Thursday, May 17, 2007

VISA

  Today, I went to the U.S. embassy in Tokyo with my wife to be interviewed for R-1 and R-2 VISA, or a Non-immigrant visa for religious affiliated people and their family. Thefefore, we asked a nearby nursery school to take care for our 2-year-and-8-month old daughter beforehand.
  However, there was an abrupt accident. The daughter got a high fever of 40 degrees centigrade yesterday and went to see our home doctor. He diagnosed her as a simple cold but since the fever was really high, the nursery school isn't supposed to accept such a sick kid. And we also cannot leave her home alone. We were really at a loss, then, my wife consulted my younger sister who worked as a public nurse by phone. She immediately lent a helping hand to search for a service available such an emergency. It is fortunate to say that such a service is accessible in Nagareyama City where we live. My sister gave my wife some information of facilitator of "Family Support," including her name and phone number.
  My wife called the facilitator in no time whether someone can come home to take care of our sick kid. She was kind enough to make an effort to look for someone available, and she ended up finding a very kind elderly woman who deals with this situation. We were astonished to see that happened so smoothly and were grateful for all concerned.
  Today, when we saw the woman, Mrs. Watanabe, at our home in the morning, we were impressed by her tender and mild atmosphere. Though our daughter burst into tears when my wife and I left home, but according to Mrs. Watanabe, she's stopped crying for ten minutes or so and started to play in a cheerful manner.
  At the U.S. embassy, we had to wait more than an hour and half before our interview. The officer we met pointed out a lack of document, therefore, our section which is responsible for the matter started to contact with our U.S. organization to meet their demand. I've heard that when it arrives at the embassy, we are going to obtain R-1 and R-2 visa and are able to go to Hawaii as scheduled.

-TA

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Religion and Me

There was an eye-catching story that tells "Religion now getting an 'A' at U.S. universities" on the May 3rd issue of International Herald Tribune. According to the article, two-third of 112,000 freshmen surveyed said they prayed and almost 80 percent believed in God. The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 by Islamic extremists and increasing number of international students seem to be some of the reasons.

When asked why I came to believe in the religion that I trust, though it is not easy to answer in a concise manner, I will reply that the religion has a dynamic power to change your life.

I was introduce to the religion, which is called Seicho-No-Ie(SNI) or home of infinite happiness and prosperity, by my parents, but it was when I was 18 years old that I started to learn the SNI teachings with passion. Before that I considered religion as something that helps people who are not confident or independent. When I attended a spiritual training seminar in Uji temple in Japan, however, I completely change my mind toward religion; A true religion has a power to change your life in the right direction and guide you forever.

That experience in Uji was a real eye-opener that I never, ever forgot through my life. Rev. Kamino Kusumoto, elderly SNI ordained minister, who does not speak fluently but speaks words by words in a heartfelt way, shared the attendee with how he devoted all his life into the way propagating the teachings. Listening to that, I realized that I had only understood the SNI teachings superficially but rather I should put it into practice to my everyday life.

Since then, my life, fate and environment have completely changed and began my new life as giving spiritual gift to others.

One year after I joined SNI International Headquarters in 1992, the International Peace by Faith movement was launched. After being involved in a youth movement for 5 years, I was transferred to Public Informaition Department where I was in charge of International affairs. Reading reports on events held in a global arena and writing articles, my enthusiasm to the movement was bubbling up and desired to share the spiritual joy with people of all over the world by attending those events. At last I attended an International Spiritual Training Seminar held in Hawaii in 2000, where I was deeply inspired and encouraged. Then I started to learn English so as to propagate the teachings in English and am now doing that.

Before participating the spiritual training seminar at Uji temple, I never dreamed of engaging in religion or working in English. Now I am going to Hawaii to make as many people as possible by conveying the teachings. Religious faith certainly changed my life brilliantly.

-TA