Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders Vol. 3
2025/04/04
Easter / Travel Fee Campaign special series
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Director’s Report: ARI Celebrates the Completion of the 2024 Rice Harvest
2024/10/02
Director’s Report:
On Tuesday (Oct.1), on a beautiful autumn day with the sky high in the sky, all community members at ARI worked together to harvest rice.
It has been about 4 months since the rice was planted in early June. After surviving a
record-breaking heat wave, and receiving much love and care from the farm staff, the
Participants, and the volunteers, all the rice plants were harvested.
The total area of ARI’s rice fields is about 1.8 hectares. Already 90% of the rice has been harvested by machine, and only about one-tenth of the total area has been harvested by hand. In the past, a larger area of rice was harvested by hand, and the rice was also hung up on a rake, but the total area harvested by hand has decreased as the total area of rice paddies has increased. In recent years, however, a small ceremony led by the Participants has been held before the rice harvesting begins. This year, I gave a short speech, cut a tape of flowers woven into a rope, and then put the sickle into the first rice plant. This was followed by a lively Filipino “rice harvesting dance”.
After about three hours of work that day, all the rice harvesting was completed for the year.
The total yield was about 8 tons.
With a grateful heart, we will enjoy this precious rice for a year with the members who worked hard this year and the members of the next year who are yet to be discovered.
Meet ARI’s New Volunteers: Preparing for the Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration
2024/09/30
The Asian Rural Institute is proud to welcome four new long-term volunteers! Christian (Germany), Lian (Germany), Maru-chan (Japan), and Marie (Germany),
They all arrived here in the beginning of September.
With HTC being right around the corner, everyone at ARI, including the new volunteers, are working hard to make the best out of the two celebration days!
Come visit ARI during our annual Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration (October 12-13) to learn more about the volunteers and the rest of the community.
To give you an insight into the volunteers’ lives at ARI, we have prepared a few questions for them.
— What made you come to ARI as a volunteer in the first place? —
Christian: I wanted to learn more about ARI’s philosophy of living together while also interacting with many people from various countries and enjoying the beautiful nature in Japan.
Lian: I wanted to visit another country and work with lots of people from different backgrounds.
Maru-chan: I wanted to meet new people who have different backgrounds and encounter the new way of living,
Marie: I was drawn to ARI due to its international focus and commitment to sustainability, rooted in love for others and especially Jesus Christ. Growing up near a large German city, I was curious about cultural differences and eager to learn more about rural life. Furthermore, having already volunteered nationally within my school, I wanted to expand my efforts internationally to help those who might be in need.
— How easy was it for you to integrate into the community at ARI? —
Christian: It was honestly pretty easy. There are so many people here, and it feels like everyone is willing to have conversation with you.
Lian: Very easy, because the people welcomed me, and I already made new friends in the first two weeks.
Maru-chan: Easier than expected. I was impressed that many participants tried to talk to me as an individual person.
Marie: Integration is an ongoing process, but the community’s acceptance and guidance have facilitated my development as a leader. Frequent events ensure no one feels excluded, making it easy to become part of the group.
— What are some of the best things you have experienced so far at ARI? —
Christian: Riding the bicycle around town with other community members while the rain was pouring down on us was a great and memorable experience
Lian: New friends I met. I will visit a few of them when I travel through Japan.
Maru-chan: Laughing and laughing with African participants about small things and dancing in the field. Keeping an eye on the small things in daily life is beautiful and always makes me happy.
Marie: Participating in community events and social outings has been incredibly rewarding, allowing me to build strong relationships and create cherished memories, especially during nighttime activities.
What are Japanese graduates like? ③ The Open Campus is three days away!
2024/09/25
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 a community myself.
After interacting with ARI participants in Kyoto, I stayed at ARI for a week. I felt so comfortable that I didn’t want to leave. So, I decided to enter ARI.
Q2, What was your biggest learning in ARI?
One day, I got angry and cried at a classmate who did not cleanup, which was the first time I had been able to express my anger outside of my family. I came to know that anger can come from a desire to understand or be understood by the other person.
The other person also tried to understand me and we reconciled the next day.
