Speech contest

What I realized
13107138 Miho Chiwata
Hello, everyone. Today I will talk about Christianity. I want to talk about Christianity, because I participated in a home stay program this past summer, and my host family believed in Christianity. My host family went to the church every Sunday. They would sing, listen to the priest, and when the service finished they would talk with family and friends. I could not understand what the priest said, but I liked singing hymns with everyone who was in the church. Sometimes when I sang the hymns, something stirred within my heart, and I would feel tears running down my face. Also I liked eating doughnuts after the service. I am also interested in Christianity, because I found out my mother is a Christian. When I saw her reading the Bible, and talking about Christianity to me I became more interested and I could feel that my heart was becoming pure.

What do you think about Christianity? Surely you will come up with the idea of worshipping God, promises of salvation and Jesus Christ. Of course you would also think about Christmas, don’t you? Christmas is getting closer, now houses and towns have many beautiful trees which are decorated with red, yellow and blue lights that shine brightly. When I hear Christmas songs, my heart is filled with excitement. Christians believes in Jesus as the preserver, and they preach God’s love and forgiveness focused on Jesus’ action and doctrine. Also, it urges people and society to follow the teachings of the Old and New Testaments.

Do you believe in the existence of God? In fact I had never been able to believe in God. I wondered if God really exists. For example, when I could not succeed in getting what I want, and when I cold not do well, I thought selfishly that God did not exist. I also could not believe in God, because I had never seen Him. However, I started to believe in God because of an accident. My brother got injured and he needed to have an operation. I feared that my brother would die, so I prayed for God to help him. Fortunately, my brother survived, I was really glad and I am thankful to God for saving my brother’s life.

Through this accident I remembered that my high school teacher taught me, “If people accept God into their hearts, they will become stronger.” I could feel that through my brother’s accident. If people are in a crisis they rely on a greater existence that they can not see. This is God and Buddha and so on.

We can hate people easily, but it is better to live peacefully together in the way religion teaches. My host father gave me some books, one of which “Shiokaritoge”, impressed me.
The book was written about Christianity it said that “You become neighbors.” I was really surprised by these words. This is difficult, because to be a neighbor you must forgive even if someone has hurt you. The book’s main character stuck with his neighbor without staying mad. I was really touched by this character.

I appreciate my host family because they accepted me and gave me such great books, and I am grateful to my family and my friends who supported me. I can not thank them enough.
Also I want to say to you

May God bless you!!
567 words