The English Page with Excerpts
Leaving the Life of Hikikomori

Interview: Mr.Hideaki Koriyama
Mr.Hideaki Koriyama lived as aHikikomori for about 10 years of his youth.
Hikikomori is a life withdrawn fromsociety. He refused to leave his house orsometimes even from his room, isolating
himself from society. It started when he wasin high school. His mother suddenly diedand he stopped going to school. His mother’s
death was certainly a shocking event, butMr.Koriyama says having his father not takeleadership at home was the biggest cause ofhis hikikomori life. No leadership at homemade him feel free to withdraw himself fromschool.
In his interview heshareshowhisfriends guided him toChrist and showed
how hopeful life withChrist is. Knowingthat God forgives him and loves him nomatter what he has done gave him courage to
get out of his house and face reality. He now
serves at Oasis Life Care at Rifu Kirisuto
Kyokai in Miyagi.

Start Your Shukatsu Young
Interview: Mrs. Masayo Ishii
Shukatsu is one of the hot topics thatpeople talk about today in Japan.
It is the preparation for one’s death.
30 family forum No.69

Recently, Mrs. Masayo Ishii,a pastor’s wife took lessons
to be a Shukatsu counselor
andsheshares
theinformation she learned.
An “Ending Note” is usedeffectively to look back at one’s life and see
how God has been blessing a person. By
writing an Ending Note, a person can leaveorganized information about finances andtheir insurance so that family members canknow where to contact when he/she got sickor is in critical condition.
She is hoping to make her own version of
the Ending Note tohelpherchurch
members and thepeople
nearherchurch. She thinks that
Shukatsu could also bea tool for evangelism.

Parenting for Beginners No.8
By Jon Benedict
Q. I learned from lastissue that we have toteach our children not tohave sex until they getmarried, but is there anyother reason why it’s notgood besides the Bible?
A. In my last article, We discussed arange of subjects including keeping
communication lines open, merits ofFamily
Forum
No.69

abstinence,skills
forovercoming
temptations, God’s unceasing forgiveness forsexual sins, and accountability partners.
Teens are bombarded with illicit material
through the media and are under tremendous
pressure to engage in sex and need every
help they can get to stay pure. Therefore, I
would like to introduce a good article written
by a Christian ministry that will equip young
people with knowledge to overcome
temptation.
This article is insightful for understanding
how we are sexually wired and will help
young people to understand why sex should
be reserved only for marriage.
How Shall We Lead Our Children to Christ?

By Shinzo Omura

Mr.Shinzo Omura, afather of 7, teaches us
how we should guidechildren to have faith.
This time he focuses
ontoddler
tokindergarten age and shares what we can doto lead them to grow in faith. He teaches that
this is parents’ job to teach their children
about God; however, it is God’s work that
results in their children having faith. In otherwords, we as parents must teach our children
about God and the Bible, but when ourchildren come to faith in Him is beyond ourcontrol.
For those little children who cannot reador write, parents can sing praise songs withthem, read the Bible to them, and pray on
every occasion so that children can feel that
God is very close to them. His daughter had
faith in God even when she was 2 years and9months old, so we should keep working
hard to spread the Gospel to our children.

IT and Children – What’s SNS?
By Takashi Horii
To make it easily understandable for
non-IT parents, a Social Networking Service(SNS) is “to be in a big park with a lot ofpeople who are sharing their thoughts andpictures/videos and they are clapping for ormaking comments about each other”.
Facebook has been popular among young
people and is very useful to connect withpeople all over the world. But on the other
hand, sharing information on where they live
and what they do could lead our children
into danger.
Also, middle school students can easily
get addicted to these electronic devices, andmany cannot stay away from their smart
phones. Parents must be aware of thesethings when they let their children own asmart phone and make sure they know therules on how much information
they could share with
their friends.

family forum No.69

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