Q3, About your current livelihood and life
I’ve had a nice slow-paced lifestyle through practicing small scale farming. I live in a mountainous village in Iga, Mie Prefecture, with my husband, a dog and a goat, where rice and vegetables are grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. We provide a mail-order vegetable box set, as well as selling our products at a marche and local greengrocers / natural food shop. I also work at the shop.
In same time, I am involved in events as a director of the Ai-No-Kai, a nationwide agricultural network.
Having my ARI classmate and friend as a neighbor is a great support.
Recently, pickles have become my favorite.
Q4, A message to those who are considering becoming a participant
I was anxious about English before I entered and after two months, the hardest thing for me was not being able to put into words what I wanted to say. But my classmates encouraged me and I was able to have a fun time.
Many participants do not have English as their first language, and they have different levels of English and different ways of speaking English, so both those who are good at English and those who are not good at English make an effort to adapt to the other one. This is how ARI’s unique English is born. So if you are worried about your English, you may have the sense to speak it more clearly than others!
Don’t worry! Be happy!
☆Open Campus will be held on Sep 28th (Sat)☆
10:30-14:00 ¥2,000
Including campus tour, fun program and organic lunch (made by ARI products).
To register, please visit here→ https://ari.ac.jp/entry-form-open-campus2024/
Similar programs will be held on 25 Jan (Sat).
If you are thinking of being a Japanese participant, you can also visit the school on other dates, so please feel free to contact us.
On 16 September, ARI celebrated its 51st anniversary
2024/09/20
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 worship, we moved to the chapel garden to have a ceremony to remember Ms. G.DeVries who devoted her life for the work of ARI as a missionary.
We dedicated a plaque with her name in front of her memorial tree (cherry blossom) and thanked God for her service at ARI.
After enjoyed delicious lunch, community members participated a fun volley ball tournament that strengthened community bonds!
Director’s Report: ARI Hosts Dignity Education Workshop Led by Professor Jeffrey Mensendiak
2024/09/15
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 in Japanese was held for the general public.
When we look at various problems in the world and the entanglements in human relationships through the glasses of “dignity,” we can see that dignity is undermined everywhere, and we can understand how important it is for us to recognize and enhance dignity. ARI would like to put more effort into promoting dignity education.
Participants went to study tour to rural communities in Tohoku area
2024/09/13
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 also enjoyed interacting with the local people through singing, dancing and eating together.
On the first day, the bus broke down and they were stuck on a highway for five hours, but everyone was protected and they were able to complete their six-day trip safely.
We would like to express our sincere thanks to all the people who warmly welcome our participants every year. Thank you very much!
ARI staffs visited graduates in Zambia and Malawi!
2024/09/05
From 1-26 August, two ARI staff members travelled to Zambia and Malawi to visit a total of 23 graduates.
At the end of the trip, they attended an ECHO conference in Malawi.
ECHO is an organization that works in South-East Asia and East and West Africa to tackle hunger by helping small-scale farmers become self-sufficient by providing training opportunities in sustainable farming methods that are adapted to local conditions.
In connection with ECHO, AFARI (American Friends of ARI) organized and sponsored a gathering of ARI graduates at the conference, where they had the opportunity to reflect on and deepen their learning at ARI by interacting with other graduates and peers from the same region and learning new skills.
Many thanks to AFARI for also helping sponsor ARI’s travel costs.
Specific activities of graduates from Zambia and Malawi will be reported in the next post.
Please look forward to it!
Director’s Report: ARI Featured in Japan Times – Stories of Change Across the Globe
2024/09/04
Director’s Report:
An article about ARI was featured in the Japan Times on September 2.
It is titled “Over half a century, seeds of change grow at a Tochigi farm”
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2024/09/02/our-lives/asian-rural-insititute-tochigi-namibia-cambodia-germany/
The article describes what this year’s participant from Namibia (pictured) is learning, how the lives of the German volunteers of 2003 and the Cambodian graduates of 2010 have been changed by coming to ARI, and the significance of ARI’s training programs.
Medeleine Cuckson, the author of the article, is a British national who stayed at ARI for a three-week Christian group leadership training in July and is now working in Romania helping Ukrainian refugees.
Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration
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