July 2011

PASTOR'S PEN  

God's Faithfulness

"O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!" - Psalm 118:1

As some of you may already know, I wanted to inform you that, through your support and prayers, I was able to obtain my religious visa recently. I am so grateful for all the ways in which you have supported me throughout this process this past year. Thank you so much! In addition to expressing my thanks, I wanted to share with you a little bit about the process in which my religious visa was granted, and how God led the way, all the way.

First, in early 2010, we were introduced to the oldest legal agency that deals with immigration law in San Francisco, through an attorney in Japantown. The attorney that took our case was very friendly, accessible, and gave us just the right advice for every issue that came up. With her help, we were able to send in all the documents needed to apply for the religious worker visa last June.

After some delays from the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services), we were finally informed that my religious worker visa was tentatively approved this past April. In order to officially receive the visa, I needed to first exit the U.S., get the visa outside the country, and re-enter. Normally, you would return to your home country to process the visa at the U.S. Consulate there. I was originally planning to return to Japan, too, but after the earthquake and tsunami incident on March 11, the U.S. consulate in Tokyo was immobilized and I was told that my process would take at least eight weeks. I didn't want to leave the church for that long of a period, and was wondering if there would be any other options. That was when our attorney suggested that we go to Canada instead.

I was told that the visas were usually processed between three to five days in Canada. However, the process is normally for Canadian nationals and permanent residents - so there was a possibility that my visa would not be given to me in Canada. If they didn't take my case, I would need to return to Japan directly from Canada. After giving much thought and prayer, I felt that God was leading me to go to Canada. So I made an interview appointment at the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver for May 4. Pastor Grace offered to accompany me to Vancouver, and used her vacation time to come with me. I am grateful for all her help and support throughout this visa process!

At the interview at the U.S. Consulate in Canada, I found out that my interviewer had attended the same seminary - Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. What a surprise! Perhaps because of this, I was asked nothing besides my seminary experience, and before I knew it, my visa was officially approved. He even expedited the process for me to get back my stamped passport the next morning, rather than waiting for several days. (He mentioned it could take longer than a week at times!) However, since I was planning to leave for Edmonton that morning, I was a bit worried if things would work out. That next morning, my passport wasn't ready yet when I arrived at the U.S. Consulate. But, just as I was about to complain to God, my name was called, and my passport was ready to go. I was astonished at my own faithlessness when God has been consistently leading me until now!

After receiving the visa successfully at the U.S Consulate, I came back to San Francisco without any problems. Actually, the immigration agent at the point of entry (customs) was very kind and even explained to me about getting my green card if I wanted to stay permanently in the U.S. And lo and behold, this agent's name was Angel! It's hard not to sense that God had placed people like him, and the interviewer at the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, for such a time as this.

Reflecting upon this entire experience, I was struck once again how God always leads us and gives us the help we need when we need it. I am so thankful for this. And I am also ever grateful for those of you who have prayed and supported me, and showed God's love in many different tangible ways. As mentioned in the Bible verse above, I truly experienced that God really is filled with grace, and God's faithfulness lasts forever. I pray and hope that I will be able to show that love of God to as many people around me as possible. I would appreciate your continued prayers!

Peace,
Hiroko

CLERK'S REPORT 

The session, acted on the following items on June 26, 2011:

 Approve Personnel Committee Role and Responsibilities and Personnel Committee Procedures.

Approve part-time Church Secretary job description

A note from the session moderator: The minutes from our session meetings are public documents and are readily available. If you would like to read more about what our session and its committees are doing, please request a copy from the church office, or ask any of our session members. Thank you!

  

DEACONS' REPORT

Do you ever have this sense of urgency? The need to do things now and not put it off until the last minute? I rarely do. But Jesus tells us in Mark 1:15, "The time is now. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel." Have that sense of urgency to "Plan your life as if you're going to live to be a ripe old age, but live each day spiritually as if this is going to be your last day".

COFFEE FELLOWSHIP:

The Deacons would like to thank the individuals who have contributed to the coffee fellowship during the month of June.

The Deacons are aware there are others who do not sign up on the list, but contribute. We would like to thank you all.

God is good... All the time! All the time... God is Good!

Ralph Tanaka, Co-Moderator

SUMMER CAMP MOMENTS 

Each Sunday during worship in the summer, leaders from our Summer Camp program share with the congregation what has been going on at camp, along with their reflections. You will see what they shared below:

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Hello, my name is Scott Wong. This is my 13th year at CUPC Summer Camp, 5th as a leader. Every year, I ask myself, "Do I want to come back to CUPC for another year?" And to this point, the answer has always been "yes". Then I ask myself, "Why do I want to come back to camp again?" And there are so many answers to this question that I can go on and on.

