Taught and Guided by the Faith of Our Parents
By the Rev. Nobuko Akedo
Konko Church of Sen’nan
(From the November 2018 issue)
The Faith of My Husband’s Parents
I do goyo (selfless service for Kami/God) at the Konko Church of Sen’nan, located in the far south of Osaka Prefecture, in Japan. I am originally from the Konko Church of Kinosaki in Hyogo Prefecture. My father is the Second Head Minister of the Kinosaki Church, and I lived with my parents for the first 22 years of my life. During my upbringing, my parents taught me to be kind to others, to never stop smiling in difficult situations, to pay devotion to my parents-in-law even if I didn’t really feel like doing so, to ask the senior ministers of the Sen’nan church for Toritsugi Mediation on each of the things I had to do, and follow their guidance.
After I graduated from the Konko Seminary, I had an opportunity to get to know the present Head Minister of Konko Church of Sen’nan and we got married. 45 years have passed since we tied the knot. During these four and a half decades a lot of things happened. There were times when I was too sick to stand up. When I remember and think of those painful days, it feels like a dream that I am now able to be here, delivering my sermon standing in front of you.
The late Rev. Mitsuyoshi Akedo, the former Head Minister of Konko Church of Sen’nan, lost his mother at the age of 3, and when he was an 11-year-old boy, he and his grandmother moved to Sen’nan, with the hope to open a new Konko church there. Mitsuyoshi sensei’s grandmother, the founding minister of the Sen’nan church, was hard on Mitsuyoshi-sensei (Japanese for “mentor” or “<religious> minister”) as she brought him up, so that she could pass away in total comfort whenever Kami/God made her return to Him. When Mitsuyoshi sensei was ordained as a Konko minister, his grandmother was already sick in bed. So Rev. Mitsuyoshi Akedo became the next Head Minister for the Sen’nan church at the age of 20 and he did various things on his own; looking after his sick grandmother and engaging himself in various goyos of the church.
Because of this, although the late Rev. Mitsuyoshi Akedo is the Second Head Minister, therefore NOT the founding minister for Sen’nan, Mitsuyoshi sensei had a charismatic air, as if he were the founding minister of a local Konko church. In fact, he was indeed the charismatic minister for Konko Church of Sen’nan. Mitsuyoshi sensei was, above all, quite eager to help people be saved and to help spread the Konko Faith. At times, Mitsuyoshi sensei even invited a “bad” boy into his church/home, let him stay with him for awhile, and helped steer the boy towards a better path. He also had a sick person in his church for a while from time to time. And Mitsuyoshi sensei sometimes prayed all through the night for a person in distress as well. Rev. Mitsuyoshi Akedo was excellent at delivering sermons, and he went out to various places in Japan, giving nice sermons. At the end of his religious speech, Mitsuyoshi sensei always asked his audience to join him as he lively recited, “Long live Konkokyo! Long live Konkokyo! Long live Konkokyo!”
The wife of Rev. Mitsuyoshi Akedo was from a family outside the Konkokyo community, and she married Mitsuyoshi sensei and began to live in a Konko church. Despite coming from a family that did not follow the Konko Faith, Mitsuyoshi sensei‘s wife got to “meet and know” Kami via her first-hand experience of having her seriously ill child be saved through her prayers and the Sacred Japanese Wine (“Omiki” in Japanese) used for the child.
One day, a lady with a serious illness came to Konko Church of Sen’nan for the first time. The wife of the then Head Minister of Sen’nan earnestly listened to this lady’s story. She then spoke to the ailing lady, “Oh, I see…! Let’s receive Kami’s blessing by praying to Kami and using the Sacred Japanese Wine.” Then the lady sensei chanted Oharae or Words of Great Purification for the sick woman, and the way she did was stunning and greatly overwhelming. After reciting the words of Oharae, the lady sensei had Omiki in her mouth and blew out the Sacred Japanese Wine onto the diseased/affected part of the woman’s body. Then the lady minister exclaimed in audible prayer, “Konko-sama! Please save this woman. This person has been already given up on by her doctor, who believes that her illness is incurable. This is why she is here. Please help this woman. Please, please save her!” She was totally fervent in saying so.
