“Grandchildren are the crown of the aged…” Proverbs 17:6a (ESV)

As I write about leaving a legacy, a Story of God’s Goodness has burst upon the scene regarding a legacy in my life. This is a living illustration of legacy leaving.

The Bible teaches that grandkids are the crown of the aged. Anyone and everyone who is a grandparent know the truth of this Bible verse. Children are incredible, but grandchildren are uniquely wonderful.

This verse became a greater reality to me when my oldest granddaughter, Keila Asaoka, graduated from Maranatha High School. I was asked to be the Keynote Speaker at the Commencement Ceremony held at Lake Avenue Congregation Church. As a bonus, they asked Keila to introduce me to the 3,000 plus parents, grandparents, family members and friends gathered to celebrate the Class of 2017.

Allow me to be a proud grandpa for a moment and share what she said:

“I have the awesome privilege of introducing a very special guest.

He has been the senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of San Gabriel Valley for forty years! He coached the Maranatha girls volleyball team for over ten years, helping lead them to their FIRST (and only) CIF championship in 1987. He even helped coach girls’ basketball for a few years. He has been a mentor and father figure, not only to student athletes, but also to faculty like Mr. Rouse and Coach Rivas. He was a member of the search committee for our current head of school, Dr. Sherman.

 He has had a RICH history with Maranatha the past thirty years not only as coach, but also as parent and now grandparent. He is a humble servant leader, loves Jesus and always makes family a priority. He is a man of integrity and the most generous person I know. (Thanks for always making sure my Starbucks app is loaded so I can treat my friends and siblings.) 

It is with great pride and joy, that I introduce…my grandpa...The Reverend Cory Ishida.”

After she introduced me, I shared that her introduction was the best introduction I have ever had in over 40 years of ministry. It wasn’t just the words and thoughts she shared; it was the fact that she is my granddaughter. After all, she is one of the crowns in my life and part of a grandpa’s legacy.

God has been good to me over the course of my lifetime. The blessings have been many. My heart echoes the words of the Apostle Paul who wrote, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

As I think about Keila introducing me with poise under pressure (a value I teach as a parent and a coach), I cannot help but think about legacy leaving. I feel so proud and so blessed.

Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God alone)!

“The memory of the righteous is blessed.” Proverbs 10:7

An Average American will live 28,762 days. By our 70th birthday, we would have approximately spent:

• 25.6 years sleeping.
• 19 years working.
• 12.3 years watching television and playing.
• 6.7 years eating.
• 2.2 years getting ready.
• 1.1 years going to church

When we pass from the face of planet Earth, we will leave behind a memory with those we leave behind. What will that memory be like?

The Bible says in Proverbs 10:7, “The memory of the righteous is blessed.” A person who leads a righteous life will leave behind a memory that is blessed. Another way of saying this is that a righteous person will leave behind a blessed legacy.

What is a legacy?

According to Merriam-Webster, a legacy is “…money or property left to someone by a will; bequest; anything handed down from, or as from, an ancestor.” Most definitions of the word legacy dealt with money and property.

For our purposes, legacy will mean “the values and traditions of life you hand down to your children, your family, your church and your community.”

How important is a legacy? When I visit a person who is in their last days, they never say, “I should have spent more time with my business or career.”

Whenever I do a funeral, I interview the family and ask them to talk about the deceased. They never talk about how much money their loved one made or how materialistically successful they were or were not. They normally reminisce about the values and traditions they instilled in the lives of family and friends.

What will your descendants say about you when you pass from this life into the next? What they say, what they remember and how they live their lives will be your legacy.

Here are the first two of nine thoughts about legacy that might be helpful to you.

1.    Everyone leaves a legacy.
Whether you want to or not, everyone leaves a legacy. You will hand down either lessons for life or leftovers from life. You can be either pro-active or passively-active regarding your legacy. Regardless, everyone leaves a legacy. There is no avoiding it.

2.    Everyone has been left a legacy.
Your main legacy-leavers were probably your parents. Other legacy leavers are family members, spiritual leaders, teachers and coaches to name a few. Many of your values and actions are the result of a legacy.

Legacies impact everyone one way or another.

Something to think about and more to come…

by Alicia Liu

When Pastor Ron sent out the email on RPM (Releasing Prayer Ministry) training, I signed up right away. I really wanted to learn more about how to facilitate RPM because I was so blessed when I received RPM before and I wanted to be able to bless others through this ministry. I was excited to see what amazing things God would do and what he would reveal to me in the training session.

The training was very organized. We each received a folder that included all the material needed to conduct a RPM session. Pastor Ron and Carol went through the training material thoroughly. During the live demo, God showed up. The volunteer who received RPM was able to release something that had been buried and was brought to tears as the burden was lifted off. Then we broke off into small groups of 3 people and a coach to practice. Even with the limited time, we were able to squeeze in two practice sessions.

During our first session, I was able to attempt facilitating a session. Initially I was very nervous about following the training material perfectly but when I relinquished my attempt at perfection and allowed the Spirit to intervene, the atmosphere changed. I was so glad and relieved that the receiver was able to release the burdens and receive blessings from the Lord despite my inexperience. I learned so much from our coach and my group.

