I was in Korea the day the earthquake occurred in Japan followed by the devastating tsunami. Last time I was in Korea I stopped in Japan on the way home and met with missionary Ken Joseph Jr. This time I’m glad I didn’t stop! But I’ve developed a friendship with Ken who emailed me the day after the earthquake to tell me how horrible it is.
As I flew home I knew I had to do what I could to help. That’s when I decided to reach out to you. One of the things I have through Charisma Media is influence. I want to encourage you to help in some way—even if it’s small. There are many ministries helping. We are publicizing the good works of many of them as we find out what they are doing.
Help us or help them, but please do something. However, we are aware of some “small” ministries—such as Ken’s and others—who have contacts and are on the ground helping. But they don’t get money from the government or the big charities like the American Red Cross (often just because they are Christian ministries), and they have no way of asking for help here. That is where Christian Life Missions comes in. We are able to contact hundreds of thousands of Christians to let them know the need, to collect the money and to give 100 percent to a project, taking nothing for overhead.
We have a long record of integrity working with ministries we can trust on the ground. We hate to hear that many times the charity money raised never reaches the people who are suffering. And we are totally accountable. If you give, we’ll send you an accounting of where the money went and who it helped. When we raised $250,000 five years ago with the tsunami that hit southeast Asia, we sent one of our editors to see how the money was used and to report in Charisma how we worked with the Evangelical Alliance in Sri Lanka, which was able to help Christians who were affected by that disaster.
One of our authors is Joe Hurston of Air Mobile Ministries. Joe invented a portable water purifier that helps in places like Haiti. His book Run to the Roar tells his exciting story. He phoned me two days after the earthquake. Two days after the earthquake Joe and his wife Cindy flew to Japan to provide portable water purifiers.
You can check out Joe’s ministry at www.airmobile.org and read his twice-daily blog, www.airmobile.org/blog.php.
After my first email from Ken, I couldn’t reach him. Then I noticed him on Facebook and asked him what he’s seeing. He wrote: “We have been to nearly every disaster since 1989 but have never seen such complete destruction. An earthquake followed by fire, followed by a 30-foot tsunami, followed by snow, followed by a nuclear meltdown—it is too much for any one nation to handle alone. The greatest fear in Japan right now is that due to the fear of nuclear fallout the one thing that is needed the most—help from the world—will not come because the various organizations are pulling back.”
Ken told me that in Sendai they prepared food at one of the centers for 500 people and 1,110 people showed up. “All they were eating was four crackers per person per day … in Japan!” he wrote. “No heat or anything.”
Since he’s on the ground, he knows the needs. He put on his website, www.jhelp.com, a list of the supplies they need: 20 liter metal gasoline cans; bottled water; canned and instant food; sleeping bags; electric water pots; coffee; tea; cream; powdered milk; tents; rice; used laptop computers and active wireless internet devices; airline mileage; and disaster relief vehicle.
You and I are sitting in the ease and comfort of our homes or offices in America and can’t easily provide those needs. But we can donate through Christian Life Missions, which will provide a receipt for your income tax purposes. We know how to send the money to Ken and Joe quickly, and they can put it to use. We can vouch for their integrity. We’ll report back to you how the money was used.
If you were there, you’d appreciate any help you could get. Even though they can touch only a small percentage of the millions who are suffering, at least they are doing something. As Christians, we are able to help them in a way the big multi-national agencies can’t.
Visit ChristianLifeMissions.com to help Joe and Ken help people in Japan.
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