Saturday, January 05, 2002 4:53 PM
Witnessing in Japan – Part 2
Sachiko Hitomi sends this second part of the report on the visit of the three Greek witnesses appointed for Japan by Vassula.
November 21 to 29, 2001
Allow me to report Part II of the three Greek Witnesses sent by Vassula to Japan. Hans Enderle, one of the three organizers in Japan, has sent Part I already ( /forum/forum441.html ), but here I would like to begin mine with our preparatory stage. I am not an organizer myself this time but because of the language problem, I would like to be the mouthpiece for Tsuyuko Misaki, Reiko Kyoshima, organizers and members of our TLIG Tokyo Prayer Group, as well as for the others that worked together. Also, as translator, I was privileged to escort Irini Zoppa, Teresa and Antonis Tectonidis from Narita to Narita (Tokyo Airport) and be a part of the organizing from the beginning.
First of all, it must have been a heavy cross for Vassula when answering Jesus’s call, working out what Jesus was telling her from three years ago, and to send out the first witnesses of True Life In God throughout the world within 2001.
As for Japan, when I first met Reiko to tell her of Vassula’s decision in June, humanly speaking it was natural what she commented that March would be a better time to welcome the three. Financially, Hans moved only recently to his present place for his bookstore. Mikio Hayashi, the publisher of TLIG books, was still paying high interest to the bank for his new publishing company. Fr. Quennuelle’s schedule would be booked for at least half a year ahead. March would be warmer compared to November or December, etc. etc. However, Vassula in her e-mail on July 9 ( /forum/forum381.html ) made it clear that all was ‘according to our Lord’s inspiration who has to go where’ and when. It was in a sense relieving to be assured that Vassula, as a prophet sent from Jesus, was telling us: the Holy Spirit will be The Organizer for the whole thing!
Throughout the planning and the traveling, which arriving at Kyoto Mitsuko Ogawa called ‘a pilgrimage’, the Holy Spirit guided us blindly and we found ourselves working out step by step to realize only afterwards what Jesus wanted us to experience and learn. It must have been this way too when Jesus was with the apostles in the early Church.
Our TLIG Tokyo prayer meeting on November 11th, one of the two meetings we have been holding every month since 1997, was special this time, as it was now right before the coming of the three witnesses from Greece. It was held after Fr. Perez Valera, S.J. (Lalo) offered Mass on October 28th for the success of the three. At the end of our prayer meeting when the Holy Spirit filled the room, we received two messages, one from the Bible and one from the TLIG books. Mr. Ogawa, the husband of Mitsuko opened the Bible and read: “And He took the children in His arms, put His Hands on them and blessed them.” (Mark 10: 16) Another opened one of the TLIG books: “child penetrate deeper into My Wounds, listen to My Heartbeats” “My fondness for you has become folly to the extent that I want you now to participate with Me My Passion, love Me as I love you; My Passion is repeated everyday; every single day I AM dragged on the road to Calvary by those who do not follow My Path any longer;” “I am being recrucified every day by sinners; I need to rest, will you let Me rest? Take My thorned Crown, My Nails and My Cross” “have you nothing to tell Me?” (TLIG: Tuesday 20.2.90) Jesus was with us, here and now, and we were His little children and He would bless us!! He was talking to us and telling us to follow Him. Yes, we will follow You and offer You whatever You are giving us joyfully!
Tsuyuko, whose God-given gift of vision has lifted many to Jesus and especially to Our Lady said: ‘God gives us much freedom of will’, but we didn’t fully understand what this really meant until later. As it turned out, the three came by economy class in the most inexpensive way, to the surprise of Hans who paid the air-tickets, and the rest of us. The ticket to and from Japan (Lufthhansa) added three more days plus those they were to witness. Yoshiko Okuhara, who was shown by Jesus that there would be a new TLIG prayer group in Kyoto, took the responsibility for organizing in Kyoto. Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka were already decided on as the three main places, after much inquiry. As for Osaka, Reiko took the responsibility to contact Takae Kawase, who in her busy schedule as the leader of the Charismatic Movement in Kansai district (the Southern part of Japan) booked a beautiful hall of the alumnae house of the Sacred Heart School at Takarazuka, Osaka, for the witnessing. After what seemed impossible, she also booked two nights for our stay at the Retreat House owned by the Passionist Sisters. The third place decided on was Nagoya, after Michiko Ishikawa took the responsibility with the help of Yoriko Ishida. Then, the place of witnessing in Nagoya City was almost miracurously arranged, after Hans asked the cooperation of Professor Shigeru Mikami of Nanzan University to lend its Study Center for the witnessing and for an overnight stay.
