Welcome to the SMÉ House in Sendai!

Passing by a white house in Sendai, Japan, an image of the Virgin Mary that offers the baby Jesus catches the eye. It's not just for its aesthetic beauty or how it harmonizes with the lightness and attention to detail typical of Japanese culture, but for other reasons as well. This house is a meeting point where around 200 people in the past year alone have been able to simply be present, experience a moment of quality, and be welcomed as unique, loved, and precious human beings.

From families to a choir, people of all nationalities living nearby or passing through have been able to experience the hospitality offered by the community of the Foreign Missions Society of Quebec. Today, the community in Japan includes Julie Fecteau, an associated lay missionary and group contact person, Paul To, pmé, Jean Gabouri, pmé, Charles-Aimé, pmé and Jean LeBeau. Among the various fraternal activities, different groups gather regularly at the house, fostering a spirit of fraternity amidst local cultural diversity.

A beautiful garden that grows day by day offers a variety of produce for both marveling at and consuming for those who visit the house. From corn to haskap, various other plants sprout, inviting passersby to pause and appreciate the grandeur and surprises that nature brings when there is human collaboration. All of this ends up being a synthesis of the great mystery of the life force contained in every being (plants, insects, humans…) and in the relationships between them.

The kitchen, like in many cultures, has also become a privileged place for conversations and meaningful exchanges in the Sendai house. Cooking together allows for the beginning of an exchange, a certain breaking of formal structure, discovering each other by showing the behind-the-scenes of food preparation and the depths of the heart. The transformation of food also promotes inner transformation. We can speak of people who rediscover the meaning of life after nearly insurmountable losses, such as losing a child, for example. Or of people who find in this fraternity the familial bond that is no longer available today, for various reasons. There is a lot of beauty on the exposure of various nationalities united in living a renewed Pentecost experience, where there are no longer barriers of identities but shared riches from each origin.

In the Sendai house, offering Jesus to humanity is accomplished in the simplicity of life's activities in an innovative way and in the conviction of proactive relationship building where each person is important. It aspires that human beings embrace their own humanity dignified by the incarnation of the Word of God. Just as the image of the Virgin Mary offers to each passerby this fragile child, each person is invited to welcome Him and offer Him to each other in the diverse expressions of humanity.