Between the 18th and the 24th of November, a group of staff from KIC went on a trip to North America. The group included Rev. Shinji Yamada, Director of KIC, Rev. Masafumi Kimoto an intern of KIC and Rev. Shinji Kawasaki, Deputy Director of the Outreach Department at the Konkokyo Head office.

The itinerary included visits to the Vancouver Church in Canada and churches in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco in the USA. The group had discussions with ministers and members of the Churches as well as an administrative meeting with office staff of the KCNA was held at the San Francisco Church.

The main topics of the meetings were: “What kind of problems we are facing concerning the situation of world outreach activities?” and “How we have to improve: and what trials do we need?”.

The group also eagerly mentioned about the necessity of outreach materials and publications in English as well as the importance of the outreach vehicles such as animation and music of Konkokyo, cultivating human resources, and so forth.

At the conclusion of the meetings, we shared the common wish that all of us would do our best to promote world outreach, keep in touch more tightly with Headquarters, KIC in Japan and KCNA. Thus, the trip was very beneficial to all involved.

Building bridges and working in Cooperation with the Community

The Konkokyo Tokyo Metropolitan Supporting Organization for Volunteers of Disaster is providing aid to support reconstruction activities in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture. This institution was formed by the Konkokyo Tokyo Metropolitan Forum, Konkokyo Tokyo Center and the Konko Churches Association of Tokyo. Since the beginning of the project, the institution has sent six expeditions with forty participants since the end of May.

The volunteers chiefly worked to remove sludge and rubble as requested by Kesennuma Volunteer Center whilst a lady participant, Ms. Keiko Ikeda, gave sufferers massage treatments at the “Murasaki Kaikan” evacuation center which is supported by the Konko church of Kesennuma and the Murasaki Shrine.

One of the participants, Mr. Hisashi Nyuda took part as a volunteer for the first time. When the Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred; he wanted to join in with the volunteer work, but he was unable to. He said that this time he felt Kami-Sama gave him a push to participate in the volunteer effort. He was worried about the limitation of his physical strength due to being sixty-five years old. But after contact with sufferers, he felt inspired by their energy to live and strength to rely on Kami-Sama. His participation in the volunteer effort allowed him to experience a different level of faith which was greater than his own knowledge and personal thoughts.

Focusing on the Restoration of the Affected Community

The Konkokyo Youth Association Headquarters have been taking on relief activity roles in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture. The Youth Association has sent four expeditions, and seventy people have joined the relief activities as of the end of May.
Reverend Naofumi Inoue, Head Minister of the Konko Church of Ishinomaki and nineteen advance party members visited Ishinomaki City Hall amongst other institutions to make courtesy calls and to request a place for their camp. But, although the Youth Association had contacted the Ishinomaki City government numerous times in advance, the office was already overwhelmed with responding to other matters and problems.

Their negotiations seemed to be very difficult because the city was pressed by various issues, but fortunately a contact within the office knew the former head minister of Ishinomaki Church. From then on their negotiations went smoothly and the camp site was provided.

Reverend Inoue said, “What a miraculous thing that we could meet a person who knows our Faith in Ishinomaki, even though Konkokyo is minority religion around here! It is no doubt that Kami-Sama and Reverend Kimi Muto, our former head minister led us.”

The expedition members and Reverend Inoue held a discussion and decided to provide aid for reconstruction work in the Sumiyoshi area where the Ishinomaki Church was located. The very next day they started work on clearing and removing rubble.

These activities are ongoing to help the reconstruction of this area in an aim to please the people of the affected community as Reverend Inoue strongly wishes to do.