ACWCJ

NCCJ/ Women Committee
Naomi Tajima, Keiko Renge

Noriko Ishitani

The 15th ACWC Quadrennial General Assembly
was held last year in Tagaytay, the Philippines
on October 8-13th. “United in Christ, we builda Life-living World” was decided as the theme
for the next four years. New officers wereelected. The representative of ACWC Japan
has also changed. We thank you for thedonations of ¥282,743 to the International
Committee of the Fellowship of Least Coin(ICFLC) and of ¥80,240 to the Signature
Campaign last year.

＊World Day of Prayer
We deeply grateful for your support every year.
The committee helps with matters such as
editing and shipping of the liturgy, anddistribution of donations. We gain a deeper
understanding of each other by working andpraying together.
＊ForumThis year, the planned “Forum” was postponed
because of the office relocation. Instead, we
had free sharing time about each other’sthoughts in this committee. This meeting
reported that “500 years memorial project of theReformation” is getting wide attention. The
Committee is an ecumenical movement, and I
hope we tell of our projects even more actively.

Itsukushimi＊ Kansai Committee
Akie Momiyama
No seminar was held in 2014 but we planned the15th Seminar as follows;
Date: Oct. 17 10:30 – 15:00
Venue: JELC Osaka Church
Lecturer: Mr. Akihiro Mochida (attorney)
Theme: Court on earth and Court in heaven(tentative)
Details will be announced in early July. We
hope to see many of you there.

LWF/WICAS
Kyoko Tawara
Japanese and Korean women' s conference andOpen Seminar by LWF/WICAS will be heldat Ichigaya Lutheran Center and Tokyo Lutheran
Church from April 7 to 9. WICAS secretary
Ms. Elaine, five Korean members, and about ten
members from Japan will participate in thisconference. Gender Justice Policy was issued by
LWF for the purpose of understanding andprevailing its policy for 500 Reformation
Anniversary. JELC, as one of the LWF member
churches, is also expected to expand its
principles through the study of its Japanesetranslation. The main theme is to restore andpromote abundant human relationship as God's
justice without any discrimination.

＊ Kanto Committee
Hisako Ishitobi
We held a seminar by inviting Rev. Sayoko
Oooka of the Anglican Episcopal Church inJapan on April 26, 2014. In 2015, we are going
to prepare for the next seminar together withNRK representatives.
We are grateful to your understanding of andcooperation with the Itsukushimi Action.

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Life as Salt of the Earth
Being Supported
By Setsuko Imai(Hachioji Church)
Vice-director,
NPO Akebono Kai,

“Treat others as you want them to treat you”

Mt 7:12This is the word that Mr. YasuhikoImai, my husband and Director of NPO
Akebono Kai is fond of. It is also the motto of
our welfare facility based on the Comprehensive
Law for the Support of the Handicapped.
These are the programs we carry out under thistheme:The dormitory houses 17 men and 6women. Two newcomers will join us in April,making the total 25. We will be a big family.
The dormitory consists of four flats. My
husband and I also live in the dormitory. There
are four residents who have lived there for as
long as 38 years. Together with them, ourwonderful partners, we have shared the joys andsorrows of life. They are our pride. Twelveof the residents attend Hachioji Church every
Sunday and one goes to church in theMetropolitan area. Nine have been baptized.
Three girls have joined a choir, and now enjoy
giving praise during communion services and at
the senior citizens’ homes they visit. Sister
Setsuko Tateishi (Hachioji) visits us every
Tuesday to teach them how to write. The
trainees look forward to her visit. When timeallows, they learn calligraphy. They are uniquecalligraphers.

Takiyama Workshop --- Currently 10
handicapped people are employed.
Umetsubo Workshhop --- Currently
18 people get training for employment.
Akebono Workshop --- Currently 22people work with guidance.
Akebono Dormitory --- Group home(23 people)
The trainees are mentally disabled
and engage in mailing services such as inserting
flyers, books, or catalogues into envelopes andpasting address-labels. The trainees are quite
serious about their work, but also enjoy it. As
they use collators, they can do many insertions
with just one motion. When many orders come,they may work overtime or on weekends inorder to meet the deadline. Even then, theywork diligently. We owe what we are to thosetrainees who love to work. Thanks to them, thecustomers also trust us.

It has been almost forty years since I began to beinvolved with the disabled. While they are
gentle and charming, many of them are stubborn
and once decided, they are set in their ways.
Now we have more trainees than before. They
are all willing to do their job, and arecompetitive and hard-workers.

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