Serving Those Affected by Disaster

On August 15, 2026, during the Obon holiday period and amid intense summer heat, 19 volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including youth and adult members from the Kumamoto, Oita, and Fukuoka areas, participated in disaster relief efforts in Yatsushiro City to assist those affected by the Kumamoto earthquake that struck on July 28.

After departing from a Church meetinghouse in Kumamoto City at 7:30 a.m., the volunteers divided into three teams. They assisted individual households by removing large furniture and household belongings, cleaning rooms, and clearing collapsed concrete block walls. While the actual work at each home was often relatively brief, sometimes lasting only a few minutes to several tens of minutes, transporting disaster debris and coordinating subsequent assignments required considerable time. At one disaster waste processing facility, volunteers encountered a queue of approximately 120 vehicles, resulting in waits of up to an hour and a half before debris could be unloaded.

Although many volunteers gathered that day, there were signs that efforts to assess needs and coordinate assistance had not yet fully caught up with the realities on the ground. Through their visits, participants learned that many people in the surrounding community were still in need of help.  Communicating with the volunteer center was often difficult, and the center itself was facing staffing shortages, meaning that requests for assistance were not always being fully communicated or addressed. Reflecting on the experience, one participant said, “Although it may have appeared that there were few requests for help, I learned that there were actually many people who still needed assistance.”

One particularly memorable assignment involved helping an elderly woman. In addition to clearing furniture and household belongings, the volunteers were asked to move furniture that had shifted during the earthquake back to its original location, a task that would have been difficult for her to accomplish alone. One participant reflected, “What seemed like a small task to us was an important step in helping her restore a sense of normalcy in daily life.”

Volunteers also had opportunities to listen directly to those affected by the disaster. One homeowner shared, “After experiencing severe flooding two years ago, I never imagined I would also suffer damage from an earthquake.” Hearing those words reminded one participant of 1 Corinthians 10:13:

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

The participant said, “Through this opportunity to serve, I was able to apply the words of this scripture to my own life. It became an opportunity to better understand the Lord’s will and the gospel and to strengthen my faith.”

During the day, volunteers also saw collapsed homes and buildings that had tilted significantly. Thinking about the people who had once lived there brought a sense of sorrow and reinforced the magnitude of the disaster’s impact on individual lives. At the same time, they observed that even homes that appeared largely undamaged from the outside were often facing significant challenges due to fallen furniture, broken dishes, and other disruptions to daily living.

The Yatsushiro Disaster Volunteer Center provided a well-organized support system for volunteers. The facility included an air-conditioned rest area, clean restrooms, changing spaces, beverages, snacks, heat-stroke prevention supplies, work gloves, and tools. A system was also in place that allowed individuals who arrived on their own to be assigned to volunteer teams, making it possible even for first-time participants to serve with confidence. One Church member who had volunteered during flooding in Yatsushiro a year earlier noted that the support system had improved significantly.

Through this experience, participants gained a renewed appreciation for the many forms that service can take. They recognized that service involves not only physical labor on-site, but also gathering and delivering needed supplies and identifying specific needs so that assistance can be provided quickly and effectively. They also reflected on the importance of continuing to support disaster survivors by drawing on relationships within the Church and the broader community.

One participant observed, “I was reminded that service is not about doing something large or drawing attention to ourselves. It is about recognizing the needs of the person in front of us and offering whatever help we can.”

This effort, carried out by Church members from different regions and generations working together with a unified purpose, was not only a way to assist those affected by the disaster but also an opportunity for participants to learn more about Christlike love and service. Inspired by the Savior’s example of ministering to individuals one by one, the volunteers expressed a renewed desire to continue serving their communities and supporting those affected by disasters in the future.