I do not mean to patronize but behind the success of being able to use three most respected places in each city for witnessing, and also for the witnessing asked by the Sisters at the Passionist convent, and the fifth witnessing where Fr. Boisvert was reading the TLIG messages in a parish we were led to in Kyoto, we all recognize the support of our spiritual director, Lalo. He prepared a 20 minute introduction for the Tokyo conference but was cancelled as too long and a bit heavy for the occasion. Instead, Hans gave a very beautiful light introduction to the messages matching Irini’s talk, which was graceful, fervent and peaceful, but focused more on the beginners. Although some expected a more detailed account of her personal encounter with the messages, Irini’s witnessing caused Kazue Sasaki, one of those present, to remark later, “I was very troubled and was emotionally involved very much with the terrorism of September 11th but when I heard Irini talk, the peaceful Godly atmosphere that prevailed suddenly convinced me to really trust God and pray unceasingly as she conveyed to us, looking only at Jesus and God our Father.” There was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that filled the hall, as Tsuyuko saw visually, while Irini was talking of the Holy Spirit. In her report of Tokyo Tsuyuko writes that seeing this vision, she was led to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit over Tokyo and the whole of Japan! Tsuyuko also relates that the day before on the 22nd, after visiting Nicolaido, the Orthodox Resurrection Cathedral together, she was asked by Irini to pray over her before her first witnessing. She saw how Our Lady was protecting Irini, and after the prayer they embraced each other with joy and thanksgiving.
On the bullet train leaving the Tokyo Station at 9:03am, Nov. 24th, beside Irini, Teresa and Antonis, was Anastasia Miyaoka, the Greek interpretor for Teresa at Nagoya. She was married to a Japanese for over 30 years, with love for Kyoto, and more Japanese than many of us. In September Mikio was already searching for a Greek interpreter and had handed the TLIG messages to a Christian for over a month. But just before the conference she refused saying, “The more you read the more difficult it seemed.” Anastasia admitted to Mr. Hayashi that she had no faith but came anyway to the French restaurant in the evening of the 22nd. She seemed to relax in the welcoming, casual atmosphere of the TLIG people. Meanwhile, Irini talked with her and later the three made her linger at the lobby of Hotel Arcadia (where Vassula stayed when she came to Tokyo) to enjoy a peaceful exchange in Greek for about 15 minutes!
Michiko, with her video camera set to take a shot of Mt. Fuji, was on the bullet train as well as Yuko Ezaki assisting her, Reiko, Tetsuo Omura, who took care of our tickets and all our schedule, Mikio, Mitsuko and myself. Mitsuko is a member of the newly born TLIG Fukuoka prayer group with Kiyoko Nakamoto but often attends our TLIG Tokyo prayer meeting as her husband is working in Tokyo. Yoshiko had left an hour earlier for Nagoya to help Yoriko in the place of Michiko. Hans could not leave Tokyo, as well as Tsuyuko, and he sent Shigeyuki Kawasaki, who was the chairman for Vassula’s Tokyo conference in 1997, to represent him in Nagoya.
Shigeyuki’s five-page report faxed to Mr. Hayashi is so well-written that it should be introduced in itself, but allow me to choose only a part of what he has written. At just about noon we arrived at Nanzan Study Center where light lunch (in home-made style) was prepared. After lunch the place was set to become a conference hall with the green of beautiful bamboo trees beyond the large windows in the front. As before the Tokyo conference, Teresa blessed the four corners of the room, statues and icons and the people in the room with the incense she has brought us, while Mitsuko and I watched on. Later, Michiko commented that she wanted to fragrance her room too while editing the films (she has taken 13 films of the whole tour). At 2:00pm the meeting began with hymns we all knew, then an introduction by Mr. Omura. While the three witnesses were introduced, the hall began to fill up so that all the seats were full, with extra seats borrowed from guest rooms. More than 80 people came, much more than we had expected, including several priests and sub-deacons. Greek is a beautiful language, Shigeyuki writes. While Teresa was witnessing on Our Lady, Mitsuko noticed Teresa glow with a soft, beautiful loving radiance so that she was drawn to look closer, moving to the first row next to me. Teresa afterwards told us how Anastasia was quoting, “Really? Really?” to each of what she was witnessing! On her way back to Tokyo with Shigeyuki and Yuko, Anastasia shared her new interest in the messages, taking home ‘My Angel Daniel’ and looking forward to meeting Vassula early next year at Thessalonica, her home town.
Shigeyuki reportsthere was such fervent tension in the atmosphere of Teresa witnessing (despite the fact that the interpreter’s voice was sometimes too small for those in the back to hear and that she didn’t know enough vocabulary) that it made him imagine how the first Christians must have witnessed for Jesus in the early church. He adds: now it’s the turn for each of us to go out witnessing!
