ＭＷＣ世界大会参加の旅（１）　ハリスバーグへ　日本キリスト兄弟（けいてい）団　　岡崎新太郎

“A Trip to the Participation of MWC Assembly Gathered”(1) Go toward Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

目を上げて、わたしは山々を仰ぐ。
わたしの助けはどこから来るのか。
わたしの助けは来る
天地を作られた主のもとから。
（詩編１２１：１）。

“I will lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from ?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and the earth.”
[Psalm 121:1-2 (NIV)]

忙し過ぎる毎日は、思いがけない自分の弱さを露わにし、疲れ果ててアメリカへの旅になりました。２週間の休暇のつもりで、行って来よう。それでよいよ、という山口県の教会の兄弟姉妹とわが家族の励ましに、ここで何かの区切りをつけたいという希望もありました。

７月１５日に下関を出発し福岡空港から成田空港までの国内の旅は、予定通りで、まあ何とか出発できたなあという安堵感でいっぱいでした。

Too busy every day before the departure it became the trip to the United States that I did surprising one’s weakness openly and was exhausted. I will go with the intention of the two-week vacation. There were the encouragement of the sisters and brothers of the church of the Yamaguchi prefecture and my family “to be fine”, and the hope to want to be used to divide anything myself here.
I left Shimonoseki on July 15th and the domestic trips from Fukuoka Airport to Narita Airport were on schedule. Oh, it was full of the sense of relief that I was able to start on somehow.

成田空港に着いて飛行機のステップを降りていると、これ、これの方は、お伝えすることがありますという手持ちの横断幕があり、そこに私の名前が記されていました。事務所に連れてゆかれて、福岡からの飛行機が、空港が混んでいるため着陸できず２０分遅れた、よって乗り継ぎのアメリカまでの飛行機には乗れないということでした。まだ３０分ぐらい余裕があり、次の飛行機は飛び立ってないのに、何とかならないのかとは思いましたが、どうしようもありません。同じような憂き目にあった人が５，６人ありました。アメリカからさらに乗り継いで中南米まで行く予定の人が多く、ＡＮＡも対応に困っている様子でした。

When I arrived at Narita Airport and went down the ramp of the airplane, I discovered the two-pole banner outside which we might tell you about such persons, and my name was written down there. When I was led to the airport office, there was the explanation from the person in charge saying “you cannot get an airplane to the United States of the transit because a runway was crowded, and an airplane from Fukuoka could not land in the case and late for 20 minutes”.
However, they had the time of around 30 minutes to spare, and the planned airplane which I boarded has not still yet flown away. There is not it though I carry it how. There were five or six similar people who suffered it. There were many planned people who changed it more from the United States, and went to Central and South America, and it looked like the correspondence was troubled with ANA (All Nippon Airplanes).

私の方は新しい旅程を策定するために５時間待たされ、結局翌日１１時の便になることになり、その晩は成田空港の近くに宿泊することになりました。空港内での夕食も、ホテルの宿泊料もＡＮＡ持ちということで、こんなこともあるのだなと納得をしました。ＡＮＡの担当の女性がホテルに行くバス停まで送ってくれて、自分は教師になることも考えたが、今はここで働いている。この夏に会社の同期の仲間とアメリカ旅行に行く。２週間もアメリカに滞在とは羨ましいです。といった会話になりました。娘たちと同じ世代であり、頑張ってくださいとこちらからエールを送ってわかれました。

I was kept waiting for five hours to devise a new itinerary and it would become the flight of the departure the following day at 11:00 after all, and I would stayed in the evening near Narita Airport. The dinner in the airport and the hotel charge were ANA paid after all. I understood when I might not come. A woman of the charge of ANA sent me to the bus stop to hotels. By the conversation of two on the way, she thought about becoming a school teacher, but she worked there here, and she planned to go to trip to United States with company’s friends this summer. When I talked to her about my two weeks trip to U.S.A, she said to me, “It is very enviable”. She was of my daughters’ generation and I sent Yale from this when I did my best to her and parted.

ホテルについての第一の仕事は、ＭＷＣの旅行を管理している事務所への一日遅れてゆくという連絡です。国内から初めてアメリカに向けて携帯電話を使う羽目になりました。

自分の携帯電話が壊れて、修理に出さざるを得ず、出発の前日に借用した携帯電話です。

成田空港のＡＵのお店で使い方を習ったばかりです。向こうでは今がちょうど朝の９時ごろ、オフィスが開くころだと見はからって電話を入れました。よく通じません。私は日本英語、相手の方はスパニッシュ英語。お互いに相手が何を言っているのかわかりません。言いたいだけのことを勝手に言って電話を切りました。

I arrived at the hotel, and my first work was communication to go to the destination to the office which managed my trip of MWC one day late. I was made to use the cell-phone for the first time for the United States from Japan. My cell-phone was broken and couldn’t but send it on repair. This borrowed it on the day before departure. And I just learned how to use this cell-phone in a shop of the phone company AU of Narita Airport. Because the United State was about 9:00 of just the morning now, I waited until the time when their office was open and called them. A partner did not understand the content of the telephone well. My English was Japanese English, and the partner was speaking Spanish English. We did not understand what both partners said each other. I talked to my partner what I wanted say, and I said without permission and hung up.

