Our Activities: JELCW BoardActivities: Hokkaido Special District

Thank you for remembering the work of JELCW.
In July, September and November last year, theBoard visited the disaster-hit areas. There wemet Nagomi-kai, a group at the Oppagawa
temporary housing that makes woven sandals.
This encounter led us to call for contributions ofused T-shirts for material. Now, woven sandals
and hanging dolls by Hanano-kai, a different
group in Oppagawa, are ready to go. We takeorders on their behalf (cf. Communication # 40Hibiki). Used T-shirts for material (size L orlarger) are still needed.
Invited by Sabah Seminary, 10 members ofJELCW went to Malaysia to attend its 25thanniversary and graduation ceremony. Somemembers visited Sabah for their first time. They
were quite impressed by their Malay friends’
strong faith and Christian testimony.
To review the work of JELCW and to move it
forward, four subcommittees have been
established; Board Election (Tokai), Successionof Faith to the Next Generation (West), Sabah
Support (Kyushu), General Meeting and Rally(Hokkaido and East) [Districts in parentheses arethe responsible districts.]
Discussions arepresently advancing at the district level. We ask
for more involvement by JELCW members
whenever possible. The results of discussions
are to be submitted to the Board and consideredat the next general meeting and rally. Thankyou for your cooperation.
(Naoko Suzuki,President)

In Hokkaido, having seen a few women’sgroups disband, we were concerned about thevery survival of the district churchwomen’s
league over the past two terms that ended the last
fiscal year. Naturally, we have had trouble
feeling connected to the national league. Upon
succeeding the role to represent Hokkaido district,
I have decided not to follow the principle of thefamous Three Monkeys from Nikko but instead,to take action “to see, to say, and to listen.”
Fortunately, looking back on my first year in
office, JELCW has provided me opportunities tovisit the disaster-hit areas and Sabah. Such firsthand experiences have helped me reaffirm thepreceding works by my predecessors and, in turn,made me seek networking with district members
for future courses. Church members throughout
Japan financially support our district by buying
kelp, our special product. Packaging of kelp inautumn is a seasonal event for the women’sgroups from different churches in Hokkaido. Itbrings the participants closer at the same time.
The other day, we had a joint leaders’ meeting,where we all agreed that getting together for ageneral meeting in the middle of winter is sodifficult, decided that we should meet inNovember instead of February from this year on.
In order to keep the league alive, we would likemove forward, being conservative and/or flexibleas occasion may demand. (Masako Kondo)

Rev. Dr. Pang Ken Phinand the JELCW Delegates

Temporary housing

Icles hang from the trees in Hokkaido

Tour to thedisaster-hit areas2

Our Activities: East District

Our Activities: Tokai District

We have engaged in various projects
remembering the victims and survivors of theEast Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The saleof local products from the disaster-damaged areas
is one of them. We scheduled a lecture at one of
the District leaders’ meetings by Japan Lutheran
Emergency Relief Chaplain Katsuhiko Noguchi,and Ms. Yumiko Hatakeyama, the public
relations officer from Maehama Community
Center.
Rev. Noguchi told us about many different aid
programs, using a PowerPoint presentation. We
learned that the JLER’s work was muchappreciated in the disaster-hit areas.
Ms.
Hatakeyama came over from Kesen’numa to tell
us about reconstruction of a community center
there; how eager and hardworking the local
residents were, how cooperative the financial
supporters and material contributors were, andhow nice the brand-new building is. Thanks toher PowerPoint photos, we were able to imagine
the difficulties the survivors had gone through, asmany of us are not web-literate, and have notbeen to the affected areas.
To close the meeting, Ms. Carol Sack played
the harp, which accompanied our prayers for thevictims to rest in peace, as well as recovery forsurvivors who still suffer from mental, economic,or health problems.
We would like to continue to remember themand keep working for them not only individually
but also collectively as East District.
(Masako Omaki)

