February 2007

PASTOR'S PEN

The article this month is written by Ms. Hiroko Suzuki, seminary student, who is assisting our Japanese-speaking ministries.

“The gardener replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around in and put manure on it.  If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
- Luke 13:8-9

The various ‘parables’ in the New Testament teach us about who God is.  The verses above are taken from such a parable titled, “The unfruitful fig tree” (Luke 13:6-9).  When we think about figs, we usually don’t think of them as ‘cultivated trees’- but rather one that grows in the wild -  but in Israel, fig trees seemed to have been used to support grape vines in the vineyards.  In any case, since figs were planted in fertile vineyards, they were naturally expected to bear fruit.

However, against expectations, the fig tree in this parable did not bear fruit for many years.  The owner of the vineyard was furious saying, “See here!  For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none.”  According to Leviticus 19:23, you were not allowed to eat the fruit of a newly planted tree for the first three years.  So this would mean that the owner of the vineyard had waited at least six years for this fig tree to bear fruit.

Being furious at the tree that was unfruitful for so many years, the owner of the vineyard orders the gardener, “Cut it down!  Why should it be wasting the soil?”  These are very harsh words, but understandable.  The owner had not just left the fig tree to grow on its own – he had the gardener tend to it for many years.  The fig tree had been taken care of until then.  Despite the care, though, it wouldn’t bear fruit – so the owner’s words seem justified.

However, the gardener responds to the owner of the vineyard in an unexpected way.  “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”  The gardener asked the owner to wait another year.  It really wasn’t for the benefit of the gardener.  If the fig tree wasn’t cut down, it would mean more work for the gardener.  Even then, the gardener pleaded on behalf of the fig tree.

Perhaps at times, we feel like we are like this unfruitful fig tree.  When we look back at our spiritual lives, we sometimes think that we haven’t been fruitful as Christians.  We sigh, “I haven’t really grown”, get depressed, and want to give up on ourselves.  But God is like the gardener who shows unrelenting patience for this tree who was ‘just taking up space’.  Our merciful, loving God walks along with us at our pace, provides for all our needs, and continues to wait for our maturity.

In addition, God promises us to sacrifice willingly for us.  Just as the gardener said, “I will dig around and put manure on it”, God doesn’t leave us alone.  Rather, God sacrifices a great deal for us.  The pinnacle of this is shown in how Jesus Christ was put on the cross for our sins.  Jesus carried our sins, was crucified and paid the ransom for our sins.  In this, we see how much God loved us – enough to have his only Son be put on the cross.  This was God’s sacrifice for us.

With unending patience and sacrifice, the God who loves us believes that one day we can become fruitful.  “It if bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”  These words seem to reflect the gardener’s confidence in the tree bearing fruit the next year.

We are loved by God, and are shown patience.  And God sacrifices willingly for us.  It would be well for us to claim this fact, not only in our minds, but firmly in our hearts as we follow God daily.  So, instead of becoming depressed and saying, “I’m no good”, let us turn our eyes to God – who believes 100% that we can indeed become fruitful, is unrelentingly patient with us, and is willing to sacrifice much for us.  “Being fruitful” – doesn’t this mean that others can see our wonderful God through us?  Let us become good witnesses as such, through our homes, schools and workplaces – as we walk this daily path, depending on our Lord.

