Walking Together in the Father’s Heart

I have always struggled with communication.

Sometimes I don’t know how to explain myself, or my work. Words feel too small for the depth of what I see and feel.

One of my closest friends is a hikikomori. Without him, I don’t think the idea of a café that allocates resources for socially withdrawn people would ever have been born. God has used him in countless ways to shape this ministry—sometimes directly, sometimes quietly, in ways neither of us expected.

We circle the same truth, but speak in two different dialects of meaning.
Mine is shaped by a multicultural, public health–psychosocial lens.
His is rooted in a Japanese cultural and linguistic frame.

Our “gap” is not about values at all—it’s about framing.
When he hears “research,” he pictures cold data manipulation.
I can’t blame him. Once, I thought the same.

But for me, “research” isn’t pulling people apart into numbers. My research is my work—it’s the practice of deeply listening, noticing what is said and unsaid, and weaving those threads into a picture that helps people see themselves more clearly. It’s not separate from the human connection—it is the human connection, held up to the light through careful analysis.

Yes, I categorize keywords, patterns, and feelings. On the surface, it might look like turning people into numbers. But those numbers are only scaffolding—temporary frames that hold the pieces together while I see the whole story emerge. Each fragment keeps its meaning, and when joined, the picture appears: rich, human, and utterly unique.

He once helped me organize tape transcriptions. He didn’t see how that task could help my work. But to me, it was a deep kindness. By freeing me from hours of mechanical labor, he gave me the space and confidence to gather the subtle threads—to listen for the ma, the spaces between words where truth often hides. Precise transcripts make analysis possible, and analysis is my way of making the invisible visible.

Because in the end, my goal is never to take something away from people. It’s to give them back a clearer mirror—so they can see their own patterns, their own strengths, their own beauty.

---

The Bigger Picture

This is more than professional practice. It’s a calling.
Every conversation, every listening moment, every pattern recognized is part of the Father’s work of restoration. He listens to the words and silences of our lives, gathers the broken fragments, and gives us back a wholeness we couldn’t see on our own.

The café, the research, the careful listening—they are all streams flowing from the same source: the Father’s heart for the lost, the withdrawn, the unseen. In His Kingdom, no one is too hidden to be known, no story too fractured to be pieced together.

And so, I need you my friends. I want to welcome you to join me in this journey.
Different eyes, different words, but the same mission: to make the invisible visible, and to hold up a mirror that reflects the image the Father sees.

May the Lord calls you, bless you, and hold you. 

Radiation From Cornwall to Hong Kong Beats Tokyo Amid Nuclear Plant Scare

By Stuart Biggs and Yuriy Humber - Apr 1, 2011 8:37 PM GMT+0900

A forwarded news from Bloomberg

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People jog in the West Kowloon park as the Hong Kong skyline rises across Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong. Photographer: Jerome Favre/Bloomberg

Typical radiation levels in Hong Kong exceed those in Tokyo even as workers struggle to contain a crippled nuclear plant in northern Japan, indicating concerns about spreading contamination may be overblown. Photographer: Jerome Favre/Bloomberg

Typical amounts of radiation in Hong Kong exceed those inTokyo even as workers struggle to contain a crippled nuclear plant in northern Japan, indicating concerns about spreading contamination may be overblown.

The radiation level in central Tokyo reached a high of 0.109 microsieverts per hour in Shinjuku Ward yesterday, data from the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health show. That compares with 0.14 microsieverts in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Observatory said on its website. A person is exposed to 50 microsieverts from a typical x-ray.

Many countries have naturally occurring radiation levels that exceed Tokyo’s, said Bob Bury, former clinical lead for the U.K.’s Royal College of Radiologists. A 30-fold surge in such contamination in Tokyo prompted thousands of expatriates to leave Japan after the March 11 tsunami knocked out power at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, triggering the crisis. Radiation in Tokyo is barely above levels in London and New York even now, analysts said.

“The situation in Japan looks set to follow the pattern of Chernobyl, where fear of radiation did far more damage than the radiation itself,” Bury said in an e-mail referring to the 1986 accident in the former Soviet Union, the world’s worst nuclear disaster. “Whatever the radiation in Tokyo at the moment, you can be fairly sure it is lower than natural background levels in many parts of the world.”

Exceeds New York

Tokyo’s radiation level is only slightly higher than New York, where an average of 0.095 microsieverts an hour was recorded in the seven days to yesterday, according to a real- time Geiger counter reading set up as part of the Background Radiation Survey, a project where owners of the equipment feed their readings into a central database. The level in Tokyo the day before the accident averaged 0.0338 microsieverts an hour.

