January 2011

PASTOR'S PEN

Looking Forward to 2011 at CUPC...

"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them." - Matthew 18:20

A (Belated) New Years' Greetings to all of you!

Since we didn't have a January newsletter,

this comes a bit late (now that we are in February)...

but it's every bit as sincere!

Last year, our church celebrated our 125th Anniversary - and we gave thanks for God's continuing faithfulness, and lifted up all those who had contributed to the history and ministry of the church. As we move forward to God's continuing guidance in 2011, I wanted to lift up a couple of events (by no means exhaustive) that we are looking forward to in 2011.

The first is coming up very soon - A Forum on the 'Art of Gaman' on Sunday, March 6, from 12:00pm. Many of you may have heard of Delphine Hirasuna, who has written quite a few books ranging from Japanese cookbooks to historic memorabilia. She is the author of the book Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946 (Ten Speed Press, 2005) and was the guest curator for the Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibit under the same name. Ms. Hirasuna will be coming to our church to present about her journey of discovery of the many arts and crafts that was created while many Japanese Americans were interned during World War II.

The second event I would like to mention is our all-church retreat tentatively from October 22-23. We are making arrangements to hold the retreat at Redwood Glen Camp and Conference Center located in Loma Mar, CA. It is located about 10 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean Coast, roughly half way between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, CA. It is about a half hour drive south of Half Moon Bay. It will be a great time for intergenerational fellowship, worship and spiritual renewal - I hope you can all join us!

As we gather together in the various events (the events above, and others) at CUPC in 2011, may we be reminded that Jesus promises to be among us - as in the Bible verse above – where two or three are gathered. May we intentionally be mindful of his presence as we pray with anticipation for God's guidance. May we be blessed by God's presence, and in turn, become blessings to those all around us!

Peace and blessings for 2011,

Pastor Grace Kaori

CLERK'S REPORT

The session, acted on the following items on January 23, 2011:

      Approved to purchase of a one-eighth page ad in Nihonmachi Little Friends' annual fundraising performance program.

      Approved the deletion of some of the names from membership roster.

      Divided the various Clerk of Session duties among the elders.

The congregation at the annual congregational meeting on January 20, 2011:

      Approved Pastor Grace's salary package

      Adopted the 2011 budget

      Unanimously elected the treasurer of 2011.

DEACONS' REPORT

God is good! The Deacons hope and pray that in this new year, 2011, you will feel surrounded by God's Love, Comfort & Care through our ministries, whether it be coffee hour, Thanksgiving Dinner, flock care or our "Be Green" efforts. The Sunday School lesson this past month has focused on the story of Bartimaeus, the blind man whose faith healed him. In the story, Jesus reveals that the Kingdom of God is about focusing on the needs of others. As we focus on the needs of our faith community, may you in turn go out and share God's Love and make a difference in someone's life.

COFFEE FELLOWSHIP:

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

Jan der, Vice-Moderator

ANNOUNCEMENT

NISEI CHRISTIAN JOURNEY--Its Promise & Fulfillment Volume I and Volume III are available of the Nisei Christian Journey: It's Promise BL Fulfillment. (Volume I is no longer available.)

Younger generations, especially, are encouraged to know and appreciate the tremendous legacy of the Nisei Christians recorded in these books published by the Nisei Christian Oral History Project Board, a labor of love over its 25 year history.

Because the Board desires that these volumes be read widely, these two remaining Volumes are now available for the asking.

Volume I (Oral histories of: Osame Doi (Sacramento), David Yutaka Nakagawa (Pasadena), June Toshiyuki (Fresno), Royal Louis Manaka (Monterey), Nobuko Lillian Omi (Los Angeles), Jack Nishida(Monterey), and Frances Kirihara (Livingston).

Volume III (Oral histories of Rev. Chaplain George Aki, Rev. Lester Suzuki, Rev. Donald Toriumi, Rev. Howard Toriumi, Rev. William Kobayashi, Rev. Lloyd Wake, and Rev. Paul Nagano).

Any donation amount will be gratefully accepted which will be used to help reimburse expenses incurred by the Project. Please send your request and any donation check, plus $5 shipping charge.

If interested, call the church.

December 2010

PASTOR’S PEN

Christmas Greetings from your Pastoral Leadership Team!!

For this month’s Pastor’s Pen, each member of CUPC’s pastoral leadership team is sending their personal Christmas greetings to you and your families…

Blessed Christmas and Happy New Year!!

As with many of you, Christmas time for me comes with many memories. For me, they are things like: playing flute for the Christmas pageant one year, the excitement of opening the exact gift that I wanted, (then, the disappointment of opening a gift that wasn’t anything like what I had hoped!), caroling around town, buying a ‘real’ Christmas tree for the first time…and the list goes on.

As I celebrate my 7th Christmas with you, the CUPC community, I continue to be thankful for all of you - the wonderful people that make it up. I am thankful for the additional Christmas memories that you have given me: the Advent candlelightings, the seasonal chorus, the children and youth in the pageants, the generous giving to the church, the gentle ministries to those in need.

Just as in the Advent theme of this year – you truly have been the ‘Stars that Tell the Story’…the stars that shine the way for others, the stars that point to who God is. My prayer is that you will continue to be such stars as you journey on being and becoming the church community that God has called you to be.

