March, 2006 Newsletter

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In Remembrance of Suzuko “Sue” Ruth Chikayasu

When Sue Chikayasu was called Home on February 15, 2006, we were comforted knowing that one of SCVJCC’s earliest and dedicated “doers” was with her Lord and Savior and reunited with her beloved Fred.

As some of you already know, our SCVJCC was incorporated as the Campbell Holiness Church in 1955 when the area was still dotted with orchards and farming communities. Before this property on Union Avenue was purchased in 1961, worship services and church school were held on Saturdays in a rented church located on Winchester Boulevard. Despite their busy and often times exhausting schedules, the Mother’s Group was formed to support the church and church school. The mothers who have since passed on or moved away were a great help and encouragement to our then pastor, Rev. James Toda and his wife Alice. As one of the church school teachers, I first met Sue and through the years appreciated and treasured her friendship. The Mother’s Group of which Mrs. Fusako Honda was an active participant helped, encouraged and prayed for the young families in the community.

In 1969 the Campbell Holiness and Sunnyvale Holiness Churches merged and became the Santa Clara Valley Holiness Church and later, with a name change, to Santa Clara Valley Japanese Christian Church. God has truly blessed our church with a growing membership and active ministries to meet the spiritual needs of both young and old in our communities in both English and Japanese. Pastors and their respective families have come and gone, but our quiet, soft-spoken and always with a twinkle in her eyes, Sue willingly fulfilled her commitments in serving God, often times behind the scenes. Never have I heard Sue utter a word of complaint not refuse an assignment no matter how menial. Before a janitorial service was contracted, members were assigned to church clean-up duties. Sue and her teammate, Jean Ohara would spend hours cleaning the church on a given Saturday. It must have been on the day after they had cleaned the church when one of my Sunday School pre-schoolers commented, “This church stinks pretty”.

Having been baptized in November, 1965, we were truly blessed and rejoiced with Sue when her beloved Fred, surrounded by the senior members of the church, was baptized on their home on August 15, 1997. What we witnessed was a beautiful testimony of answered prayers.

As we celebrate the dedicated lives of our early church members who have been called home, let us be thankful and carry on the Christian legacy that they had left behind and be “doers of His Words and not hearers only.”

—-Submitted by Annie Sueda

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