Most of our time during the trip was spent doing physical labour to help affected families restore their homes, gardens and for those with farm land, their fields. Apart from destroying everything that were in their path, the tsunami waves brought along all kinds of debris, mud, sand and seawater into people’s homes, their gardens and fields.

 

At one field in Sendai-Wakayabashi belonging to a vegetable farmer, we were requested to pick up rocks, pipes, plastic, and debris – anything foreign to the soil from the field that he had earlier plowed with his tractor.  This was a process that had to be repeated for more than 5 times, so that all the foreign things that have become embedded in the soil can be removed as much as possible before the land can be used for planting again.  Around this time, my personal devotions were on the parable of the sower, so I found it easy to appreciate what this farmer was talking about since the Bible already teaches that a good crop can only come out of good soil!