?At 9 magnitude on the Richter scale, it was one of the largest earthquakes in the recorded history. If that wasn’t shocking enough, a tsunami added to the trauma, then a nuclear crisis offered the possibility of a nightmare of historic proportions. Additional earthquakes and tsunami warnings would follow, even as radiation leaked into the food supply.

Watching the footage of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, many Christians around the world have been asking the same question: What can we do?

Charisma News caught up with Dr. Tim Clinton, a world leader in the field of Christian counseling, and Dr. Hitomi Makino, a Christian counselor from Japan, to gain insight into how the to help while being sensitive to Japanese culture.

Charisma News: How might the Japanese culture impact the people’s ability to receive help?

Clinton and Makino: Since the first tsunami wave hit, leading to a crisis of epic proportions, the world has peered into this highly industrialized culture and we’re witnessing firsthand a very unique cultural response to a horrific disaster. Many of the Japanese have been traumatized, leaving them vulnerable and in need. Hundreds of thousands are living in shelters, grasping for hope.

Understanding how the Japanese people are handling their trauma really requires gaining further insight into the psychological response to trauma as well as the influence of Japanese culture. Trauma shatters our sense of personal safety. Early initial responses to a traumatic event like the tsunami include shock, disbelief, denial, and even feeling disoriented.

On March 18, the United Nations reported on the Japanese government’s slow response to relief needs. What’s interesting is that government officials insisted they would not accept any supplies from other countries until the needs were determined. The government also rejected initial offers from the United States for assistance in controlling the nuclear leaks. Government officials said, “The Tokyo Electric Power Company had concluded that ‘we can handle the situation.’” There are numerous factors that have led to this “we can do it ourselves” mentality, delaying significant assistance and extending the people’s suffering.

As a people, the Japanese have a strong sense of personal and cultural pride. The concepts of hone and tatemae play into an understanding of the Japanese resistance to help or care from others. Hone means honesty in feelings and thoughts. In contrast, tatemae is what is actually verbalized and seen by others.

When a crisis happens, the Japanese are more given to tatemae—doing everything in their power to maintain a good impression of personal and cultural strength. Japanese people are apt to hide their true needs behind tatemae masks. As a result, they tend to deny or stuff their feelings because it can be shameful to appear weak or needy…to show hone during this time. But there is great peril in ignoring the impact of trauma, which can lead to emotional overload and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

It remains to be seen how hone, tatemae, and shame have influenced individual responses to the crisis among the Japanese people. However, it’s easy to imagine that tatemae may hinder victims from receiving medical, psychological, and spiritual help. Appropriate intervention must be culturally sensitive by bringing honor to the dead and applauding the people’s personal and cultural strengths, while at the same time, judiciously giving opportunity for necessary grieving, trauma education, and emotional and spiritual healing. 

Continue reading below video.

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Charisma News: Is working through Japan’s Christian churches a strong strategy, given the culture?

Clinton and Makino: Another aspect of Japanese culture is Uchi-Soto. Uchi means inside; Soto means outside. The Japanese people hold to an attitude of “us against them,” which creates a wall that separates those who are within the group (the Japanese) from those who are outside (relief organizations).

From a Western perspective, Christian organizations working in the community makes sense. However, in Japan, churches (kyoukai) are easily associated with religious cults. Statistics estimate that only one or two out of every thousand people are Christians.

When Japanese people hear or see the term kyoukai, they immediately become suspicious about the motivation for assistance or aid. The Japanese are very cautious of being brain washed by strange religions. As such, going to the disaster area expressly under the direction of a kyoukai may be met with cultural and personal resistance.

As relief agencies seek to offer assistance to the Japanese, it is important that they tread carefully, listening to the needs and insights of local Christians. Only the true heart and compassion of Jesus has the power to overcome the Japanese people’s stereotypes of the church. Jesus always responded to others by meeting them at their point of need, often offering food, shelter, kindness, warmth, and love. Through the ministry of presence, the provision of basic needs, and working under the power of the Holy Spirit, Christians must first seek to listen and understand the Japanese people’s pain and loss.

This is the gateway to hone. To connect and serve. To empathize authentically. The tatemae aspect of Japanese culture rejects Christianity, but connecting, listening, and authentically caring could bring the opportunity for appropriate service, trauma care, and soul healing.
Working together and forming consensus is a critical way to succeed in offering assistance. So, if the Japanese see relief workers as a part of their team, sharing the burden together, they will be more likely to accept these people as insiders, and genuinely listen to them. Once relief workers are Uchi, the Japanese will welcome them, and, eventually, perhaps, the Gospel of Jesus as well.