Radiation levels in Hiroshima prefecture, where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb in 1945 killing an estimated 140,000 people, averaged 0.051 microsieverts an hour yesterday, according to datafrom Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

In Singapore, the radiation level was 0.09 microsieverts an hour at 4 p.m. local time yesterday, according to the city state’s National Environment Agency. Radiation levels in London yesterday were about 0.08 microsieverts an hour, according to figures from RIMNET, the U.K. national radiation monitoring network and emergency response system.

Underground Uranium

The U.K. Health Protection Agency estimates the typical Briton receives about 2,200 microsieverts of radiation per year from background radiation, or about 0.251 microsieverts per hour -- more than double the levels registered in Tokyo.

“Half of the average annual radiation to people in the U.K. comes from radon -- an invisible, colorless, radioactive gas present in all soils,” John Harrison, deputy director of the agency’s radiation center, said in an e-mail. “It’s a byproduct of the decay of uranium which is found in all soils around the world, and the amount that seeps out is dependent on the local geology.”

Cornwall, a popular tourist destination in southwest England, has four times the level of radon as other parts of the country, he said.

Natural Radiation

Natural radiation makes up about 85 percent of the global total, according to the World Nuclear Association. Manmade contributors include medicine and buildings, as well as the nuclear industry, which accounts for 1 percent of the total, the association says. Foodstuffs also contain radiation, and a 135- gram (4.8-ounce) bag of Brazil nuts has a dose of about 10 microsieverts, according to the U.K. agency.

Other activities that enhance naturally occurring radiation levels include mining, milling and processing of uranium ores and mineral sands, manufacturing and use of fertilizers and the burning of fossil fuels, according to a 2008 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The highest level of background radiation is in the state of Kerala and city of Chennai in southern India, where people receive average doses above 30 millisieverts per year, or 3.42 microsieverts an hour, according to the World Nuclear Association. India has vast amounts of thorium in its soil. A millisievert is 1,000 microsieverts.

In Brazil and Sudan, exposure can reach 40 millisieverts a year or 4.57 microsieverts an hour, the Association says.

Partial Meltdown

Tokyo Electric’s nuclear plant entered a partial meltdown after a magnitude-9 earthquake, the largest recorded in Japan, triggered a tsunami over 15 meters that knocked out power, including the backup generators, at the facility 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of Tokyo. Radioactive material has leaked into the air and sea ever since as workers, firefighters and the military battle to restore power and cool the reactors.

The highest level of radiation recorded at the plant has so far been 1 sievert, or 1 million microsieverts, found in water that flooded a turbine hall. While direct exposure at that level can cause hemorrhaging, the level drops to about 1 microsievert an hour at a distance of one kilometer and to 0.01 microsieverts at 10 kilometers, according to Tetsuo Iguchi, a professor specializing in isotope analysis and radiation detection at Nagoya University in central Japan.

No Fishing

Radioactive iodine rose to 4,385 times the regulated safety limit earlier this week off the coast of Fukushima, Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told reporters in Tokyo yesterday. No fishing is occurring nearby and the sea is dispersing the iodine, he said.

A sample of Tokyo tap water, measured at the Kanamachi purification plant northeast of Tokyo, on March 22 found levels of radiation at 210 becquerels per liter, more than double Japan’s recommended limit for infants. The level dropped to within safe levels the next day. The news triggered bulk buying of bottled water at supermarkets and convenience stores even as the government said the health risks are minimal.

Dismantling the plant and decontaminating the site may take 30 years and cost Tokyo Electric more than 1 trillion yen ($12 billion), engineers and analysts said.

Japan’s government has set up a mandatory evacuation zone extending 20 kilometers around the plant in Fukushima and advised residents within 30 kilometers to stay indoors. The U.S. government recommends its citizens to avoid going within 80 kilometers of the stricken facility.

‘Tokyo Is Safe’

Tokyo is safe for habitation and the French school in the Japanese city will re-open next week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a speech at the French embassy in Tokyo yesterday. The crisis surrounding the crippled nuclear plant is “critical, unstable and durable,” he said.

Foreign embassies in Japan have been overly cautious and alarmist in advising their nationals to leave, Shunichi Yamashita, professor at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Nagasaki University, southwestern Japan, said in a briefing last week in Tokyo.

