Service With the Oyster Fishermen

The church has been so helpful to many of the fishing Co-ops who lost their ability to earn a living when the tsunami hit their villages.  The co-op we helped today was one we helped last year also and we saw then the total distruction of their buisness both physically and in their faces and eyes.  Today we was new life breathed into their business mostly because of the church.  We saw thousands of new ropes, buckets, many new computers (7 or 8 ) for their office, a row of port-o-potties that are clean and nice, new boats & trucks.  The humanitarian fund we as members of the church donate to is really working and a life saver to many in Japan.

 Waiting at NHK (Television Station) for our bus to arrive to take us to the seashore where the fishing village is located. (2 1/2 hour ride)   Elders Akiyama and Elkins.

 Sisters Chikamori, Kitade and Tada.

 Sisters Asato, Kimura and Yoshida

 Sisters Collins and Oman

 Elders Elkins, Oikawa, Holbrook and Akiyama (back)

 The missionaries love to see each other on these service trips.  They always greet each other with a hug which is quite amazing considering most Japanese don't hug each other as a general rule.

 We ate lunch (bentos or box lunch) in a break room used by the fishermen.

Sisters Yoshida, Asato, Kimura and Oman.

 Elders Yoneda, Tanaka, Ikeda, and Bro So (soon to be baptized member from China)

and Sisters Asato and Kimura.

 Sisters Furukawa and Yoshikawa, Yoshida eating their bento lunch.

 These are some of the newly donated ropes by the church to the fishermen. They are attached to a machine that loosens the twist of the ropes.

 The Sakamotos and Gary are placing a shell with oyster eggs attached into the twisted rope.

 This picture is of the shells that were previously attached to a long metal rod and placed in the ocean where eggs of oysters attached themselves.  This load was just pulled out of the ocean.  We unstrung all of these shells and placed them in buckets (see the picture above of Gary placing the shells in the rope).

 A close-up of the shell being placed into the twists of the rope.  The ropes are then twisted again to secure to shells.  The ropes are then taken out to the ocean and dropped in where they will stay for about two years before they are harvested full of oysters.  We were told about 50 oysters can grow on one shell.

 Some of our group of Missionary Helping Hands with the fishermen.

We become good friends with those we work with.

 Pictures taken on the bus ride home along the seashore.  This is such a beautiful area.  It is hard to believe it has had so much devistation in the last 1.5 years.

 This huge tank held oil before the tsunami when it was pushed to this spot and crumpled like a piece of tinfoil.  There was talk in the community of Ishinomaki of leaving it there as a reminder of the disaster but I believe they have decided to remove it.  It has become quite a popular site.

I was thrilled to see this welcome sign of rebuilding some of the homes destroyed.  There is hope again in the lives of the people.