Good morning everyone. Last week, I talked about the Tsunami disaster in Asia. I said that “Natural disasters like a Tsunami or an earthquake just happen.” It’s a part of nature.

Last Friday, our Betsuin Buildings encountered a mini-natural disaster. It was 2:30 PM. Heavy black clouds covered the sky. Then I heard the sound of thunder followed by heavy rain…really heavy rain.

A couple of minutes later, Mr. Bob Chavez rushed into the office and said “the rain water may reach the Main Hondo.”

When I heard this, I went to the Betsuin garden. Because, last year, our Betsuin hallways flooded from the garden.

Mr. Chaves and I started to quickly wipe off the water from the garden. But, the water flow was very fast. It was like running water. So, this time I could not take a movie. With brooms and mops we tried to push the water down the hallways and out the door.

But, unfortunately the water reached our Hondo, our Nokotsudo and the Kaikan too!

20 minutes later, some members Mr. Ray Takata, Mr. Sam Adachi and Mr. Frank Hirota came to help us sweep the water away.

Mr. Takata said “there is a drain in the garden. But it didn’t work. That’s why it was flooded.”

Finally, about 1 and a half hours later, we were able to sweep away all of the water from our Betsuin buildings. Last year we also had a heavy rain and our Betsuin was flooded. But last Friday’s flood was worse than last year.

X-street, next to the Betsuin was again also flooded. Mr. Adachi checked the drains. It was a filed with garbage and litter. That’s why the drains didn’t work.

A channel 3 reporter and a camera-man came to the Betsuin to film the flooding and for an interview! Mr. Hirota swept the hall again to show them what happened and what we did to remove the water. So, some of you saw what happened on Channnel 3 last night.

All of our Temple buildings were built by the donations and efforts of so many good and dedicated members. So, I really tried hard to wipe away the water.

Sometimes we see graffiti on public or private buildings.

Sometimes we see litter and garbage on our freeway and streets.

Unfortunately, I even found graffiti in our church bathroom and carving on the balcony seats!

In living our lives, we cannot avoid the times we encounter Natural disasters. But we can protect our temple buildings and our environment from disasters caused by people…like graffiti or dumping garbage.

Shakyamuni said “sometimes people do bad things without truly thinking. So, we should always try to think clearly about the consequences of our actions. This is most important”

Gassho

When we have stress or when we are feeling bad, we sometimes do things without thinking clearly.

But, we should always try to keep our minds focused on our actions…and act responsibly.