A Japanese “Silent Night” in Ishinomaki on Christmas Eve.

Heart-breaking pictures…

Unfortunately, the damage you see here is minuscule compared to the wreckage that was there 8 months ago. The empty lots are where houses used to be… 8 months ago, even 4 months ago, you wouldn’t be able to see the road because it was so covered in mud…

I will post a text post about the stories the people told me…

Easy-on-the-heart pictures

The temporary houses are available for three years to people who lost their homes in the tsunami, but I asked some of the residents what their plan was to do after that, and they all told me they really didn’t know. They couldn’t rebuild their houses where they were because it’s too dangerous now…

We did caroling and Christmas cake for the residents. On Christmas eve we had a candlelit concert outside and then served the people dinner. It was really moving to see the people singing “Silent Night” with their candles (I’ll post a video).

I was really excited that it snowed for Christmas!