3/16/11
The Huffington Post reported that Christians in Japan continue to sift through the damage to church buildings and search for survivors in the aftermath of Friday’s horrific earthquake and tsunami. The vast majority of the Japanese are Buddhists or practice the Shinto religion, but about two percent of them are Christians. A priest with the Quebec Foreign Mission Society, Rev. Lachapelle Andre, age 76, was killed when he went to investigate the damage to the church he led in Sendai, one of the areas most devastated by the disaster. Many churches in northeastern Japan are badly damaged, according to reports, including the Anglican Christchurch cathedral in Sendai, churches and schools of the United Church of Christ in Kamaishi, and a Roman Catholic monastery in Mito. Officials of the churches in the Japan Baptist Union have not been able to gain information about their buildings at all. The most recent reports show the death toll in Japan has risen to 3,676 with more than 8,000 missing and almost half a million people displaced from their homes.
