<Begin Segment 15>

JG: Were there any special kinds of, I don't know, I'm trying to think about... there wasn't really, from what you've said, it sounds as if you knew you were gonna be working in a Japanese American congregation at some point. Is that right?

MN: Yes. After I had sorted everything out and decided to move forward, I let it be known to the powers that be that I wanted to serve in a Japanese American church, and fortunately, at that time, the powers that be were very, very supportive of that. In fact, they felt a need to really support ethnic minority churches in general, so they had no problem with that. Also, I was starting to become more aware, again, of more the Japanese side of me, of my Japanese American identity, in several ways during my seminary days. But one experience that happened to me which really, was kind of like icing on the cake, was when I went to see my counselor in seminary, who was African American. And I said to him, I said, "Look, I've got this problem. I want to take Greek or Hebrew. I really want to study both, 'cause they're biblical languages and I feel I'll benefit by knowing at least one of 'em. But I really want to study both languages, but I know that I don't have the time and I'm not smart enough to study both at the same time, so I need some help. Should I do Greek or Hebrew? I know Greek is the language of the New Testament. Hebrew's the language of the Old Testament. Which one would help me most?" And my counselor said to me, "You know, if I were you, I would study Spanish." I said, "Why Spanish?" He said, "Well, you're gonna be in California, most likely, but whether or not in California, Spanish is the language of the future, and everybody in America is gonna benefit by knowing some Spanish from here on out, so if I were you I would forget the Greek and the Hebrew because, unless you're planning on becoming a biblical scholar, everything you'll need to know in terms of writing sermons or doing church work is in English anyway. So I would more, rather you concentrate on a language of more practical value, which is, and in California at least, that language is Spanish." So when I thought about what he said, I figured okay, well, if learning Spanish is gonna help me from the standpoint that I'll be in California, or at least in the western part of the U.S., then it stands to reason that it makes more sense for me to brush up on my Japanese, since I plan on serving a Japanese American church. And so out of that I was able to spend a year, actually my last year in seminary, I was able to sign up for a refresher course in Japanese language over at UC Berkeley.

And I did that, and then that following year when I graduated from seminary, knowing that there was gonna be about a month leeway, lag time between graduating from seminary and actually showing up my first day at the church where I was assigned in Sacramento, I decided to take a trip to Japan. And I took a two-week trip to Japan, started, I just planned it on my own, and did that, which was a very valuable experience for me. It was my first trip to Japan. I got to visit relatives I had never met before. But also, that trip in and of itself was very affirming of my own ethnic identity, and if nothing else, I could come back now and the next time someone asks me, "Have you ever been to Japan?" I can honestly say yes. So those experiences really affirmed my decision and gave me a strength in me and some tools that I would need serving a Japanese American church. And so I was very, very fortunate that those, that confluence of events all came together during my last year in seminary, and again, as I look back on it, I refuse to believe that it was just pure coincidence or chance that those events all came together at the same time, that God definitely had a hand in, in doing that. Last month, two months ago, I took a small group from Centenary to Japan, and it was actually my fourth trip there but my first visit in almost twenty years. And while we were there I thought back to that very first trip, some things I had experienced back then, because for this group from the church that went two months ago, for all of them it was their first trip to Japan, and so I can think back and put myself in their shoes, although they had one benefit that I didn't have. They had a tour guide, me, which I didn't have back then. But so I thought about that first trip to Japan, which happened now, what, twenty-five years ago, when I took this group two months ago from the church.

JG: Interesting.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.