kobeintern

Today, June 9th, Fr. Seyama and I visited two facilities – one called Olympia Senior Home and Kindergarten in the morning, and Grace Hill Prius Group Home in the afternoon.

On this visit we met with former teacher of English at the International School. He seemed very much alert, and he and I spoke most of the time in English providing him with the opportunity to speak the language, and he sounded native – had no issue speaking at all! He had a very alert mind.

We then visited the office to meet with the proprietor, Mr. Yamaguchi, who gave me the rundown on the history of Olympia Group.

Olympia was founded by the then presiding bishop Hinsuke Yashiro as a Kindergarten five years after WWII, until 1995 when the Awaji-Hanshin earthquake destroyed the school. A facility was reconstructed first as a Rehabilitation Center/Senior Home, taking in both the disabled and the elderly, and then they revived the Kindergarten.

Mr. Yamaguchi informed me that Bishop Yashiro and the Diocese of Kobe had been extremely grateful for the Diocese of Olympia which funded many of the reconstruction in the city immediately after WWII, and in honor of the kindness shown, they named the Kindergarten, Olympia.

It seems everywhere I go, I see that Bishop Hinsuke Yashiro had been behind just about everything the society needed when there was nothing. In the process he brought the Gospel to the poorest and the most neglected of the City. All he did extra was simply put his “Nippon Sei-Ko-Kai” stamp in whatever he did.

The people here still regard him as the greatest Bishop in Japan. From all that I read and heard, I do believe he was an outstanding, remarkable bishop who did everything to bring about social justice. Where there was a need, Bishop Yashiro did something about it.

Mr. Yamaguchi further said that the Kindergarten was re-started with the belief that the children needed to be close to the elderly and the physically challenged in order to lessen prejudice, and this has to start while they are still young. What a great approach!

In the afternoon, we visited Grace Hill Prius Group Home （グループホーム・めぐみの丘プリウス）。We visited the mother of a Fr. Seyama’s best friend, who was a long time member at St. Michael’s. She is 96 years old. She was still able to sing all the verses in the hymns we sang on key!

In both of these visits the Communion Bread was distributed. I see that visiting the elderly is not just for their good – it is for ours good as well, as we keep these persons who can no longer attend church services, to still have opportunity to connect and hear their stories.