Tokai district, ‘Churchwomen’s gathering’ isorganized twice a year and rotates among ourfour sub-regions. The purpose of the gathering
is to link different women’s groups across thedistrict. The programs include discussions/
testimonies to strengthen our ties as sisters infaith, concerts by local members, or visits to any
welfare facilities that the regional churches areinvolved with.
Last fall, a gathering was held at Eiko Church
in Sun’en sub-region under the theme of “Let’ssing Luther’s Hymns,” inviting the well-known
Luther scholar, Rev. Yoshikazu Tokuzen. There
were 90 attendees.
His lecture about therelationship between Luther and us was bothenjoyable and easy to understand. The Word ofGod in his lecture sounded even clearer to ourears after Rev. Tokuzen gave away ‘Reform
candy’ to us! He then asked; “What needs to bechanged by us living in the present world in orderto tell the good news in the society?”In the afternoon, we enjoyed a mini-concert by
Sister Fukuchi and her daughter, with Rev.
Tokuzen collaborating.
Together we sanghymns by Luther to our heart’s content. We
knew the reason why Luther had made the hymns.
The beautiful voice of Sister Fukuchi and thelyrics by the Christian artist, T. Hoshino wereboth soothing for all of us. I am sure that manyof us were strengthened by the gathering of thesisters in faith, and promised to see each otheragain.
We would like to have such joyful‘Churchwomen’s gatherings’ as much as possible,in which the members’ talents are blessed, used,
and appreciated by all. The first gathering forthis year is planned in May at Minori Church,
Toyohashi City.
(Kimiko Suzuki)

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Our Activities: West District

Our Activities: Kyushu District

The West District Churchwomen’s Group helda retreat on Sep 22, 2013, one day ahead of therally to celebrate the district’s 50th anniversary.
Fortunately, the retreat gathered more than 100
attendees of both women and men. The main
speaker was Ms. Sayoko Ooka, the project leader
for gender issues for the Anglican Church. She
suggested that we should review our way ofbehavior in church, not just for ourselves but also
for the church to serve a variety of people. The
reporter was impressed by her comment,“reviewing the church from a gender perspective
allows us to find a new Word of God.”One attendee said, “A gender perspective, as adiscipline, will help people to challenge their own
life, I realized. To reinforce this, the lecturer
added that being a feminist in society could becompatible with being inclusive: people are able
to live as they are even if they are in a weak
position. I will remember these words.”
The reporter understands that to learn genderissues and to have a gender perspective will
ensure that each churchwoman or man willremain as she/he is, which in turn helps thechurch become more inclusive and reach out withnew good news. I sincerely hope that more andmore people will come to church and that church
will provide the Word of God to the needy both inprayer and in action.
(Rieko Saeki)

About 40 churchwomen gathered at Kengun
Church for the general meeting of CWs in
Kumamoto area on Saturday Feb. 15. They
discuss several annual events for them inKumamoto, including clean-up of Lutheran Aso
Lodge, kitchen duties during the Kyushu district
teens camp, and the area retreat in the fall. Thelodge is indispensible as a venue for church
camps and retreats. It is the church members in
Kumamoto area that maintain the lodge for users’sake.
A portion of the donation offered at the general
meeting is given to “Wakaeda Scholarship.” It
is a fund to support children who leave one of thethree welfare facilities related to Kengun Church,
to start out in life. May this program for theyouth (and its supporters) grow bigger!
On Friday Feb. 28, a general meeting of CWs
in the Chikugo area was held at Hita Church with
23 attendees. All five churches in this area
share the same issues; small congregation andabsence of resident pastors. At the general
meeting, they resolved to have a retreat after thearea-wide peace memorial service in August, sothat they could share their thoughts and concerns.
The reporter was heartened to know that evensmall congregations could be strong once they
were connected to one another.
The potluck lunch, especially the pickles, wasdelicious! It was a nice and warm general
meeting. (Akiyo Iwakiri)

General meeting in Chikugo area4