Appeal May 2006: Let's always serve.

Shigemi Sato, Chairman of the YMCA Service Committee

I read the 40th anniversary commemorative magazine(1987) of the Y's Men's Club of Kanazawa in Hokuriku which was chartered in 1947 and will reach the 60th anniversary next year. I found in this magazine the name of one charter member, who was a trustee of the Kanazawa YMCA and my foster parent. I think about the function of Y's men, thanking for this unexpected reunion.
The principle of the Y's men is the service to the YMCA. The young men from 20 to 29 years old who was working in London fathered the YMCA. They made a group to study the Bible and pray. They succeeded to the puritanism and confronted the improvement of the society. Then, their movement was conducted to Japan, too. It became a group of the society education for the young men based on the christianity. I proud our support to this movement.
All the young men who gather to the Tokyo YMCA have a wonderful dream. I feel brightness in the looks of the members of the Student YMCA, the leaders who attend the camp of children, the students who go to the foreign countries for the service activities and the staffs of the YMCA.
The next stage of the YMCA is to provide a place of encounter? I hope that the YMCA expands their existing place of services, inform the world of their function more and take the leadership of the 21th century. For this purpose, we must always study and make an effort.