She had recently arrived in the country when the 9.00 earthquake and Tsunami hit

By Dan Wooding

Founder of ASSIST Ministries

(ANS) -- A Liberian church leader has miraculously escaped the devastating 9.00 earthquake followed by the Tsunami just days after it hit the country.

According to the Reverend Kortu K. Brown, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Concerned Christian Community (CCC), a premier Liberian Christian NGO, Mrs. Miatta R. Sirleaf, Director of Church Aid Incorporated (CAI) and also Church Administrator of New Water in the Desert Assembly in Brewerville, Liberia, had arrived in northeast Japan on March 4, 2011, for a one-year work-study at the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) in Nasushiobara.

“Eight days later, the deadly earthquake occurred and we understand that she and her colleagues were in a staff meeting when the earthquake struck at about 2:46 PM forcing them to flee through the window.”

ANS has since learned that all the staff at ARI, along with Mrs. Sirleaf, are safe.

The Rev. Brown went on to say, “Thanks for standing with Miatta and others in prayers. She’s such dedicated church worker who has been associated with our relief and development since April 1992. Twelve years ago, she spent a year in Japan and The Philippines in training as a Community Development Technician.”

Now ANS has monitored an extraordinary message from the Asian Rural Institute, the place where Mrs. Sirleaf is based, which says: “I send you greetings in the name of Christ. Although we are still in the middle of a bad situation, we know that our God is able to deliver us from this and more.

“Thank you for all of your prayers, love and words of encouragement. They have been much strength to us as we have struggled here for the past three days. We are sorry to not have gotten a message to people sooner but I'm sure you understand. I want to let you know what happened here at the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) and a little information that we know from what's going on throughout Japan.

The Asian Rural Institute in Nasushiobara, Japan. sustained damage to its dining hall, kitchen, chapel, meeting room and computer room (UMNS photos courtesy of Jonathan and Satomi McCurley)

“On Friday, March 11, 2011, a little before 3 PM, the biggest earthquake in Japanese history hit Japan. It was a magnitude of 9.00 and was based a couple of hundred miles north of us, but it still it gave quite a strong shock.

“With our students for this year not yet arriving, most of the staff were in the middle of a planning meeting for this coming school year, beginning in April, and most of the volunteers were out in the field planting for the coming year.

“This ended up being a blessing from God as we were all able to stay out of harm’s way with no injuries among our community and the people in the houses surrounding the schools.

“But as we escaped, fearing the wires overhead and the trees all around, we watched as windows busted and buildings shook around us here at ARI.

“After the first tremors stopped, we started checking the buildings and houses around us to make sure everyone was out and OK. Several staff and volunteers came crying and running out of the main building where our offices are and others came out of their houses as the tremors continued.”

The message went on to say, “That evening, we brought what we could outside, began a fire (all in 30 degree weather) and tried to make the best of the situation. We invited neighbors and had dinner there.

“We would remain without water, gas and electricity into the next day (there are still some towns in the immediate area without electricity and water). We didn't know the damage here or around Japan, because it was getting darker and it was hard to get any information, much less make phone calls.

“We relied on radio reports and many of us decided to sleep outside or all together at the Nasu Seminar House, which we normally use as a guest house and didn’t seemed to be damaged. Throughout the night tremors continued and we didn't get much sleep, but Saturday morning did finally come.

“The next day, as the tremors continued, we all gathered, as usual, at 7 AM and decided that we needed to take care of the animals and get the buildings checked to know what was safe and not. We helped out with several of our neighbors who also had the insides of their houses pretty much fall in and we also tried to clean up the things we could, especially broken glass, busted water pipes, around the campus.”

The writer continued by saying, “Electricity returned that morning, but water has remained down because of busted pipes on the campus. The Seminar House had water, as did some of our neighbors. So we used those to get water for the animals, and for toilets, etc.

“We discovered that most of the buildings had some damage and that the building that houses our dining hall and kitchen, chapel, meeting room and PC room had much structural damage and is unsafe for use. That will be a big undertaking to replace as we don’t have any earthquake insurance. Also since all the shelves in our offices imploded into the room, it will be some time before we can find any important papers that we might need.