One week later, this lady visited the Sen’nan church again. The woman talked to the lady minister, “I can’t believe this, because I have been healed! My doctor used to tell me, ‘Because of this lump in your body, you are incurable. It’s too late. There is nothing I can do for you.’ A few days ago, however, when I took an examination in the hospital, that lump was gone. The doctor asked me in total bewilderment, ‘What on earth did you do?’” There were several other people like this lady, who received similar blessings from Kami, and there were many people who came to the church and asked the lady minister to blow out Omiki and/or pray for them. Our lady minister was also a compassionate person, and she used to gently speak to believers in suffering, “Oh, is that so? You must be in a lot of sorrow and pain now. But please hang in there. I will definitely pray to our Divine Parent for you. So don’t lose hope. You will be all right.” She was always right by their side with such an affectionate heart, and everybody really loved and respected her.
The Consecutive Deaths of Mitsuyoshi Sensei and his Wife
Rev. Mitsuyoshi Akedo passed away on August 29th, 1987, at the age of 73. Soon after that, Mitsuyoshi sensei‘s wife passed away on September 16th at the age of 71. The lady minister left this world only 18 days after her husband’s death. For more than 50 years, the entire congregation adored and respected the Reverends Akedo. They all believed that they owed more to these two ministers than to their respective parents. My husband and I were struck with shock at their deaths. This event was almost too much for our church members to take. The number of people who came to our church’s Grand Ceremony reduced by more than half. The same phenomenon was seen at the daily morning prayer service and at the monthly service. Everybody was in deep, deep sorrow in those days.
At that time, my husband who newly assumed the position of our church’s Head Minister was 42 years old, and I was 38. Our congregation said to both of us, “Our new Head Minister is nothing but earnest, and he is not dependable enough. His wife is talkative, that’s all.” Saying so, many of the members were away from the Sen’nan church for a while and/or began to go to other Konko churches. We thought that it was a natural reaction. From time to time, I therefore said to myself, “At least, I wanted one of them to be still alive. Then, it would make a huge difference. Why did Kami have to have both of them return to Him almost at the same time?”
All of us were saddened for the passing of the Reverends Akedo, but I am sure that our (new) Head Minister (my husband) was in the most severely painful position. But my husband did not complain, and devoted himself to praying and sitting at the mediation Seat and serving our Parent Kami more than ever.
One day, our Head Minister was silently praying at the church’s Mitama Altar (Mitama means the spirit of a deceased person in English). He saw the former Head Minister of our church while he kept his eyes closed in his earnest prayer. Our mentor then spoke to my husband, “My goyo (selfless service for Kami) was not so hard as that of the Founding Minister of our church, because all I did was to succeed her. Let me tell you this, Kuniki. Your goyo as Sen’nan’s Head Minister is even less difficult than our goyos, because you succeed both our Founding Minister and me. Since my physical death, I have been looking at what all of you think and do right here at the Mitama Altar. So, you don’t need to worry about anything.” My husband was kind enough to share this precious event with me, and since that day, we have both served our Divine Parent steadily on a daily basis, trying not to be impatient. We have been able to do so, because we have lived off from these powerful words of encouragement of our former Head Minister.
As time went by, we gradually had more worshippers in our church and the Sen’nan church began to be lively and energetic again. During this positive transition, we bought land. A hot momentum soon surrounded Konko Church of Sen’nan. We were motivated to construct a new worship hall for our church, and we built a worship hall right next to the then “present” worship hall. We started the construction in 1994, and we finished building the new hall in 1996.
But our joy did not last long. In June of 1997, my limbs suddenly became immovable. I turned around numerous times due to enormous pain. I began to suffer from rheumatism. Various events had taken place since the passing of the Reverends Akedo, and those events became physical and mental loads upon me, which triggered rheumatism in my body. This is what my doctor explained to me. Out of extreme pain and misery, I even desired to die at times.
I was in this “me-against-the-world” mentality. However, my second daughter, who was then working hard to become a nurse, said to me, “I know you are in agony, but please hang in there! Nobody dies of rheumatism. If you should die, I couldn’t live even for a second.” My daughter’s words shocked me. And I was soon allowed to realize that I may have begun to suffer for this disease during the two-year construction of the new worship hall. The reality was that all the big church events were over prior to my illness; Ceremony of Gratitude for the Completion of the Worship Hall, Ceremony on New Year’s Day, the Spring Grand Ceremony and so on. Kami made divine arrangements for our church until the very last minute, indeed. I rested myself well for about half a year, which helped me recover from this grave illness little by little. And I was finally able to get back my health. And the following incident happened as soon as I was healthy again.
