Central Africa Headquarters, Angola
Good Morning!
How are you today? Grace be given to God and the Messiah Meishu-Sama!
Congratulations to women for the month of March!
I would like to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your dedication, your indefatigable effort on behalf of the expansion of the Divine Work, in Angola, and throughout the African continent.
Today is a very special day. We are about to be granted permission to celebrate the month of March, the month devoted to women, who are very patient in putting up with us men, right? We are about to get permission to begin the month by thanking God!
We also have illustrious guests here, today. Policemen, firemen, military officers, people who all over the world, in every country, put their lives at risk – and often perish – and leave their families to protect our lives. And we sometimes fail to show them our gratitude for the sacrifice they make for us. These are risky careers endangered by many perils. But, driven by an ideal, by the will to serve society, they make a commitment to this very important service so that we can have a minimum of peace in our lives. So, I would like to ask for a round of applause for those who are here representing other members of these professions.
Thank you for your presence and support. Thank you very much!
I wasn´t with you last month, because I had to attend our monthly service in the Church of South Africa and then visit Mozambique. I bring greetings from Church members from these two countries! They are praying and attending the service simultaneously with you, and they want to participate in the construction of our Messianic Temple, of our Ancestors Sanctuary, and of the Second Phase of the Agricultural School, even from afar, by practicing the three Columns of Salvation, and expanding Johrei in their countries, too.
Asking for Meishu-Sama´s Help
In Mozambique, I listened to a very interesting experience, told by Minister Aly. He moved to a different house and he had to refurbish this new home. He hired a contractor and his team and when the Minister tried to talk to him about Johrei, the contractor didn´t want to hear. “I don´t want to know about this Meishu-Sama, this Church!” He didn´t want to look at pictures, to receive the flower, nothing.
One day, the Minister was standing by the door of his house with the contractor, who was talking on his cell phone. Suddenly, a thief came by, stole his phone and started to run away. The contractor was desperate and looked at the Minister saying: “My phone! What am I to do? The Minister looked at him and said: “Ask for Meishu-Sama´s help!” The contractor said: “Me?” And the Minister said: “Ask Meishu-Sama to help you. The thief is running away with your phone! Ask for help.”
The contractor looked at the thief and whispered, in a very low voice: “Meishu-Sama!” But really very low. Then the Minister said to him: “Say it louder!” He still said it in a very low voice: “Meishu-Sama, Meishu-Sama!” The Minister told him again: “Speak louder!” And then he spoke in a louder voice: “Meishu-Sama, Meishu-Sama!”
The thief was very far, by now, but he came back running, gave back the phone to its owner and went away!
I asked Minister Aly: “And then, what happened?” the Minister said: “After that, the contractor had his whole team receive Johrei with him, every day.” Then I said: “Wow! How powerful it is calling Meishu-Sama’s name in times of difficulty.”
What to Do to Help Someone Who has Suffered an Accident
Today, I was happy when I heard an explanation given by our superior. Coincidently, a few days ago I was talking with Minister Cruz about running across someone who has had an accident in the street, and the danger of helping this person and end up being seen the person who caused the accident.
I said to Minister Cruz: “In Man’s eyes, if a person is about to die and I do not help him/her, spiritually speaking, I am in debt.” And he asked me: What can we do?”
The thing to do is to put it in God’s hands, if you are going to be misinterpreted or not.
But today, our superior explained that when providing this kind of help, the right thing to do is: first, communicate the authorities, by phone, and then assist the person in need.
Really, according to what he said, it is imperative that we unite in order to build a better world! This great alliance is independent from our individual beliefs, race, religion, philosophy. What is important is for everyone to feel that every person has a Divine Particle – the living God inside. The good will to work together, to get together to build a better world, is what allows the Supreme God to use us in the Construction of Paradise on Earth.
The Importance of Clean-Up Campaigns
I would like to congratulate you for the activities you are developing all over Africa: the clean-up campaign, the flower distribution campaign, and the implementation of Homegrown Vegetable Gardens. We will go on working and giving continuity to these efforts from our homes, our neighborhoods, our workplaces.