Answering to Shigeyuki’s interview afterwards, Kenjiro Tanaka, one of those helping to set up the hall, commented, “It was refreshing to listen to those basic teachings of the Church which needed to be repeated but which we rarely hear in our churches today, like praying unceasingly and with our heart.” He was especially moved by the place where Vassula heard the voice of our Father for the first time, that she thought she had heard it so often but had forgotten, and yet dear to her.
For those that could stay behind, there was a time for question and answer to which Irini and Antonis readily complied. A lady who had never heard the messages before, wrote to Yoriko to tell her that she was so moved that she bought Vol. I and II and is reading the messages with tears now.
After the conference were laid out plates of choice delicacy like a banquet, in the spirit of hospitality by Yoriko, helped by ten or more. >From the beginning Michiko wanted to welcome the three guests in a homely atmosphere, whose dream Yoriko realized so beautifully!
Instead of a Mass in the evening, which was cancelled, a prayer meeting was held from 8:00 to 9:00pm in a little chapel (without the Holy Eucharist). As we started singing, we found ourselves full of thanksgiving for all the blessings we had received, with spontaneous praises and dancing steps. Healing embraces followed, especially for Yoshiko who felt Jesus Himself embracing her through Teresa. Several of us felt Yoshiko being healed of the loss of her ten year old child in 1993, to an even deeper level!
The pastor of a central parish in Nagoya happened to be a good friend of Kiyoko for more than ten years, when he was in Kyushu. Early in November we could meet this priest, who readily accepted to offer Mass in the evening of the 24th. But after he went up to Bishop Nomura for permission, he cancelled our appointment and taught from the pulpit in the middle of December, during a Sunday Mass, not to follow Vassula, a false prophet. Another pastor of a different parish attending our conference, commented to Michiko after hearing this: “The messages are good. Why all this?”
Breakfast at 7:00am on the 25th, we moved to Osaka, where Takae and others were preparing a hall for Antonis. As Yoriko commented later, what a lesson for us organizers that the three witnesses accepted cheerfully each step, even with heavy luggage, and undergoing other inconveniences. We were all with joy tasting somewhat of Jesus’s walk on this earth, and also those travels Vassula made!
As in two other halls, the 70 seats at Obayashi Sacred Heart Alumnae Hall in the suburbs of Osaka, were full by 2:00pm with enthusiastic listeners, including Fr. Pencrech and a few sisters. A warm atmosphere prevailed as Antonis related his personal encounter with the messages, how with Teresa they were living out the unity of the two churches with respect and love. As Mikio later said with admiration, it was powerful how Antonis could relate the messages so transparently and at the same time thoroughly through his own personality. His talk ended with the whole hall wrapped in the love of Our Father, reports Reiko. A listener told her that she was moved with determination to talk of Our Heavenly Father more openly, as he would
November 25th being the Feast of Christ the King, Our Lord providentially led the three witnesses to a parish church near Osaka named Christ the King, right after the conference! This was through the kindness of Takae?s Charismatic friend, Matsusato Mitani, who led us to his church in Itami. Meanwhile, the others from Tokyo were putting the hall in order and cleaning up with Takae and her staff.
The fact was that all the organizing was so new to us that we hardly knew which way to move, or sometimes why it went that way? only to realize in the end that we were under the grip of the Holy Spirit and that He took care of the need of each one. Mikio returning to Tokyo, Reiko and others coming from Tokyo went back to the Passionist retreat house a few stations away where we had left our luggage, and found the Sisters expecting to hear the witnessing that evening, though it was our formal wish to hold it on Monday. Awaiting our return, the five, Reiko, Tetsuo, Yoshiko, Michiko and Mitsuko were preparing the little assembly hall, offering up the thought of attending a Sunday Mass. On our return from Christ the King Church, Sr. Nakamura, who was at the Osaka conference and bought the TLIG books, went to consult with the Reverend Mother. We found three Sisters absent the next evening and the Sisters took a tape for them, but that Sunday night the Reverend Mother right away permitted the five of us from Tokyo to go to Matsusato’s house for an evening Mass with Fr. Pencrech. How grateful we were to the Passionist Sisters for allowing us this favor inspite of their inconveniences! What beautiful glorious Mass was offered in the little living room with the eight of us including Mrs. Mitani just squeezed in around a little table as the altar! It was Christ our King in the Blessed Eucharist blessing us, His little children!
The next morning Takae came to our retreat house with Satoko Hamano and Fr. Pencrech, who brought their cars to drive us around Kobe and take us on a ferry tour in Kobe harbor. What a relief for Irini, Teresa and Antonis after having accomplished their mission at the three main places! Enjoying the scenery and the shopping, Irini was inspired to ask Fr. Pencrecs as interpreter for the evening talk with the Sisters. The retired priest readily complied and was almost giggling while he translated the early experiences of Vassula that Irini introduced. We could all see how Jesus really loved the priest. When Antonis took over, Mitsuko relates later, he caught the hearts of the 10 Sisters that were there as he talked of how the messages were one in spirit with the Sisters’ mission. The whole atmosphere was almost that of solemnity, Mitsuko recalls.
