October SHARE

Last month, I made a short visit to California to visit friends and family back home. I think that when visiting home after a long absence, no amount of time will ever feel long enough. What amazed me about this visit was how comfortable it felt. Most of my time was spent sitting around kitchen tables and on living room couches catching up with old friends. It was nice to be able to talk in person again instead of through letters, e-mails, and chat windows.
One of my main purposes for going home this September was to help with the Sycamore Church Bazaar. After WWII there was a lot of resentment towards Japanese and Japanese-Americans in the U.S. In that time churches and temples became important community centers in the Japanese-American community and bazaars became an annual tradition as a way to bring members from different churches and different faiths together.
This year, as usual, the women of the Japanese congregation’s Fujinkai rolled maki-zushi, shaped triangular onigiri, and packaged small cups of tsukemono. The youth helped set up tables and hang signs before they worked their shifts in the game corner. This year I worked with my parents selling cold drinks after passing on my usual task of clearing tables and serving hot tea to another young person in our English congregation.
What makes Sycamore’s Bazaar special to me is that so many people return on that one day even after they’ve moved away or are no longer able to come to church every Sunday. So this is just one of the traditions that Sycamore celebrates as a family and it made me happy to be able to participate again this year. – SKLT

先月、カリフォルニアに一時帰国しました。ずっと離れていて、一時的に帰ると、どんなに時間があっても足りない気持ちになります。でも、今回は自分でもびっくりするぐらい落ち着いてゆっくりと友達や家族と過ごすことができて、やっぱり手紙やメールやチャット・ウインドウとは違う直接人と向き合える時間がいいなあと思いました。
今回帰った目的の一つは自分の教会のバザーを手伝うためでした。第２次世界大戦が終わったころ、アメリカでは日系人に対する複雑な思いがありました。そんな中で教会やお寺は日系人の精神的拠り所となり、バザーは宗教の違いを越えて日系人を一つに集める大事なときでした。
婦人会の人はいつものように巻きずし、三角おにぎり、漬け物を用意しました。若い人はそれぞれのブースに行く前にテーブルを出したり、看板を出したりして手伝いました。今年、私は自分のいつもの役割を後輩に伝授した後、飲み物を売って回るお手伝いをしました。私にとってシカモア教会のバザーが大切な理由があります。それはあの日にいろんな人が戻って来るからです。遠くに引っ越した人も、最近日曜日に礼拝に来ていない人も、この日には戻って来て一つの大きな家族になるのです。私もそういう意味では今年のバザーに参加できたことが本当に嬉しかったです。　サンディー

October Sycamore Tree

Dear Sycamore Family,

I was so happy I was able to come ho me for the Bazaar this year. It meant a lot to me to be able to share in this annual tradition with family and friends. Like bazaars in the past there were a lot of familiar faces but this year there were also a lot of new ones. Seeing those faces and introducing new friends was a wonderful reminder of the strength in the Sycamore community and the family I represent in Japan.

Thank you all so much!

SKLT
Global Missions Intern and
Assistant Director of the Sendai Student/Youth Center in Sendai, Japan

September Emmaus Newsletter (エマオ通信)

Recently, I returned from Hawaii where I attended the biennial PAAM Convocation. PAAM stands for Pacific Islander and Asian American Ministries and is sub-group of the United Church of Christ representing the perspectives of churches in this community. My family's church, Sycamore Congregational Church, was actually the birthplace of PAAM over 30 years ago when the United Church of Christ (UCC) leadership realized there was a need for minority groups within it to have a voice.

As a young Asian American growing up in the US, I sometimes found it difficult to identify with other young people around me, especially other Christians. From watching television and listening to the radio as a child I learned that there were many different expressions of the Christian faith that were nothing like my own experiences with God. I wasn't baptized until I was 21 years old but I had been involved with the Sycamore Church youth group from elementary school through college even taking leadership roles in the adult activities as well.

