For two weeks we are sharing a series of inspiring stories and videos as part of our annual partnership drive. As you reflect on these stories, consider joining our efforts and renewing your support as an Operation Blessing Monthly Partner.

CAMBODIA – Like all expecting parents, Chan and her husband looked forward to the day their baby would be born with excitement and anticipation.

But when their son was born with a cleft lip, their excitement turned to worry about their little boy’s future.

Chan knew the societal shame that her precious son would face at school and even among their neighbors. It was unlikely that little Sokarn would be accepted in the community like other children.

Chan learned that surgery could correct the cleft, but as rice farmers, Chan and her husband simply didn’t have the funds to pay for the procedure.

Then Chan was told about Operation Blessing’s cleft lip and palate program and she brought her little boy to meet the OBI team in Phnom Penh.

There, he received corrective surgery at no cost to his family.

Today, Sokarn has a beautiful smile and a bright future ahead of him. Chan couldn’t be more excited for her baby.

“Sokarn will live without shame as he grows up,” she said. “Thank you!”

Today you can begin having an impact like this on the lives of more children like Sokarn. Will you to live your faith in 2012 by partnering with Operation Blessing and committing to bless the poor in the coming year?

Operation Blessing’s Japan Disaster Relief Manager, Don Thomson, shares his firsthand account of the relief efforts in Japan.

JAPAN – Media is a big part of modern Japanese culture, with just about every home subscribed to one of the national daily papers, owning a TV set, and having Internet access through fiber optic cable or by mobile phone.

NHK, the national public broadcasting corporation, is the largest media enterprise in Asia. Along with four other commercial media conglomerates, it dominates the flow of information to the nation. So, what have the Japanese media been saying about Operation Blessing’s relief activities?

OBI has been enjoying wonderful press, and our unique activities in providing free eye clinics to tsunami survivors on the Tohoku coast caught the media by surprise. It, along with our program to provide equipment to fishermen, has been reported in national dailies, TV news reports, and online news sites. Our programs have even been tweeted and blogged about by other organizations.

A Nikkei Financial Times article about our eye clinics was titled “Seeing Hope.” Another major paper said, “Tsunami survivors grateful to be able to see properly again.” A commercial network affiliate station news report showed a teary eyed fisherman who received an OB boat wiping his eyes, saying, “I am so grateful, I want to cry.”

Miyagi TV, the local affiliate for the largest commercial TV network in Japan, came to one of our recent eye clinics to tape a news report for their midday news broadcast.

Thank you, Operation Blessing partners, for making it possible not only to share compassion with survivors through our relief efforts but also to share joy to homes throughout Japan.

Ms. Masaki Kobayashi is one of our team members at the Tohoku Operations Center who is responsible for preparing press releases for the Japanese media and keeping our Japanese website up to date.

Operation Blessing’s Japan Disaster Relief Manager, Don Thomson, shares his firsthand account of the relief efforts in Japan.

MINAMI SANRIKU, Japan – Even though seven months have passed since the tsunami along the Tohoku Coast, Operation Blessing teams are still finding opportunities to help survivors in need of eye glasses. A recent request for eye exams came from the parents and coaches of the Utatsu Middle School Kendo Team.

Kendo is a traditional martial art of swordsmanship developed during Japan’s feudal days hundreds of years ago. Today it is a major sport offered in Japanese middle and high schools, using bamboo swords and protective gear. Team members like Nobuto Hatakeyama are survivors of the tsunami. In the disaster, Nobuto’s family lost their home and their seaweed cultivation business. And Nobuto lost the special glasses the he usually wore for Kendo. Without the glasses, Nobuto said that everything was a blur and it was difficult to compete.

Nobuto’s coach had heard of OB Japan’s eye clinic and asked if it would be possible for Operation Blessing to provide Nobuto and four others on the Kendo team with the special glasses, which are designed to stay secure during competition and absorb shock. So our team invited Nobuto and his teammates to attend our next clinic the following week.

