Christmas Message

I had a lot of anxiety about giving this message because perhaps a lot of you have never really thought about the meaning of Christmas before or have any idea what this day is all about. In Japan, perhaps Christmas is a day when you go out and eat cake or Kentucky Fried Chicken. Or maybe Christmas is a day whenyou go out with your favorite people at see the lights at the Pageant of Starlight.

Christians have a different kind of Pageant of Starlight. In the weeks leading up to Christmas we light these 4 candles to represent our waiting and anticipation. And on Christmas day we light a fifth candle to celebrate His birth. We`ve just heard the Christmas story read by volunteers and we lit a candle for each portion of the story.

Each candle represents something that we think about during this time of the year. The first candle represents Hope. Hope comes first because unless we have hope we can`t be ready to receive all the good things that life has to offer.

The first reading we heard talked about the prediction of the birth of Jesus. Neither Mary of Joseph had any idea what this unexpected pregnancy meant for their lives or for the world. Joseph was planning to divorce Mary after the baby was born. But, their faith in God gave them hope and the will to continue with their plans despite whatever fears they had.

Maybe you can think of something in your life that scares you. Maybe you`re afraid you won`t graduate or that you won`t be able to find a job or a girlfriend. Whatever that thing is that scares you, if you don`t at least have hope that you might accomplish your goal then it becomes that much more impossible to succeed.

The second candle represents Peace. In the U.S., and perhaps other parts of the world as well, Christmas is one of the only times of year that families gather together. Growing up, I lived in Nor Ca with my mom and my dad worked in Los Angeles during theyear. And so Christmas would be the one time of year when my dad could get 2 weeks of vacation from work and we could spend the holidays together as a family. On Christmas Day we would go visit my father`s side of the family and have dinner together. My father`s family doesn`t live that far away but we never really get together during the year. There are old arguments and disagreements that were never resolved in my family, which I`m sure is true in others as well. Yet on this one day out of the year we all come from far away to share a meal together as a family.

In life there can be even greater differences that divide us. It could be the language that we speak or just the fact that we attend different universities. But this center is one of the few places where there are so many different people together in one place. Sometimes we have disagreements or differences in character but we can all pretty much agree that this is an amazing place or otherwise I don`t think you`d be here. If we didn`t all try to make an effort to be accepting of those differences then I don`t think this center could exist.

The third candle represents Joy. Christmas is a time of celebration when we eat large feasts and give one another presents. But it`s also a time when we can celebrate the things that we already have.

In our family we would take the artificial Christmas tree out of its storage space and put it up in our living room. Then, we decorate it with ornaments that we had collected over the years. Every year my mom and I would each go to the department store and choose an ornament that best represented something good that happened over the year. When Iwas in 5th grade, I played flute in the school band and so my ornament was a glass angel playing a flute. The year we bought a new car, we found a little ornament of Santa Claus driving a car. It was a chance for us to be grateful for the blessings we had received over the year.

Christians celebrate the gift that we received in the form of this little baby born to ordinary people in a tiny manger with the sheep. Shepherds and Kings from far away lands came to give gifts to this tiny baby and so every year we give Christmas presents so that we can celebrate the joy of this day. I received a Christmas present in the mail last week. The package arrived from the Women`s Fellowship of a church in Hawaii. I`ve never visited this church and I don`t know any of its members and yet they thought of me and found out my address so they could send a package halfway across the world. This reminded me of maybe the most important part of Christmas, the forth candle. It represents Love.

Of course, there are many different kinds of love but the love that we talk about at Christmas time is the love we have for people we`ve never even met. In the final passage from the Bible we hear. All of these people were coming from different places talking about this baby. What I like about this passage is that it talks about how Mary felt when she received these gifts. She knew that her baby was special but she couldn`t have possibly imagined the celebration that his birth would bring hope to so many people, or that wise men from distant lands would bring gifts to her small family in peace, or that there would be so much joy and celebration. Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

At Christmas time I always like to think about all of the blessings that I`ve received over the year. It was a blessing to me that I had this chance to be in Japan with all of you. It is a blessing that I have a family who loves and cares about me even though I`m far away. I had no idea that I would have all of the wonderful experiences I`ve had over the past (almost) two years. Or that this opportunity would be provided by church members all over the U.S. who donate money to support my activities and the work of this student center.

