A Story of Hope and Grace

Hope (nozomi) and grace (megumi). As we reflect on the past five years and speculate about the next five, these are the two words that feel central in our social enterprise ministries to women in the tsunami-stricken areas of Ishinomaki and Onagawa. Hope was so desperately needed in the days after the unbelievable wall of sea crashed upon our towns, while grace continues to be needed as we work daily in the community, committed to the long-term growth and transformation of individuals and these communities.

Megumi Project in Onagawa and Nozomi Project in Ishinomaki are social enterprises started by missionaries who moved into this region following the triple disaster. Megumi Project transforms vintage kimonos donated by people from all over Japan into fashion items, while Nozomi Project takes broken pottery left from the tsunami and other recycled pieces and converts them into jewelry. Both projects employ local women and provide sustainable income, community, and dignity.

Question: How do you see your organization developing in the next five years?

Chami: When Kizuna Friends (the Christian group managing Megumi Project) first came to Onagawa in 2012, we didn’t have any local contacts. As relationships were gradually built, we were welcomed with open hearts to start this project. It’s been beautiful to see how it has been a source of encouragement to the people in this town. We are very excited to be invited by the town to open a retail space in front of the newly reopened train station. This will be a gathering space for various Kizuna Friends activities and a retail space not only for Megumi but also for other local artisans who we will invite to sell with us. Through this new opportunity to be in the heart of the redeveloping town, we hope to be a source of encouragement for the people of Onagawa by sharing our lives and the love of Jesus. We also hope to expand our business and hire more local staff. We have taken time to reflect on the interests and experiences of each staff member, and our hope is that more leadership and ownership will emerge out of this new season for Megumi.

Sue: As we look ahead to the next five years, surprisingly, we don’t imagine the organizational structure looking very different. While we had originally thought we’d eventually hand over all the leadership to Japanese hands, we have begun to recognize that perhaps our core DNA is the unique mix created by a working team consisting of both Western Christians and local Japanese. Our Japanese staff has excelled in organizing and systematizing; our Western staff has brought the vision, networks, and fun-loving approach to work that has kept the ethos from becoming stiff. While shared leadership has meant a great deal of work and effort, this special synergy seems to have worked really well in our context. We hope to continue slowly growing our staff numerically, while maintaining this unique collaborative style of leadership.

We have currently maxed out the space of our current location (an awesome problem!). Our Be One team has been praying about building or buying a multipurpose community center that could also house Nozomi Project. We are excited about new opportunities that have emerged to be part of the greater artisan movement being birthed in this region. As we continue exploring multicultural leadership development together, we have also been taking women on Japan-wide and overseas sales trips, and we pray that God will continue to broaden the Kingdom perspective of our staff as well as our influence and impact.

Question: What are some of the values that will grow your organization over the next five years?

Chami: One thing we value at Megumi is the daily sharing time over a cup of tea. Kizuna Friends staff members take turns sharing from the Bible; each one gets to share something of their lives once a week. Sometimes tears flow as someone shares their story of loss or pain. Sometimes there are nods of agreement or bursts of laughter as someone relates an incident from their family life. And sometimes, someone shares about a recent craft project that they’ve been working on at home, which has led to new products. We love our headbands and kimono accessories that we recently launched because from start to finish they were designed and produced by our staff. And some of them didn’t even know how to use a sewing machine when they started working at Megumi! Over the next five years we want to continue cultivating a safe space to share life, prayers, hopes, and dreams. Out of that, we hope to be a true community that can build each other up, foster creativity, and encourage professional development.

Sue: We anticipate continuing to learn and explore what it means to serve as Christians who are operating a professional business. If we stop struggling with the delicate balance between community and business in the next five years, we will probably be doing something wrong. We love doing “life on life” in the context of an ongoing business, discipleship that happens alongside and in the midst of making and selling jewelry.

For example, recently the theme of forgiveness has emerged in our staff meetings and prayer times, and it’s even resurfaced many times in our individual biannual reviews. We cannot, and do not want to, ever prevent Kingdom realities from spilling over into our everyday lives.

Restoration is one of our three core values. On many levels, we believe that God has the power to transform what is broken in all of us into something beautiful. As we seek to daily live out the reality of following Jesus at the Nozomi Project, it has been so encouraging to see many of our staff moving toward Jesus and experiencing transformation. We continue experimenting with smaller house-church gatherings, parenting seminars, violin lessons, and other opportunities in order to give not just women but also their families opportunities for growth and transformation. Our hope for the next five years is that there will be multiple generations of transformed families across Ishinomaki.

Question: What impact do you hope to continue to make?

Chami and Sue: Both of our projects recognize with great thanksgiving that the impact of our projects extends much further than our staff members; our sphere includes those who are donating, volunteering, spreading the word about what we do, and helping us sell. And as each piece of merchandise is sent around the world, it becomes an invitation to others to become part of the story of hope and grace that continues to flow from these towns.

Our organizations are not defined by the tragedy that occurred five years ago, but rather we are helping to write new stories, which include the emergence of some creative women as artisans and the transformation of families and communities that continue to be characterized by hope and grace. We have the amazing privilege of being part of something much bigger than ourselves as we see God sending out hope and grace to many parts of the world.