Operation Blessing was able to deliver Nobuto’s brand new Kendo sports glasses just in time for a major competition to be held in the mountains of Yamagata Prefecture. To everyone’s surprise, Nobuto won each of his matches.

“The glasses have really worked well for Nobuto. The way he was competing, was national competition level,” said Nobuto’s coach.

Even though Nobuto still lives in temporary housing and his father, who lost his seaweed business, is now working part-time for a construction company helping in the cleanup effort, Operation Blessing was able to help provide this family with a glimmer of hope for the future.

Another “Kendo mom” we met was Utako Abe. Utako had also lost her home and her glasses and is now living in temporary housing with her son. Our Operation Blessing team was able to provide her with new glasses.

So far, Operation Blessing has conducted eye clinics at 21 locations along the Miyagi and Iwate coastlines and helped more than 2,500 people. Our recent clinics have reached as far north as Miyako where the highest wave of 120 feet was recorded.

Operation Blessing’s Japan Disaster Relief Manager, Don Thomson, shares his firsthand account of the relief efforts in Japan.

SABUSAWA ISLAND, Japan – The fishermen on Sabusawa Island who lost their nets to the March tsunami are doing well with the gill nets provided by Operation Blessing. Recently, they got together and sent our local OBI office in Japan a special surprise delivery.

Despite losing most of their nets to the tsunami, and having very little hope reviving their industry for some time, the Sabusawa gill net fishermen are doing a roaring business—catching lots of fish and selling them at the reopened Shiogama Fish Market.

Mr. Yagi, who is the leader of the fishermen on the island, could not keep back his smile as he told me that with the unusually big catch as of late and the major buyers from near and far coming to the reopened market, they are doing on average five times better than a typical season!

To show their appreciation to Operation Blessing for helping them in their time of need, the fishermen had two cases of freshly caught fish delivered to our OB Japan office. There was halibut, bream and a good sized mackerel. I think you can guess what’s on the menu for OB Japan’s staff families for the next few weeks!

JAPAN – The severed bow of a fiberglass fishing boat jutted out from under a huge pile of mangled ropes and rotting fishing nets. Under mounds of smashed plastic crates and pieces of foam were fragments of countless other boats. These vessels, once afloat and filled with fishermen’s catch, were now in a boat graveyard filled with the wreckage of the local fishing industry. In a separate pile, mangled metal had been separated for recycling.

It has been six months since the Japan tsunami, and now a patina of rust had painted the wreckage orange. Outboard boat motors were piled on top of each other; their bent propellers will never again spin in the ocean that destroyed them.

The residents of the coastline villages have been working alongside volunteers to sift through the endless piles of debris, slowly sorting things into salvageable piles. The metal smelts will be busy for years to come, yet still much of the debris can only be hauled to huge landfills.

After six months I expected to see real progress on the clean up in these rural areas, but the main focus has been on repairing the roads and power infrastructure. This has given us access to see even more places that were affected by the disaster, and in some ways I’m more shocked than ever.

The narrow coastal road winds in and out of tiny towns and villages—mile after mile there are still mountains of debris. After each bend in the road, there is a small cove where fishermen once lived. Now the only evidence of those lives are the concrete slabs where their homes stood.

Everywhere you look there is some remnant of fishing equipment strewn in the trees and bushes. At sea level, you can gaze upward and see fishing nets stuck in trees 30 feet in the air, a chilling reminder of the height of the tsunami (in some places it reached a height of 130 feet). Broken boats litter the landscape, some deposited far inland. The tsunami decimated local businesses and industries but none as widespread or damaging as the impact on the fishing industry.

The Japanese diet famously revolves around seafood. With such high demand, the Japanese fishing industry is one of the best established in the world. But across the 300-mile stretch of coastline affected by the tsunami, fishery infrastructure was obliterated. In many small fishing towns the concrete harbor walls were literally swept away and boat ramps smashed into pieces and dragged into the sea. For thousands of fishermen, livelihoods were destroyed in mere minutes, leaving them with nothing.