I got involved with PAAM when I was in college by attending my first Convocation. I learned from some of the elders that they had also had their struggles with faith and the idea of mission. In most instances, missionaries had been very damaging to the culture and communities in their native countries or the countries of their parents. But as I continued to participate in PAAM activities I realized that a belief in God didn't have to mean sacrificing a rich cultural heritage. Today PAAM supports the work of organizations aiding survivors of hydrogen bomb testing on the Marshall Islands in 1954 by the US military. They also have a strong voice in the national UCC supporting mission work in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

While I was taking part in youth activities as a chaperone for youth ages 14-18, I realize that they were also learning the same lessons I did when I attended my first PAAM Convocation. They were becoming aware of work being done outside their communities and were able to find shared experience with other Asian American youths even though their ancestors didn't come from the same Asian country. It was a special chance for me to be able to share my work with young people in Japan and visiting small churches in Tohoku with young people from the U.S. At this year's Convocation, the youth and young adults outnumbered the adults for the first time in over 8 years. It was a sign that youths were still interested in exploring their faith but simply needed a space to do so.

最近、私はハワイから戻ってきました。ハワイでPAAMという、２年に１度開催される教会の協議会に参加してきました。「PAAM」とは太平洋諸島とアジア系アメリカ人の協議会という意味で、（Pacific Islander and Asian American Ministriesの頭文字）UCC教会（United Church of Christ：アメリカ合同教会）の中でアジア系の人達の視点を代表しています。私が育った教会である、シカモア組合教会は、実は３０年以上前にPAAMが発足した所であり、UCC教会で少数者たちの声を取り上げていく場が必要だということで作られたのです。

私はアメリカ人の若者として育ちましたが、私と同じ年頃の若い人たちと共通点を見出したり、他のクリスチャンの青年と意気投合できないと感じることがよくありました。テレビやラジオを通して子どもの頃からキリスト教信仰には多様な表現があることを知っていましたし、私自身もそう感じていました。私は２１歳の時に洗礼を受けましたが、私は小学校から大学までずっとシカモア教会の青年をリードし、大人になっても同じようにやってきました。

大学生になって初めて、このPAAMの集まりに出席しました。私は先輩たちから、信仰においていろんな葛藤があったことを伺いました。多くの場合、宣教師は祖父母や両親の出身地の文化やコミュニティを否定するものでした。でも私はPAAMの活動に加わるうち、神様を信頼することは、自分の中の豊かな文化遺産を犠牲にすることではないことがわかりました。現在、PAAMはマーシャル諸島で１９５４年に米軍が行った水爆実験の生存者を救済する団体を支援しています。また、UCC教会がアジアと太平洋諸島における世界宣教の業について強い発言力を持っています。

今回、私は１４歳から１８歳ぐらいの青年部の人たちのカウンセラーとして働きました。この若者たちが、私が感じていたことと同じ教訓を学んでいたことに気づきました。彼らは自分のコミュニティの外の現実を学ぶ機会にも恵まれています。また多様なアジア系アメリカ人の若者たちと、共有する事柄や経験を発見できていました。今回私は日本の若者と活動している内容や、東北の小さな教会を訪ねたことなどを話せてとても良かったです。協議会では、青年（３０歳まで）の参加が大人よりも上回りました。これは８年ぶりのことです。それは青年たちが今もなお自分たちの信仰を模索する場を求めていることの表れだったと思います。　　　

　　（翻訳：ジェフリー・メンセンディーク）

September Sycamore Tree

Dear Sycamore Family,

I’m sad that summer is almost over and somewhat relieved as well because I don’t think I have the energy to keep going on the same pace all year. This August I’ve traveled all over Japan including Hiroshima on the anniversary of the bombing, 2 summer work camps in Northern Japan, and Hawaii for the Pacific Asian American Ministries Convocation.

Jeffrey said that he and his wife, Kako were grateful that their children Hana and Tomo were able to make so many new friends at Bible Day Camp this year even though they started late. They also said they were singing A-la-la-la-la in the car all the way back to Claremont. Even though I couldn’t be at Bible Day Camp this year, Jeffrey was equally missed at the summer work camps here in Japan. Every year the student center sponsors a work camp to Okunakayama, a local small farming community in Northern Iwate Prefecture (about 3 hours north of Sendai by car).

After the war, the Japanese government encouraged people to set out on pioneer work in the rural areas of northern Japan because much of the farmland around the urban areas had been destroyed. Two of the sheep and lettuce farmers that organized to found Okunakayama in the 1950s just happened to be Christian and that had a profound effect on the development of this community. Our group were fortunate to have an evening with one of the women that was part of this group and learn a little bit about the history from her and looking through old photo albums.