And maybe that`s what Christmas is all about, not the gifts that you will receive but the ones you already have.

After the offering we`ll be singing a song called Magnificat which is Mary's song where she sings about her joy for this new blessing in her life. It's a song of joy and a song of thanksgiving.

And Mary said:
My soul glorifies the Lord
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
For he has been mindful
Of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
For the Mighty One has done great
Things for me—Holy is His name.

December Sycamore Tree

Recently, I walked down to a dam near my house. I was told that there was salmon swimming upstream trying to cross the dam. So, me and a couple of my neighbors got together and woke up early before work to walk to the river. We must have sat there for over 30 minutes watching the fish as they writhed and jumped out of the water. Some of the salmon fell in their attempts but they continued to struggle against the current.

Later that week, I went back to the river by myself. There was a large group of young men in rubber suits and another older man explaining how on both sides of the river there were more gradual gradations that were constructed so that the fish could go around water that was falling quickly down the dam. I walked a little bit farther down to where the JR and shinkansen tracks cross the river and found there were fish in this part of the river as well, swimming up to where other fish were trying to cross the dam. Eventually, I began to get hungry and, inspired by images of fish in their own daily efforts to survive, I decided to go home and eat something vegetarian for breakfast.

I’ve seen similar images on television of salmon being stalked and eaten by grizzly bears in the rivers of Alaska but this was the first time I had ever seen this kind of event in nature so close to where I live. I started to think about all of the other miraculous things that are probably happening around us if we only get up early in the morning and go looking for them.

November Sycamore Tree

Dear Sycamore Family,
One of the latest bits of gossip around the Student/Youth Center these days is about the upcoming wedding of two center alums. There have been many couplings between center members is the past but one of the things that makes this pair unique is that the groom is preparing to become a Buddhist priest and the bride has recently been baptized into the Christian faith. They met at the student center while they were both college students. At the time, both of them were still discovering their own views on religion and spirituality. The Student/Youth Center was the place where both of them had encountered Christianity for the first time as it is for many of the young people who gather there today.

I met the　newly engaged couple at the recent Student/Youth Center alumni reunion in Tokyo last month.I had heard a lot about them from other alumni and so I was a little bit curious. There is a lot expected of the wives of Buddhist priests in Japan, especially in the smaller temples as the one to which the groom belongs. The bride began working full-time when she graduated from college and plans to continue working after they are married. I'm sure they will face many challenges in the future but it was so encouraging to hear their story because it generated a deeper discussion on how the center has shaped the spiritual lives of so many other young people.

Our mission is not one to convert people to Christianity but to share a spiritual practice in the midst of the increasingly busy lives of Japanese youth. We hold Bible study and candlelight Taize prayer meetings and we pray before all center events. At large events we explain that prayer is a time when we can give thanks for the food before us and speak whatever is on our minds. If we ever make people uncomfortable we try to offer the space for them to express themselves. One alumna put it best when she said that, her time at the student/youth center helped her realize that accepting something doesn't mean you have to agree. Over the years so many different people have come to the student center and it's been a place for interactions between the diverse mix of people who gather. I have had my opinions and beliefs challenged on many occasions as well and am grateful that the center has been a safe place to do so.

October SHARE

For the second year in a row, this September I returned to California to visit my family and to participate in the annual bazaar at Sycamore church. One of the reasons this trip is so important to me, perhaps more than Christmas or New Year’s, is that this is an event that gathers not just my family but many other families that are a part of the Sycamore community. Friends from college, middle school, and even elementary school have come to know that they can always find me working at the bazaar every 3rd Sunday in September.

It was interesting to see so many people, most of whom I hadn’t seen since the past year and to see how much all the young children have grown-up or changed. And it was also sad to remember the people who were such a vital part of the bazaar every year but have either passed away or become to ill to continue. Every year, the older members of the church start to grumble that they were getting a little too old to continue and couldn’t they just give a larger donation to the church than coming out to help.