Thanks to God and the Messiah Meishu-Sama, every day that goes by, Messianic believers are receiving more support from the general society as they develop these clean-up campaigns, all over Africa. These campaigns, in addition to cleaning up material dirt, also clean spiritual impurities – mostly impurities in our feelings, in our hearts – and open up space for us to do evil things. So, as these clean-up campaigns are expanded, society begins to join us, and we go on brightening up the Spiritual World, so that our Divine Particles can expand and be used by God in building Paradise. It is a great dedication effort that I would like to see continued.
It was interesting to see, a few days ago, that in Mozambique, believers were also engaged in a clean-up campaign that included more than three hundred Messianics. During the clean-up and flower distribution, a couple went by. They received the flower and Johrei. While they were receiving Johrei, the wife began to cry.
She said: “We are going to get a divorce. My husband is taking me back to my family’s home, today!” Then the Messianic said: “Please, come inside the Johrei Center!”
They went in and, after receiving orientation, they pardoned each other and decided to work on their marriage. Later, they joined our Church.
This was a small outcome of our clean-up service, of our flower distribution on behalf of a better world. We are going to continue this work all over Africa.
21st Century Noah’s Ark
Today, we heard the Teaching of the Month. Meishu-Sama talks about the Final Judgment and about Noah’s Ark.
Lately, our dear president, Minister Tetsuo Watanabe, has been talking a lot about the need to build the 21st Century Noah’s Ark. Among many 21st Noah’s Arks, the first will be our Sacred Grounds in Africa. We are putting a lot of effort into it. There are other bigger arks, that is, Nature Farming Hubs. We are striving to have each one of our Church’s Agricultural Hub become a model for other growers and the general society.
Other Arks are the Religious Units. However, the basis of these 21st Century Noah’s Arks is our home! What is the effort I am making for my home to become another mini 21st Century Noah’s Ark? A place that can become a safe haven amidst the whirlpool our society is going through, a place where there is health, prosperity, peace, good will to serve society, to serve Humankind!
Meishu-Sama Does Not Ask the Impossible From Anybody!
These 21st Century Noah’s Arks based on our own homes must find their foundation on Johrei! Johrei is what enlivens our Church, and therefore it cannot be practiced only when there are problems or purifications. Johrei must be an active part of our families’ daily lives.
It is the Light of Johrei that will naturally awaken the Divine Particle within us and allow it to operate freely; it allows God to act freely through each one of us. But, the environment in which to practice Johrei must be prepared through deep cleaning and the implementation of a homegrown vegetable garden and natural food.
Every day, we hear about the escalation of disease all over the world. Even in Angola, 20 years ago, chancre and other modern diseases were not as widespread as they are today. These diseases are caused by the kind of food we eat. Everything we eat and drink becomes seeds of our health, or illness.
That is why the creation of these 21st Century Noah’s Arks is based on Nature Farming and Healthy Food. I would like all of you to think more about that. Where is the food that my family eats daily coming from?
There are still few of us who grow food according to Nature Farming techniques. So, we need to increase the number of homegrown gardens by guiding people we know and who grow crops, or who have bigger backyards, to start producing natural food.
Let’s not wait for a severe disease to enter our homes and then say: “Oh! I need to eat natural food!” Natural food would then become therapy. We must prevent disease by changing our eating habits, by increasing our natural food consumption.
This is why, every day, thanks to God and the Messiah Meishu-Sama, there is an ever growing number of students and people contacting our agriculture school in Cacuaco. The growers who are beginning to have access to this method are getting good results.
But I feel there must be more effort on the part of each one of us, Messianics, to make our society aware of the importance of practicing Nature Farming, and of consuming products grown according to this technique in our daily lives.
Even the increase in violence we see in our society today is directly related to our eating habits! The greater our chemical intake, the dirtier our blood, the higher our propensity to aggression!