In the days and weeks following the tsunami, Operation Blessing began working with fishing communities to meet their urgent needs. We provided food, water and even generators for power. As the emergency needs began to wane, we started to dialogue with fishing guilds on how to get fishermen back to work. OBI provided computers, printers and office supplies to a fishing guild on the Urato Islands to enable them to communicate with the mainland and with our Japan team. Thanks to the communication line, we began to compile lists of equipment needed to get fishermen back in business.

The islands are home to conventional fishermen as well as oystermen and seaweed farmers. Since the tsunami Operation Blessing has delivered a variety of equipment to the islands, everything from anchors to fishing nets, ropes to floats. But as vital as those things are, there is one tool at the heart of the profession that is the lifeline to every waterman—their boats.

With at least 10,000 boats destroyed, Japanese boat builders were quickly flooded with orders and a backlog formed. There has probably never been this much demand for small fishing boats at one time in world history and that means a long wait for thousands of fishermen, assuming that they could afford a boat in the first place. Many lost all of their possessions, including their homes, so the prospect of purchasing a new boat and equipment is daunting and fishing guilds are reporting that many fishermen are simply giving up the trade.

Operation Blessing wanted to help find boats for fishermen but with all the manufacturers tied up, purchasing new boats was not an option. So we needed to get creative. Our Japan team started to scour the nation in search of used boats. The team began to locate and purchase boats as far away as the southern city of Okinawa. Some boats were purchased from individuals and some from dealers who would give us a great discount after hearing about the cause.

With so much need we had to make the decision to focus our effort on one community. At one of our free eyeglass clinics in the town of Oya-Motoyoshi, the town mayor requested that we specifically help them find boats, so we agreed to focus there. After several weeks OB Japan had managed to locate and purchase 42 boats and motors and we alerted the fishing guild in Oya-Motoyoshi that we were ready to donate them to fisherman as soon as possible, the prime fishing season was fast approaching.

On September 4, 2011, the sun was shining despite Typhoon Talas looming to the south. There was a strong breeze, which made 42 crisp, white flags flicker and dance. The flags were on poles in each boat and on each flag were the Japanese characters meaning “Big Catch,” a traditional expression used during the launch of a new fishing boat to wish it success. The boats were arranged in a long line, their bows all pointing out to the sea, ready for action. As the start of the ceremony grew near the fishermen and their families began to arrive for the celebration.

There was lots of hustle and bustle as last minute registration decals were being added to some boats and out-board motors were fuelled up. Journalists and TV crews began to jostle for position and with a series of bows and handshakes the ceremony was underway.

The local mayor remarked about how thankful he was that these fishermen could get back to work so quickly. Then Operation Blessing’s president, Bill Horan, took the microphone and gave a rousing address. Bill spoke of how he, his father and his grandfather were fishermen and how he had lost his boat to a hurricane. The words resonated with the fishermen. They were ecstatic that Bill could relate to them and that an organization from America had come all that way to help them.

Each fisherman took to the stage to receive an official certificate of donation from Operation Blessing. One man who could speak English let out a huge, “Thank you” and shouted, “I love you!” much to the amusement of his comrades. But he was sincere and it was clear to us that all of these men, having lost so much, were extremely grateful for the gift. One fisherman, Mr. Mura Samu, tried his best to hold back tears as he said into the microphone, “You have provided in us a spark of hope that will become a fire.”

At the close of the ceremony there was an unexpected surprise. The stage was quickly transformed with painted wooden cutouts of waves and boats and a large group of fishermen and their wives took to the stage—the men in their fishing overalls and the women wearing bright traditional costumes. A line of men began to pound the stage in unison with long wooden oars. They started to sing a hearty, joyful chant and some men reenacted the pulling in of nets. In the nets were three giant stuffed tuna that they pretended to haul into their boats. In the foreground the women danced and smiled at their husbands having landed such a “Big Catch.”