This year I have the 4th grade boys. But since there were only three campers in the group this week, we combined with the 5th grade boys. Monday was the first day all the campers came. There were many familiar faces that came back to camp as well as many new faces that were trying to adapt to a new setting. On Wednesday, the Alpha Department had cookout while the Omega Department made ice cream. My group made guava strawberry and in my opinion, it was very good. Then on Thursday, the Alpha Department made ice cream while the Omega Department had cookout. My group made chicken tenders and garlic fries which was also very good if I do say so myself. On Friday we had our annual track and Field Day, one of my favorite days of camp. In the morning, the campers did various relays like izzy dizzy, 3-legged race, and wheelbarrow. Then in the afternoon the campers played jug baseball, broom hockey, and Mario Kart. Then to finish off the day, all the campers played tug-o-war. Everyone had their share of bumps and bruises, but it was a fun day overall. It was a great way to finish the first week of camp.

CUPC will always be my home away from home and the people will always be my 2nd family. Coming to camp will always be better than sitting at a desk all day doing boring desk job. As long as CUPC Summer Camp is around, I know that there will always be something enjoyable for me to do to keep my summers busy. I will always remember certain moments I had at camp both good, like winning song contest, and bad, like when I packed salt instead of sugar for ice cream. Hopefully there will be many more memories to come the rest of the summer. Thank you.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Hi everyone. For a couple of summers I was a camper at CUPC. I was brought back by a friend of a friend, they asked if I wanted to volunteer and since I did not have anything to do in the summer I said yes! This will be my 3rd year being a leader and my 1st year as a paid leader. I have to say every summer so far that I spent with CUPC has been loads of fun and very memorable.

So this week at camp we had the bubble gum contest which was on Tuesday and we also flew kits at Marina Greens. I found it very funny seeing the campers trying to chew their gum in under a minute and then try and blow bubbles. Long story short there was a winner from alpha and omega, and also a winner from the leaders. Before the bubble gum contest group A and C got to go on a surprise adventure to the police horse stables in golden gate park. An officer at the stables was kind enough to give both groups a tour, after the tour we got to see and pet the horses. On Thursday the alpha department made ice cream. My group made grasshopper pie, all of the campers loved it; they all asked for seconds and thirds. Group C won best ice cream two weeks in a row! On Friday both the alpha and omega department went to Marina Greens to fly kites. But I did not get to fly kites because I went to the tactile dome with oldest boys. We had the opportunity to go through the dome more than once but another leader from oldest boys only went in once because he was too scared! When I went in my second time and some other leaders went before me and for a second I could have sworn that they were right in front of me but they weren't. While I was about to get out of the maze, a leader popped out of no where and scared the begeezes out of me!

I have to say this week's devotion was very good. It was about how God made every part of the body equal, no one part of the body is more important than the other. And at HGSF we say that the church is the body so no one person or part of the church is more important than the other. By the way, HGSF (House of God, SF) is the church I grew up at. HGSF does not have a summer camp and I'm glad that it doesn't because if it did I wouldn't be able to come to CUPC to work For the rest of the summer I hope to build better relationships with the leaders and also the campers.

Sunday, June 26, 2001

Hello, my name is Kevin Lew.

This was the 3rd week of camp. This week, we had "yummy" stone soup on the hottest day of the week. It was all right I guess, it kind of burned as you swallowed, so I couldn't finish my cup. Garlic bread was also served, but it was literally, garlic with bread. Harrison and I rubbed our bread together in an attempt to knock off all the garlic, but it did nothing. But I heard a camper say it was better than last years, so it was okay.

On Wednesday, my group had cookout, so we made bacon and cheese quesadillas. I know it may not sound like the healthiest foods, but we had tea to go along with it. So it balanced out. While cooking the bacon, my pan pretty much blew up as the bacon caught fire. I managed to turn 3 strips of bacon into a tiny clump of blackness.

Then on Thursday, we visited the Janet Pomeroy Center to watch the greatest play in the world. It was about two wizards then something happened but I wouldn't know, because I sort of fell asleep. But the kids kept talking about it afterwards, so I assume it was pretty good. Afterwards we went back to church and ice cream. It definitely was not my day, since my ice cream maker was stolen, we ran out of sugar, so I had to go buy some down the street at Super M. I searched in the creepy scary basement for parts to put together an ice cream maker.