In order to enjoy more harmony in our homes, it is necessary to increase the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and produce grown according to Nature Farming.
This is one of the best activities we can develop if we want to change our society; let’s practice and expand the concept of Nature Farming and Natural Food.
Salvation Philosophy
Every day, the problems in our society show us the extent to which our lives are far removed from the Laws of Nature. Almost 20 years ago, our President Watanabe offered us a Salvation Philosophy that addresses our nonconformity with the laws of nature.
I would like to read some of this philosophy to you. But I will read it in the first person. This is how I would like to share it with you.
LAWS OF NATURE AND THE MISSION OF MOKICHI OSAKA’S PHILOSOPHY
For three thousand years, I, Claudio Cristiano Leal Pinheiro, have been progressively moving away from the Laws of Nature, which is also the Law of the Universe, God’s Will, Truth.
Driven by materialism, which leads me to believe only in what I see, and by selfishness, which makes me act based on my own personal convenience, I have become a prisoner of excessive and inconsequent ambition, and thus I have been disrupting our planet’s balance creating, for myself and for others, disagreement and unhappiness.
The severe consequences of my disregard for the Laws of Nature are visible in education, art, agriculture, medicine, healthcare, the environment, politics, economy and all the other fields of human activity.
This situation has reached its limits. If I continue to act like this, I will certainly end up by destroying the planet and myself.
Mokiti Okada’s philosophy has the purpose of awakening me, calling my attention to this sad reality. It cultivates spiritualism and altruism, making me believe in the invisible, and it teaches me that spirit and feelings exist not only in human beings, but also in animals, plants, and other beings.
The diffusion of Johrei, the development of Nature Farming, and the dissemination of Beauty, are basic practices derived from Mokiti Okada’s philosophy that are capable of changing me from a materialistic person into a more spiritualist one and from a selfish into a selfless person, thus giving back to the planet its original balance.
His ultimate goal is to redirect me into a life in conformity with the Laws of Nature, and to build a new civilization based on true health, prosperity, and peace.
So, this is the reflection based on Salvation Philosophy that I would like us all to make from now on. The path to changing society begins with me; it begins with this change that happens inside each one of us and that changes us from selfish into selfless people, from materialists into spiritualists.
Meishu-Sama teaches us that every complicated problem always involves selfishness and attachment! And one of the ways to stop being selfish is to think about making other people happy. Planting the seed of happiness through daily actions is what changes my fate, my family’s and society’s fate as well.
Experience of Faith in the Province of Bié
Last week, I received a report from a 10-year old girl, from the Province of Bié, who had heard about our Church when her father abandoned her mother. They had nothing to eat at home. The girl had many conflicts in school, where she was bullied, and had health problems and inflammation in her body.
She and her mother began to come to our Church and to receive Johrei. As attendees, her mother said to her: “Dear, let’s try to do what they are telling us to do. Let’s make people happy!”
They started a homegrown vegetable garden in their backyard and began to grow many flowers, and every day the girl made 50 flowers of light to take to school and she distributed some along the way, in the street, to her neighbors. In a month’s time, she distributed more than 1,500 flowers of light that she picked and made herself!
Then, the colleagues who used to despise her began to talk to her and the same happened with her teachers. Her colleague’s parents came to her and said: “Ever since my son started taking home this flower you give him, our home has become more pleasant! What a good thing you are doing!”
Her health also began to improve. Her mother started a new business that became profitable and so they were no longer hungry. Sometime later, her father looked her mother up, asked her to pardon him and they got back together. She and her mother have received Ohikari and now they give Johrei as members of our Church!
A 10-year old girl changed the fate of her family by practicing altruistic love, by worrying about making someone happy, every day.
Are we going to follow her example? I believe that together, following her example, we will quickly turn the construction of our Sacred Grounds Africa into a reality.
Thank you! Have a good Sunday, and much happiness to all of you!
Thank you all!
Min. Claudio Cristiano Leal Pinheiro, President of the World Messianic Church of Africa
