I have mentioned before that one of the best days of the year for me is graduation day for Ted K. Tajima High School.  This year, the graduation coincided with Father’s Day weekend, so it became a wonderful time of celebration for the ways God uses one life to impact the lives of others.

For the last two years, the graduation has been held in Little Tokyo.  I’m not sure why they decided to hold the ceremony there, but it feels good, having the event in this old Japanese-American community even though the school’s student body is almost all Latino and immigrant (there were also two Filipino and two African-American students).

The principal of this school often refers to the “Tajima family.”  I love that when she says this, she is not talking only about my sisters and me, but she is talking about the students, their families, and the faculty and staff of the school—and us.  So I love that my Tajima family now includes people who are (or who love) kids who are almost always the first ones in their families to attend college, and who represent the best dreams of their own parents.  These kids have made it to graduation in spite of fears of parents being deported, some without stable homes, some working in after-school jobs to help feed their families.  Yet in this graduating class, all have been accepted to higher education, including 88% attending a four-year school.  I was astounded how many have been accepted to UC schools (as well as two going to Claremont colleges and one going to Barnard), all of which are extremely competitive and continue to be top universities in the nation.

About 10% of the student body are special needs kids.  By far the biggest cheer was raised for a student named Leonard, a special needs student with autism, yet who will be able to go to junior college.

Speaking to these kids and their families was the principal who remembered her own entry into college, and how she was once just like them—a young Latina student, the first from her family to go to college, entering UC San Diego, where few students in her college looked like her.  She spoke like an older sister, and she felt like she needed to warn these bright young students that the journey will be difficult at times, and lonely.  Her words reminded me of my father.  As a high school teacher, he transformed many young people’s lives with education—yet this calling was forged out of the discrimination and challenge he faced in his life.

True to his Christian faith and Presbyterian tradition, Dad believed in the power of education to transform lives, and our calling to offer support and hope to others, whether or not we know them.  The impact of Dad’s life continues to radiate out like ripples in a pool, through his church community that led to a family friend, Alliance Public Charter Schools Board member Dale Okuno, who came up with the idea of naming the school after Dad, and to all who contributed to the school.  Those ripples continued out to the faculty and staff who work so lovingly and tirelessly for the students, to the students and their families, and all who will be impacted by the students.  This phenomenon was joyously evident not only in the faces of the students, but in the cheers of their families.  One of the first things I noticed in the graduation was one student’s cap that said “I am the product of their sacrifice.”  I think all of us who come from families that struggled to make life better for us can relate.

There is a saying that comes from the Jewish tradition, and is also in the Qu’ran, that can be paraphrased as “Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if they destroyed an entire world.  And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if they saved an entire world.”

I am so grateful for being able to witness this celebration of hope and promise each year, but the important thing to remember is that this is not unique to my father.  Every one of us creates ripples around us, and with the power of the Holy Spirit, these ripples can travel out to parts and people unknown to us.  We are called to work to create ripples that carry the Gospel to these folks, and it is up to us to fulfill that call.

I hope that you all had opportunity to give thanks this last weekend for your father, and if that relationship isn’t a source of joy for you, give thanks for your heavenly Father who blesses, loves, guides, protects, and works through each of us.  And give thanks that whatever we offer to the family business, God can use to save so many worlds of hurting people. 

Thanks be to God!

Wendy

This Saturday we will have another Presbytery meeting, at the re-envisioned West Covina Ministry Center (aka Community Presbyterian Church of West Covina).  Our new tradition is for the summer Presbytery meeting to be short, followed by a time of service.  We will have a slightly longer Presbytery meeting because there are a few important decisions to make, so if you don’t want to join us for the meeting, we expect the schedule to be:

8:30 am      Registration
9:00 am      Stated Meeting
10:30 am      Service
12:30 pm      Lunch.

It is expected that this meeting will be a time of thanksgiving for the ministry of Grace Presbyterian Church in Highland Park, and the ministry of Rev. Dr. Al Lorenz.  We will also welcome Rev. Ming Hsu, who is being called as the new pastor for Taiwanese Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church.  Rev. Hsu has been a faithful and respected pastor for Formosan Presbyterian in Garden Grove.

We have two other new initiatives to learn about and celebrate.  If you have read the recent “Presbyterian Outlook,” you heard about International Theological Seminary’s new partnership with San Gabriel Presbytery.  The home base for this partnership is the West Covina campus.  Now that the Conditional Use Permit was approved unanimously by the Planning Commission of the City of West Covina, ITS will be moving onto this campus this June!  So a big part of our work day will be painting some classrooms, to spruce them up for our new partners.  During the meeting, San Gabriel member and ITS President Rev. Dr. James Lee will give a brief overview of ITS’ unique ministry, and we will show our support with our prayers, hands, and hearts.