“It’s wrong to say that even a trace of exposure would be dangerous,” said Yamashita, who studied the effect of radiation on children after Chernobyl and is an adviser on radiation levels to the local government of Fukushima. “A person who gets radioactive material on their skin can easily wash it off.”

Asked if someone living 31 kilometers, or just outside the government’s evacuation zone, from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant was as safe as someone in London, he said, “Yes, absolutely.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net; Yuriy Humber in Tokyo at yhumber@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net

3.11 Needs update

気仙沼市立病院お米（４５０kg／日）を足りないので、食べて捨て食器を欲しい。〒９８８－００５２　 宮城県気仙沼市田中１８４番地

Kesennuma City Hospital in Miyagi is running out of resource, the electricity is cut off, what we can give is rice (450kg/day) and eat-and-throw utensils. Refer to above for where to send the goods.

The same is going on with many other shelter and hospitals too. Keep your eyes on the needs, and find ways to send resource if your area is not affected. Thank you.

It's going to snow in Miyagi and Fukushima tonight, the shelters with no electricity supply reported that they are running out of fuel/gasoline. It is going to be a miserable night... PRAY for love and comfort..

Other things that you may consider to send,
2. flour
3. can food
4. instant noodles.
5. Kairo (the instant heat pack)
6. toilet paper

7. torch light
8. Blankets
9. Gasoline

CRASH members are moving into the shelters to assist as best as they could. Keep their travels in your prayers, and keep the LIGHT shine in them through their services. 

The place where I stay is 237.910km from the Fukushima nuclear plant. Do not worry, if there is a need to evacuate, I will. Meanwhile, I am glad to be here. 

Many people are having fear and distress. Pray that I will be able to help in somewhere. 

3.12 Tohoku Earthquake

Dear Friends and partners,

I know many of you are very concerned about my safety, and I am here again to ensure you that I am safe and unharmed. The Lord had preserved me to a great extent. I have enough storage of food, and my apartment is very new and strong in earthquake defense. 

I am physically very tired, thank God that my family and friends travel plan to japan were not fulfilled this time. Trains stopped, or not running as efficient as it is, so I am not going anywhere except staying in the room, and Kashiwanoha area, which is pretty safe compared to other areas. The Lord really put me here for a reason. I am glad that I am Japan now, as i know many of you feel like being here right on the spot. And if i am away from Tokyo, I will be very miserable because there would be very hard for me to get back to Tokyo and Kashiwa. 

When the earthquake happened, I was at the conference held at 14th floor. The new building was designed to swing with the quake, so that it could have a stronger defense for earthquake. The swing lasted for a good 15 to 30 minutes, with some immediate aftershocks in between. Then we were evacuated. I was on my heels because of conference, therefore the evacuation of taking the stairs and long hours of standing and walking kills...... :-) no one was hurt in my department. The next day, I walked to the station and got home at about six thirty in the evening. It was a long and exhausted journey, but the Lord had preserved me, and I was able to hop into the trains and bus, as long as I got through the long cue into the station. An old short lady beside me cued for 4 hours before she could get into the station, and she nearly miss her only train back to Nagano. I believe the same goes with many others. As I got home, my friend Bai Bing was waiting me to get home, and quickly served me with food, because she imagined the tiredness and exhaustedness that I would have. The Lord is good, isn't he?

A few things that I observed were people are very disciplined here, although there are much fear, but they are still very concern and helpful for others. A gradually lost social capital and social bond among neighborhood is slowly restored along with this tragedy. My cleaning lady knocked on my door this morning, and forcefully stuck 5000 yen into my pocket. She said that is a gift from her so that I could buy my mom a coffee when she is here. I told her that the flight was canceled, and they are not coming. Yet, she never give up in forcing the money to me. She was afraid that she might not get to meet me again. Her husband just gradually recovered from stroke, although our place is not affected, but I could imagine the inconvenient and fear that the aftershocks bring to the family with immobile patients. Do keep them in your prayers. 

Convenient shops and supermarkets in Tokyo/Kashiwa area run out of convenient food like onigiri, sandwiches, breads, puddings, and bottled water. The trains reduce their schedules, and some stopped running to ensure safety as well as saving energy. The earthquake had impaired 3 nuclear plants, and there is a short of electrical supply. Tokyo Power Station had planned out some saving electronic plans, so that places in Kanto area will take turns in cutting short of 3 hours electric supply to ease the situation. My place was schedule to have electric cut off this morning, but somehow it was avoided for some reasons. 