Hiroko Suzuki

MISSION WORK UPDATE

TOKYO JAPAN

            Gung-Hay-Fat-Choy or Happy Chinese New Year!!!  This year I got to spend Chinese New Year in Bangkok, Thailand.  Thanks for all of you who prayed for my team and I as we traveled to various places in Thailand for vacation (in Koh Hai) and mid-year conference (in Chiang Mai) with other STINTers from East Asia.    
            My team and I couldn’t wait to take a break from ministry to be refreshed by going to Thailand to spend extended time with the Lord and relax on the beach.  January was a hard month to do ministry because a lot of the students were studying for finals.  We tried different creative ways to talk to students, but most were too busy or uninterested.  To be honest, the past 5 months in Japan have been tough sharing the Gospel because students are not usually very receptive.  They listen politely and usually don’t have any strong response or opinions.  It was good to go to the conference and hear from speakers who encouraged us to trust in God’s promises and trust that the Lord will provide even when things are hard, we get rejected, and are seen as “aliens” on this earth.  I was also reminded of my motivations for being here and it gave me hope and purpose.  It was neat to hear that God IS moving in other parts of the world.  We were encouraged to hear stories of other STINTers in East Asia who are seeing fruit and people coming into a relationship with Jesus daily.  Praise God!
            Although this is not the case in Japan, I realize that God IS using our team in different ways here in Tokyo.  We have been doing a lot of broad sowing and planting seeds in the hearts of Japanese students.  Through our many big holiday outreaches and random initiative evangelism on campus, we are bringing glory to God.  I was encouraged by this verse in Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  Although we are not seeing numbers, please pray that God would move this nation to repentance.  Pray that my team, together with the JCCC staff would be lights in this place that is spiritually dark.  
            Another big thing that happened at conference was amazing times to de-brief with my team about our year.  More so than ministry, I see that God is working in my team and teaching me to appreciate our differences.  As you know, my team is SO diverse in every way possible: personalities, spiritual backgrounds, ethnicity, hometowns, etc.  However, it’s so neat how God has put us on the same team to challenge one another, grow with one another, and appreciate the way that God made us different.  God has definitely taken us to a deeper level of love, understanding, and appreciation for one another.  And I think that is just what we need to serve together in Tokyo!
            Some random highlights from Thailand... I got a Thai massage (best massage of my life), went on a safari and rode on an elephant and bamboo raft, went snorkeling & kayaking in the ocean, jumped off a moving tok-tok (Thai taxi… ask me if you want to hear the story), ate street food for less than $1, bargained my way around the night markets, played basketball, and got to see my first sunrise from a beautiful island.  
            During the 3 weeks that I was in Thailand, I really feel that God spoke to me about my future and that I am being called back to another year in Japan.  I am in the process of applying to Re-STINT in Tokyo and trusting that the Lord will provide.  I am at peace with this decision and excited to come back, Lord willing.  Please pray for more confirmation from the Lord about my decision to Re-STINT, and pray for my team, as we get ready to go to Ski camp with JCCC staff and Japanese students in Fukushima. 

Blessings from Tokyo,
Kelly Der

WATADA CASE: A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE II

In the past month much attention has been centered on the Lt. Ehren Watada’s court martial of February 5, 2007 at Ft. Lewis, Washington.

Lt. Watada is accused of refusing deployment to Iraq based on his belief that the Iraq War is immoral and illegal.  Knowing of the needless deaths of civilians and soldiers that have resulted from this war, the Lt. did not wish to be a part of it.  He did not wish to lead his troops to kill and injure innocent citizens.

As a Watada supporter, I joined in the Anti-war Rally of January 27 on Market & Powell Streets, and marched on Market Street to the Embarcadero.  Carolyn Ho, Lt. Watada’s mother, flew in from Honolulu to participate in the Rally.  She, as a mother, spoke passionately of her son at the Rally, at JCCCNC, at the Unitarian Church, Glide Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown.  She also spoke at a Press Conference in Chinatown where many non-English Chinese immigrants were present.  Later a reception and panel session with key Chinatown leaders was held at Cameron House.  The organizer for the Chinatown event was Rev. Norman Fong.

On Lt. Watada’s court martial day of February 5, 2007, I, along with Watada Support Committee members, demonstrated at a candlelight vigil on Market and Powell Street.  Concluding that, we met at Cameron House to hear a live report of the first day of Lt. Watada’s trial.  This was done by pre-planned telephone hookup from Ft. Lewis.

Surprisingly, fifty or so supporters from the Asian community as well as those from the larger community gathered to hear of the proceedings.  Several pastors from Christian and Buddhist churches were present.  We learned that over one thousand supporters had gathered in Ft. Lewis to lend encouragement to Lt. Watada.

We know as of this writing that the military judge has abruptly called a mistrial of the court martial and set the new trial date for March or later.  There is a possibility that Lt. Watada may not be retried.

My active participation in the Watada case comes from my deep conviction that as Christians we cannot just hope and pray for what we seek, but to SPEAK AND ACT OUT our beliefs.  That to me is our calling.

Kathy Reyes

DEACON’S REPORT

The Deacon’s began the New Year with a meeting/retreat in January.  Our moderator not only continues to feed us spiritually, but he fed us physically with a wonderful lunch.  It was delicious!

As Deacon’s, our goal is to nurture and foster spiritual growth and meaningful relationships.  We reflected on our accomplishments during the past year.  Some of those accomplishments were:

Deacon led worship service

Deacon’s singing with choir for the Christmas service

Visitations and providing communion to the homebound

Prepared the annual Thanksgiving dinner

Overseeing coffee hour fellowship

Prepared coffee fellowship for new members

Helping with funeral receptions

We will continue these ministries in 2007. Also, in order for us to be effective Deacons that we need to create a balance life.  This means having enough time for ourselves, our jobs, our work at church, and time with our family and friends.  In order to achieve more time, the Deacon’s will be meeting quarterly instead of monthly.  Our next meeting is April 15th.  If anyone is interested in seeing what we do, please join us. 

