Cleaning God’s House
What a joy and pleasure it is to clean God’s House, our home! It’s a privilege in fact to make God’s house shine and sparkle during this annual church event held on August, 23. And you know, the Japantown Community comes out to experience this same uplifting time with us! Along with church members, there were the kids and adult leaders from Scout Troop 201, CYS, and members of Silicon Valley JACL participating. Thank you and accolades to all.
It really was a “whistle while you work” experience as everyone partook of the opportunity to chit-chat, talk story, and bond in this communal work experience. The laughter and chatter was infectious. And in a couple three hours, it was all done, the Sanctuary and Chapel (pews, sacred elements, doors, carpets and frames and molding), the classrooms (floors, windows, chairs), Fellowship Hall (floors scrubbed, waxed and polished; kitchen (stove, oven, counters, cupboards, and refrigerator); admin office (windows, cupboards and refrigerator); outside windows, screens and frames, and bathrooms were now squeaky clean.
Wow! Our house sparkled. And God smiled and blessed us all including the yummy meal we were fed for our effort. Mark Iwagakii and Zena Fong and their cooking crew had hamburgers and cheeseburgers, all the fixings and condiments, chips, cookies, jello salad, and drinks. We were sated after and went home for a nap, but we were smiling too, of course.
Thank you to everyone, the church village, team leaders for each area, the Board of Trustees, the community, and especially a huge shout-out to perennial over site person, DeeDee Azuma. She does all the prep work a day before, provides appropriate cleaning solutions for each area, supplies the crew with mops, buckets, rags, and much needed signage in every area, on every element to be cleaned. At the end of our stint and all signs removed, the church is clean!!! She makes the village’s work easy. Oh, and finally after decades, DeeDee allowed the precious Yamaha Grand Piano to be cleaned (outside only). Thank you, DeeDee.
Acknowledgements from DeeDee:
* Wayne Kuwada and his apprentice Brent Nunokawa who stayed way after Cleanup Day ended to finish up the Fellowship Hall floors.
* Scout leaders Ham Tran and Tom Oda who directed 20 Scouts who worked to show their thanks to Wesley Church for sponsoring the Scout Troop.
* BOT members CleanUp Day CoChair Cindy Fukuda, Brian Hamilton, Tomoko Tanaka, and Mark Iwagaki
* Mimune Tsukamoto who led a hardworking team of faithful Nichigo members
It really was a “whistle while you work” experience as everyone partook of the opportunity to chit-chat, talk story, and bond in this communal work experience. The laughter and chatter was infectious. And in a couple three hours, it was all done, the Sanctuary and Chapel (pews, sacred elements, doors, carpets and frames and molding), the classrooms (floors, windows, chairs), Fellowship Hall (floors scrubbed, waxed and polished; kitchen (stove, oven, counters, cupboards, and refrigerator); admin office (windows, cupboards and refrigerator); outside windows, screens and frames, and bathrooms were now squeaky clean.
Wow! Our house sparkled. And God smiled and blessed us all including the yummy meal we were fed for our effort. Mark Iwagakii and Zena Fong and their cooking crew had hamburgers and cheeseburgers, all the fixings and condiments, chips, cookies, jello salad, and drinks. We were sated after and went home for a nap, but we were smiling too, of course.
Thank you to everyone, the church village, team leaders for each area, the Board of Trustees, the community, and especially a huge shout-out to perennial over site person, DeeDee Azuma. She does all the prep work a day before, provides appropriate cleaning solutions for each area, supplies the crew with mops, buckets, rags, and much needed signage in every area, on every element to be cleaned. At the end of our stint and all signs removed, the church is clean!!! She makes the village’s work easy. Oh, and finally after decades, DeeDee allowed the precious Yamaha Grand Piano to be cleaned (outside only). Thank you, DeeDee.
Acknowledgements from DeeDee:
* Wayne Kuwada and his apprentice Brent Nunokawa who stayed way after Cleanup Day ended to finish up the Fellowship Hall floors.
* Scout leaders Ham Tran and Tom Oda who directed 20 Scouts who worked to show their thanks to Wesley Church for sponsoring the Scout Troop.
* BOT members CleanUp Day CoChair Cindy Fukuda, Brian Hamilton, Tomoko Tanaka, and Mark Iwagaki
* Mimune Tsukamoto who led a hardworking team of faithful Nichigo members
Art Black, Sanctuary lead, directs Kristin To and Gail Sueki from the Silicon Valley JACL.
Mimune Tsukamoto plies his vacuuming skill in the chapel with Kazuko Hughes straightening up the books.
With the village working together, our house was clean before noon. The Scouts were a huge help.
The cleaner of floors is perennial favorite, Wayne Kuwada (right) giving direction to his apprentice Brent Nunokawa
Brad Gee does some high ladder work cleaning the cross with Tomoko Tanaka keeping it steady and below, Jeffrey Oldham, finishes the top.
Warren Shimonishi helped clean the outside windows and coverings while Joanne Miyahara spot cleaned the Sanctuary carpet below.
Always smiling, Brian Hamilton tidied up the Admin. office.
The nichigo also took care of the Library shown here with Mieko Tsukamoto.
Yes, even the young got involved.
Tackling the yucky kitchen took elbow grease and hardwork with Tom Maeda (above) taking care of the wok area and Warren Uesato (below) cleaning the area around it sometimes with a toothbrush.
Cynthia Fukuda and Tom continue in the kitchen.
Mark Iwagaki (left) and Jim Mar cooked hamburgers and cheeseburgers to everyone's delight.
Eating and sharing a meal with one another is the icing on the cake after a hard-day's work with from left: Zena Fong, John Ng, and Brian Hamilton, totally satisfied.
Posted in Newsletter 2025-09-25