Many pilgrims are coming to Medjugorje in this time of preparation for Christmas – Advent. Maria Fujie Ito and Paulo Masanovi Yamasaki came to Medjugorje for the first time from Japan. They travelled for thirty hours from Japan to come to this place of prayer and reconciliation. Maria said that she heard about Medjugorje twenty years ago, but could not come earlier due to business obligations. She is grateful to everybody for wonderful hospitality towards her here, and added: “I believe in Our Lady’s messages, in her presence and everything that she has been saying to us. When I retire I will come again here. This pilgrimage is a great experience for me. I really enjoyed climbing the Apparition Hill and praying Rosary there, that was what my heart needed so much, and I am truly grateful for being here. I will bring more pilgrims from Japan. “Paulo heard about Medjugorje twenty years ago and then he read a book about Medjugorje. “The most important about Christianity is in Medjugorje. You can really feel that here, while in Japan unfortunately people have forgot about that”, said Paulo. www.medjugorje.hr
This news reminded me of my first group from Japan back in 1998 . A small group came with their parish priest who was from Poland .It was the Youth Festival about which they had no idea about, and it was so so hot!!! I remember we would not sleep all night, we went to Cross mountain at 3h30 since we could not sleep anyway. At that time there were Pensions but all without air conditioning and temperatures were always above 100. Everybody would be out. Chris and Victor (Colombo and Victors) would make us midnight pizza as we were waiting for our next tour, or next transfer at 2h30 in the morning. Poor souls LOL -) Lot's of sleepless nights in those days, but it was so much fun! For many years I have stayed in touch with Hanna Okuhara who would occasionally send me some green tea and greetings from my pilgrims. Anna is a great lady , very devoted catholic and very skilled in languages. Later when Ivan went to visit she was asked to be a translator for Japanese. I lost her address as I was moving around a lot :-) I wish she would read this and get back in touch ! :-)
Here in Medjugorje we have -3 Celsius this morning. It is sunny and bright morning. I have no intention of going out whatsoever. I am about to make some greeting cards for you to buy when you come next time to Medjugorje :-)) Don't forget to stop buy at the shop on your next visit :-) I wish you all a blessed day!
God bless you all!
