1The 24th JELCW NewsletterNo. 158 April 15, 2019Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church Women
1-14-14 Okubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo 169-0072
Publisher: Michie Nakahara, Editor: Saeko Sawada
Overall theme: “Living Together in the Grace of God”
Subtheme: “Encouraging Each Other in Hope and Joy, We Work Together for Peace on Earth.”
Scriptural Theme: “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him”
—Romans Chapter 6: 8

As a Helping Hand of Your Prayers

Rev. Ichirō Mizuhara
Pastor, Zion Church
Under the leadership of Rev. Matsumoto, the head of the Western District, with the support of themembers of Zion Church, and prayers from churches around the country, we went to Mabi-cho in
Okayama Prefecture and Yasuura-cho in Kure City—two cities that were hit by The Western Japan
Torrential Rains in July, 2018. The members of this mission were Pastor Daichi Takeda and Pastor
Yoshihiko Ito, clergy members of the Anglican Church, various Lutheran Church members, otherconcerned folks, and myself. We worked hard for about 40 days to clean the devastated areas. After
working vigorously in severe temperatures higher than the ones of human bodies, I always ended up
with salty sweat and slime.
When I came home exhausted, my wife glanced at my salty, sweaty, slimy work clothes andordered me, “Wash them by hand!” and continued to say “AND help children take a bath!” When I
called our elder daughter who was smiling with her back teeth shut tightly (age 7), she said “Dad,you stink, No! Don’t bathe me!” Also, our younger daughter (age 2) hid behind the curtains.
Anyway, the present and the future members of the women’s group sent me back there pinching
their noses.
A lot of other disasters occurred last year also. It is heartbreaking when we see the filmed
footage of the damages. But those who suddenly became victims have been forced to live longunder smelly and muddy conditions which films wouldn’t be able to convey. What could we do forthem? Our work was to tell you about the smell there, and bring prayers from all over Japan to thevictims. What were we? We were just the ones who moved heavy blocks as a helping hand,
representing all of you who were praying for them. That is to say, you were there, too.
Primarily, “The Lord is at the site of the devastated areas. He stands close to the victims now
and in the future.” I think this is the Lutheran Church’s theology. I appreciate that I am supported
by people all over Japan, neighboring pastors and church members who share the same background.
I pray that disasters will not strike again. But if they strike, I would like to be the one who runs to
help whenever necessary.

2

East District Women’s GroupA Step Forward
Naomi Ichikawa, President
About one year has passed since I became an officer of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church
Women organization. In this year I have discovered how much I never knew about the women’sgroups’ activities. Each church is facing various circumstances. For example, at one church, theproportion of aged members is increasing, and at another, the number of church members isdecreasing. One piece of good news was that our booth at an event was very successful. Many
women’s groups brought goods or things they made and cakes they baked to sell at a church event,and people there were greatly pleased to buy those things. Their donations became offerings. People
could feel love through each thing or cake.
The other day, we three officers, visited Tokyo Nursing Home. On the way, I’d been thinkingof various ways I might be able to do something helpful for older people. That day, we learned rules
for beginning volunteer work. We sang songs with the residents, talked and got along with eachother. I deeply felt the importance of listening to each elderly person and of learning what to do
from the nurses and faithful caretakers who knew better than
we did. The nursing home requested us to schedule
continuous visits there even if it was occasional.
Members of women’s groups are doing volunteer workat many places. While we share experiences of our work witheach other within the group, we hope you will also share our
feeling about these activities, through women’s gatherings orthese newsletters. With of “Bringing our overflowing love toothers” as our goal, I hope we can make a step forward.
Lively discussion at a presidents’ meeting

