On August 30, 2023 (Wednesday), Wesley Zaidan and JELA held a staff exchange and training seminar in the first-floor conference room of the Wesley Center.

JELA Foundation, formerly known as Japan Evangelical Lutheran Association, is a non-profit organization established in 1909 with roots in the Lutheran Church in the United States. Under the mission statement “We serve people in need of help in Japan and around the world with the love of Christ,” JELA Foundation carries out various public welfare projects both domestically and internationally, with a focus on global child support, refugee support, and servant leadership development.

(JELA’s website can be found here: https://www.jela.or.jp/)

Wesley Zaidan has joined hands with JELA in the　´Refugee Vocational Education Programme (RVEP),’ a project previously undertaken by JELA in collaboration with the UNHCR Tokyo office. Starting this spring, we are working together to provide educational support for refugees residing in Japan. This collaboration has provided us with an opportunity to share our expertise and legacies as organizations rooted in Christian values, paving the way for further development of our activities. As a result, we have organized this joint training seminar.

During the training session, we began with opening worship where we shared moments to reflect on our respective legacies and missions. Following that, both organizations presented overviews and introduced their activities. We also had a lunch break, and in the afternoon, we conducted a tour of the Wesley Center and its surroundings in the Aoyama neighborhood. During the tour, we visited Aoyama Gakuin, which was founded by Methodist Episcopal Church missionaries from the United States who were sent to Japan.

Afterward, we returned to the conference room at the Wesley Center, where we divided into departments to exchange information among staff members and share the challenges each of us faces in our respective roles. Finally, we had a reflection session where each person shared their learnings and insights from the training. Reflections were shared of how valuable it was to learn from each other’s experiences and expertise, the realization that we face similar issues and concerns in our work, and the encouragement of meeting colleagues who work for Christian faith-based organizations.

Wesley Zaidan and JELA, as nonprofit organizations operating under Christian principles, are committed to building a stronger partnership in the future and collaborating to expand our charitable activities.