Two believers from Konko Churches of North America, participated in volunteer activities for recovery from the Great Earthquake disaster in Kesennuma, from April 15 to 17.  They attended the grand service of Konko Church of Kesennuma, which is the volunteers’ base, and helped clean-up an affected house and a hotel.  The hotel was preparing for a scheduled reopening for May.  The following are their impressions.  To see their entire impressions, visit our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/KIC1993

Mr. Scott Wong, Konko Church of Vancouver:
“In the United States, most of the main stream media coverage of the earthquake and the tsunami died down a couple of weeks after the events of 3/11/11. Then, YouTube videos started popping up. These videos sensationalized the power of the earthquake and the devastation of the tsunami and fires. Once we started volunteering, the reality of the catastrophe sunk in. My transformational volunteering event was helping family move belongings from their home that was to be torn down. This drove home the scope of the human suffering in the tsunami areas. The YouTube videos showed surging water and raging fire, but didn’t show the impact on people’s lives. In this family’s home, there was nothing left on the bottom floor and the second floor had a layer of mud everywhere. Almost all the belongings had mud on them. When I think back on the impact on this one family’s life, I shudder with sadness. When I think of the impact on the thousands of family’s lives, I feel unbearable sorrow. I pray that the affected areas of Miyagi Prefecture are reborn and the shattered lives are healed.”

 Mr. Robert Giulietti, Konko Church of Seattle:
“During our stay, we were able to visit many of the damaged areas. I saw major devastation in the form of cars swept inside of buildings, protective barrier sea walls collapsing, ships isolated on land, entire neighborhoods wiped out with nothing left but the foundations of the buildings.  I witnessed that I never saw in my life.  Take away the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis, this has to be one of the most beautiful areas to live on this planet.  The views are tremendous and the proximity to the water is a great blessing.  This community has done a great deal of recovery work over the last year, but still has a long way to go before matching what was prior to the disaster.  I believe that one day, this will be a strong community of survivors and the town will revive into one much better than it has ever been.”