East Pacific Coast District Women’s Group
Looking Back at “The First Gathering”
Shigeko Sakai, President
On Saturday October twentieth last year, we held our women’s gathering in the Eikō-Shimada
Church.
We had not held our women’s gathering in the Eikō-Shimada Church for quite some time.
But since the Church members including the woman who was over 102 years old expressed theirhope that the next gathering might be held there, we decided to do so. The church was full of 90
participants and unexpected guests.
This event succeeded not only through the effort made by the sisters of the venue, themembers of Eikō-Shimada Church and Eikō-Fujieda Church, but also through the brothers’
generous help. We felt the wonder of God’s plan.
The theme of Dr. Toshiaki Takeuchi’s lecture in the morning was ‘Getting close, Healing,and Life.” He talked about examples of patients suffering from mental disorder. In the lecture, hetold us nature had healing power, appealing to the five senses.
In the afternoon, there was a tenor concert. We wereenchanted by the healing space surrounded by Mr. Masato
Suzuki’s singing voice. Then, we sang hymns louder thanusual, directed by Mr. Suzuki. I was deeply and truly gratefulfor everything from the bottom of my heart.
*
The next gathering will be held on Saturday, May 18th at
Kōzōji Church. Pastor Shingo Naitō from Minorudai Church
will give a lecture about nuclear power plants.
At Eikō-Shimada Church

3West District Women’s Group
Liaison Committee of three areas
Sumie Kuniyoshi, President
On supporting the disaster-stricken area hit by The Western Japan Torrential Rains, we cooperated
with our own mother church and delivered aid, as possible, to the victims. We also prayed together
for the on-site assistance team (Pastors Ito, Mizuhara and Takeda.)
The Western District consists of three areas: Kansai, Eastern/ Middle Shikoku, and Western
Chūgoku. We waited for the completion of the railroad restoration, and then we held the Liaison
Committee meetings in all three areas. I attended these meetings as president of the District. In
addition to ‘services, worship, and conference,’ Sister Sae Koizumi from Shūgakuin Church
reported on the visit to Sabah Theological Seminary in Malaysia.
In the services in each venue, Pastors Ōshiba, Suzuki, and Takeda respectively offeredsuggestions to the women’s groups for their future and blessing. We requested members of eachchurch to lead hymns, and joined in song. In the conference, though it was limited in time, wemainly discussed the activation of the Liaison Committees
in the three areas. We were inspired by the comment, “Aslong as even one person is studying at Sabah, it is importantfor her to work for others, even though it be under difficult
conditions.”
Going to the three different areas, I could feel theunique characteristics of each. I really appreciated theseopportunities.
We held the officers’ board meeting in December at
Yasuura-cho in Kure City so that we could support thevictims of the July, 2018 Western Japan Torrential Rains.
Singing hymns (at Mihara Church)

Kyūshū District Women’s Group
Praying Together in Confidence
Miho Hirayama, President
We completed a year of “The Path With the Lord.” Thank you for your support.
In order for us to feel closer to the recipients of our special offerings, we started our activities
from the very first of the year (especially the Kyūshū District). Ninety-two sisters got together in the
Kengun Church at the “Presidents’/ Kumamoto area meeting” in September of 2018. We thankfully
listened to the story of how God cherished the Rainbow House in Saga. We are planning themeeting this fall, looking forward to seeing you smiling again.
*
We are going to hold the 25th JELC
Women’s General Meeting in Kumamoto in
June, 2021. The women of the Kyūshū
District would like to wholeheartedly dotheir best to prepare for it. Also, I hope thisoccasion will deepen exchanges within ourKyūshū District.
*
Many women’s groups keep remembering
elderly members who are not able to attend
services, or the women who are ill. We
would like to lend our support to each otherfor living in this society.
Presidents’ & Kumamoto area Autumn meetingin 2018 (Kengun Church)

4Let’s Pay More Attention to the Needs of Society
To live quietly is more difficult than it seems. This is even more true when people are forced into
unpleasant and difficult living situations. It is easy to live trying not to be aware of others who need
help, but we wish to follow the Lord, who stands close to the weak. The first feature is about
disasters.