Many Christmas blessings, and a New Year filled with joy to you all!

Gratefully,

Pastor Grace Kaori Suzuki

Instead of a standard greeting, Jackie’s greeting comes in the form of a poem, written by her. She first shared this with the congregation on 12/5/10: 

Christians - "The Promised Stars" 
By Jackie Kwan, lay pastor 


So long ago darkness loomed 
Our fore bearers toiled 
Amidst fear, hunger and gloom. 


But God was never far 
To those who responded... 
"Yes, Lord, I am here." 
From Abraham, David, Moses, 
Mary, Joseph and more. 


And to this day, You who hear the Word of God... 
Have also said, 
"Yes Lord, I am here". 
So do not fear, 
For Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of all promises to God's people, 
Shines on in "you" - Abraham's promised children- 
as numerous as heaven's stars.

Blessings as we celebrate the birth of Christ!

I am thankful that I am able to ponder and celebrate with you this season how our Almighty God became human and was born among us.

Looking back at this past year, I was able to witness how God’s love truly flows through our brothers and sisters in Christ – not only to the church and the community, but to me, personally, as well. I was truly touched by this experience. I found it to be tremendous grace that greatly encouraged me to continue serving God and God’s people.

Thank you so very much! In this coming year, I pray that with God’s help, we can proclaim God’s love through our words and actions as we follow Jesus, the Light of the World.

Praying for the Lord’s grace and guidance,

Hiroko Suzuki, lay pastor

DEACONS' REPORT

Thanksgiving Dinner acknowledgments

Greetings and blessings for the Advent Season! For those of you who weren’t able to join us for the annual Thanksgiving Dinner, we missed you dearly. Our tables were filled with the Lord’s bountiful blessings, but the best part of the evening was being in community with our church family and friends. We have much to be thankful for and in turn, the proceeds collected for the dinner will go to the San Francisco Food Bank. For every $1 donated, the Food Bank can distribute $6 worth of food and 97% of all donations will go directly towards getting food to hungry people. Your contributions will put much-needed food on the table for many grateful families this advent season.

Thank you to everyone who lent a helping hand in preparing our wonderful meal!!!

COFFEE FELLOWSHIP:

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

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

The Deacons will be visiting some of our homebound members in December. If there is anyone you would like us to visit, please let us know. You are also welcome to join us in our home visits. Thank you for your faithfulness in our mighty God and Redeemer!

Wayne Hiroshima, Vice-moderator

November 2010

PASTOR’S PEN

Reaping the Fruits (of the Spirit)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” - Galatians 5:22-23 

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons. It’s not too hot, too cold – and the colors of the sky and other natural landscapes are absolutely beautiful! Springtime has its beauty in nature too, but I think I like autumn even better…

Now autumn is when we celebrate harvest – the ‘fruits of our labor’, so to speak. The first ‘Thanksgiving’, was celebrated by the first European settlers, the Plymouth Colony, in 1621. They commemorated their harvest after a harsh winter by inviting the local Wampanoag Indians to gather and feast together.

Speaking of ‘fruits of our labor’ – we have been emphasizing on ‘spiritual nurture’ as a church wide focus for 2010. When we look back on this year spiritually, I wonder what kind of ‘harvest’ we can give thanks for and celebrate. What fruit has all the intentional reflecting and spiritual work of this past year yielded for you and me?

I realize that the challenging thing about answering such a question is that we are trying to measure something that cannot be measured quantitatively. Sure, looking at the above Bible passage gives us a picture of what spiritual harvest might look like. But how, for example, do people measure the amount of faithfulness they have? We all know it’s not as easy as counting the number of times they have prayed/attended church/volunteered/etc.

However, having said that, I don’t think that this should keep us from looking deep into our spiritual lives. In fact I believe that in our examination, we are called to acknowledge and give thanks in the areas in which we may have grown. Even if it’s not measurable/countable in the traditional sense, I believe that when we reflectively look back, we are able to identify our growth, however small – although sometimes, it takes the help of others to do this.

Of course, we are all not ‘there yet’ – there are many more spiritual fruits to nurture, grow and harvest. But why not allow ourselves to take the moment to give thanks to God for the work of the Spirit that helps yields spiritual fruit in us? Why not give thanks for the fruits, however small, that enable us to be one step more faithful to God’s calling to us?

As you enjoy this season of harvest and abundance, I pray that you will not only gather and give thanks together for our material blessings. I pray that you will also think of the many spiritual gifts, blessings and fruits that have been nurtured in you this past year – and give thanks for them. I pray that this autumn will end not only in basking in the beautiful nature and its harvest, but also in God’s spiritual abundance towards which we are working and grateful for.

Harvest (of the Spirit) blessings,

Pastor Grace Kaori Suzuki

DEACONS' REPORT

It’s October already, it seems like January was just the other day. So, what have the Deacons been up to all these months? Well, we are always busy every Sunday with Coffee Fellowship as we feed the physical bodies of the congregation. During other months we focus on strengthening our Faith Foundation through Spiritual Development and discerning where God wishes us to use our gifts in His ministries. This is a process that goes on constantly and we all need to be active in this during our lives.

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

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

Take care and know that God is with you always!

Wayne Hiroshima/Vice Moderator