Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Recipient profile: Canaan Christ Church
“Delicious” church offers nourishment for body, soul
Lined with cheap hostels and known for attracting day laborers, Kotobuki area is located in Yokohama’s Naka Ward. This neighborhood is populated by welfare recipients—many of them disabled people and seniors—as well as numerous homeless people. It is also home to Canaan Christ Church. The church consists of four connected one-room apartments within a building.
The church’s goal is to be a “happy, fun, delicious church,” according to Pastor Satoshi Sato. A meal of curry and rice for all attendees follows Sunday services; boxed lunches or other meals are offered after roadside services on Saturday mornings and Thursday afternoons; snacks always accompany early morning and evening services.
“Without the food we receive from Second Harvest Japan (2HJ), we couldn’t do this kind of activity. I’m filled with gratitude at the fact that they always come from far away to deliver the food to us,” says Pastor Sato’s wife, Pastor Yeonhee Seo. 2HJ delivers bread, fresh vegetables, and canned goods to the church twice a month, while one of 2HJ’s donors, Nichirei, visits the church every week with a shipment of frozen foods. Since most people in the neighborhood can’t spare money to tithe, being able to receive food for free really helps the church. “On days when we’re expecting a delivery, we all look forward to seeing what will arrive that day,” says Pastor Seo.
Pastor Seo and Korean congregation members living in Japan originally established the church to preach to people living in this area. Just as the sign at the church entrance reads, today the church welcomes “anyone seeking a purpose, anyone who is confused, anyone tired from working, anyone who has been hurt, anyone at all.” People who have lost their job, money, and home, as well as people who spent most of their lives in prison, come here.
“Most people first come here more interested in one meal than one hundred sermons. Along the way, though, I’ve seen countless brothers and sisters have their spirits healed and be redeemed,” says Pastor Sato. In some cases, people go from living on the streets to helping at the church, and eventually even taking up jobs because they “want to donate money.”
Two years ago the church took in a couple who had been living in the underground walkways of Yokohama in a makeshift cardboard house. The woman was pregnant, and the situation had been dangerous for both her and her unborn child, but in July of last year she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. The baby, named Kanako after Canaan Church, is being watched over by many people and is thriving. Pastor Seo calls her the “treasure of the church.” Kanako-chan and her parents still live at the church, and her previously homeless father has become a sub-official at the city’s sanitation department.
From this fall, Canaan Church will serve as a 2HJ pantry. As such, it will function as the community “food contact point”: anyone who lacks food security or needs emergency groceries can visit the pantry to receive a parcel of food (non-perishable items like canned goods and dry noodles), which the pantry will receive from 2HJ and make available to anyone in need in the community. 2HJ is working to establish these food contact points in various locations throughout Japan.
“To help those who are troubled, both spiritually and materially, is our role as a church. We’re happy to serve as a connection between our community and 2HJ,” says Pastor Sato.
?
By Etsuko Ohara
Photo: Yusuke Wada
RSS
Keep up to date with the latest news.