Placing Full Trust in and Praying to Kami
My husband and I got along with our eldest son quite well, and our son helped us with church-related goyos. We were therefore looking forward to the future regarding him. Soon after my son graduated from university, he came up to Sen’nan’s Mediation Seat and spoke to our Head Minister, “Dad, I thank you very much for raising me until now. I look up to you very much, but there is a job I definitely want to take. Because of this, I won’t become a Konko minister. Sorry about that.” Saying so, our young man took a deep bow, left the Sen’nan church and began to live by himself.
Because I had believed that Kami would grow our children into valuable candidates as Konko ministers as long as my husband and I served Kami as hard and earnestly as possible, I was deeply shocked when this thing happened. It already discouraged me enough, but to make the matter worse, we came to find it nearly impossible to pay back the loan we had taken out for the new worship hall in time.
We in fact built twice as large a worship hall as we had originally planned. We were grateful for that, but I was seriously afraid that we might have to give up ownership for the purchased land and the new worship hall building due to our inability to pay back our loan to the bank smoothly. Our financial situation was tremendously bad at that time. Our Head Minister said to me, “Although it lasted only for a short time, we were both very happy to use the land and the new worship hall, weren’t we? Not only we but also our church members were equally happy. Let’s imagine that we have just had a really nice dream and thank our Divine Parent for that. Let’s get back to the era of our founding minister and start all over again, starting with nothing in our hands.” Hearing these words, I also became prepared.
Kami was merciful and generous again, and we were able to pay back all of our loan to the bank, spending 10 years. Now I was able to take a breath of relief about the financial situation of our church and my own health. I, however, remained worried about a successor for Konko Church of Sen’nan. This was a lingering concern in my mind.
In 2002, we had a service for the 15th anniversary of the passing of our former Head Minister and his wife in our church. However, on the very next day of the memorial service, rheumatism “returned” to me. This time, the symptoms were strikingly intense; my joints became red, swollen, and hot. The sickness made my bones deform. Even if I took suppositories and painkilling tablets, the strong pain never went away. I turned around numerous times on my bed in the state of enormous agony, and I couldn’t even stand up. Unable to stand up and walk, I crept to the restroom. But I then had another problem; I could not pull my underpants down by myself.
Until then, either my husband or I had not been quite in shape from time to time, but the other one was all right. But this time, both of us were sick in bed for one full week at the same time, and this was the first incident for us. Yet this hardship turned out to be a wonderful thing; My eldest daughter was ordained as a Konko minister, got married to a gentleman and Konko Church of Sen’nan had a young associate minister for the first time after 17 years’ absence. And our eldest daughter is now putting our longtime hope of doing activities for children into reality. My husband and I are blessed with 8 grandchildren, and we live a lively life in our church every day.
I have undergone various sufferings so far in my life. I have felt several times that my heart is almost broken. I have even said to myself occasionally, “I would feel more comfortable if I died.” But our former Head Minister and his wife and their earnest attitude to our Parent Kami have always helped me reform the state of my heart. They both remind me of the importance of “believing in our Parent Kami 100% and praying to Kami, no matter what may happen and no matter what consequences we may have.” They also help me remember the significance of “living a positive, cheerful life.” If I had not received support from these two ministers, especially spiritually, I would have trapped myself into saying nothing but complaints all the time and leading my faith life quite negatively. And I could have never gotten over any humps. I have never had experiences where a problem is totally solved all of a sudden one day. But, as long as I do not let go of Kami, I always get to receive blessings from Kami that are much more wonderful than I expected at first. The timing of these blessings’ arrival is often different from my initial image and how they develop as “blessings” is also different from my first expectation. But these things do not matter after all.
31 years have gone by since Sen’nan’s former Head Minister and his wife passed away, but I still cannot mold myself into the faith style of these two ministers enough. Yet I can express my deep appreciation for the truth that Kami has given me divine blessings for 69 years, through which I have been blessed with this 69 years of life.
Thank you very much.
(THE END)