Japan AGMF Relief Efforts

Japan AGMF stands for Assemblies of God Missionary Fellowship and is made up of AGWM (Assemblies of God World Missions) missionaries serving in Japan. There are 31 missionaries and all have been accounted for during this time.

Give to JAPAN DISASTER RELIEF at the Assemblies of God website.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Two reports from Pastor Hiroshi Ito of Izumi Fukuin Christ Church 4/4

Report 1)
Praise the Lord.
I want to take a moment and thank you for the numerous prayers and support that has been given for the Tohoku churches and the Tohoku people in regards to the earthquake and tsunami.
The disaster stricken churches are gradually gaining the strength to overcame this trial and are being encouraged towards restoration.  Yet, among the damaged places, even if they try to rebuild there is no one to work and so a number of churches are in the position of holding worship in damaged buildings. And the danger and instability of the buildings is only compounded by the continuing level 4 and 5 aftershocks.  I would appreciate if you would pray for repairs to be made as soon as possible but more than anything pray that the protective hand of the Almighty be over them.
Although they are in this state of disrepair, they daily bring glory to the name of the Lord by bringing relief and restoration to those in nearby evacuation shelters who have evacuated because of tsunami damage as well as the nuclear accident. 
Please remember to pray for the protection and blessing over these ministries and at the same time please encourage people to volunteer and come to the disaster areas to help. We need many to help in the affected areas. Please do all that you can.

Report 2)

Praise God!  
Thank you all for your prayers and loving support. 
On Sunday the 3rd starting at 3pm I and 9 members from our church went to Kawamata-machi in Fukushima prefecture to hold worship at an evacuation shelter which was originally an elementary school.
At the moment it is the evacuation shelter for a large number of people from the Futaba area which fell within the 10 kilometer mandatory evacuation zone stemming from the radiation leak. One of our church members had a friend from their high school days in that shelter and that friend is an employee of Tepco and was working at the nuclear power plant. 
After the nuclear accident, that person decided to evacuate, and one day came to Sendai to visit our church member, who in turn invited them to our Wednesday night prayer meeting were subsequently they were touched by God, believed, and were saved.  That person returned to the evacuation shelter witnessing to all about the joy, thanks, and hope of salvation and pleaded with us to came and hold worship at the shelter. So thats what we decided to do.
We held the service on an embankment on the grounds of the shelter and had 4 people show up to worship with our church members. They earnestly listened as we prayed and worshiped, had testimonies, a special solo and a sermon. With the result that the man who had been saved at our prayer meeting decided that he wanted to be baptized and another lady declared, “I want to start reading the Bible and going to church.” It is needless to say that we passed out the Bibles that we had brought with us. Finally, we laid hands on each attendee and prayed that they would be able to persevere through this time with the Lord’s protection, faith, hope and love.
Please pray that the hand of protection would be over these who have been forced into an evacuation lifestyle by the nuclear accident, and pray that they can quickly return to their homes and rebuild their lives. I would also appreciate if you pray that works of salvation would continue amid their evacuation life. All the glory belongs to the Lord.

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