COFFEE FELLOWSHIP: 

The Deacons would like to thanks the individuals who have contributed to coffee fellowship in January.

Vice Moderator
Irene Woo

January 2007

Looking for God’s Plans in 2007

“For surely I know that plans I have for you…
plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope”
Jeremiah 29:11

So there we were – in mid-November – our session trying to discern.  We had felt rather ‘stuck’ since earlier in the year – as we struggled to understand and take steps toward the second part of our mission statement: “Go ye therefore…into the larger community reaching out and sharing God’s Good News”.  But the more we tried to ‘figure this out’, the more it seemed that we were going around in circles.

Sure, we learned a lot in the process – how each of us come to the table with unique gifts and standpoints.  How we are called to truly listen to each other in the midst of this diversity.  What we think in our deepest hearts to be our passions for the ministry of the church.  But all this did not seem to lead us in the direction that we were hoping – concrete steps in order to live out the ‘Go ye therefore’.  Why were we not getting anywhere?

At our final ‘visioning session’ (in early December), after previous sessions of pondering about what mission is, what outreach is, how we are called to minister like Jesus did (by the way, was quite radical and we have much to learn from!), what ministry in the 21st century might look like – we went back once again to the mission statement itself and really thought and prayed hard about where God was leading our church.  As we broke down the ‘Go ye therefore’, we identified the three areas that the phrase mentions: who our larger community is, what is the Good News to them, and how will we reach out to them.  We tried to classify our findings from our previous sessions in these categories to see what would emerge.

As our conversation continued, we realized that the ‘whos’ and ‘whats’ that we identified: the Japanese-speaking, the seniors, the families in need, the Summer Camp youth – were not necessarily those outside our church circle, but rather tended to be within our existing circle.  And the four ‘whos’ were almost identical to the four areas of ministry that was identified as ‘focus groups’ within the church in our mission study.  This was very revealing.  As one session member put it, “I think there is more we need to do to strengthen what’s inside the church before we can really go outside.”

Although the mission statement talks about the ‘larger community’, implying the community outside our church walls, the leadership was beginning to discern that it was maybe not the time to be doing ministry to the ‘larger community’ in a ‘full blown’ way – just yet.  Our ministry should always have the aspect of ‘going out’, of course (!), but unless we are really ready, unless we are truly equipped, it will not be as effective.  So, after this revelation, the session began talking more about how to meet the needs of the people within our church community, and equip them to go out better.

Does this sound like our church is taking steps backwards – after all the visioning and planning we had done in the previous months and years?  I sure hope not!  As our individual faith journeys are truly journeys, the church is on a faith journey too.  And as a labyrinth winds and turns, pulls closer then suddenly pulls away from the center – and finally reaching the center at the very end when you don’t expect it – the session’s discernment is not a step backward.  It is yet another step forward, even when it seems like we are pulling away from our initial ‘goal’.

And I am also learning (and maybe the session, too) that even though we are called to look ahead, prepare, make goals/timelines in serious prayer and discernment – and even when we do just that – there will still be times like this when our prayer and discernment will lead to another ‘twist’ in the journey that makes it look like we are veering from the direct path to the goal.  And that’s okay – and that’s not a failure. 

“I know the plans I have for you”, says our God.  But that doesn’t mean that WE know what the plans are.  We may see glimpses and parts of it, but perhaps not all – at one time.  I believe that we are just called to be faithful – being faithful in our prayers, discernment and response.  And as we do that, the journey that God takes us will surely have its ups and downs, winds and turns, pulling us toward the ‘goals’, and pulling us away from them.  But I believe that the important part is not necessarily getting to the ‘goal’ – but rather, knowing that it is God’s plan, God’s path and that God is there leading us all the way.  And we are just called to be faithful – to that God and God’s promise – and nothing else.

As we enter into 2007, I pray that all of you will ‘join us in the journey’.  Come and take part in the exciting adventure that God has in store for us!  We may not always know where we are going, but we are in great hands – the hands of the Creator of the ‘plan’, the ‘goals’ and the journey!

New Year’s Blessings,
Grace Kaori Suzuki, pastor