Missionary says emotional stress in Japan taking its toll

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (ABP) – Three weeks after a 9.0 magnitude
earthquake and massive tsunami hit northeast Japan, transportation had
opened up to allow some aid to flow into affected areas but gasoline
shortages and fear of radiation from a damaged nuclear power plant were
taking their emotional toll, an American Baptist missionary reported
April 1.

“The emotional strain can be easily overlooked,” missionary John Armagost wrote
in an update on the International Ministries website. Armagost, who
works with children and youth ministries in several Japanese churches,
said Baptists there are working to help meet basic needs like food,
water and shelter.

He said one pastor told him that food is slowly appearing in stores,
but lines are long. People wait four or five hours for heating kerosene,
and gasoline had not yet been restored. “People are getting tense and
rundown,” the pastor said, as people spend so much time searching for
daily necessities.