それから一時間後、再度電話を入れると今度はこれまで旅の手配をしてくれた方が出てきて、やっと要件を伝えることができました。ちゃんとワシントン・ダラス空港に迎えの人がいるように手配をすると言ってくれました。イギリス英語をゆっくり話してくれると私もわかります。海外の神学校で学んだり、宣教に出かける方々は大変なことをやっているのだなと感心したり、神さまから与えられた賜物はいろいろ違うのだなと胸にすとんと落ちるように納得しました。西村信恵姉の来年度の歩みと石戸兄の留学のことを考え、この旅の中で私にも何かを示してくださいと祈っている最中でしたので、「神さまからここで奉仕せよという言葉は、そこに主の最善の配慮があるのだと信頼せよということを含むのだな。」と思わされました。

大きな岩をふたつ立てた門、見事な庭木、庭を散策するための踏み石、そして井戸、このお宅には広々とした敷地に豪壮な日本家屋が建っていたのでしょうか。住まわれていた方の無念さ、残念さを思います。

Then it was one hour later, when I called them again, a person who arranged my trip came out to a telephone until now this time, and I was able to inform my schedule at last. She told me to arrange a person to pick me up in Washington Dulles International Airport. I understood her English, because she talked to me about those in British English slowly. When I thought about people studying at an overseas theological college or going for the mission of Christianity abroad, I made interest in their challenge through my communication in this English. I understood so that what refuse fell into my heart at all when the gift from God was different in a person each.
I am praying to God that it was what or showed it to me on this trip while thinking of step of following year of Sister Nobue Nishimura and studying abroad to the United States of the Brother Ishido. I was made to think that it was, “the word that I served from God here includes that I trusted it because there was the best consideration of the master there” about it.

思わぬ成田での一泊の後、朝１１時からのフライトは１３時間。何度か食事が出ましたが、夕食なのか朝食なのかわからず、ただ、しばらく日本食とはお別れかと若干の感傷めいた思いもありました。眠ったのか眠ってないのか定かでない空の旅です。

After a night in unexpected Narita, it was flight 13 hours from 11:00 am in Japan.
I was boarding an airplane, and a meal appeared several times, but there was only whether the Japanese foods were parting for a while thought of some sentiment without knowing it whether it was breakfast or dinner. It was the air travel that was not sure whether I did not sleep whether I slept.

現地時間７月１６日の昼ごろワシントン・ダラス空港に無事到着。いろいろの入国手続きも終了。ほっとして出口にいき、誰か私の名前を掲げた人を探しましたが誰もいません。トラブルがあっても日本語で解決できる、しかも至れり尽くせりのサービスの日本ではないぞと覚悟を決めましたが、落ち着きません。ＭＷＣの例の事務所に電話を入れましたら、荷物取り出し口ＮＯ―８で待てとの指示。そこに行きますがそれらしい人はいません。午後１時にはＭＷＣ手配のホテルへのシャトルが出ると前に送ってもらった書類に書いてあったので、誰かいるはずだと、うろうろするが誰もいません。１時は過ぎ、２時になり、３時になるが誰も来ません。

I arrived at the Washington Dulles Airport safely on about the daytime of July 16 in local time, and various entry formalities went finished, too. I was relieved and went to the exit lobby, and I looked for the person who advocated my name, but there was nobody. When even if there was a trouble, it can be settled in Japanese and it was also not perfect like Japan. Therefore I was prepared for the one of a certain kind, but I did not calm down. When I called the office of MWC, I received the instruction when I waited in baggage lobby No-8. I went there, but there was not the person like it.
Because it was written in this trip schedule of MWC that the shuttle bus of the hotel which MWC arranged came to pick me up at 1:00 p.m. That’s why, when somebody should come to pick me up, I hung around the neighborhood, but nobody came. 1:00 passed, and it was 2:00, and it was 3:00, but nobody came.

