
• 1,975 food items
• 3,398 pieces of mud out equipment
• 4 large tents to house volunteers

More than 100,000 people are still living in temporary shelters in schools and public buildings. They have little privacy. Cardboard partitions separate families who have all of their possessions crammed into less than 100 square feet of living space.

“The people in the shelters seemed very docile and orderly,” said Wanda Burchert, Claus’ wife. “My heart goes out to them and to the passionate Japanese Christian volunteers who are coming out to minister to them physically and spiritually.”

Because of the scale of the disaster, the recovery will take a long time and will require worldwide financial support.

“Money can be used most effectively because we don’t have to store it or figure out how to get it through customs,” Burchert said. “In a developed country like Japan, we can buy most of what we need from businesses in devastated communities, so by sending money you also help us bolster the local economy.”

Please pray for Claus, Wanda, and the rest of our teams as they continue to minister to the people of Japan who are incredibly grateful for the gifts and support.

Samaritan's Purse , Japan , Emergency Relief , Working Together For Japan