Today the community is also home to the Canaan Bakery is a non-profit organization which sells handmade bread to the surrounding areas to help support the Okunakayama church and an assisted living facility for the mentally and physically disabled. One of the things that make this particular facility so amazing is the way its residents and staff members participate in every aspect of daily life. The residents help with work on the farm that grows their food, to bake bread in the Canaan Bakery, and to process wool from the sheep. After the wool is processed, some of the residents use the wool to make tapestries as part of their therapy, some of which are sold later to help support the facility. Finally, all the members of this integrated community attend church worship services on Sunday.

The name Okunakayama literally translated means “deep mountain” and one of the students pointed out that this name is a pretty accurate description both of the history, the people who live there, and the steep mountains that make up the surrounding landscape. The student center had been leading this work camp for over 10 years and everyone who has participated in the past has made a lot of fun and wonderful memories there, myself included. I have written more and posted pictures on my blog at http://skltstravels.blogspot.com

I miss you all so much and I can’t wait to see you at Bazaar!

With Love,
SKLT
Global Missions Intern and
Assistant Director of the Sendai Student/Youth Center in Sendai, Japan.

August Sycamore Tree

Dear Sycamore Family,

Recently, I was asked to give a lecture at Miyagi Gakuin for a class of first and second year college students on topics in contemporary issues. Miyagi Gakuin is the women's university in Sendai that was founded in 1886 by missionaries from the United Church of Christ. At the time it was one of the few schools for women in Japan. Today the campus includes a pre-school/kindergarten, junior high school, high school, and university and has a variety of departments including English, Japanese Literature, Food and Nutritional Science, and psychology. Their music department is world famous and many students in this department are regular members of the student center.

Professor Tominaga is a friend of Jeffrey and a long time supporter of the student center. Her research interests include women's issues in Muslim communities as well as issues in ethnic minority communities around the world. Professor Tominaga also leads a study tour of university students to Tanzania every year. I met her in February and have had the opportunity to sit in on a few of her classes while I've been in Sendai. She was very interested to have me come give a presentation in her class because she thought it would benefit young women to hear the perspective of another young person.

As I've spent more time with Japanese college students and gotten a little better at speaking Japanese, I've come to appreciate the major differences in the lives of Japanese college students from American college students. For example, each semester a student in Japan might take anywhere from 15 to 20 different classes while a student in the U.S. might only take 4 to 8 classes. This kind of schedule makes it very difficult to focus very deeply on specific topics but does give students very broad overviews of many different subjects. However, the Ministry of Education and Science in Japan requires each class to give written final exams, term papers, or projects for grading purposes so the end of July and March are very busy months for students as they study for each of their prospective classes.

In my PowerPoint presentation I discussed ethnic diversity in San Francisco. I knew it was important to use a lot of graphics to enrich the information I was presenting and to keep it very simple. I began my presentation by talking about scale and distance in the U.S. and used a lot of maps (i.e. California is about the same size as Honshu, the main island of Japan). I also talked about the history of various neighborhoods in San Francisco like Chinatown or the Mission District. We had an interesting discussion about Japanese interment camps during WWII and they had many questions about that as well because it's not a topic that's typically discussed in school. But, as I suspected most of the students questions were about me personally and my life in California.

In any case, it was a fun and enlightening experience for me. There were about 100 students in the class and Professor Tominaga translated for me through a bulk of the presentation. I don't know if my talk made any impact on these students but I guess that is the reality of being a teacher. I'll have to practice a little more for next time.

For now, I'm off for summer vacation. I will a little time to travel around Japan for fun and with the student center summer work camps. I will also join Pastor Sharon and Morita Sensei at the PAAM conference in Honolulu, HI in August so I'm sure I will have plenty more experiences to share with you next month.