Because ITS has already been taking care of the property for us, they and the members of Community Presbyterian Fellowship of West Covina are preparing to welcome us to the meeting.  The West Covina family now also includes site pastors Mary Ellen Azada and Jennifer Ackerman, as well as several members of our Baldwin Park church.

We will also have the opportunity to learn about another major new initiative.  Upon the invitation of Pacific Presbytery, and with the joyous support of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, we have received a grant to fund an organizer to help our churches to welcome asylum-seeking families, who have been left without resources while they await their asylum hearing.  We will be able to welcome Kristi Van Nostran, who was already doing much of this work as a volunteer.  Kristi will be working primarily with our two presbyteries, but also all of the synod of Southern California and Hawaii, to coordinate our efforts and invite more of us to show Christian welcome to our neighbors from Central America.  And we will start this Saturday, as our Presbytery offering will go to support these families, either through $5 and $10 gift cards, or financial contributions which Kristi will use for food and other urgent needs.

So come and worship, and pray, and celebrate, and serve.  We will be painting classrooms, doing some yardwork, learning about our new Immigrant Welcome ministry and writing notes of support and welcome, and putting together school kits for students displaced by emergency, in partnership with PDA.  See the separate article on the Presbytery offering for a shopping list for school supplies—and, most importantly, come in your work clothes!

So this Saturday will be a time of thanks and welcome, prayers with our hearts and with our hands, worship and praise and sorrow.  Let us gather in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and join in the life of our San Gabriel—and world—family.

They will come from east and west and from north and south,
from Highland Park and Baldwin Park,
from Taiwan and Cameroon and many peoples of Asia and Africa,
from Honduras and Guatemala and El Salvador,
and sit at table in the kingdom of God.

What a fitting time to prepare for Pentecost Sunday on June 9^th!  We are truly blessed with the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to connect as siblings of Jesus Christ, here and all around the world.

Peace,
Wendy

I don’t know if I’ve ever recommended a television show (probably because I didn’t want to admit how much I watch TV), but every time I see this new show on CNN, “The Redemption Project,” I feel the need to tell others about it.  Since I don’t do Facebook or Twitter, you are the ones I am telling.

Each week, the host Van Jones covers a case of “restorative justice.”  Restorative justice is a movement within the criminal justice system where an inmate meets with the victim of their crime, to understand better the impact of their crime, and to offer some information and remorse for the offense.  The results of these encounters have been shown to reduce recidivism (committing another crime after release) and to provide more resolution for the victims.

On CNN’s website, they point to several restorative justice programs, such as the Insight Prison Project, the Ahimsa Collective, the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding, the Restorative Justice Project at the University of Wisconsin School of Law, the Healing Dialogue and Action organization or the Hawai’i Friends of Restorative Justice.

I actually knew of this last program, as the church was involved in this movement.  Indeed, the Mennonite Church has been involved in the development of restorative justice across the nation.  This reflects not only their emphasis on non-violent forms of rehabilitation, but also the prioritization of forgiveness as a sign and requirement of the Christian faith.

I have often thought that forgiveness is the hardest and most outstanding sign of our Christian faith.  Too often Christians are not forgiving, even of the most minor offenses.  And yet, we are repeatedly told that we are to forgive, even as a prerequisite for being forgiven ourselves.  Whereas we know that we love because Jesus first loved us, there are several times when Jesus states that we are forgiven only as we forgive others.  Indeed, this is in the prayer that Jesus taught us.  Note that we pray “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”—so we are forgiven only as we forgive.

Every time I have seen “The Redemption Project” I end up in tears.  I think it’s because the agreement to have such a meeting seems to come from some desire for forgiveness, often rooted in the Christian faith of the victim.  There is a desire to understand, or make something positive out of tragedy. 

For myself, perhaps the most vivid example of forgiveness happened in response to the murder of five young children while at West Nickel Mines Amish School in Pennsylvania.  Almost immediately after the massacre, in which the gunman killed himself, Amish neighbors went to visit his family, showing compassion and extending forgiveness to them.  “I hope they stay around here and they’ll have a lot of friends and a lot of support,” Daniel Esh, an Amish artist and woodworker whose three grandnephews were inside the school during the attack, said of the family.  At the killer’s own funeral, there were almost as many Amish people attending as in his family.  “It was deeply moving,” said the minister at the funeral, speaking of the condolences expressed by the Amish to the family.  “It was a display of Christ’s love as I’ve never seen it.”  When asked why they were showing such forgiveness, the simple response was that Christ tells us to forgive.

This Christ-like forgiveness isn’t always achieved on “The Redemption Project.”  Most recently, a woman, strengthened by her Methodist church, faced the man who killed her son Nathan while he was driving under the influence of drugs.  She admitted that she wasn’t yet capable of forgiving the driver, but at the end she said,

I hope to get to forgiveness one day.  God forgives us every day.  He asks us to do it all the time.  If I’m able to get to forgiveness, then I can see Nathan.