Many Christians organizations were formed. This quake had stirred them into the deepest of their hearts. With this, i could keep still and  rest until I am needed again. I had rarely felt such peace and love as present, somehow looking at CRASH relief for Tohoku, Christian Tohoku network, and the active communications taken by Lesley Tong in Heart4Japan Ireland and UK, the respond from the Kansai area for the work in tohoku, I see unity began to form across denominations. I sense a pleasing aroma to our Father's heart. Yes, Lesley is right, there is nothing that I can do now for what others are not doing. It is time for me to rest. Switching on the news, alerting, listening, and praying, I went to sleep. This morning, I receive survival news from Aomori-shi and Hachinohe. Yumi Sasaki reported that Sasaki Sensei and Kurakazu Sensei were both safe. 

All the people that I worked with were reported safe. That is the comfort that I have. Yet, there are thousands and thousands of people who lost their family members, houses, properties, and left with fears and traumas for future. We need to pray for God's intervention. 

My prayer partner in HK sent me an email revealing what God was telling her last evening, and I prayed about it. There were two messages, and I believe the first message is for the Church, a unify body, wherever we are located, US, Japan, China... the second message is for the Japanese hurting and wounded people. Followed is the message, 

Roseline,

Glad to know that u're alright.
Rmb the email i sent u b4 abt some Japanese that I met in HK. I could meet her here coz she and her team receive a msg from God to come & restore the relationship b/w Chinese & Japanese. It was on 4th March, a week b4 the tsunami. I think there's a close relationship b/w what's God's doing in the churches and the disaster. May be this is the time for the churches in China/Hong Kong to gather and pray for Japan in Unity.

There are something that some of my frds/me hv received when we pray for Japan,
1. This is a 烈怒 from God. but "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14). This is the time for the church to be united, repent and return to the Lord. "He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who know? He may turn and hv pity and leave behind a blessing." (Joel 2:13-14) or else there may be another wave of hazard.

2. Psalm 91. This is a blessing from the Lord. When I pray for Japan, I used these verses to pray for her.
v.4 He will cover u with his feathers, and under his wings u will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
v.7 A thousand may fall at ur side, ten thousand at ur right hand, but it will not come near u.
v.11-13 for he will command his angels concerning u to guard u in all ur ways; they will lift u up in their hands, so that u will not strike ur foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; u will trample the great lion and the serpent.

v.14-v.16 Because he loves me, "says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.

So I bless Japan, in His Name that his protection and salvation may come to Japan and be with her. When his ppl call upon his name, he would listen and hv compassion on them.

Bless you with Love,

Carol Fu

This morning, I received another email from Lesley Tong, the staff of Heart4Japan Ireland and UK,

Hi Roseline,

I wanted to encourage you as I believe God has moved my Spirit to take faith and believe God is very much in control. In spite of this greta sorrow I feel God is going to ripen the field for harvest. I believe that He is currently raising His people in Japan to really show how much He loves the Japanese and that they will notice by the actions of our brothers and sisters out there.

I know it is still early, but I believe that God will use what's left of this tragedy and I feel this will be part of His revival in Japan! I have faith and pray with hope that this is true.

So I just wanted to email you to encourage you! Do not wear yourself out as this is not helpful to anyone. Take care of yourself and have faith and praise God, because I'm sure God has a better plan for Japan than we could ever know!

Much love and prayers to you Roseline
Lesley

I have posted links that you could be updated with the news about Christians, about Japan earthquake in facebook and my blog, you can access to the messages by clicking the link below, under my signature too. These are trustable and valid sources. 

http://web.me.com/roselineyong/FaithWorks/3.11_Earthquake_Tsunami.html (English & Japanese)

NHK WORLD TV on USTREAM: Official NHK WORLD TV live on USTREAM. NHK WORLD TV is an English language. (English)

nhk-gtv on USTREAM: NHK総合テレビの「東北地方太平洋沖地震」関連ニュースをお伝えしています. (English)

Christians efforts that you could sign in and receive immediate news, and how to help out and donate your offers.

クリスチャン地震被災状況 

CRASH TOHOKU QUAKE RELIEF

Heart4Japan UK & Ireland

Heart4Japan channel now will only report things that the others have not reported. so that you don't get your mailbox jam with repeated message. If there is a message that I should tell, i will send messages to you. An email like this cause me around 2 hours in writing. :-p I am very slow and cautions when writing... sorry.... Therefore, please allow me to reserve my energy in resting, searching, updating information for prayers concern. 

If there is any specific questions that the above channels do not answer, feel free to email me. Please forgive me if my reply is short. God bless you!!! 

Thank you,

Roseline