Until next time! Matta ne~

SKLT
Global Missions Intern (GMI) and
Assistant to the Director of the Sendai Student/Youth Center in Sendai, Japan

August SHARE

It was wonderful to see so many people at the Class Talent Show, especially all the OB/OG. A special thanks goes to everyone who performed or prepared the snacks, it was a great show. I hope you can all join us for the cleaning & BBQ 7/19 (Saturday) and we’ll see you all for the summer work camps in August and when classes start again in September.
Have a great summer vacation!! --SKLT

　クラス発表会でたくさんの人に、特にOB/OGの人々に会えたことは本当に素晴らしいことでした。演奏・発表してくれた人、お菓子などを準備してくれた人、皆さん有難うございました。とても立派な会でした。7/19（土）の大掃除・ＢＢＱにもみなさん参加して下さい。そして８月の夏のワークキャンプで、また９月にクラスが再開する時にお会いしましょう。
よい夏休みをお過ごし下さい！！　　　　　（サンディ）

July SHARE

This past Saturday (6/21) Workshop Class teacher Tanaka Satoko-sensei initiated a Tanzaku Action & Candle Night at the student center. In addition to a few students, many people from outside the student center community also came to participate in the event. The Candle Night movement started in Japan in 2003 in opposition to the Bush administration's energy policy. The idea is that if everyone turns off their lights for 2 hours and spent quality time with family and friends, the true meaning of a "peaceful life" could be realized. Candle Night was inspired by the Voluntary Blackout in Canada and has since spread many other countries around the world.

In Japan, this year's Candle Night happens to coincide with the upcoming G8 Summit in Toyako, Hokkaido which will be on July 7th. The G8 Summit is a meeting of global leaders from the most powerful countries in the world to discuss global issues. The permanent members in this year's 34th G8 Summit include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries collectively control 65% of the world's economy and hold a majority of the world's military power. This year they will discuss several issues including debt relief in Africa, climate change and sustainable energy, and others.

The idea of Tanzaku Action is to collect the tanzaku wishes from Japanese citizens to Japanese government leaders participating in the G8 Summit to exercise their responsibility in world policy. It was a very fun and informative evening complete with Nepalese curry made by some friends of Tanaka-sensei from the Shapla Neer non-profit organization. Since my parents were visiting me from the U.S. the idea of spending quality time with family while also saving energy was particularly inspiring. It was a good reminder for me to appreciate what little time we have with our family and friends because it will always seem too short. I thought the event was a wonderful way to bring global issues into our daily lives.


For more information in English go to:
Candle Night -- http://www.candle-night.org/english/
G8 Summit NGO Forum Tanzaku ACTION -- http://www.g8ngoforum.org/english/
G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit -- http://www.g8summit.go.jp/eng/index.html
Shapla Neer -- http://www.shaplaneer.org/english_site/index.html

日本語:
Candle Night -- http://www.candle-night.org/jp/about/
G8 サミット NGO フォラム -- http://www.g8ngoforum.org/
G8 北海道洞爺湖サミット -- http://www.g8summit.go.jp/index.html
Shapla Neer NGO -- http://www.shaplaneer.org/

この前の土曜日（６／２１）ワークショップクラスの田中聡子先生が、短冊アクション＆キャンドルナイトを主催してくれました。数人の学生と、外部からたくさんの人がやってきてそのイベントに参加しました。キャンドルナイトの運動はブッシュ政権のエネルギー政策に反対して、日本では2003年に始まりました。その考えは、もしみんなが２時間電気を消して、家族や友人と充実した時を過ごしたら、本当の意味での“平和な生活”が実現するだろうということです。キャンドルナイトはカナダで自主停電をしたことから始まり、それ以来、世界各国に広がっています。

日本では、今年のキャンドルナイトは７月７日に始まる北海道洞爺湖でのG8サミットとたまたま時を同じくしています。G8サミットは世界主要国のリーダー達が、地球規模の課題を話し合うために集まる会です。今年の第３４回G8サミットのメンバーは、カナダ、フランス、ドイツ、イタリア、日本、ロシア、イギリス、アメリカです。これらの国は世界経済の６５％を支配し、世界の軍事力の大部分を有しています。今年、彼等は開発・アフリカを含む課題や、気候変動、持続燃料やその他いくつかの課題を話すことになっています。短冊アクションのアイデアは、世界的政策の中できちんと責任を果たすようにと日本の国民が願いや期待を短冊に書いて集め、G８サミットに参加する日本政府のリーダー達に送るのです。
とても楽しく有益な夜でした。田中先生の友達（シャプラニールNPOのメンバー）が作ったネパールカレーをいただいてすっかり満足しました。私の両親がアメリカから私を訪ねてきていて、エネルギーをセーブしながらも家族と一緒に豊かな充実した時を過ごせたのは特に素晴らしいものでした。このイベントは私たちの日常生活の中に、地球規模の課題をとりいれる素敵な方法だと思いました。（サンディ）