This year was my 12th bazaar and there is one year that I remember when I was about 16 years old. It was so foggy in the morning that the people who came at 5am to cook rice and grill chicken could barely see in front of them. It looked as if it was going to rain. It cleared up a little by 11am but that year was one of the worst years ever. Afterwards, we had so much food leftover we had to give it away to 3 different homeless shelters. But that year was also the year that we made the most new improvements. One of our church members designed new tents that could be put together without hammers or screws out of steal pipes and we replaced the old wooden tables with new plastic ones that are lighter and easier to set up. People realized how important the bazaar is to the community and they made extra donations to help with these improvements.

The older people are still getting older but they are the ones who have made it possible for us younger members to continue in this event that has been happening for almost 60 years. This year they were very grateful to have 3 young people from Sendai come out to help and we always welcome anyone else who’d like to participate in our annual tradition.

Oct SHARE article

Sycamore Bazaar

　サンフランシスコ空港に到着し、入国のために審査を受ける。アメリカに何度も行っているハさんは楽々通過。さすが！

ピくんは英語で色々と聞かれているようで、少し困っていた。英語という名の最初の関門を突破し、無事アメリカに入国！

「お～、アメリカだ～！」と言って、アメリカっぽい雰囲気を体いっぱいに感じるのかと
思ったら、それほど異国に来たのだという感じは強くなかった。私は2年前のインドスタディツアーに参加し、インドの強烈な異国感を体感した。アメリカはインドと比べて、日本とのギャップが小さいこともその要因かもしれない。

　今回のアメリカの旅のメインイベントは、シカモア教会のバザーに参加すること。シカモア教会は、1904年にアメリカへ来た、日本人3人によって始まった。
シカモア教会のバザーは規模が大きく、1年の行事の中で最も大きいものだ。今回のバザーも1,500人の方がシカモア教会へ足を運んだ。

　私たちはこのバザーの準備からお手伝いをしたのだが、意外にやることが多かった。大きなテントを建てたり、ステージを組み立てたりと力仕事も多く、なかなか良い労働だった。印象に残っていることは、栗まんじゅうを作ったこと。栗まんじゅうなんて、日本でも作ったことがないのに、初めて作るのがアメリカとはおもしろいなぁ。

確かにやることは多かったが、その分だけ深くバザーに関われて良かったと思う。どうせやるなら、思いっきりやった方が楽しいもの！

私たちと同じ力仕事を、私から見るとおじいちゃんのような年齢の方がせっせとしていた。日本の教会でも同じようなのだが、シカモア教会も特に平日は若い人は仕事でおらず、高齢の方が教会の仕事を多くしている。アメリカも日本も同じなのだなと感じた。

バザーは大成功に終わり、お手伝いをした私たちも、心地良い達成感をたっぷりと感じることが出来た。

　シカモア教会とセンターの繋がりがより強くなったので、今後もセンターからエネルギーのたくさんある若者が、バザーに参加するのもおもしろいと思う。きっとシカモア教会の人々も歓迎してくれるだろう。繋がりは本当に大事だなぁ。

　今回の旅は、全てのプランを立ててくれたサンディを初め、毎回車を出して頂いたサンディのお父さん、受け入れて頂いたホストフォミリー、シカモア教会の皆さまなど、本当に多くの方の助けによって成り立つことが出来た。本当にありがとうございました。

I want to join Sycamore Bazaar again someday. I’ll be back!

K


Sycamore Bazaar

As we were passing through customs upon entry into the U.S., Ha-san passed through
without any problems like a veteran traveler. M-kun has a few problems understanding questions asked in English. So, we overcame our first hurdle and entered America safely!

I kept thinking, "Ah! I'm in America!" and that my body felt like it was in America. But, slowly I started to feel less strange. Two years ago, I participated in the India study tour. In India, you feel a strong sense that you are in an exotic place. But when you compare the U.S. with India, maybe the differences between Japan and the U.S. are not as great.

