Worldwide Family Activity Report - Special Issue on the Kobe Earthquake
FAR013 - GP
April 1995 by The Family, Zurich, Switzerland

The Family
Making a Difference!

Relief and Rays of Hope
AFTER THE KOBE EARTHQUAKE!

Part 2

         After the Great Hanshin Earthquake of January 17th laid waste the western Japanese port city of Kobe, a team of about 50 Family members were among the first to set up an effective relief operation. In this installment of their story, Family volunteers in Kobe explain how their efforts have made a significant difference in the lives of thousands who were left homeless by the earthquake.

Helping to relieve the suffering
         Within a few days of our arrival, the local government recognized our relief project as a de facto depot for relief supplies, and a number of city offices began channeling food and other donated goods through us.
         During the first trying weeks, we attended mostly to people's physical needs. We established, organized and manned the distribution of food, clothes and emergency items; volunteered our services in various shelters and a hospital, went door to door helping the elderly; operated a mobile kitchen that took hot soup around to a number of tent camps in the area; carried food on bicycles into areas which were inaccessible by car or truck, etc. As the food situation in the city stabilized, we were able to concentrate more of our efforts on other projects, but two months after the quake we were still feeding over 3,000 people each day.

"The hands are different"
         On Let Love Touch Your Life, a Family-produced cassette tape, the narrator tells an anecdote about some natives in Africa who walked for miles past a government hospital in order to be treated at a small missionary clinic. When the missionaries asked why they walked the extra distance when the same medicine was available at the government hospital, the natives replied, "The medicine may be the same, but the hands are different!" A number of earthquake victims have told Family members basically the same thing: Though they are living in shelters and could eat there, they prefer to walk an hour or two through the cold and huddle in a tent while they eat a meal prepared by the Family. "We are treated very impersonally at the shelter," one man explained, "but when I come here, everyone is so cheerful and loving. You don't make me feel bad because I have a need. Instead, you lift my spirit and give me hope."

Organizing and overseeing other volunteers
         After local radio broadcasts publicized our first bread line and asked for volunteer workers to join our efforts, scores of people phoned every day, offering to help. Some days as many as 50 volunteers came to work with us. Some are residents of Kobe who lost home and livelihood; others are university students who have come from other cities. All are go-getters who want to do something to ease the suffering and help bring order out of the present chaos. They see that the Family is getting things done and effecting change, and they want to be a part. At one point, we set up a dozen additional tents at our campsite to sleep the thirty or so who offered to help full time. Others come to help during the day. When the Shin-Kobe campsite couldn't hold any more, 22 Family members opened a second relief center in the Mikage area, between Nada and Higashi-Nada Ku, where there was major destruction.
         Some of the other volunteers brought motorbikes and joined our teens in taking food and supplies to areas unreachable by car or truck. Others picked up supplies from government distribution points and drove them to needy areas. Two doctors--one an army physician and the other a Taiwanese who lives and works in Japan--have regular hours when they attend to earthquake victims at the Family's site. A barber wanted to help, so she set up a free barber shop in one corner of the camp. This added a human, personal touch to the relief operation, which people really appreciated. We also built two hot baths in separate tents, where people from all over the area could come to get free hot baths--a real godsend for these people who were either living outside in makeshift quarters, or still did not have water or gas in their houses.

Offering comfort, encouragement and a listening ear
         The day we arrived on the scene we set up a counseling hotline and distributed flyers which read, "If you need comfort or emotional support, please contact us where we are working, or at the following address or phone number in Osaka: . . ." Around the clock, Family members in nearby Osaka manned the phone and were able to encourage many troubled hearts. One young woman called at four in the morning, very distressed. The person who answered the phone talked with her for an hour or more, then suggested she meet our team at Shin-Kobe station. For weeks afterwards, she helped out at the camp with the cooking and other volunteer work.
         As we helped people physically by passing out food, clothing, blankets, tents and other emergency items, we also offered a few words of encouragement to each person. Often, people have been so in need of comfort and so appreciative of a little love and concern that they break down and cry. This has sometimes led to long, heartfelt conversations--the kind that can brighten a person's entire outlook on past losses, present difficulties and future prospects.
         Other people, after experiencing our material help, outgoing concern and smiles day after day, have turned to us for emotional and spiritual help, which is actually a greater need. Filling people's stomachs and giving them a place to lay their heads is relatively easy; restoring their broken spirits and shattered lives is the greater challenge, and can only be achieved through God's love.
         Sandy, a veteran of the Family's work in Japan, explains it this way: "Under normal conditions, most Japanese are rather self-satisfied. Materially, they `have it made' with their high standard of living, latest technology, and orderly society. But all of that contributes to a false sense of security and leaves them completely unprepared for a calamity of these proportions. Most of the people we come in contact with now have either lost loved ones, witnessed extreme suffering, or come face to face with death. Some have experienced all of those things. In addition, they are suddenly without even their most basic needs--food, water and shelter. They are reminded of the true values of life and feel a deep spiritual need."
         "This is the most important and long-lasting part of our work, as well as the most fulfilling," adds another Family member. "In the words of an old hymn, `If I can plant a rose where thorns have been, dispel the gloom and let the sunshine in; if I can help some broken life to rise again, I shall not live in vain. If I can sing a song of love and cheer, some song that lifts a soul from doubt and fear, and brings them back to know that God is always near, I shall not live in vain.' Seeing hope restored to just one person more than makes up for all the physical discomfort we have to go through in order to help here, and we witness many such lives changed every day."
         Many people are so thankful for the way they were helped in their time of dire need, that once they begin to get back on their feet they have tried to repay the kindness in some small way. Housewives have brought fresh vegetables or other hard-to-get items. Some have come regularly to help cook or clean up. An Indian family who owned a restaurant ate at the Shin-Kobe campsite for several days; later they returned to cook a curry dinner for our whole crew of Family members and the other full-time volunteers. One lady realized that a Family worker's hands must be cold, and warmed them between her own. Love begets love.

The biggest job lies ahead: repairing broken lives
         It took several weeks for most of Kobe's residents to overcome the shock and come to grips with the enormity of the job ahead--rebuilding a major city from rubble and ruins. It has taken even longer, however, for most to realize that "reconstruction" means not only repairing the infrastructure and rebuilding homes, offices, factories and public buildings, but it involves mending the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of people who are emotionally devastated and discouraged beyond imagination. We were saddened to hear that just two or three minutes away from where we were camped, some poor soul had committed suicide. The government is now hiring psychiatrists to visit the shelters to counsel the people who are living under very difficult situations: no privacy, little hope of having their own home anytime in the near future and no job. Many of them have also lost loved ones. When we visited the shelters or met these people elsewhere, they have been very appreciative of our concern, our words of comfort and, most of all, our prayers for them.
         Some supermarkets have reopened in the area where we have been working, and food is becoming more readily available to those who still have jobs or savings and can pay for it. This has enabled us to concentrate more on helping people overcome the trauma they have experienced. Even those whose families and properties escaped serious harm have remained in a state of near shock.
         Many people have been so fearful that they cannot sleep at night. Aftershocks have been a continual source of worry. Under normal circumstances, these relatively small tremors would go almost unnoticed, but for those who have just lived through a major earthquake--especially those who are still living in houses with damaged foundations or supporting structures--even the smallest tremor can be terrifying.
         Plans are underway to open a permanent Family home in Kobe in order to be able to continue to minister to the many hundreds of people they have met in the course of their relief work. Healing their broken hearts and wounded spirits will be a long-term process, but we know that somehow God will continue to produce something beautiful from these ashes.


Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family