Charisma News: What is the church’s role in helping the people of Japan recover psychologically?

Clinton and Makino: The Body of Christ around the world must rally around the Japanese people to provide relief, support, and resources of every sort, including prayer and encouragement. We are called to carry out the ministry of Jesus in the wake of the tsunami’s destruction.

Empowering indigenous Christian workers is paramount. Though a minority, many local Japanese believers are Uchi in the devastated Japanese communities. We can help the Truth shine through them, even though they are small in numbers. And we must train them in responding to the emotional, psychological, and spiritual devastation they are faced with. By so doing, we could create an opportunity for Japanese Christians to offer the true hope of the Gospel in practical, tangible ways.

Solomon once wrote that “[God] has set eternity in our hearts.” Nothing forces us to face our own mortality and our need for a transcendent One more fully than tragedy. Clearly, the anecdote to trauma involves safe relationships. First, our relationship with God: Helping others believe in his presence and power in the midst of tragedy, to believe that he is near and that he cares deeply offers strength to face the future. Second: Our relationships with significant others, those who are “there” for us in life’s dark moments. God has no greater plan than to use people to communicate this message of hope. A safe haven gives us freedom and confidence to face our pain and find emotional and spiritual healing.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, many Christian organizations will be offering resources and relief to the Japanese people. We applaud their work and support them as they embody Christ during this time. Our prayer is that as they extend the hands of Christ, they will be culturally sensitive and seek to connect with the Japanese hone, so that ultimately, healing will take place, Christ will be exalted, and the Japanese people will come to know the truth of the gospel.

Tim Clinton, Ed.D. is president of the nearly 50,000-member American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), the largest and most diverse Christian counseling association in the world. He is Professor of Counseling and Pastoral Care, and Executive Director of the Center for Counseling and Family Studies at Liberty University. He has authored, co-authored, or edited seventeen books including his latest release God Attachment: Why You Believe, Act, and Feel the Way You Do About God.

Hitomi Makino, Ph.D. is from Japan. After receiving Christ as her personal savior through American missionaries in Japan at age 20, she came to the United States, obtained the M. Ed. in counseling at the University of Mississippi and the Ph.D. in counseling at Liberty University. She is an adjunct professor at Liberty University. She also currently serves as a Professional Development and Research Assistant for the American Association of Christian Counselors. She has a deep burden to see the people of her country come to know Christ and experience authentic healing.  

After debuting in fourth place at the box office, Soul Surfer has caught the attention of Hollywood. Now, youth ministries are using the film’s draw to catch the attention of lost souls surfing the Internet.

Global Media Outreach, which was founded in 2004 by Campus Crusade for Christ, has partnered with several national youth ministries to launch . The web site shares the spiritual story of teen surfer Bethany Hamilton, whose is played by AnnaSophia Robb in the blockbuster movie about her young life.

At age 13, Hamilton survived a tiger shark attack while surfing in Hawaii. Despite losing her arm—and 60 percent of her blood—in the traumatic event, Hamilton got back on her board and braved the ocean just a month later. Today, Hamilton is a professional surfer, inspiring the world with her courage and faith.

isn’t just a movie site to push the popularity of the film. The site is all about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hamilton’s family cooperated in developing the site, which includes photos, her personal story, her Christian testimony, and an opportunity to start a personal relationship with Christ.

When visitors click the “Connect with God” button, they find a page where Hamilton virtually leads them to the Lord. “When people ask me what my faith in God means to me, I usually answer in just one word: ‘everything!’,” she says on the site. Hamilton then lays out four principles:

1. God created you to know Him. He loves you!
2. Our sin has separated us from God.
3. God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins.
4. We must personally receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior.

Hamilton concludes with the prayer of salvation.

Is this an effective way to preach the Gospel?

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A controversial book could tear at the seam of evangelical missions. So says David Shibley, a former pastor and founder of Global Advance.

“There has been a book that has been released recently by a high-profile pastor that suggests that eventually everyone is going to go to heaven,” Shibley says.

The book has caused a stir throughout the Christian world. Many have called it heresy due to its possible implications that all people will get to go to heaven when they die, regardless of their response (or even lack thereof) to Christ on earth.