Tuesday morning found us rushing to Kyoto, after sharing the 7:00am Mass with the Sisters. Kazuko Maruzumi awaited us as organizer of Kyoto, ready to have us seated in a sightseeing bus, with Yasuko Izawa distributing hot tea and caring for us all the while we were in Kyoto. It happened that this year we had enough good weather in autumn for the leaves to change its color into a radient hue. In autumn and spring weather changes easily and we are apt to have rainy weather, damaging the beauty of both the cherry blossoms and the coloured autumn leaves. This autumn, however, we were experiencing a week of celebration by nature itself! The bus took us around three temples and a shrine: first, Kinkaku-ji, of Samurai era boasting of worldly success; second, Heian-gu; a Shinto-shrine, expressing the greatness of the emperor; third, Kiyomizu-dera, found in 780A.D. a center of fervent belief in Buddhism; and the fourth, Chion-in, the home temple of Hiro-Sachia, a friend of Mikio who interviewed Vassula in Rome as a prophet of our modern era, in the spring of 1999. It was wonderful how Our Lord was giving us this chance to share our culture with our guests from Greece, with another ancient background which was the home of European civilization!
Kita-shirakawa Church that we were led to in the late afternoon of 27th was in the heart of the upper-town of Kyoto, where only recently Kazuko found out that its pastor, Fr. Boisvert, was reading the messages in Japanese and French for over three years. We also learned that he was introduced to the messages by Atsuko Sagara, who had given him the introduction by Lalo. As soon as we arrived, we were all moved by his eagerness to share the messages. After the hospitality received at a homely French restaurant near by, we were led into a small assembly hall in the church where about ten were gathered to hear the witnessing. As with the Sisters, Irini talked first and then Antonis. Atsuko, who was also present at the Tokyo conference, joyfully remarked that the witnessing in Kyoto that night was even more satisfying for her.
Next morning after Mass in the side chapel, we were thrilled to find a large picture based on the Holy Shroud, which Hans gave to the church,
placed at the right hand of the altar, in a white frame as if to
represent His Resurrection, spotlighted and beautifully ornamented with
flowers. May this church become a holy shrine and a shelter for many
people in Kyoto! Both Kazuko and Yasuko lived near-by within ten minutes on foot or by bicycle, though they were not so close to Fr. Boisvert till now. But Yoshiko feels that there will be a TLIG prayer group soon sprouting around the father.
Walking up to a bakery restaurant for breakfast on the 28th in the beautiful residential area of Kyoto, we realized we were almost at the end of our schedule. Mitsuko was to part for Kyushu while Michiko would stay to take some more shots of autumn scenery in Kyoto. And the rest of us would return to Tokyo. Sharing breakfast Mitsuko suddenly enlightened us with the remark: “Now I know this was a pilgrimage!”
It was a pilgrimage and a celebration, a festivity and a lesson, an offering to appease the ever-burning fire of the Sacred Heart! We were to follow Him faithfully, to wherever He led us, learning to be freed more, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to give greater glory to Our Father! Also, as Lalo suggested at the end of his unreleased paper: we would experience a sense of becoming ‘one body’ in Christ by mingling together. So this was what took place! As a result, allow me now to translate Mitsuko’s impression of our three witnesses (and, with her keen observation, it might be good for me to end my too-long a report here, though there still seems to be much more to report!)
Antonis”I marveled that he was really a musician, for he had very good ears and caught the precise sound of Japanese and asked us the meaning. He was really enjoying their sound. Like a teddy bear, warm-hearted, good-natured and full of humor, he was a very kind person. But when witnessing, we could see he lived for his mission. Every time he witnessed, it was as if he understood the need of all those who were there and talked to them with compassion and deep respect.”
Teresa”Outwardly she was young-looking and beautiful, and I felt that she was deeply loved by her husband and enveloped by him. But when she prayed, I found another kind of beauty; her prayer was very deep and she seemed to become smaller and smaller, almost like a little girl. But always she is a very quiet person. And I could see how she loved Our Lady and was loved by her. When her countenance began to radiate beautifully while talking of Our Lady, I deeply felt glad to ‘be’ there. And I am grateful for her promise to pray for each other.”
Irini”From the beginning I felt a certain closeness to her. She was very intelligent and her witnessing was so perfectly presented that it was like listening to a perfect lecture. Her way of presenting was elegant and quiet, but what she was witnessing was a message of ‘hope from despair’. She was a person who knew what it was to suffer and was now a really liberated person. She was also a lady with a family, someone you can find anywhere and I could sympathize with her in many ways.”
