New Year with New Events -
    Sangha outings and more!
 

Happy New Year to all Central California Nishi Hongwanji Sangha friends! We welcomed the start of year 2023. Again, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all of you for your support and guidance during 2022. I sincerely hope that you will continue your support to your respective CC temples and churches.
 

Each month, I have been attending 4 temple/church board meetings whether in person or via zoom. Last Spring, their boards started discussing whether they will fully open their facility to Sangha, after they had tested a “partial” opening for several months. Since, they have been discussing how they can welcome back their Sangha friends to their Sunday and weekday church activities like before the pandemic.
 

Visalia Buddhist Church has their board meetings on the first Tuesday of each month. Their official board meeting starts at 7pm, but I always leave my house at 5pm on that day to attend their 6pm board dinner at KFC at the Visalia shopping center. During the dinner, many topics are discussed. One of the discussion topics of September was how to motivate their members back to Sunday services. I commented “our members come on Sundays, not only for listening to the Dharma, but also for chatting so they can enjoy their friendships. While churches have been closed under restrictions, many public and private business have been reopened. Why don’t we plan for an outing to restart friendships with fun.” My comment became an idea at the KFC and was added to the board meeting agenda. Visalia BWA leadership graciously arranged the outing, and my idea was named “Visalia BWA Fun Trip with Rev. Kaz”. I told them even if we get a handful people for the outing, we will just do it for fun. Based on their membership, I thought if we get a half dozen of people, it would be successful. On November 19th, 15 members arrived for the outing. I thought it was a great turnout for their membership.
 

One of their BWA leaders, Kathy Ishimoto wrote an article of the outing. I would like to share it with you.
 

               “VISALIA BWA TRIP TO THREE RIVERS”

Several weeks ago, at Reverend Kaz’s suggestion, we started planning a small side trip to somewhere local just to get away. He felt we needed a distraction from our quarterly fundraisers and we needed to get together for something fun, not work. We decided on having lunch in Three Rivers with a stop at Reimer’s on the way home.

We met at the church on November 19, 2022 at 10am and in four cars, caravanned to a quaint little town, Three Rivers with 17 people to eat lunch at the Gateway Restaurant. If you’ve never been to Three Rivers, the drive is about a 45-minute scenic drive from Visalia straight up Highway 198 east. We all were a happy group after a satisfying, delicious lunch; sandwiches and hamburgers with the best fries ever! And if that wasn’t enough, we stopped at a long time, local confectionery in Three Rivers, Reimer’s Candies for their specialties; chocolate candy, candies, and ice cream. Some of us braved crossing the street to purchase some yummy beef jerky, as well as other types of exotic jerky….elk, deer, alligator, etc. Then we sat and soaked in that beautiful sunshine while eating our ice creams.

General consensus was the weather was beautiful and the company was great! We will definitely do this again sometime soon, maybe a different locale and just as fun.

                                                  In Gassho, Kathy Ishimoto

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I strongly believe that our temple and churches are the place for learning Buddha Dharma to make our life more appreciative and meaningful, as well as enjoying friendship. I am sure our CC leaders are planning to launch new activities or events for our enjoyment. Buddha Dharma teaches us that things are constantly changing. So, we must adjust ourselves to the post-pandemic environment to continue to make our Buddhist society enjoyable.

Gassho

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