Wednesday, December 05, 2001 12:44 PM
Witnessing in Japan – Part 1: Tokyo
A professionally made video of Vassula’s visit to New York earlier this year is now available. Full details and a preview are available at: http://www.plasmachannel.com/shop/vassulapreview.html All other enquiries should be sent to Diane Eleftheriades at [email protected]
Witnessing in Japan – Part 1: Tokyo
A little after noon on Nov. 21, 2001, Feast of the Presentation of Mary, Irini Zoppa, Antonis and Teresa Tectonidis arrived at Tokyo International Airport (Narita) after a long flight from Athens via Frankfurt, Germany to be the very first TLIG witnesses in Japan. They had been selected and recommended personally by Vassula for Japan. We appreciate the fact that they were among the first who believed and were converted. At the airport to welcome them were our translator Mrs. Sachiko Hitomi, Mr. Tetsuo Ohmura and I. Our Lord prepared some of the most comfortable, beautiful autumn days imaginable for the visit of His witnesses to Japan, after I had warned them that it was getting colder and they had even brought gloves!
On the day after arrival (Thanksgiving Day), after a visit to the Cathedral of the Holy Autonomous Orthodox Church in Japan (Nicolai-Do), we all met at evening Mass at St. Ignatius Catholic Church and joined our guests in a welcoming dinner arranged by Mr. Hayashi the publisher of the TLIG books in Japanese with about 20 enthusiastic supporters and workers including the other official organizers Mrs. Reiko Kyoshima and Mrs. Tsuyoko Misaki at a French restaurant with some Greek wine. The witnesses had brought a little gift for everyone, crucifixes made of olive trees in Jerusalem, rosaries etc. I was especially happy to receive an Orthodox rosary handwoven by the Monks of Mt. Athos, if I understood correctly, although I still have to learn how to use it!
Antonis obviously has a good sense of humor. When he first saw the poster/flier, all in Japanese, that Mr. Hayashi had prepared to advertise the meetings he said it was very nice but “it is Greek to me”! The Japanese in general are a very reticent people and do not easily display emotion in public so it was a very pleasant surprise for me when I showed a prayer card of Our Lady of Akita in tears to our visitors and all three of them immediately and spontaneously kissed Our Lady’s picture.
On Nov. 23rd we had the first meeting at the Catholic Center of Sophia University, the prestigious Jesuit university in Japan. We were able to rent the hall thanks only to Father Perez-Valera the spiritual director of the the Tokyo TLIG group. The meeting was planned from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. We had prepared all the extra seats available and were very happy when just about every additional chair was needed and the room filled to capacity with about 170 guests. We have to thank Our Lord and Vassula for their previous efforts without which I am sure this would not have been possible.
We had sprinkled the hall with holy water just to be safe and it was especially nice to have the room incensed in the Orthodox manner. Our guests had brought us a golden Orthodox incense burner, which we will put to good use, as a gift. We decorated the room with a large Jesus poster we had received from England and had it laminated. We added a beautiful Rosa Mystica statue of Our Lady and had a nice flower arrangement of roses to honor her.
It was decided that Mrs. Irini Zoppa translator of the messages into Greek would witness at the Tokyo meeting. Mr. Ohmura acted as master of ceremonies. We are extremely grateful for his help. Not only would he be accompanying our guests for the whole trip but he made all the arrangements for train schedules, tickets, overnight stays etc. He also lead the meeting in announcements and the singing of hymns. After we all sang to piano accompaniment and I gave a short introduction, Irini spoke for about an hour. In an inspiring talk, after explaining that the messages came to her at a time of personal crisis, she covered all of the important subjects and went from theme to theme, for instance, Prayer, Our Will, Russia, Our Lady, and last but not least Unity.
Even I who have read the messages so often was able to learn a lot and gain many new insights. You could feel everyone listening intently. We have to thank Our Lord too for the gift of translation that Mrs. Hitomi has, she was absolutely superb in translating exactly what Irini said. After applause, Irini answered questions from the audience, one of which was “what can we do to spread these wonderful messages all over the world”! AMong the audience was Maria, the wife of the Polish AMbassador to Japan, a friend of Mrs. Misaki.
There was an unexpected pleasant surprise too when Mr. Ohmura introduced the Korean lady who is starting to translate the messages into Korean. She explained how she hoped the messages would be not only for her country but also for North Korea as well and for the many persons of Korean ancestry living in China.
At the end we all sang “Doxa, doxa, doxa” with a a lot of enthusiasm. Afterwards it was heartwarming to see many of the enthusiastic listeners come forward to hug and embrace Irini, Antonis and Teresa. Although the hall we had rented was packed, as one of the organizers I can’t but help feel that Our Lord would have been even happier if there were more persons but only He knows the wonders He will work in those who did come and opened their hearts to Him. The complete program was videotaped by Mrs. Ishikawa and a tape will be available later.
Early the next morning the witnesses had to depart for Nagoya by the “Shinkansen” (bullet train), a two hour train ride from Tokyo. A report on this and the other meetings will follow.
Hans Enderle