Unfortunately, I grew a new fear of the janitor's closet. I had to put away the mop after aleader cleaned the bathrooms, so I walked in there and set the mop stuff in the corner. But the room got super dark. I called the executive director and asked, "Can you open the door?" she replies, "what" And I explain, "Open the janitor door." She walks over as I'm trying to find the door knob and the light switch. She opens the door to find my looking on the wrong side of the door for the switch and knob. I hate that room. But my ice cream turned out to be a pineapple-coconut milkshake. My campers finished the super sweet sensation in only a few minutes

To end the week, the campers and their parents enjoyed hot dogs, salads, desserts, and ice cream at the Family Picnic. We played many camp games, made craft, made the ice cream, and played with the giant Earth Ball and Parachute. It was a great way to end the fun week.

CUPC has been in my life as long as I can remember. I've made so many great friends here. CUPC really taught me what a community is, and how to appreciate everyone in it. I hope many other kids will find the joy I have in CUPC.

Sunday, July 3, 2001

Good morning. My name is Katarina Lum and I'm one of the leaders from Oldest Girls of the Omega department. We just finished our fourth week of camp!

This week we had carnival day and usually it doesn't rain, but unfortunately it did. We had planned to have a really cool bounce house outside but since it was raining, the directors thought that if they made a huge cover made out of 10 tarps connected, it would shield the bounce house from the rain, but it didn't work, because it was pouring rain. So 8 leaders started to deflate the bounce house and since it was soaking wet with water we dragged it into the Social Hall and about 15 leaders were using old camp t-shirts to wipe down as much of the water on the outside of the bounce house as possible while some other leaders and I crawled inside to dry as much as we could because the guy who brought it was coming to pick it up soon and we needed to roll it back up. It was crazy and a mess but we dried almost all of it and the leaders who helped got candy afterwards, so it was cool.

This week I only had two campers and one of them went on the overnight trip and the other one didn't come back for the rest of the week because she didn't want to be the only Oldest Girl, so I joined group B. One of our trip days was to the Exploratorium and one of my favorite moments was when my group went into this room that had a juke box that played a bunch of weird music and one of my campers started bouncing up and down and started swaying his hips and I guess he was dancing, it was really cute. Then another group came into the room and one of their campers started to dance with that camper, shaking his butt, and it was really funny. I wish I had recorded it.

When we went to Baker Beach on Thursday, it was funny watching all the little kids standing near the water and when the water started coming towards them, they all started screaming and running away and one time when a little camper was running away from the water, she tripped and fell forward, getting her whole front wet and she was just laying there in the water until a leader or someone picked her up, but luckily she brought a change of clothes. Another moment at the beach was when Jana told us she was going to take a picture of the leaders playing with the campers near the water and that she needed to get the photo of our shirts so all of the leaders started running after kids, trying to get them to take a picture and started posing in front of the camera, but it was supposed to be one group picture, not individuals. So we tried a second time and got closer together but that still didn't work, so we ended up just taking a simple group picture standing together with campers by the water.

ARTICLES OF INTEREST

Sushi/Manju Sale Report

Japanese-speaking ministries held a Chrashi-sushi/Manju sale on June 12, 2011. The net profit was $1,409. Additional monies from Chirashi-sushi sale account yielded a total of $5,000 which will be donated to CRASH (Christian Relief Assistance Support and Hope) for disaster relief in Japan.

Thank you to all the church members and friends who helped make our Chirashi- sushi/Manju sale a success!

Cents-Ability (Two-Cents-A-Meal)

Thank you to all who continue to support the ongoing program of Cents-Ability to provide support and caring for all people who hunger not only physically but also socially.

A total of $232.50 was collected during the worship service on June 12, 2011. Your continued gift and caring is truly a response to Jesus' command to love one another.

Jackie Kwan, chair
Mission and Outreach Committee

Remembering Karen Hirokawa

It is with heartfelt sadness to learn of the passing of Karen Hirokawa. Karen, a longtime member since her baptismal in 1953, was a devoted Christian who served as a Deacon in 1956. Karen and Kenji, her husband who passed away last year, have two sons, who were part of our church family.

We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the two sons and will warmly remember Karen and Kenji for their devotion to CUPC.

As the years go by, there are fewer Nisei worshipers present on Sundays, but they should be remembered as the true pioneers of our congregation.

Kathy Reyes