The main purpose of this trip was to participate in the Sycamore Church Bazaar. Sycamore Church was created in 1904 by 3 students from Japan. The Sycamore Bazaar is the biggest event of the year. This year there were over 1,500 people in attendance.

In this year's bazaar we helped with many difference parts of the preparation, including many things that surprised me. We worked pretty hard helping to pitch large tents and assembling the stage. One thing that was interesting to me was the we make Kuri-Manju (Translator's Note: Kuri-Manju are Japanese cakes that are baked and filled with a chestnut paste.). I have never made Kuri-Manju in Japan so this was a very interesting experience. We did a lot of different work but I think that this helped us to experience the bazaar more deeply. If you get to try everything then it is so much fun!

We did a lot of heavy lifting with members of the church. But, even though they are older than us they worked much faster., As in Japan, younger people often work on weekdays so the main work of the church is done by the older men. I felt that this was one similarity between Japan and the U.S.

The bazaar was very successful and because we helped we also felt a good sense of accomplishment. Now that ths ties between Sycamore Church and the Student/Youth Center have become stronger I think it would be interesting for other energetic young people to participate in the bazaar. I think the members of Sycamore Church will certainly welcome their help. This relationship is very important.

This trip was possible because of S, S's father, the hospitality of our host families, and the members of Sycamore Church, and so many more. We are very grateful for their help. Thank you so much!

I want to join Sycamore Bazaar again someday. I'll be back!

K

October Sycamore Tree

シカモア教会のみんな様、

お蔭様で無事仙台に帰れました。
シカモアバザーに招待して頂き、本当にありがとうございました。
シカモア教会の皆さんは、本当にバザーを楽しみにしているのだなと感じました。私たちにはたくさんの仕事がありましたが、その分だけ、バザーに深く関わることが出来たと思います。お力になれたでしょうか？
滞在中は皆さまのお蔭で、とても快適に過ごすことが出来ました。ありがとうございます。
この有意義な経験を生かし、残りの学生生活も頑張りたいと思います。
いつかまたバザーに参加したいです。

Dear Sycamore Family,

First, we want to express our sincerest gratitude for allowing us to participate in this year's bazaar with all of you. But we would also like to thank you for sharing your homes and lives with us as well. A lot of people go sightseeing in San Francisco but very few people get the opportunity to work as a part of a community to create something so special as the Sycamore Bazaar. We also got the chance to play with the children of the Sycamore Pre-School, go bowling with the Friday Bowlers, and form new friendships with the members of Sycamore. The experience taught us all a lot about ourselves but also changed the way we think about what America and Americans look like.

We hope that we are able to help at the bazaar again someday. And, if anyone ever wants to visit Sendai we hope we can show you the hospitality that we have been shown during our time in California. Thank you so much!

M, H, K and S

September SHARE

Thinking About Food

A quick glance at the label one of the many processed foods found in any convenience store in Japan or the U.S. would reveal a list of a dozen or so ingredients. Some of these are recognizable like butter or sugar and some are less so. Sometimes it’s hard to draw the connections between these ingredients and something we might like to eat.

At last spring’s work camp to the Asian Rural Institute, a man named Johnny from Malaysia lead a workshop on palm oil production and its uses. We looked the ingredient labels for popular foods like Country Ma’am or convenience store cream pastries and looked for common ingredients. From the workshop we learned that in 2005, palm oil became the most commonly found ingredient in processed foods in Japan. Palm oil is also processed into sweeteners like sorbitol (in Japanese ソルビトール) which is found in yet more foods because it is cheaper and it helps keep the foods tasting fresh longer than using regular sugar. According to Johnny, one of the dangers for palm oil farmers is wild fire. Palm oil trees grow very quickly and they have high oil contents and therefore catch fire very easily.

For the past year and a half I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to participate in these volunteer work camps alongside students from the center. Every time I am shocked to learn something new from people so central to producing the foods we eat. While their hard work makes our lives cheaper and more convenient, theirs become more difficult. Talking about these issues is one of the many experiences I look forward to every summer. The solutions to these problems are not always clear and well defined but it’s the process of finding them together that will make the biggest impact.

- (SKLT)