“Unfortunately things got worse as we got more news that the nuclear power plants, about 80 miles northeast of us, were unstable and an explosion had occurred. At that time we didn’t know what the explosion was which sent much of the community into panic. We still are following the situation as there have been no warnings to our area but because the plants are still unstable we know that there is a chance of effects coming to our area. Please pray that God will give protection to us and this area and give the ability to the engineers to get the situation under control.

“That night we got a call from the pastor of the local Nishinasuno church, saying that the church had structural damage and we could not have worship there the next day. This led us to have worship on Sunday at ARI again, and we invited people from the area to come and be with us.

“This was a chance for us to share the gospel, a meal and gather information from one another. For the rest of the day we spent sharing about how we are feeling and what we could do both for the community and each other.

“It is now Monday and we have set up a temporary office at the Nasu Seminar House and continue to monitor the situation of the power plant and the school as we have been warned of another very large aftershock in the next few days.

“We have heard that there was another explosion at the power plant but, as of now, the wind has continued to stay away from us, as well as the rain, and the government is saying that the radiation that has been blown north of the power plant from the latest blast, had potency of about 1/30th of a regular x-ray, which gives us some, if little comfort.

“But, we also were told that from today, Eastern Japan will have controlled blackouts, meaning we will have three hour blocks without electricity, for how long we still don't know.

“There are so many things, so all I can say is please continue to pray for us here at ARI. We will also need financial and physical help in the future and we thank you for those who are already asking what they can do to help. For those in the US, there is a group named, AFARI, American Friends of ARI, and they can accept tax-deductible donations.”

The writer added, “In regards to the rest of Japan, the information we have is that there is a possibility of over 10,000 people to have died, mainly from the Tsunami that hit the East coast after the Earthquake. In some places it was 30 feet high or so. Three prefectures north of us were most hard hit with most of the deaths happening in coastal towns in Iwate and Miyagi, again because of the Tsunami.

“The Japanese National Guard and self-defense forces are working hard along with international groups and NGO's to rescue people. But as we are still not able to connect some people up in Miyagi and Iwate, we don't know all that is happening.

“I saw in the paper this morning that in another town there are 10,000 people missing, so obviously the death toll might continue to rise. Our prefecture, Tochigi, as of today (Monday, March 14) had four people die and about 70 missing, a very small number compared to the North, but still sad news.

“As far as we know, no one from the local community died or was seriously harmed, but again, we are still in the process of seeing what is happening around us. Some local gas stations have run out of gas and others are only giving our three or five gallons of gas at a time. We have heard that in the cities people are waiting for hours at gas stations and supermarkets.

“We thank God that we’re an organic farm, and maybe the silver lining in all of this is seeing the importance of trying to be more self-sufficient in our food sources.”

The writer then gave the following prayer points:

* Pray for the continued safety of our community and others in Japan as tremors continue

* Pray that God would bring control to this power plant situation and protect us and others in Japan

* Pray that God would give us wisdom as to the future. We have to decide soon about accepting new students as well as clean up the campus.

* Pray that God will use us to help in this community for the furthering of His Kingdom.

* Pray for the various rescue teams that are working around the clock to rescue people, especially in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures.

* Pray that this situation would lead to the Salvation of many in Japan and that people would have a chance to think of what is life really for.

Update: Eight days have passed since the devastating earthquake and tsunami destroyed Japan. The official number of dead and missing victims continues to increase.

Some of the ARI rural leaders pictured during happier times

Located in Northern Japan, the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) -- www.ari-edu.org -- is an international training ground for grassroots rural leaders. Each year it conducts a nine-month Rural Leaders Training Program on Sustainable Agriculture, Community Development, and Leadership. Upon completion, program participants, return to their home villages and communities to work side by side with their people, pass on their learning, and promote development from within. To date, ARI has trained 1,130 rural leaders from 51 countries throughout Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.

Update on the latest situation in Japan:

So far, the official number of dead and missing victims had reached more than 18,000 people, according to official data of the National Police Agency of Japan as reported by AFP news agency on Saturday (March 19, 2011).

According to the National Police Agency, as many as 7,197 people have been confirmed dead due to earthquake and Tsunami, while there are 10,905 people officially listed as missing persons. This means that until today at 9 AM local time, the total of dead and missing people is 18,102 people.

Dan Wooding, 70, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 47 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. He now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 200 countries. You can follow Dan on Facebook under his name there or at ASSIST News Service. He is the author of some 44 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel “Red Dagger” which is available this link.

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