そのうち荷物取り出し口ＮＯ―８の椅子にたくさんの荷物と共に座っている黒人のご夫婦が気になり始めました。これからどこに行くのでしょうか。着いたばかりなのでしょうか。私がうろうろしているあいだ中、ご主人の方はだまってびくともせず長椅子に座ってじっと本を読んでいる。　空港内の放送がかかりました。ＭＷＣの大会に参加の方々は入国出口に集まって下さいというものでした。やっとなんやらアナウンスがあったなと体を動かすと、例のご夫妻も体を動かし始める。そこで初めて、メノナイトの兄弟だとわかる。お互いに、にこにこして挨拶をする。アフリカのマラウェの方でありました。３人で動き始めると若い青年が近づいてくる。仲間とわかりました。後でフィリピンのメノナイト教会リーダーの息子さんでメサイヤ・カレッジに学んでいる青年だとわかりました。

I have begun to be interested in the black married couple who sat down on a bench of baggage lobby N0-8 with much baggage soon. “Where will they go from now on? Do they have just arrived? The husband during the interval that I hang around sits down on a bench without moving an inch in silence and reads a book.” I observed and thought about them on my mind. There was the announcement in the airport. It was a message that the people of the participation gathered at the lobby exit in a meeting of MWC.
At last when I moved my body after there was an announcement, that married couple has begun to move, too. Therefore I understood that they were Brother and Sister of Mennonites for the first time and both of us greeted with smile each other. They came from Malawi of Africa. When three of us began to move again, a young man approached us. He was identified as this participant. He was a son of the leaders of the Mennonite church of Philippines, and I just knew it with a young man studying in Messiah College of Pennsylvania later.

４人で入国出口に行き、探しましたがそれらしき人はいません。案内所で、誰がアナウンスを頼んだのか聞くがよくわからず、３０分ばかりそこでうろうろ。前の荷物取り出し口、ＮＯ―８に帰ろうということになりました。帰ってみると我々を入れて２０人ぐらいがＭＷＣのシンボルマークのところに集まっている。若い女性のリーダーの点呼が始まりました。４時半ごろでした。ここは日本ではない。指示の英語を聞き逃すとえらいことになる。２０人が二手にわけられメサイヤ・カレッジにゆく者、ラディソン・ホテルにゆく者にわけられました。確認。確認。俺はどっちだ。リーダーに確認。どうも、私はホテルらしい。午後５時ワシントン・ダラス空港を出発。何時間も悠々と読書をしているマラウィーの牧師さんにアフリカのクリスチャンのすごさを感じました。シンプルかつ腰の据わった信仰だな、脱帽でした。

Four of us went to the appointment place, but there was not the person like it there.
We should have asked it, and we did not know who asked for an announcement in the airport information desk. So we were at loss there for approximately 30 minutes. We decided to come back to the baggage lobby No-8. Around 20 people gathered to an emblem of MWC including us when we came back. Then the roll call of the young woman leader began. Half past four of the afternoon has already passed. I was fired up saying in my mind “I am to be serious when it was not Japan here and missed English of the guidance”. We twenty of us divided into two groups those who went to Messiah College and those who went to the Radisson hotel. “I have to do the confirmation, confirmation. Am I which one? I asked the leader about this. It seems to be a hotel for me”. Anyway I was cautious. At 5:00 p.m., the shuttle bus of the hotel left the Washington Dulles Airport. I felt the sturdiness of the African Christian for a pastor of Malawi which read leisurely for hours. When it was the simple faith that the waist also sat down, it was taking off the cap for me.

夕方５時にシャトルのバスが出発しました。１０人を少し超えての一団を運ぶバスは宿泊するホテルのものらしい。立派な紳士が運転をしています。外ははまだずいぶん明るい。広い平野を、しかしあちらこちらに果樹園が見える道路をバスが疾走します。これがペンシルバニアか。宣教師の方々が私の両親に何度もいらっしゃいと誘っていた地なのだ。我が家の信仰のふるさとがここなのだ、ここに来ているのだと不思議な思いでした。今年の初めまではまったくここに来る予定はなかった。出発までいろいろとあった。どこか失意の中であった。梅光退職４年目になるが何をしてきたのだろう。日本のＢＩＣは老齢化と若い世代が少ない中でどうしたらよいのだろう。本当のＢＩＣの信仰の継承とはどういうことだろう。ウィルムス農園は時間が割けず、後退に後退を重ねて一向に目標には近づかない。でも今不思議にここにいる、ここで何かを与えられたい、そんな感慨でした。

