By Jeremy Reynalds

Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

MCLEAN, VA. (ANS) -- Christian aid organizations in Japan are appealing for prayer as their stricken land struggles to cope with the three-fold disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.

According to a news release from Barnabas Aid, an organization providing assistance for the persecuted church, there are more than 300 churches in the affected area. Many have suffered the loss of pastors and church members, while other believers are still unaccounted for, and church buildings have been destroyed.

A Japanese Christian leader, now working in Sendai to help the disaster victims, contacted Barnabas Aid recently.

He said, “Pray for the churches in the northeastern area. Many churches lost their pastors, members, and buildings. Pray that they can stand strong in faith in Christ, Who stood on the raging water and who calmed the sea. This could be a wide open gate for the Gospel. We will conduct our rescue/relief mission through local churches. Need a lot of prayers from Barnabas Aid.”

Barnabas Aid said he reported that people are “traumatized and shocked” after Japan’s most powerful earthquake since records began – 9.0 magnitude – hit on March 11.

The resulting tsunami battered the north-east region, and a nuclear crisis was triggered at the Fukushima plant when the power was knocked out, and back-up generators needed for the reactors' cooling systems were destroyed. Desperate attempts to cool the overheating reactors, which have been rocked by a series of explosions, are continuing amid fears of a total meltdown and dangerous radioactive fallout.

Barnabas Aid said the number of confirmed deaths continues to rise: the figure now tops 5,000, with over 8,000 people still missing. Hundreds of thousands are staying in temporary shelters and are in desperate need of food and water.

Barnabas Aid said for those wanting to assist financially, the organization will forward donations to its Japanese Christian partners, with whom it has worked on relief projects elsewhere, including famine relief and water projects in Niger. They will use the funds from Barnabas to rebuild churches and help Christian communities.

For more information, go to www.barnabasfund.org/US/About-us/What-we-do/

Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "Homeless in the City."

Additional details on "Homeless in the City" are available at http://www.homelessinthecity.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net.

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