Two big earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 and magnitude 7.3 happened within a period of 28 hours (April 14 and 16). More than 36,745 buildings were damaged. Many houses were destroyed. There were 49 deaths and then 17 more deaths as a result of the disasters. One person was missing, 1,542 were injured, and 183,000 people were evacuated.
Supplies from All Over the Country
The Kumamoto Seventh-day Adventist Church, located in the city of Kumamoto, was near the epicenter of the earthquake. Immediately after the earthquake happened on April 16, Kumamoto Church started to receive a stream of supplies. The supplies came by truck from Kagoshima Church, located in the next prefecture, and many other churches around the Kyushu area (Fukuoka, Kurume, Nagasaki, and Sasebo) and Hiroshima Saniku Gakuin High School and Kobe Adventist Hospital.
Yoshiaki Takagi is working as the pastor at Kumamoto Church, even though he retired at the age of 65. He experienced the earthquake at his home in Minamiaso. Although his house did not collapse, he left the house and spent two nights in his car. Then he stayed at the Kumamoto Church to help the community. He made an effort to support the community by visiting people and handing out water and hand wipes from all over the country. Now, ADRA Japan is working with the administration to offer health examinations at the church.
Pastor Takagi remarks, “I felt extremely terrified during the earthquake, but nothing fell from the bookshelf or cupboard. Since God has protected me, I will do everything I can to support the community.”
Fortunately, God protected Kumamoto Church, and there was no damage to the building. No church member in Kumamoto prefecture died, although one church member’s house was entirely destroyed.
However, some elderly people had their dementia worsened; some people are not able to rest at night; some are afraid to go upstairs; some are afraid that the next-door apartment will fall down, some slept two nights on the steps of the apartment because they were afraid to enter the house right after the earthquake.
Even the pastor himself remarked, “I have this constant fear that the earthquake can happen again anytime.There are so many people who are not motivated to clean up their houses because they are scared that big earthquakes might come again. They also do not want to see their ruined houses.”
Service Opportunity Given
Mr. Hiroshi Kai, a literature evangelist at Kumamoto Church, has been helping out with cleaning up the damaged houses and handing out supplies, such as water, by organizing volunteer teams of high school students at the church. Through this volunteer work, the church and community have become unified.
People are now able to deliver the necessary supplies to the places where people need them thanks to the community network. People from the community have started to visit the church to express their appreciation. Some people even stop by the church and bow towards the churchfor a moment to express their appreciation. Even though they were once not interested in the church, people are beginning to appreciate the church.
The church decided to spend 300,000 yen (about 2,700 USD) to set up a storage house in case of another earthquake disaster. Pastor Takagi said, “Now, we know for sure why this church exists in this community. We would like to prepare the people for the Second Coming of Christ and point them to the eternal kingdom.” He has been encouraging people saying, “We have to go through this trial, but God will surely lead us through.”
Earthquakes with No Endin Sight
I visited the Kumamoto Seventh-day Adventist Church. I also visited the shelters located in the severely damaged areas. The 13 important cultural properties and stonewalls of Kumamoto Castlewere destroyed. One elderly man standing next to mewas taking some pictures and saying, “I am so shocked… I feel bad taking pictures of these scenes. However, I still need to remember this by taking pictures…”
The man who was guidingus said sorrowfully, “I want to cry… This is the symbol of Kumamoto… I can’t believe that the stonewalls collapsed.”
Due to this earthquake, the proud symbol of the Kumamoto people was severely damaged. The pain that the local people are experiencing is beyond our imagination. We need a lot of time, money, and patience in order to fix the walls. We cannot discard the Kumamoto earthquake as simply a devastating earthquake that happened this past April.
After the two major earthquakes, people have experienced more than 1,500 earthquakes. Kumamoto is not simply a disaster that happened in the past. The Kumamoto disaster is a present problem that we need to face today!
I ask that you will continue to pray and support Kumamoto!
News Article by Norihiko Hanada