Rescued by One Scoop of Mud at a Time
—Victimized by Western Japan Torrential Rains
T.T., Hiroshima Chapel, Hiroshima Church
I am grateful for the prayers and support from every church member
all over Japan and abroad. We are still in the midst of recovery, but I
would like to express my deepest gratitude to you for having
supported us. I would also like to report on the situation thus far.
By the Western Japan Torrential Rains, my house in
Yasuura-cho in Kure city was flooded above the floor twice. The
first of them was at about 21 on Friday, July sixth. Water came into
the house and immediately soaked my feet, so I hurried to thesecond floor. I was relieved when the water went out at one o’clockin the middle of the night briefly, but at about four in the earlymorning, the water began to flood above the floor again. The forceof water was so great that the road in front of my house changed intoa muddy stream and more water raised the level of the flooding
when I looked outside. Frightened, I made an emergency call 119,but they said they were unable to come to rescue me immediately.
While I was listening to the sound of the heavy rain, in the moment I
thought I would be washed away together with my house, “theLord’s Prayer” came to me. I prayed it again and again in thedarkness of blackouts. When dawn broke, it stopped raining, and the water began to recede. Tearsof relief ran down my face in the morning sun, knowing that it was okay and that I had survived. I
walked the flooded streets and escaped before noon.
When I came home on the next day, the front door of my house was washed away and mytreasured piano, the furniture, and the electrical appliances were all muddy. It was like a hell, and I
was at a loss, but on July 11th, Pastor Ito and three others from Hiroshima Church ran to help
victims in Yasuura by boat. Because our water supply was cut off, we could not use the bathroom.
It was extremely tough to work in the mud. The heat of the summer hindered us from making
everything alright. We had successive difficulties which we could not put into words. On July 13th,
pastors from churches in Yamaguchi and Okayama, and on July 19th, those from churches inKumamoto and Hyōgo ran to help us work. During the summer vacation, high school and college
student volunteers came to us and they also could help my neighbors.
We owe much to those who helped us, one sweaty scoop of mud at a time.
It was the summer in which I surely felt Jesus’ Presence in each one who helped us makeeverything alright.
I am truly grateful.

Our Thoughts and Prayers are With the Victims—Northern Osaka Earthquake and Typhoon No. 21
Ayako Akiyama, Toyonaka Church
A lot of natural disasters occurred throughout Japan last year. By “the Northern Osaka Earthquake”
in the morning on June 18th, 2018, we didn’t have noticeable damages at our church, but Toyonaka
city office ordered us to remove the concrete-block walls surrounding our church yard so that they

5would not collapse. During the quake, there was a tragic
accident caused by concrete-block walls collapse. An
elementary school student was killed by the collapsed
walls located on school property in Takatsuki city, Osaka.
In addition, on September 4th, Typhoon No. 21 hit
Toyonaka city, Osaka. Blackouts went on for seven days insome areas. At our church, the outer walls of the sanctuaryfell down and seven windows broke during the storm. Allof the church members picked up the fragments of broken
glass on the sanctuary floor. We thought about the victims
and prayed for them.

Damaged Toyonaka Church

Listening and Praying—Volunteering at the Devastated Area Hit by the Western Japan Torrential Rains
Izumi Hiraoka, Tokuyama Church
I visited Yasuura, Kure city in August. A month had passed since the heavy rains, but there werestill signs of the damage caused by the typhoon. In early morning sunshine, we could see that thedried-off roads raised clouds of dirt. The air was filled with the scent of the ocean along with thesmell of earth and sand.
The big house with an earthen floor looked like ours in myhometown. I took the father-of the-house’s collections of books out of the
shelves and put them on the floor. I worked trying to make sure whether I
should put each of the damaged books into sandbags to be discarded ornot. The mother’s wisdom-saying that you should keep your important
stuff on higher place made sense. During the storm, even the cupboard
was covered by the water. I washed the dirt off the survived dishes
carefully with water.
The father must have been tired making a recovery of his houseevery day, but he talked about his experience positively. He reminded meof my parents but I couldn’t say anything at that time. I felt that he left mea task just to listen to people and keep deeply in mind what I have heard
Work inYasuura-cho, Kurefrom them and go on praying.
city

Amazing Grace!
Kumamoto Earthquakes—our private shelter became home
Megumi Andō, Kengun Church
We had two big earthquakes in Kumamoto in April, 2016.
Kengun Church was very close to the epicenter, and, as many of our neighboring homes
suffered, we hurriedly made our church a private shelter. At first, we received about fifty people
and provided them with beds and meals three times a day. Half were church members and the otherhalf were newcomer neighbors ranging from three years old to ninety-three years old. We hadvarious kinds of people: people from abroad, sexual minorities, isolated elderly who fled to big
gymnasiums. We shared everything, caring for each other like a family; thus, we reduced the fear in
the aftershock days by half, and doubled the happy things.
Soon, anyone and everyone naturally began to help the challenged one, and a person who wasfull of anxiety began to smile at the end. Now s/he sometimes comes to chat and come to our church
bazaar.
We are really glad that some of the newcomer neighbors began to attend services and they got
baptized at a later time. We didn’t intend or expect that, but God’s plan is beyond ours.