I do believe that forgiveness is a sign of healing for a victim.  But this woman reflects another outcome of forgiveness, because unresolved anger is like scales in our eyes, blocking our faith, and blocking all that God wants for us.  Christ won for us liberation—from our own sins, but through forgiveness we are also freed from the impact of the sins of others.  It’s hard work to speak our truth and hear from those who have hurt us, but God calls us to it, gives us power to approach it, and it can neutralize the toxicity that so burdens our souls and our world.

May we be forgiven, as we forgive those who have hurt us.  And as we do so, not only are we freed of the hurt, but the world will see the power of Christ in our lives, and the hope he puts in our hearts.

Peace,
Wendy

I am writing this from beautiful Zephyr Point, the conference center on the south shore of Lake Tahoe, co-owned by the Synod of the Pacific and Synod of Southern California and Hawaii.  This is my second weekend in a row here—last weekend several of us came to participate in a consultation to Presbyterian World Mission about the future of their work.  This weekend I am a leader in the Mentoring Conference for Leaders of Color.  When I completed my term on the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, I told Rhashell Hunter, Director of Racial Equity and Women’s Intercultural Ministries, that the one thing I would commit to is help encourage leaders of color in the PC(USA).

As it turns out, we in San Gabriel Presbytery can be proud of our leadership development efforts.  We are known for our racial and ethnic diversity, but others have noted how many young leaders we have in the Presbytery.  When I came to San Gabriel, I was told that the practice is that at any given time, the three Presbytery leaders (Moderator, Vice Moderator, and Moderator of the PEC) would include at least one person of color, women and men, ruling elder and teaching elder.  We have been able to maintain this, though we have to work a bit harder to ensure we have proper ruling elder representation.  Our installation and ordination commissions also hold to these patterns.

In many ways, we have become a witness to what the PC(USA) hopes to be:  diverse in age, ethnicity, perspective, and church size, active partners in ministry, wise stewards of our assets, and welcoming to the community around us.  On a regular basis, I have shared stories of our presbytery with others who are new to welcoming immigrant churches, or partnering with other presbyteries and organizations such as International Theological Seminary (see the article on our partnership in the recent “Presbyterian Outlook”).

At the World Mission consult, several of us (including Magdy Girgis and James and Charlene Jin Lee from our Presbytery) shared our different experiences in mission around the world, but we also pointed out how many people from around the world are now in our presbyteries.  For us, we have personal connections with several countries through our members—so when we help rebuild a church devastated in a Mexico earthquake or support a mission trip to the Philippines or help buy food for a ministry with the homeless in Eagle Rock, it’s not just charity to strangers, it’s family.  So yes, while we continue to support our partnerships in Peru and around the world, we can celebrate that the world has also come to us—and we are found to be welcoming to Christ who greets us in the stranger, the hungry, the naked, the imprisoned.

I am happy to share that two of our recent initiatives have been given the green light.  ITS has been granted a Conditional Use Permit to operate the seminary on the West Covina campus, so they should be moving on campus in mid-June.  And when I sent a draft grant request to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, to partner with Presbytery of the Pacific in funding an organizer to support and encourage churches and individuals to offer various forms of hospitality to families seeking asylum from violence in Central America, they responded by approving the grant!

So at our June 8^th Presbytery meeting, we will celebrate both these initiatives:

• We will hear about ITS and their innovative mission, and we will paint some rooms and do some yard work as we get ready to welcome them to West Covina, and
• We will greet Kristi Van Nostran, former mission coworker in El Salvador and the new organizer for welcoming the refugee families, and we will hold another gift card drive to help with much-needed supplies, and write notes of encouragement for the families who are under these trying circumstances.  We will also put together school kits that PDA gives to kids who have been displaced by disaster.

In addition, we will welcome Rev. Ming Hsu, who has been called to be the new pastor for Good Shepherd Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Monterey Park, and we will pray with Grace Presbyterian in Highland Park, as they honor their ministry which will be disbanded this summer.

You can find a flyer about our June 8^th Day of Service by clicking here.  We also have it on our website, and will send it out separately so it can be forwarded more easily.  Just remember:

• 9 am Presbytery meeting and 10 am work projects, so bring clothes for painting, gardening, or packing school kits or hearing about Kristi’s ministry
• We will collect $5 and $10 gift cards for our offering in worship, and see the flyer for the kind of supplies needed for the school kits.

As the PC(USA) seeks to respond to Jesus’ call to generosity and care through the Matthew 25 movement, may we share the good news we have found in welcoming Christ into our midst,

Peace,

Wendy