Shibley says people going to heaven isn’t the problem: “I want to say, first of all, that of course that is our desire as well-that’s why our Lord gave us the Great Commission.”

However, if hell is no longer a relevant destination for anyone postmortem, missions as a whole could be considered irrelevant. Shibley says: “It always blunts the impetus of evangelism and missions-any suggestion in any form of what is usually termed ‘universalism.'”

Essentially, the issue begs the question: Why go to the ends of the earth with the Gospel message if everyone will respond to it and end up in heaven anyway?

Shibley says in this case, it is best to err on the side of caution: “It is far healthier, far better, and far safer to simply stay in the historic, biblical tradition that is clear that people need a Savior and that Jesus is that Savior. And there is always an inherent urgency in the proclamation of the Gospel.”

Based on what Scripture does tell us, Shibley says missions must continue.

“The historic position of the Church, and what I believe is the unmistakable teaching of Scripture, is that we’re estranged from God, and that repentance and faith in Christ are absolutely essential to restoring us to a relationship with it,” Shibley says. “We need to carry this message with humility, with gratitude, and with confidence.”

What would happen if people all started memorizing passages from their Bible? They would have recall on hundreds of verses. They would be able to witness with accurate scripture passages even without a Bible in front of them. They would be able to start a revolution.

Thus in the recent General Assembly meeting of Evangelical Free Church of India, an important and challenging decision was made.

“One of the significant resolutions adopted during this assembly was the declaration of 2011 and 2012 [as] the years of Bible reading and memorization,” explains Mawii Pudaite with Bibles For the World who, along with her husband, was in attendance at the assembly.

The decision marks a commitment to encourage believers in northeastern India, in particular, to start reading more and memorizing more of Scripture for the next two years. The Evangelical Free Church of India represents over 300 congregations from more than 20 tribes.

Children supported by Bibles for the World sponsors already have begun to memorize verses in the books of John and Proverbs. As these children learn to hide God’s Word in their hearts, their hard work will eventually bear much fruit among nonbelievers.

“There will be a revival of Bible reading and committing to memory those significant verses that will be helpful for their daily lives,” notes Pudaite.

The main concern of Bibles for the World, however, is the serious shortage of Bibles. People simply cannot memorize Scripture if it’s not available to them. Pudaite says in this region of India, most believing families have one Bible per household. Most Indian women-especially housewives-have never had a Bible to call their own.

Before the two-year commitment can really get off the ground, Pudaite says, “We must first meet the urgent need for a large supply of Bibles for everyone who would participate in this life-changing program.”

Bibles for the World is responding by printing thousands of New Testaments and distributing them to all who wish to participate in the 2011-2012 Bible challenge. The ministry is even printing special edition large print versions for those who do not have electricity.

You’ve heard of the G12, but how about the C12?

Named for the model Jesus Christ set in Scripture (purposeful
interaction among a group of 12 disciples), the C12 Group is a Christian businessmen’s accountability group. You might call it a mastermind group for Christian CEOs.

There are C12 Groups across the country. The newest one is in Portland-Vancouver.

Check out this video on the group:

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“I believe that many
Christian chief executives in the Pacific northwest are looking for
this type of objective peer advisory board, lifelong learning, and
personal development as servant leaders,” says Don Barefoot, president and CEO of The C12 Group. “This Portland-Vancouver
expansion continues to build C12’s long-term presence in southern Oregon
and reflects a continued strengthening of C12’s network in the western
U.S.”

Since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels, 5,397 people have gone missing in Mexico, according to a BBC News report. The cartels seem to have been getting more violent in recent days.

Jason Woolford, executive director of Christian Resources International (CRI), says his ministry partners in Mexico have always feared being stopped and looted along the road, but now the threat of a more serious fate is significant.

“Before they might stop you and take your cash, but now they’re taking your cash, taking your vehicle, and, most likely, will kill you,” says Woolford.

The threat is all too real for one CRI ministry partner, which is within 70 miles of the area that a missionary was shot and killed when she didn’t stop her car for a cartel.

Many ministries have slowed their work or canceled trips for the last few years in direct response to the threat of violence. CRI, however, has taken a different approach.

“If the enemy-the devil-is attacking people in certain areas, then it’s that much more that we, as Christians, should be focused on that area,” explains Woolford. In other words, CRI isn’t stopping for anything.

CRI continues to send Christian literature, Bibles, Spanish pastor libraries, and other resources across the border to provide spiritual nourishment for many in Mexico. Woolford says the resources are in high demand: “What we’re hearing and what we’re seeing is that people that are really turning from an idolatry belief looking for more.”