6

We went to Braunschweig!
Setsuko Yoneda, Osaka Church
We visited Braunschweig for nine days from October 25th toNovember 2nd in 2018. Pastor Hitoshi Akiyama alreadywrote a detailed report about the visit to Germany in the“Ruuteru” (Japanese Lutheran) January issue. They kindly
added me to the visiting group as a member of the Japan
Evangelical Lutheran Church and as an officer of Ruuteru
Houjinkai Rengou (the Association of Lutheran
Corporations). When I first heard about the visit, I simply
thought “I want to go to Germany!” but after deciding to join
the visiting group, while I was preparing this or that, theToasting with German beer
objectives and goals of the visit gradually became clear.
They do not usually introduce Braunschweig in
ordinary tour guidebooks, but when I went there I knew it
was a quiet very German town with its own history.
The biggest event of our visit was a special service on
the Reformation Memorial Day held at Braunschweiger
Dom. As it was a joint service with the Catholic Church, theCatholic Bishop of the Diocese also attended it in addition to
Director Meins of the ELKB (Evangelisch-Lutherische
Kirche in Bayern) and Bishop Ōshiba of JELC, so I wasreally moved to be able to be there.
We also had an opportunity to visit the head office ofA row of houses and streets in Braunschweig
ELKB, and on Sunday, October 28th, we attended the specialthservice commemorating the 50 anniversary of our mutual
churches’ partnership.
Considering our Church’s commitment to social welfare, we also visited institutions andhouses for the elderly and the challenged, an institution to help mothers who are raising children, as
well as institutions supporting refugees and people who are in need.
After the service, the church members treated us kindly with their homemade meals.
Interchange using gestures with each other was enjoyable.
Everyone in Braunschweig treated us as if we had been state guests and they gave us a great
blessing. I hope our churches will be able to pray together in the future, too.

Special service on October 28th,
last year, commemorating the50th anniversary of thepartnership promise between
ELKB and the Japan
Evangelical Lutheran Church.

7Interchange to share blessings
Kyōko Ishihara, Ichigaya Church
In 1993, the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Churchcommemorated its centennial in mission. We had long been
supported by foreign churches, for example, the churches in
the United States or in Finland.
The JELCW (Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church
Women) at that time wanted to express its gratitude byhelping them carry out Christian mission in Asia. Thus, the
JELCW decided to give grants to the students studying at“Sabah Theological Seminary”, which Dr. Thu En Yu
established in the trench that Japanese soldiers had used.
After a twenty-five-year interaction, last year in July,
the original four officials of the JELCW, Ms. Umeda as aninterpreter, and I visited Sabah. Reverend Ken Phin, thego-between from the beginning, kindly scheduled aninterview with four grantees of this year’s scholarships, andvisits to three churches where former recipients are doing
pastoral work.
Reverend Yuen, the first recipient who
This year’s recipients were grateful for the JELCW’s
became a pastor, and Mr. and Mrs.
support. They relayed their hope to preach in farm villages
Ken Phinto people who did not know the Lord’s love.
Two churches we visited were on hillsides where wildtrees of durians and mangos were growing. What wascommon was that these two churches begin with gathering
people by events, and lead them to services afterwards.
Reverend Yuen, the first recipient of our scholarship,
became the pastor of the second largest church in Sabah. He
said “My mission is based on the prayers and support givenby the ELCW from Japan. I would like to teach people about
Christianity not only in my country, but also abroad where themission is difficult. If it is difficult to preach when the regime
This year’s four recipientschanges or the young become reluctant to go to church
because a new shopping mall in town attracts young families,
I see it as God’s grace.”
We recalled his vigorous words when we were studying
the phrase “Jesus Christ is the one who does not change
yesterday, today, and forever”—the verse assigned as a
JELCW January Bible study.
This was the journey in which we experienced and saw
the Lord’s blessing and grace on the work of the JELCW’s
exchange with Sabah Theological Seminary, which is
A service at the church where a former
teaching future pastors in an Islamic country.
recipient became a pastor