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for our community of Yoboku and fellow members! All suggestions are welcome!

We have finished the month of January with the New Year service and the monthly service. Maybe many of you are feeling relief for finally finishing off the month. I am feeling very grateful that many of you were willing to come here and attend the service twice in one month. Knowing how busy we can get, having to make rounds to places for the new year can be very time consuming. I also went to Portland, Oregon for the Parent Church’s New Year service. Tomie-san, Nobuko-san, Fred, and I all drove quite a few hours to attend the service at Portland Church. Every year, I feel thankful if even one more person attends a service at any of the churches because it makes me feel that perhaps we are closer to attaining the goal that we all share with God the Parent for a joyous life. There are two words that you may hear in religious talks. Predestination and fate. Some may tie the two as the same meaning. However, predestination is a word that defines something we absolutely have no control over. For example, we may have wanted to be born to rich parents or another country but that was not in our control. On the other hand, fate is a word that defines what lies ahead for our future. Future is something that can be determined by the attitude and actions of our past or present. For example, those of you who have come to church with the heart of showing gratitude to God the Parent will likely have a different fate than those who show up grudgingly or not at all. Some may not like the idea that God would love one person less than another based merely on how they were feeling about coming to church that day. This is very true. God the Parent does not add blessings or take them away to children in this manner. Because we humans are blessed with free will, God only observes and teaches but hopes that all children learn and act on the lessons that they are taught so that we can attain the life of joy. This all relies on our attitude about life. So if we grudgingly attend or find cynicism in the environment of church or God, those are the things we will look for as we observe everything that is happening. However, if we attend church with a deep desire for attaining a joyous life, that is the attitude we bring and that is the path we start to seek. So any word, opportunity, or person that might offer such hope begins to stand out brighter in the sea of our cluttered environment. Whatever we choose to use as our compass will be the direction our actions will take us. Every step we take and every decision we make, whether it be to drive really fast out of the church to leave early because we can’t stand to be here anymore or take our time to enjoy the opportunities each moment is offering us takes us on the path of the fate we have chosen.

z Rev. Aiko Hasegawa zJanuary Speech

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 3

NC newsletter2 0 1 3 W I N T E R E D I T I O N

the

Tenrikyo Northern California Church

2840 Davis RoadWest Sacramento, CA

95691

Phone:916-371-9419

Fax:916-371-4418

E-mail:Joyouslifeline@gmail.com

Tenrikyo Websites:www.tenrikyo.or.jpwww.tenrikyo.comwww.honjima.com

Join us on Facebook:Tenrikyo NC Church

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Happy News for NC Church members !!

This is definitely a year of celebrations! Congratulations to Kiyomi Katayama and Joe Fugate for getting married on New Year’s Eve! It was even greater time for celebration because Kiyomi’s

daughter, Alishia also married soon afterwards to Paul . Congratulations to both.

Another marriage is anticipated later in the year for Lisa Nakayama! She announced her engagement to Phil on New Year’s Day at church. We are so happy for you Lisa!

And finally, Jennifer and Joe Kang are expecting their third child in June!

We have so much to be thankful for and much to celebrate! Congratulations to you all!!

We hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful start to the new year. A special announcement for NC Church’s newsletter. We have enjoyed the duration of monthly newlsetters created for NC Church

through this process but due to certain time constraints, this will currently be a seasonal or, whenever possible, a bi-monthly newsletter for the time being. From this year forward, because

information outlets have changed, all newsletters from NC Church will be available only through NC Church’s facebook page, the Newsletter e-mail listing, or available at Issuu.com. It will be much more cost effective and time effective for the translations and information to be delivered through these

other outlets. But, as always, we appreciate any suggestions and comments for the future growth of NC communications. If you wish to continue receiving a hard copy, please email us with your

name, current address, and phone number at joyouslifeline@gmail.com.

Lighter Spirit