Resources are needed perhaps more than ever in these terrifying times, and the Lord is faithfully responding. In fact, an experience one CRI board member had on a recent trip confirmed that.

Before he left, the board member felt called to go to his friend who had just lost his leg. He asked if he could take the man’s old prosthetics with him, with no clear idea of why he might need them. When the board member got to Mexico, he passed a one-legged man walking on crutches. He pulled over and was able to send the man away walking on a new prosthetic and an armful of Christian resources.

Clearly the Lord is moving in Mexico. Pray that CRI’s ministry partners would continue to boldly move throughout the country, providing the Gospel to those with little access. Pray for safety and for wisdom as to what should be brought in.

Elected officials are considering a temporary shutdown of small parts of the federal government. But the Libertarian Party is calling for something much more drastic.

Indeed, the Libertarian Party, which stands for free markets, civil liberties and peace, is vying for a permanent shutdown of most of the federal government.??

“Just think how a permanent government shutdown would allow so many Americans to regain the blessings of liberty,” says Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict. “Education would blossom as the Department of Education ended its war on learning, no longer wasting our money and preventing educational innovation with one-size-fits-all centralized mandates.”

As Benedict sees it, job opportunities at companies big and small would multiply, providing opportunity and choice for American workers and the world would enjoy peace as we withdrew our forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.

“Our government spends almost as much on the military as the rest of the world combined. Millions of industrious men and women who work for the military and its contractors could be focusing on building up our economy, rather than tearing down others’,” Benedict says. “Crime would plummet as the government’s war on drugs ended, no longer sustaining a giant violent black market and overfilling our prisons.?? The life of many poorer Americans would improve as welfare programs stopped, no longer trapping low-income families in an endless cycle of government dependency.??”

In the worldview of the Libertarian Party, a permanent government shut down would lead to a huge burden lifted every tax season.?? But most importantly, Benedict says, Americans would once again be free of unjust and unconstitutional violations of their unalienable rights.

“We’re not talking about eliminating the federal government,” Benedict clarifies. “We want to end all federal activities that are not authorized by the Constitution, and we want to cut everything else as much as we can. In 2000, the federal government spent $1.8 trillion. This year it’s expected to spend $3.8 trillion. Things are going the wrong way-fast.”

Israel isn’t backing down—and neither is Hamas. As the conflict escalates, more people are dying and an all-out war seems imminent in the Middle East.

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) targeted terrorist cells across the Gaza Strip on Thursday night and Friday morning. IDF fired at the regions from which mortar shells or rockets were originating, as well as the area from which an anti-tank missile was fired at a school bus earlier this week.

IDF confirmed direct hits on two terrorist cells in the northern and southern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources reported the IDF strikes killed three civilians and two Hamas members.  The Jerusalem Post reports 10 Palestinians have been killed in IDF attacks on Gaza terror cells since Thursday night.

A spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reports concern at the escalating violence in Gaza and southern Israel. Ki-moon has condemned the recent rocket fire from Palestinian militants which hit a school bus and injured two Israeli civilians.  

“He calls for an immediate end to rocket fire,” the spokesperson said. “The Secretary-General is also concerned at reports of civilian casualties from Israeli operations in Gaza and calls for maximum restraint. He urges respect for international humanitarian law and calls for de-escalation and calm to prevent any further bloodshed.”

But neither Israel nor Hamas seem ready to maintain a cease-fire. Rather, these enemies seem ready and willing to go to war despite world leaders urging against it.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said the school bus attack is another incident that proves the Gaza Strip has turned into a terrorist zone: “No country would give up the safety of his its citizens and Israel stands firm on its right to defend itself. Hundreds of thousands of mothers and children in southern Israel cannot sleep at night as a result of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.”

In a published statement, Fauzi Barhum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said, “The resistance movement’s response to the enemy’s massacre comes as self-defense, and to protect the citizens. It aims to pressure the occupier to stop committing crimes.”

Do you think Israel is about to wage a full-blown war?

A massive fire devastated a community in Tripura, India, taking 40 lives and destroying approximately 500 houses. The dead were mostly children and the elderly.

“Five hundred houses were burned down accidentally when a flame of fire from the nearby Jhum cultivation fell on them during midday,” reported a woman from a Gospel for Asia-supported congregation.

