2 FAITH focus FAITH WATCH


B Mission work continues in Japan, despite fears


Obama taps seminaries for community service The White House hopes to recruit America’s seminary students in a nationwide in- terfaith service campaign. According to Religion News Service, the Obama admin- istration will solicit plans from colleges, universities, seminaries and rabbinical schools for year-long com- munity service projects in- cluding food drives and mentoring. The proposal grew out of recommenda- tions from advisers to the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.


Church offers support to N.J. flood victims The United Methodist Greater New Jersey Confer- ence has coordinated the distribution of cleanup kits to those affected by flooding in the northern part of the state. The Rev. Derrick Do- herty, the conference’s disas- ter-response coordinator, told United Methodist News Service the best thing church members outside the state can do is assemble cleanup kits for the denomination’s Committee on Relief.


Malaysian government releases seized Bibles Malaysia’s government agreed March 16 to release 35,000 imported Bibles that had been seized because the translation uses “Allah” as its word for God. Authorities will require that the Bibles be stamped “For Christians Only.” Sunni Muslim groups in Malaysia have protested against Christian use of the word, calling it an attempt to confuse and convert mem- bers of the country’s Islamic majority.


Smithsonian plans to restore Jefferson Bible The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Ameri- can History announced March 10 it will restore a Bible that U.S. President Thomas Jefferson cut and pasted together in 1820 to reflect his beliefs. The na- tion’s third president assem- bled the Bible for personal use from portions of the New Testament, including the teachings, crucifixion and burial of Jesus but not his resurrection or miracles at- tributed to him.


BY LINDA BLOOM United Methodist News Service


It’s planting time at the Asian


Rural Institute in northern Japan, and the staff is in the fields when they aren’t cleaning up damage caused by the powerful March 11 earthquake that shook the region. But they keep an eye to the coast,


where efforts are ongoing to contain radiation leakage from the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nu- clear power plant. “We continue to be worried about


the power plant, which has now be- come the major obstacle to recovery,” Jonathan McCurley, a United Methodist missionary assigned there, wrote on his March 16 blog. Mr. McCurley said that he, his wife,


Satomi, and others at the school were taking precautions to avoid contami- nation from radiation, even though he noted that the radiation levels there, while above normal, were “nowhere near the levels to harm one’s health.” Later that same day, the head of


the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commis- sion warned Americans to stay 50 miles away from the Daiichi plant, about 170 miles north of Tokyo. The United Methodist General


Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) has given all personnel permission to evacuate from Japan if they wish to do so. A few have left. Debbie Umipig-Ju- lian, based in Tokyo, and her two sons


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are now in the Philippines, as are Lamberto and Angelita Valino, based in Yokohama. All are Filipino natives. The London Telegraph reported


that people were leaving the district around Koriyama, the major town closest to the stricken plant, and trav- eling 25 miles away to the railway sta- tion at Nasushiobara, so they could travel farther south. At the Asian Rural Institute, also


located in Nasushiobara, the staff has set up shop at a retreat center for the Student Christian Fellowship in Japan. The ecumenical institute, founded in 1973, conducts a nine-month Rural Leaders Training Program each year from April to December, focusing on sustainable agriculture, community development and leadership. The GBGM has had Asian and African par- ticipants in the program. In an email to United Methodist


News Service, Mr. McCurley said most of the staff that left the institute after the earthquake had returned. “The hardest thing in Japan right now is trying to get the correct information,” he added. “There’s so many voices say- ing this and that, but when we look at the people in the community, al- though worried, they are carrying on as normal.” The institute had accepted three


people who came seeking shelter from the evacuated areas near the nuclear plant. “We continue to meet, pray and see what we can do to help those who are in the middle of the really affected areas,” Mr. McCurley said.


Reaching friends A former missionary, the Rev.


Michael Southall-Vess, has been con- tacting friends in the Fukushima area, where he and his wife, the Rev. Marable Southall-Vess, served from 2001 to 2005. Mr. Southall-Vess, now pastor of


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Arlington (Va.) Forest United Methodist Church, said friends in Japan were concerned over a lack of


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Cars were tossed like toys in the Sendai area when a tsunami followed the powerful March 11 earthquake in northern Japan.


food and fuel. One friend in Kitakata, about 60 miles from the coast, “said the grocery store shelves are empty and they have no gasoline.” Without gasoline and with train travel dis- rupted in the northeast, he added, it is difficult to move supplies. Residents of Tokyo continued to


endure rolling electrical blackouts and aftershocks in the days following the earthquake. On March 17, the blackout started


at 3:30 p.m. and lasted about three hours. The Rev. Claudia Genung-Ya- mamoto, a United Methodist mission- ary, spent the day handling email queries from overseas for the National Christian Council in Japan, to which she is assigned, and tending to the needs of members of West Tokyo Union Church, where she serves as a part-time pastor. One church family was looking for


bread, “which was not to be found in any of our neighborhood stores,” she said. But a neighbor from Ghana— whom Ms. Genung-Yamamoto had provided with a flashlight during a blackout the night before—had extra food and bread and was “grateful” that she could help someone else.


Korean churches Ms. Genung-Yamamoto had din-


ner later at the home of Kumsoon Lee, a member of her congregation, and her husband, the Rev. Songwan Hong, the top executive of the Korean Chris- tian Council in Japan, a partner or- ganization of the United Methodist Church. Two aftershocks occurred as they spoke together about the effects of the earthquake. Mr. Hong reported that most “new-


comers”—Koreans who have not lived in Japan as long as those who are sec- ond- or third-generations there— were returning to Korea, as were many of the Korean students.


AP RIL 1, 2011 | UNITED MET HODI S T REPORTER Five churches affiliated with the


council were badly damaged by the earthquake, and the Korean Consulate is helping evacuate Koreans from the Sendai area close to the epicenter. The Rev. Seo Eongill, a missionary


of the Korean Methodist Church, has remained in Sendai, although his fam- ily evacuated to Korea. Other Korean pastors are fine, but many church members in the area are not yet ac- counted for, Mr. Hong said. The Center for Pacific and Asian


American Ministries at United Methodist-related Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology has written to United Methodist Chicago Area Bishop Hee-Soo Jung about “what we, as a faith connection, could collec- tively do together” to respond to the disaster in Japan. “Could the Council of Bishops, as


in instances in the past where massive humanitarian action is needed in con- cert, once again lead our church to make an effort to undertake relief and reconstruction in a manner commen- surate with our ability as a connec- tion, and beyond what UMCOR is normally able to do?” the letter asked. The United Methodist Committee


on Relief is working with the United Church of Christ in Japan and Glob- alMedic to bring immediate relief to the affected communities in Japan.


How to help:


Gifts to UMCOR can be left in church offering plates or mailed to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087. Please write “Japan Emer- gency, UMCOR Advance #3021317” on the memo line of your check. Credit card donations are accepted at (800) 554-8583 or online at www.givetomission.org.


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