Alert – ‘A large earthquake is coming...’

‘You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed … There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains’ (Matt. 24:6-8).

With the war in Ukraine well into its second year, severe droughts in Ethiopia and extreme weather, this verse is a prescient exhortation. This verse came to mind whilst my mother was visiting us in Japan from the UK.

She arrived just a few weeks after the first test of the mobile-phone emergency alert system. Not surprisingly, Japan, in its emergency readiness, has in fact had this system in operation since 2007. With all the natural disasters; earthquakes, tsunamis and floods, to name a few, and Japan’s close proximity to North Korea, China and Russia, this system seems to be a very sensible precaution.