A letter from Sanford and Emiko Taborn in Japan
July 2012
Sweet Gifts
The Four-leaf Clover Baking Group with their baked goods.
I have had the pleasure of knowing Mrs. Keiko Onoda for 20 years. She has a daughter who has cerebral palsy. When her daughter was approaching the time to graduate from the special-needs high school she was attending, Mrs. Onoda began worrying about her daughter’s future after graduation. What would her daughter do after high school graduation? What training institute could she attend? What kind of job could she get or do? There were many questions swimming around in her head. As she looked around for something, she could find nothing. She got together with several other parents who had children attending her daughter’s school to discuss her concerns. The parents decided that they wanted to establish a self-reliant support facility for their children after they graduated from high school. In 1999 Mrs. Onoda and the other parents formed the Yotsuba Association to work toward this goal. The word yotsuba means four-leaf clover. They took this name to symbolize their hopes and prayers for their children’s well-being.
In 2001 the Yotsuba Association succeeded in establishing Yotsuba House, a self-reliant support facility for their children. The national government approved of Yotsuba House as a small support facility for persons with disabilities and started giving it a subsidy. The purpose of Yotsuba House is to create a place to provide support and services to those individuals living in Seto city and the neighboring community who are mentally or physically challenged. The parents are hoping that their children’s social life will be enriched through the activities at Yotsuba House.
Yotsuba House started out with an enrollment of 10 individuals and one full-time staff. The enrollees have physical therapy training on Tuesdays. On other days they participate in activities such as learning how to operate a computer, how to make postcards from milk cartons, how to decorate flowerpots, how to make picture frames, and how to do decoupage. They sell their finished products. They also visit a farmers’ association once a week to purchase organic vegetables to sell at their vegetable market on Fridays. All of the proceeds from their sales go to the operation of Yotsuba House.
Current enrollees at Yotsuba House.
In June 2000 Mrs. Onoda established the Four-leaf Clover Baking Group. It was established to help raise money to support the establishment of Yotsuba House. I am one of the six inaugural members of this Baking Group. After the establishment and approval of Yotsuba House, Mrs. Onoda wanted to continue the Four-leaf Clover Baking Group as a way to support the Yotsuba House facility. We have continued with our baking activities to this day. As Mrs. Onoda is a resident of Seto city, we are able to use the Seto Community Center free of charge. This has really been a blessing for us as the Community Center is equipped with seven ovens.
The baking group meets once a month to bake cakes and cookies. We donate the proceeds of all of our sales to Yotsuba House. As the baking group has only six members, we cannot bake a lot of goods at one time, but our customers look forward to our baked goods.
In April 2012 the sum of our donations reached 1 million yen ($12,500.00)! It took us almost 12 years, but as they say, “every little bit helps.” We feel it is important for us to continue our activity. We are so happy to have reached such a large milestone donation. Mrs. Onoda fixed a fancy lunch for the group to express her appreciation, and we had a little celebration after our usual baking activity.
There is an enrollment of about 20 people at Yotsuba House now. There are two devoted and talented full-time staff and many volunteer workers. In addition to their original activities, the enrollees have recently started baking bread. The enrollees are trying to become independent, as much as possible to support themselves. I am blessed with wonderful members to bake with, and I hope that the Four-leaf Clover Baking Group can continue giving sweet gifts for many more years.
Emiko
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 200
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