Meet ARI’s New Volunteers: Preparing for the Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration
Meet ARI’s New Volunteers
Meet ARI’s New Volunteers
ARI is currently recruiting Japanese participants for next year. If you are interested, please come to the Open Campus on Saturday 28th of this month! (More information can be found at the end of this article). So, here’s a report on the “now” of our Japanese graduate! 【Moe Koyama, 2009 graduate】 Q1, Why did you become a participant at ARI? I experienced the subsistence and community sharing lifestyle in rural villages in Thailand and Myanmar and wanted to learn about agriculture as a base for living and to live in … Read more
Last Monday, ARI had a special program to celebrate its anniversary day. In the morning, a commemorative service was held at Oikos chapel and through Mrs. Shinko Takami, wife of our founder, Rev. Toshihiro Takami, we learned of the many wonderful character encountered and God’s guidance in their lives. Some former staffs from the neighborhood also gathered at the service, and it was a time to realize that ARI is today based on the efforts and prayers of our predecessors, and that we have been part of that flow.After the … Read more
Director’s Report:A research project team on Dignity Education led by Associate Professor and Chaplain Jeffrey Mensendiak of Oberlin University visited ARI for three days from September 9. (Dr. Emi Hasegawa, Dr. Akiko Asai, and Dr. Misako Takizawa are the other team members.)Rev. Mensendiak, who translated a book on dignity (Dr. Donna Hicks’ book “Leading with Dignity”) into Japanese, developed his own dignity workshop, and has been conducting the workshop for ARI participants for the past 4 years. This year, in addition to the workshop to the ARI participants, a workshop … Read more
On 26 – 31 August, participants went on a study tour around Yamagata, where they split into two groups and visited JA, city halls, farmers and schools in two areas, Okitama and Shonai. These regions have a long history of local leadership and government involvement in promoting producer- and consumer-friendly organic farming. Participants learned various things, from predecessors’ philosophy to systems of JA to protect farmers, as well as gender issues for women in agriculture. In between observations and sharing sessions, participants helped each other to cook and clean, and … Read more