{"id":4113,"date":"2025-05-11T09:28:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T01:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/?p=4113"},"modified":"2026-01-27T16:40:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T08:40:30","slug":"a-lasting-impression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/2025\/05\/11\/a-lasting-impression\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lasting Impression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Vocation Story of Sr Mary Therese Sumiko Iitsuka, RGS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>World War II ended on August 15, 1945. I was in the first grade of elementary school. In the year before the end of the war, there were air raids on the small town where I lived, and we had to evacuate every time. At one point, I took refuge to the countryside alone, away from my parents. When I was in elementary school, I hadn&#8217;t thought about what I wanted to be in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I graduated from elementary school, my father didn&#8217;t know much about Christianity. In spite of that, my father decided to send me to a mission school in Sendai.\u00a0 Sendai City is very far from the small town where I lived, but one of my older brothers lived nearby. I entered Middle School at Sendai Shirayuri Gakuen, run by the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres. \u3000In April 1953, when I was Middle School, I was baptized and confirmed on December 1954.\u00a0\u00a0 At the Mission School, I belonged to the volunteer group of the School who went to the Children\u2019s Home of the Good Shepherd Sisters.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image4113_467469-16 .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image4113_467469-16\"><figure class=\"alignright size-medium_large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"569\" src=\"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/12-768x569.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-4114\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/12-768x569.jpg 768w, https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/12-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/12-1024x759.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/12.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>That was my first encounter with Good Shepherd Sisters who were Canadians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to family circumstances, I transferred from Sendai to a public high school in Chiba Prefecture. After graduating from high school, I studied 6 months at a business school in Tokyo. Then while working for a company for four years, I remember about the children&#8217;s home in Sendai and decided to join the Good Shepherd in 1961. My meeting with the orphans after the war left a lasting impression on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe that the reason I have been able to continue this religious life is first and foremost because I have been nurtured in the sight of God&#8217;s infinite mercy, and because of the prayers of all those whom I do not know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I was young, I had a strong desire to live a contemplative life. However, I was also drawn to working with children. Now that I am older and can no longer engage in direct activities, I see my mission as learning with God once again and deepening my relationship with Him. I am grateful to our religious community for nurturing and supporting me along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While working for a company for four years, I remember about the children&#8217;s home in Sendai and decided to join the Good Shepherd in 1961. My meeting with the orphans after the war left a lasting impression on me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[48,45,33,59],"class_list":["post-4113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocation-story","tag-consecrated-life","tag-good-shepherd","tag-vocation","tag-world-war-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4115,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4113\/revisions\/4115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdsisters.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}