Good morning everyone.

Since last month, we have had 4 wonderful guest speakers. They were Rev. Yukawa, Rev. Harada and our 2 Dharma school students Courtney Kashiwagi and Brooke Muranaka. Even the most experienced speakers are nervous before speaking…I am sure that especially, for Courtney and Brooke they were nervous to speak in front of all of us. But, they both shared wonderful messages. Again, I want to give them a big hand…

As I announced at our last Sunday Dharma school service, we had the Butsuren Bodhi day service this past Friday night. After the service, we served beef curry rice for all those in attendance. Last Thursday, Michi and I started to prepare to make the curry. We estimated that 100 people may attend the service.

So, Michi and I went shopping to get the ingredients for the curry. We purchased 8 pounds of carrot, 15 pounds of onion, 20 pounds of potato, 15 pound of beef and 40 pounds of rice. It was a lot!!

On Friday, we started to cook the curry from 10 am. It was easy to peel all of the potatoes and carrots because we used a peeler. However, when we cut the onions…we cried…

We spent most of the time just boiling the vegetables to make them soft. We had the curry pots on the stove, simmering with a small fire for hours. If you cook it slowly, it becomes even more delicious…

Anyway, we prepared beef curry rice for 100 people. Although Friday night was rainy, many people still came for the Bodhi day service. Right after the service, Betsuin choir members helped us to serve the curry. Most of the people ate 2 or 3 servings and they said “it was very delicious”.

We had left over curry rice. And so we donated it to the boy scouts who were having a sleep over and also to Reiko’s kitchen.

It was nice that many people helped us to clean up the kitchen.

On the way home, I told Michi in the car that although it was quite a bit of work, I enjoyed cooking and serving the curry for everyone. Everyone seemed pleased and enjoyed eating our curry and said “thank you.” It was nice.

We don’t have many chances to help with something like this. We really felt it was wonderful to volunteer for this event.”

Then Michi said “our work today was well done. So, when we get home, shall we give a toast to all of our work…?”

And so on Friday night about 10 p.m., Michi and I said “thank you to each other and said, Cheers!!”

It was the long day for us, but also, it was the happy day for us.

In Gassho