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My name is Kuniyasu Mitsu, and I am the pastor of this church. I came to Sendai in August 2011. I lived in Tokyo for about 25 years. I started reading the Bible when I was a college student. When I was a student, I wanted to become a cook of Italian cuisine. I was in my first and second years of college. I dreamt that I would like to have my own restaurant and become a person who pleases others, and I worked as a part-time worker at a restaurant and as a subordinate.

At that time, I worked, studied, and lived a fulfilling life, but I think I always had something muddled in my mind. I was always worried about other people’s eyes. I was worried about whether I was a great person or a bright person to people, and I think it was because I was worried, and I never seriously thought about what I was living for. But she kept something muddled about her. Now I think the reason I wanted to cook Italian food was because I wanted to get away from that anxiety somewhere.

One day, on my way home from my part-time job, I had a car accident on my motorcycle. I spent about two months recuperating from my injury. Then there was a period when I couldn’t do anything. At that time, a great deal of anxiety came. “I can’t move; what am I living for? What is it for?” And then the anxiety that I’ve been hiding so far, like water spouting out of the faucet, came to me all at once.

But for the first time, I was able to face myself, and I realized that I was just trying to attract myself compared to others because I couldn’t love myself, and that I just wanted to feel safe there. I felt so empty about my existence. What am I living for? ··

Then I began to go to church, and I still remember the strange warmth of worship, the warmth of being myself. Then, gradually, I began to think of the existence of “God,” as evidenced by the Bible, and through the Bible, I gradually began to understand the meaning of life and where the joy of life lies.
Thus, I entered a seminary in Kobe about three and a half years later and came to Sendai as a pastor, hoping to convey the wonderful information of the Bible and to bring the joy of life that God gave me. I would like to convey the joy of the Bible in Sendai. This morning, I’d like to tell you a story about that joy.

John’s Letter I, Chapters I, 9-10
“I’m alive, that’s all.” Pastor Yasumitsu Kuni

Welcome to Sunday. Welcome Sunday is a Sunday of “welcome” (Japanese: welcoming), a service that the church welcomes for the first time. If you say this, someone might say this. “If today is a welcome day, is it only today that the first person can come, and other Sundays can’t come?” That’s never the case. Everyone is welcome to every service held here every week. Not only those who are enthusiastic about Christianity, but also those who are not very familiar with Christianity or who have other religions are welcome. As for age, anyone from old age to a baby is welcome. There is no age limit to worship, and there is no need for any special qualifications.

The reason why it is “Welcome Sunday” is that for the first time in the church, there are many things that are difficult to understand, the atmosphere is difficult to get used to, and hymns are difficult to get along with. If you are attending a Christian school or graduated from a Christian school, I think you can somehow get in. But if you don’t have that experience, I think it’s hard to get used to; it’s hard to get used to; it’s hard to get used to; it’s hard to get used to. Religion is difficult to accept in our society in the first place, and the word “god” appears a lot in worship, so I think people who are not familiar with it often feel that they cannot keep up with it for the first time.

Therefore, our church has a welcome Sunday for those people, hoping to make the most obscure obvious, familiar, familiar, and familiar, and bring the peace and joy of the service to them. I hope that Welcome Sunday will be an opportunity for you to relieve even a little of the difficult and formal feelings of worship and to feel the peace that is given in worship.

Welcome Sunday Poetry Edition 139 Volumes 1-24
“To be sure of you.” Pastor Yoshioka Kyosei
I’m sorry to all of you who gathered this morning expecting a message from Mr. Akashi, but since Mr. Akashi was unable to come to Sendai in a hurry, I’ll tell you a Welcome Sunday message instead this morning. Dr. Akashi will come to this church next time, so I would like to look forward to that time.
So this morning, Mr. Akashi came all the way up to the theme of “To be a sure person,” so I would like to share this with you while talking about it in my way.

I think this theme, “To be a sure person,” which Mr. Akashi mentioned, is very interesting because behind this theme setting, there is a premise that we are not used to being a sure person, and we sympathize with this theme in terms of our uncertain self.

Gospel according to Matthew, Chapters 1, 18-25
“Father who will take care of me.” Pastor Yoshioka Kyoten
Last week, an article in a magazine said, “I will ask you the word ‘self-responsibility’ again.” Here’s what happened. “Where on earth are we going? Is it all self-responsibility? Is it the ‘self-responsibility’ of the workers to cancel the contract until next year and to deprive them of their jobs, housing and living from tomorrow? Is it all self-responsibility that old people need nursing care? I don’t remember ‘drinking and eating,’ but getting sick at a certain age is all ‘self-responsibility’?”
I think the world is getting harder and harder these days. The word self-responsibility is used as an excuse to cut people off, and it is used as a word to help them give up responsibility and pass on responsibility. In this context, I feel that our own minds are being dragged in that direction. People who seem to have made some kind of mistake can be hit coldly. We find it difficult to look at people from a perspective that cares about their body temperature, such as whether they are in trouble or not. You can judge right from wrong and look at people with cold eyes that impose such tests on them whether they failed or succeeded. It is easy to judge a person unilaterally from that perspective and to judge that you are wrong and that it is your own responsibility. However, it is a little different from the self-responsibility of those who have been judged. I don’t think that applies to self-responsibility.
But in such a world of cut-and-cut, human-to-human injury and division, we can see a beautiful sense of responsibility working at Christmas, not in such a cold sense, based on love.

The Gospel according to John, Chapters 4, 1–26
Pastor Yoshioka Kyosei, “To satisfy my thirst.”
Welcome to the church service at Sendai Canaan this morning. We welcome you from the bottom of our hearts.
The theme of this morning’s worship message is “Filling Thirst”. September is already over, and it’s almost cold these days, so we may not be aware of the thirst for this morning’s theme from this climate, but what I would like to think with you here this morning is this thirst for our hearts. I don’t usually think much about whether my heart is thirsty or not, but this morning I want to put my hand on it again and stop and think about what kind of thirst I have and what kind of moisture I need.

Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 25, 31-40
Pastor Yoshioka Kyosei, “Becoming a Neighbor ~ Adjacent to People”
The theme of this morning’s service is “neighborhood.” I think this is a idiom that we don’t usually use, but how do we usually view it when we think of the word “neighborhood” and when we think about “neighborhood” as this word suggests?
The famous Mother Teresa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly said, “Christ is among the poorest” and “God is in the shape of the suffering,” and actively entered the poor people of India and devoted her life to support them. Mother Teresa said that when she first saw a dying man on the road in Calcutta, India, she sincerely wished to be with them. Do we have eyes that look at our neighbors like that?

Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 27, 45-56
Pastor Yoshioka Koten, “Living a Life That Does Not Have to Hurt You”
Everyone has a scar. This is not a cut on the body or an injury, but a wound in the sense of a mental injury. Everyone we know is a hurtful person. You’re all hurt, and I’m hurt, too. Everyone has a scar. And for us, I don’t think there’s a word that’s as close to us as the word wound. In fact, I think many parts of what we talk about, think about, and act on a daily basis are related to the wounds we have ourselves. All kinds of wounds make me what I am. I think that the various wounds I have are guiding and directing my current way of thinking and behavior.