The ministry Asian Access is working with churches in Japan to orchestrate relief efforts in Northern Japan:
Asian Access is working with our vast network of churches across the country (400 pastors and 1800 churches – approximately 20-25% of the congregations in Japan) and with CRASH–a ministry of Grace Church which has grown into the largest Christian coordinating agency–to help meet the spiritual and physical needs of several communities across the nation.
We estimate there are nearly 300 churches in the tsunami-impacted areas and Asian Access has already launched a disaster response team for CRASH to set up a relief base in the affected areas. A few churches are already serving as shelters and are receiving those who have been left homeless.
Numerous news organizations, such as NPR, are keeping live blogs and linking to sites where people can locate the status of loved ones.
In an interview with Mission Network News, Ron Hutchcraft talks about the spiritual condition of Japan:
He says the need for prayer is great. “[With] the millions of gods of Shintoism — the feeling that Christianity is a western religion — all these things have created great barriers, and my prayer now is for the people of God in Japan, that this could be their moment that they could [share their faith] because of their hope.”
“Remember,” Hutchcraft says, “12 men spread this faith around the world. So, this could be the moment for that little handful of believers to become the people who are the carriers of the hope of Christ. Wouldn’t it be something if this became the Jesus movement for the people of Japan?”
Operation World states that approximately 1.5% of Japanese people are professing Christians.
Both World Vision and Food for the Hungry are assisting in relief efforts.