We were told that the dance was traditionally done at the end of a great day of fishing to celebrate prosperity; it was the first time the community had performed the dance since the tsunami. I think that for the whole community, to see the dance and sing the chorus of celebration, their spirits began to lift to a place they haven’t been since the tsunami. This was no longer a town overcome by disaster; it was a town returning to normal.

After great applause, the moment everyone came for was upon us. Each fisherman took position at his boat and called his friends to help him roll it into the harbor. In a flurry of cheers, waving flags and the putter of starting motors the boats began to glide into the sea. I managed to climb aboard one of the boats just before it splashed into the water. The fisherman had a huge beaming smile on his face and with the snap of his wrist the out board motor revved up and we took off to join the armada.

The fishermen weaved and dodged each other laughing as we circled the bay. Some of the boats were having friendly races while others slowly cut through water, their captains taking deep breaths with closed eyes, happy to be back on the water. The fishermen chuckled and sped around the harbor a few times before returning to the dock to celebrate with their families. They greeted the OBI team with such gratitude; some of them had tears welling in their eyes as they thanked us.

It was a special day for everyone, for the fishermen who had regained their livelihoods, for the OB Japan team who worked so hard to make it happen and for Bill and myself who were fortunate to witness and document the events. Thanks to our donors we have been able to transform the lives of many fishing families who lost everything in the tsunami. Ours was the first big distribution of boats since the tsunami and for the recipients, hope has been restored.

The need is still huge and our OB Japan team is gearing up to do an even bigger boat distribution in the near future. We are launching an “Adopt a Boat” program where a donor can purchase a boat for a fisherman or join others in purchasing a boat. And in an interesting turn of events, OBI has teamed up with a boat builder in Maine, U.S.A., to design and build boats for Japan. The American boat industry is going through a difficult patch so any work we can offer them is greatly appreciated.

Operation Blessing is connecting the dots between struggling boat builders in the United States with Japanese fishermen unable to purchase boats because the boat builders here can’t meet the demand. With our help many more fishermen can get back to work, enabling them to support their families and rebuild their communities. Through donating to Operation Blessing, the ability to help these tsunami survivors reclaim their lives is a “Big Catch” for you and for me.

OGATSU Town, Mayiga Prefecture, Japan–We felt the fringe effects of Typhoon Talis which crossed the island last night. It was windy all day, raining, and with my raincoat on…hot.

We drove along the coast and found that villagers in fishing communities were hunkered down, fearful of what the first typhoon since the earthquake might to do them. The historic quake in March caused a tectonic shift that lowered much of the coastal land mass as much as four feet. That may not sound like a big deal, but when you live close to sea level, it is—especially at high tide. Typhoons bring extraordinarily high tides, so ground that used to be considered safe is now “No Man’s land.” Villagers told me that since there is no history on what the new waterline means, it scares them.

Don Thomson, a tall Australian man born in Japan, lives here full-time and is OB’s Japan director of operations. A few months back, Don and his team were conducting an eye clinic in a coastal community called Ogatsu. During the clinic, Don met two men who had especially compelling stories.

Mr. Naganuma, a man in his 50s with salt and pepper hair, supports his family by tending a huge fish trap built off plans that have been handed down by generations of salmon fishermen. Tragically, Mr. Naganuma lost his elderly mother to the tsunami, and on top of that, also lost his fish trap. He told Don about how hard it was going to be for him and his community to get back to work. Almost all of the nets, floats and sea anchors had been washed away. Since we were fully committed at the time, Don asked Mr. Naganuma to choose one item that was the most critical to the fishing community. Mr. Naganuma said that the guild’s single greatest need was a forklift, and then explained how difficult it was going to be to move boats around the harbor and to handle hundreds of 1,500-pound concrete anchors required for holding the new village salmon traps in place.

Another man, Mr. Takahashi, who was at the clinic to replace glasses lost the day of the disaster, was an inkstone craftsman. He told Don about how his machinery and home were destroyed by the four-story high killer waves.