I volunteered as a receiver for the second session. I was able to connect with the Lord immediately because He prepared my heart the night before. It was easy to release to Him an issue that I was struggling with for the past two weeks. I didn’t realize how powerful it was to release this issue and confess my sins verbally to my sisters in Christ. The blessings I received from the Lord as well as through my sisters brought so much comfort to me and filled my heart with joy. 

I came with an expectation that God would do great things, but He did so much more. God is so good to have blessed my sisters and I during this training session. RPM is such an awesome ministry to allow people to alleviate their burdens to the Lord and to receive from the Lord.

One of the great privileges I experienced over the course of my ministry was the opportunity to meet Coach John Wooden. I attended UCLA in the late 1960’s, finished my course work in late 1970 and walked in 1971. During that span of time, Coach Wooden’s basketball record was 120-4 with four consecutive National Championships.

As we were preparing to have Coach Wooden speak at our Asian American Christian Counseling Service fundraising event, I was able to visit him at his home along with my daughter, Bethany, also a UCLA graduate. A good friend, Ron Fukushima, arranged the meeting.

Coach Wooden was a gracious, friendly, humble man who loved to quote poetry and was full of thoughtful insights. I was having a marvelous time.

We started talking about his various basketball teams when I stated that my favorite teams were the 1963-65 teams featuring Gail Goodrich, Walt Hazard and Keith Erickson because they were overachievers who used the full court press. I said that they gave 110%.

Coach Wooden politely said to me that no one is capable of giving 110%. The most effort anyone can give is 100%. I didn’t want to say that I was speaking in hyperbole. Instead, I stood corrected and learned something from him.

I learned that, indeed, no one can really give 110% effort. However, when we give 100% effort, it seems like 110% because we usually give far less than 100%.

I also realized how much we can learn from our mistakes. In fact, that is one of the ways I have learned things over the years… through a myriad of my mistakes and the mistakes of others.

I appreciated Coach Wooden correcting the error of my thinking. It’s the moment I remember the best during our visit with him (along with him personally signing a basketball for me and for Bethany).

Ever since then, 1 Corinthians 10:31 has taken on a significant meaning for me whenever I coach. I never ask a team to give 110% effort. Rather, I ask them to do as Paul commanded when he wrote, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

I ask them to give their maximum effort to the glory of God.

In the things that we do, do we give maximum effort to the glory of God?

Something to think about…

Note: In the future, if I write about what I have learned through a mistake, I will entitle the piece “110%”.

by Gary Murakami

Matthew 19:4-6

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Married Couples in Christ (MC2) is a ministry for married couples who want to grow in their relationship to God, their spouse, and other couples in the group. Our couples are newlywed to 37 years married with the average at 19 years married.

Before Evergreen SGV moved to our current campus in 2007, two MC2 marriage groups were meeting in homes in Arcadia and Walnut. In order to capitalize on meeting space at the church property and the close proximity of the youth group meetings, the two groups merged into one group in 2008. We now meet in the Café primarily on the first Fridays of the month at the same time as the youth group meetings.

Generally, our format begins with yummy snacks as couples arrive. Then we have a devotional message from our speaker who could be Pastor Cory or any of the other pastors. Examples of some of the past topics are: Five Requirements for Successful Change, Rules for Life, Praying as a Couple, Fellowship with Family, and Stages of Marriage. Discussion questions are provided by the speaker and are discussed as we break up into small groups of 3 or 4 couples to share and pray.

A feature of this marriage ministry is that we provide childcare for young children on campus for a nominal fee. Some of our meetings are actually designated as “date nights”. On these nights, after a short devotional, the couples go off-site on their own for a date where they can discuss a list of questions given to them. Childcare is available for these nights too.

We also have enjoyed special meetings where a catered dinner is served or a movie is shown. At our November meeting last year, we hosted a square dance for couples in the church with a professional caller. Pastor Cory does not enjoy square dancing but he even said it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. Because it was so popular, we will be repeating it again this November.

The leadership for MC2 consists of Pastor Ron Miyake, Sherry & Jimmy Lee, Donelle & Gary Murakami, Stella & Benny Wu, Anna & Allen Yee, and Arlene & Gary Yee. The aim of the leadership core is to serve the couples in the ministry so that those couples can grow in their marriages.

Through the years I have been involved with this ministry, I have experienced blessings as I witness the same results year after year.

·         Couples are engaged with each other. As I observe couples in their groups, they are interested, and ready to share. Even the reluctant spouse warms up after a short while and actively participates in discussing things about their marriage.

·         Couples become friends. Invariably, couples connect with other couples in their small group and get to know someone else that they did not even know before or get to know acquaintances at a deeper level. These ties have led to many couples becoming friends for years afterwards.

·         Couples support one another. As we learn new principles or practices that will help our marriages, it is not always easy to make the necessary changes. I am blessed that couples pray for one another to support each other and follow up later to help them be accountable.

·         Couples realize that they are not so different from others. This is a very common occurrence shared by our couples. As we share about our marriages, we find that we imagined we were the only ones with marriages like ours, but we are wrong; we are really much more alike than we thought.

I have a lot to be thankful for as God has blessed the couples that have committed to investing in their marriages by attending MC2.

 Because we value having stable, consistent small groups, we open up the ministry to new couples at the beginning of the year. We would love to have other couples join us for our next session beginning in January 2018. Announcements for signups will be made beginning in November.