Evacuating

Did you ever play one of those games where you ask yourself “If you suddenly had to leave and you could only take 3 things, what would you choose?”

On March 11 at 2:46, I was upstairs in my bedroom pricing stuff for Spring Thrift Shop at my kids’ school. I was getting kinda tired of it, and I thought I should go take a shower (Yes, it was mid-afternoon and I hadn’t showered. Confession is good for the soul!) There was some old Christmas stuff that I wanted to go through before I quit. When things started shaking, I had a tacky Christmas wreath in my hand. I had been thinking that without the bow, it wouldn’t be so bad and SOMEONE might want it. A couple of minutes later, Donnie and I were standing outside our house, ground still shaking and our cars dancing in the driveway. The car dance would’ve actually been pretty comical if it hadn’t been so scary! After the quake stopped, I looked down to see that I had that tacky Christmas bow in my hand!! So much for prioritizing!! My neighbors looked a little puzzled when they glanced at what I had chosen to bring! I was just glad I hadn’t been in the shower at 2:46.

In the last 25 years, I’ve made a lot of trips “across the big pond,” as my mom would say. Most of them have been for furlough. Some for fun. Once or twice they’ve been for an emergency and arranged in a big rush. But this is a totally new experience.

It’s still pretty cold here, but my daughter Katie says its 82 degrees in Nashville.  So, in the middle of trying to pack everything and get on the bus in a few hours, I’m getting into the boxes of spring/summer clothes. Guess what? Puberty has caused Caroline to grow about six inches and a size or two since last summer, so she’s gonna be traveling ligth! Walmart, here we come, I guess. Yeah, I know that no one who knows me is surprised about that one!

I’m really bummed that I got rid of all my warm weather clothes at the Fall Thrift Shop. At the time, I had lost 20 pounds and everything was just hanging on my emaciated frame (yeah, right!) Um… now that I’m back at my original weight, I’ve outgrown my clothes too.  So I’m traveling light as well!

Out of habit, I asked Katie and Evan on the phone “is there something you want me to bring you from Japan?” and then I said, “Oh, wait! Never mind…. I can’t really get to a store anyway because we don’t have gas in the car!” If they have any at the airport, I will get Evan his “Black-Black”, a special flavor of gum that he really likes. You know moms.

Moms are the same everywhere. Here in Tokyo, moms are worried about the nuclear disaster and the rising radiation levels. The local kindergarten is not allowing the children to play outside. The elementary kids are going out for recess, but they are being told to wear long sleeves and masks.

One of our Japanese friends in Chiba, close to Tokyo Disneyland, is a mom to 4 kids age 4 and under. The youngest are a twin boy and girl, and they are in diapers. That is to say, they would be in diapers if their mother had any. All of the disposable diapers are sold out and she ran out a couple of days ago. She thought she would just buy cloth ones, but those were gone too. So she lives in one of the world’s most modern cities, and she is diapering her babies in dishcloths and whatever else she can find around her house.

And up in the Tohoku region, there are 450,000 people who have been living in evacuation centers for a week and 2 days. Some of them are moms too. In some of the centers, supplies are not coming through. They have run out of diapers, formula, and food. They have had no heat or electricity since the quake. They are not just traumatized from surviving the earthquake and tsunami, but they are unable to bathe, brush their teeth, or use a toilet. There are holes being dug in the ground for that, and there is no toilet paper.

While I am fretting that I don’t have any spring clothes in my size, they haven’t been able to change clothes in 10 days. Not even their underwear.

Relief organizations and volunteers all over the country are working around the clock to change the situation. Things seem to be getting better for some areas, and we are in fervent prayer for the ones still suffering. CRASH (Christian Relief, Assistance, Support, and Hope) is the one we’ve been doing volunteer work with. Yesterday, meals, blankets, water, and toiletries starting pouring in from humanitarian agencies such as Samaritan’s Purse and Feed the Hungry. Money is also coming in to allow the volunteers to deliver these things to the evacuees.

There’s evacuating, and then there’s EVACUATING. I am blessed indeed.