Mr. Takahashi ran up the steep slope behind his shop just in time to escape the waves. He said that 60 patients, doctors and nurses in the three-story hospital next to his shop were killed. Many of the hospital staff sought safety on the roof, but he watched as they were swept away.

Ogatsu Inkstone, is a rare, black, dense, slate-like rock that has been quarried in the village for over 600 years and sought after all over Japan. Mr. Takahashi’s father and grandfather preceded him in the ancient craft of cutting, carving and polishing the black rock into specially shaped inkwells with meticulously finished surfaces designed for grinding inksticks and mixing water to make the ink used in calligraphy.

Mr. Takahashi told Don that he and other members of the inkstone guild needed rock saws, special grinders and a myriad of hand tools, but he also said that a forklift was required in order to set up a new shop. Don then asked if it made sense for the fishing guild and inkstone guild to share one forklift. Mr. Takahashi said, “Yes, absolutely.”

Today was a very happy day for Mr. Takahashi and Mr. Naganuma as well as the fishing and inkstone guilds in Ogatsu. Don, David and I delivered a shiny reconditioned forklift this morning. The inkstone man was aware that we were coming, but had sworn to secrecy.

We visited Mr. Takahashi first. He was temporarily set up in what used to be the city hall. The tsunami gutted the building but left it standing—windows all blown out, ceiling tile three-stories high washed out, and all interior walls stripped of sheetrock. The mud had been shoveled and scraped out, and stacks of inkstone lined the walls.

A small team of guild members were scrubbing mud off inkstone salvaged from beneath the rubble. Mr. Takahashi, wearing his OB-issued (quite stylish) eyeglasses showed us around as we waited for the truck to deliver the forklift. When it arrived, Mr. Takahashi drove us in our van with the truck following, down the narrow windy road to the sea. We stopped to unload the forklift at a spot where tsunami debris was stored in three segregated piles: metals, wood and household rubble. It was sad seeing the contents of an entire village piled up that way, but our mood was joyous in anticipation of surprising the fishermen. The truck driver unloaded the forklift then followed us as we went to Mr. Naganuma’s home. He had no idea that we were coming, only that Mr. Takahashi wanted to “meet with him.” He came out in the yard to meet us as the forklift drove up in front. It’s hard to describe the joy that he demonstrated. He started laughing and babbling away, and kept pinching his own cheek saying, “This is a dream, this is a dream!”

We spent about an hour having tea and discussing the missing pieces of the fish trap puzzle and suggested ways that we might help. Other fishermen came over and joined in the happy occasion.

Then, we went to the site where the inkstone factory used to be. Mr. Takahashi explained that the members of the inkstone guild had decided to pool resources and try to buy one set of major machinery which all would share. We offered to pay for several of the key machines (lathe, power grinders, drill press, diamond saws) and hand tools. We also told Mr. Takahashi that we would supply a laptop and wireless card so he could better communicate with suppliers and customers. We went back into the temporary workshop where he gave me an inkstone ink well that had been dug from the rubble and cleaned. He was worried, because it had a few minute scratches. I told him I liked seeing battle scars.

It was an incredible day, and even though I was somewhat jet-lagged, I felt full of energy all day from the contagious mood of the people we are helping.

Operation Blessing’s Japan Disaster Relief Manager, Don Thomson, shares his firsthand account of the relief efforts in Japan.

RIKUZENTAKADA, Japan – Though over four months have passed since the tsunami here, we found that there were still survivors who were in need of glasses. Otsuchi and Rikuzentakada, two completely devastated fishing towns on the rugged coast of Iwate Prefecture, were the sites for our most recent OBI eye clinics.

One unique aspect of Operation Blessing’s clinics is that we give each person an eye exam using professional equipment we have brought to the site. Then, with the prescription data collected by our optician, glasses are made back in Tokyo. About a week later, the glasses are delivered to the people.

