Bryan Thompson and his wife Jan.

Bryan Thompson spent the last 19 years in Japan with his wife and three children doing missionary work for Overseas Missionary Fellowship International.

After an 8.9 magnitude quake hit the country, Thompson started a blog to keep in touch with friends and family, including his daughter Lauren who recently moved from Japan to Minneapolis to attend college.

Thompson has been updating his blog daily since March 12 and is now helping coordinate the Christian volunteer effort for CRASH Japan.

“Although we have made significant progress in just three days, the enormity of the task can be overwhelming and exhausting as we continue to get reports of the devastation in so many communities,” he wrote on Wednesday.

Thompson – uncle of COUV.COM videographer Jordan Thompson and US Digital’s Mindy Thompson – is continually asking for prayers for the people in Japan and for volunteers helping with the relief effort.

Thompson’s wife Janet suggests anyone who wants to donate should give to the Overseas Missionary Fellowship Sendai Earthquake Relief Project. Donations can be made online through the OMF donation website by entering “Sendai Earthquake Relief Fund, #L60500″ in the “specific project box.”

“All funds will be used for relief efforts. OMF members and those serving with CRASH Japan (including Bryan) do so voluntarily and are not paid for their service,” she said in a blog post.

Bryan’s latest post:

Serving at the CRASH Japan earthquake relief command center has been an incredible experience so far. I’ve never been a part of such a chaotic, urgent and difficult task, infused with the patience, grace, cooperation and mutual support that I believe can only be found in the body of Christ.

Although we have made significant progress in just 3 days, the enormity of the task can be overwhelming and exhausting as we continue to get reports of the devastation in so many communities.

Our spirits were encouraged to meet the leader of the team of experts with Samaritan’s Purse who arrived yesterday. The scale of their operation is beyond anything our command center can handle, but we want to cooperate with them as much as possible.

Four advance teams went out on Monday.

We now have about 500 inquires from those who would like to volunteer to help with the relief effort. As leader of the volunteer coordinators’ team, I’ve been recruiting more coordinators each day to handle the ever-increasing numbers of volunteers; two more today to make a total of seven so far. Another one coming tomorrow.

Another advance team will go out tomorrow. They have received the necessary authorization to travel on the freeways and to buy gasoline along the way. They will go loaded with water, the biggest need at present in the affected areas.

CRASH Japan hopes to have a base for relief operations up and running by Friday of this week in the Sendai area.