The fire occurred at a refugee camp for tribal people. Most of the approximately 3,000 families who live there make their livelihood through agriculture, practicing a form of cultivation that involves cutting down forested areas so they can dry the leaves of the plants and trees. Usually during the second week of March, they burn the deforested areas and fertilize them in preparation for planting. Most of the tribes people rely on this practice to earn their livelihoods because they have no other means to meet their basic needs.

The month of March brings a lot of wind to Tripura. While people were burning a deforested area, sparks got on a house and, due to the high wind, the flames spread rapidly from house to house. The homes in the camp are made of bamboo and straw, so they were no match for the fire.

The flames devoured possessions, including furniture and electronics, and killed many domestic animals such as pigs, ducks, chickens and goats.

“One could hear in the entire area sounds of howling, screaming, shouts of cries. Babies burned to death in the fire. Grandparents were burned alive on their sleeping cots. Some were half-burnt and ran away to the jungles,” wrote a GFA correspondent in Tripura.

People are mourning the loss of their loved ones and property. The anguish caused by this devastation even drove some people to commit suicide.

Six Gospel for Asia-supported churches, situated at various points of the relief camp, serve more than 150 families there. Ninety-two of these families lost their homes and possessions, escaping with only the clothes on their back. They are currently living at two nearby schools.

Gospel for Asia staff in Tripura request prayers on behalf of the community. Please pray for the following:

   •   God’s provision of the people’s basic needs—in particular, food and clothing.
   •   God to use the government, churches and other organizations to help in a timely manner.
   •   Divine comfort for those mourning the deaths of family or friends.
   •   Many to put their trust in the Lord.

The revolution of Egypt no longer dominates the headlines.

However, Carl Moeller of Open Doors USA says discounting the changes in Egypt could be a costly mistake: “Egypt still is in the midst of sorting out what this revolution is going to look like. The reality is that there’s still an incredible amount of uncertainty as to which direction Egypt is going to go. As a result, there’s an incredible amount of uncertainty and continuing instability for the entire region.”

More to the point, Moeller says, Egypt is a driving force in the policies of North Africa: “Egyptians have had the tradition of setting the course for a large part of the intellectual direction of Islam.”

With a leadership vacuum in place of a presidency, Islamists are looking for huge gains in the time of “freer politics.” “We’ve talked before about the role that the Muslim Brotherhood has had in being the seedbed of extremist movements for the last half a century,” Moeller says. “Even though we may not see a Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, there’s no doubt that there’s going to be a far greater role for them in a future government in Egypt.”

Moeller goes on to say that at the same time, other regimes are looking to how Egypt settles her affairs. “They’re going to move very quickly to new elections, which sounds good to us in the West,” he says. “But the reality is: the only organized parties there are Mubarak’s party, the National Party, and the Muslim Brotherhood. There’s sort of an ‘unholy alliance’ between those two to pull this off quickly so they can retain whatever power they can grab.”

Meanwhile, blame is flying as the U.S. tries to support other threatened states in the Middle East and North Africa. Foreign policy efforts are trickier because a misstep could prove costly. There’s a line of black and white thinking emerging that lumps former president Hosni Mubarak, his supporters, and allies into a type of “anti-democracy” camp.

Moeller says, “Beware when they begin to associate the United States with the old regimes. I saw another account where the United States was particularly being blamed for not acting forcefully enough to support the revolution there.”

Before the revolution, the idea that Egypt might one day become an Islamic state wasn’t up for debate. Now, it’s not out of the realm of possibility as disillusionment grows over events in Libya.

“In the immediate aftermath of revolutions, there are opportunities,” Moeller says. “We saw that in Eastern Europe in the 1990s: there was a window of time where it was incredibly open, and then the doors and the windows began to shut as new power structures became entrenched against the church.”

Christians were front and center during the initial movement for change. That earned them credibility. Moeller says the combination of openness and credibility means believers have to “make hay while the sun is shining.” “This is an opportunity for us, in the midst of some of these things, to do some unprecedented Scripture deliveries, literature work, as well as doing some training to equip church leaders for the inevitable instability that’s going to be around for some time,” he says.

Until the door closes, there’s an urgency to which Open Doors is responding: “We know that God is sovereign, and that God’s timing here is impeccable. Some of our storage facilities that have been used as distribution points for literatures are basically empty.”

Even as the possibility of a caliphate looms, Moeller says, “Christians continue to ask us to pray for them that they would continue to be a light of hope and liberty in Jesus Christ to their culture.”