Some other relief organizations have simply brought boxes of glasses with varying prescriptions or reading glasses, and let survivors rummage through them to find a pair that may work. We ran into a number of people who had received glasses in this fashion, but the lenses simply were not working for them. They were overjoyed that Operation Blessing would actually prescribe individual pairs of glasses to tsunami victims.

In some cases, a person who was already wearing glasses would come to our clinic, and we would ask them about the glasses they were wearing. Many times the response was, “Oh, these are borrowed ones,” or “Oh, these are my old glasses, but since the tsunami, I can’t see so well with them.” We soon learned that the stress of escaping the tsunami had actually worsened the eyesight of some, though their glasses had survived, and even some who had never worn glasses before. Each case was unique.

We heard story after story of how glasses were lost, either left on a boat, left in the house that was swept away, crushed in the escape, or left in the car that had to be abandoned. One person I spoke with had lost his glasses while being whisked away by a helicopter.

Yoshiko and his Filipino wife, Belinda, came to the eye clinic held at the temporary housing facility meeting house in Rikuzentakada. Yoshiko was an oyster cultivator who had returned to his hometown to help his aging father in the oyster business after working as a computer programmer near Tokyo. However, the tsunami that wiped out his hometown also took out his oyster business and his house, not to mention their glasses.

When he and his wife came to the eye clinic, he told me that he has been offered a job at his former computer company, but to be able to do computer work, he needed glasses. I received an email from Yoshiko yesterday, after starting his new job he said, “The glasses you so kindly provided are very important for me in my work, where I have to look at a computer screen all day. Thank you so very much!”

And thank you, partners of Operation Blessing, for making it possible to provide 1,961 pairs of glasses to survivors of the tsunami at 18 different sites along the coast of Miyagi and Iwate.

YUNNAN, China – Operation Blessing teams travel into rural and impoverished areas of China’s Yunnan Province to distribute brand new TOMS Shoes to students, bringing smiles all around.

Operation Blessing’s Japan Disaster Relief Manager, Don Thomson, shares his firsthand account of the relief efforts in Japan.

SABUSAWA ISLAND, Japan – Fumio Doi, a gillnet fisherman from Sabusawa Island, lost his home and most of his fishing nets to the tsunami earlier this year. His fishing boat, the Sabusawa Maru, survived, as it was moored on the opposite side of the island. However, Doi and his family ended up living in the small hilltop evacuation center set up in a local school, with no means of income.

Though Doi still had a boat, and even a few old tattered nets that had survived the tsunami, he was not equipped to return to the sea to catch fish. Operation Blessing helped Doi restart his business with six new gill fishing nets.

Since the end of June, Doi has been back on the ocean, and with the new nets, he is catching an abundance of fish. The Japanese call sea produce “umi no sachi” which means “blessings of the sea.”

Every morning, Doi brings his catch of “sea blessings” to the Shiogama Fish Market every, which has managed to reopen after sustaining damage from the earthquake and tsunami. He is overjoyed that buyers are paying competitive prices for his fish.

The nets provided by Operation Blessing were crucial for Doi. He now lives in temporary housing on the island, where (unlike a shelter) he has to pay for his own food and utilities, not to mention his daughter’s education.

Doi commented, “These nets are a great help! I didn’t think things were going to go so well after the tsunami. Usually a good catch means lower prices, but we are getting a good catch, and good prices.”

MOTOYOSHI, Japan – For coastal fishing communities in Japan devastated by the tsunami, replacing their boats is a crucial step toward getting back to work—and eventually rebuilding their lives.

Because of the long waiting list for purchasing new boats in Japan, it can take months to get a fishing vessel. After asking the fishing guild exactly what kind of boats were needed, Operation Blessing teams began searching for 40 used boats that are still in excellent condition.

The first 20 boats, with outboard motors, have already been shipped to the town of Motoyoshi to help fishermen there get back on their feet.

“Seeing those boats loaded on the trucks is quite an impressive sight,” said Don Thompson, Operation Blessing’s Japan Disaster Relief Manager. “It was very moving when I first saw them roll in tonight.”