A shuttle bus departed at 5:00 in the evening. As for the bus which carried the group of more than ten of us, the hotel where we stayed at seemed to be owned. An excellent gentleman drove. The outside was still very bright. The bus ran at full speed on the road where scattering saw many orchards in large plains. “Is this Pennsylvania? It is the land which missionaries invited my parents to many times. But they have never been here. A hometown of the faith of my family is here. I come here now”. I felt mysterious in my mind.
I did not have the forthcoming plan here at all until the beginning of this year. It was a fact until my departure to have had possibilities to vary, but I felt like there having been it in some disappointment. Four years passed already after I retired from BAIKO GAKUIN. It was able to blow to think that I would do what so far. Members of Japan BIC (Brethren in Christ church) where I belong to is advancing aging and there are few young generations. I always think the future of BIC church how it is good. The succession of the faith of Japan BIC church will be what kind of thing. I repeat retreat for retreat and do not approach the aim at all without being able to spare the time when the thing which made Wilms Farm goes. But I am here strangely now. And it was such a deep emotion that I want to be given something here.

バスの中は多国籍社会。アフリカの人かな。中南米の人かな。英語が唯一の共通語です。隣の席の方がいきなり話しかけてきました。どこから来たか。日本。日本のどこか。東京か。いや違う。本州の西の端、下関というところ。韓国に近い。フェリーが出ている。あなたはどこからか。ドイツから。ウクライナの教会の支援をしている。

そこからウクライナ情勢の説明と対立する両派の軍事的な最前線に１８００万の人が住んでいて、いつ戦闘が起こるかわからない。ウクライナのメノナイト教会はその地帯の住民の支援をしている。ドイツのメノナイト教会も支援をしている。という話が始まりました。

It was multi-national society in the bus. There were people from Africa and Central and South America, too. English was the only common language. The person of the neighboring seat talked to me in English suddenly. He asked to me where came from. I said in broken English. “From Japan” “What part of Japan, Tokyo?” “ No, west part of Honshu island, Shimonoseki city, near South Korea, you can go there by ferry”
And I said “Where are you come from?” “We support churches of Ukraine”. He said. And then he explained about Ukraine’s state of affairs. “18 million people live in the military battle front district of the opposed Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russia group military. And they are afraid of when it takes place for the battle of both militaries not to understand. Some Mennonite churches of Ukraine support the people living in the area. German Mennonite churches also support the people of Ukraine”.

「私の両親はウクライナ人のメノナイトであった。スターリンの弾圧でウクライナから中央アジアに移住させられた。そこにはサハリンにいた韓国人も移住させられていて子ども時代には韓国人の子どもたちと遊んでいた。それが戦争だ。」という話も始まりました。 下関は広島、長崎に近い。福島の原発事故も大変だ。つたない英語で話をしました。こちらは詳しく自分の思いを伝えたかったのですが、言葉がつながりません。ああ、これから英語の世界だ。できるだけの伝達をしよう。不十分なのは致し方ない。嘆いても仕方ない。でも、日本の教会の若い人は、英語でよきコミュニケイションを取れるようになるだろう。

それにこの旅がつながればよい。

一時間のドライブでホテルに着きました。下関を出て４８時間、二日がかりでやっとペンシルバニア州の主都ハリスバーグに着きました

He continued talking. “My parents were Ukrainian Mennonites. They were made to immigrate to the Central Asia from Ukraine by oppression of Stalin of the Soviet Union forcibly. The Korean people who lived in Sakhalin of Russia were made to immigrate forcibly there in those days. I played with children of the Korean in a childhood. I didn’t like the war. The war was very terrible”.
And I talked to him about my place in broken English again. “I come from Shimonoseki. It is near Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and it is very serious damage of nuclear plant accident in Fukushima”. I wanted to tell my thought to a partner in detail, but my words were not connected. Oh, it is the world of English from now on. I want to convey my thought others as possible. My broken English is OK. There is no help for it even if I grieve. But I think the young people of Japanese church will take a good communication in English. It is good to connect to young generation with my trip. About an hour drove, we arrived at the hotel. I left Shimonoseki for 48 hours or two days, and I arrived at capital city Harrisburg of Pennsylvania at last.

この旅は何か予定通りにゆかないようだな。でもつぶやいてはならない。俺の人生も予定通りに行かなかったなとつぶやけば、それは神さまへの不信仰に繋がる、それもわかっているのだが。でも、ホテルまで着いた。たくさんの人の助けと祈りによってここまでやってきた。それは事実そのものだ。感謝すること。それがすべてだ。

This trip is something which does not go on schedule. But I must not mutter. It leads to disbelief to God if I murmur that I did not go on schedule. I understand it, too. But it is sure that I arrived to a hotel. I came over by help and the prayer of many people to here. It is fact itself. It is all.

（次号につづきます。）

日本キリスト兄弟（けいてい）団　　岡崎新太郎
〔Written by Shintaro Okazaki of Japan BIC〕
〔Translated in English by Takanori Sasaki of JMF〕