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The membership in Atlantic Area is increasing steadily. Thus, fostering new leaders to take care of the growing membership has become crucial. Current and potential leaders from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI and Maine, USA, gathered in Sackville, New Brunswick on October 22-23 for a leaders training meeting. A total of 16 Atlantic leaders participated. This was the second such meeting and supporting the meeting were three senior leaders: Eastern Region Coordinator Dwight Rudisuela, Eastern Region Women’s Leader Monica Bachmann and SGI Canada Vice Women’s Leader Evadne Anderson.

The meeting began with chanting followed by the introduction of the visiting leaders, who shared their experiences with the practice of Buddhism. A brief explanation of the theme of the meeting “Stepping Stones To World Peace” was then presented. Using a river to represent life’s difficulties and the opposite shore of the river as our destination, the participants discussed the various stepping stones to cross the river. The distance between the locations of many members’ homes in Atlantic Area is wide and signifies the large effort needed to cross such a wide river. The alliances formed among members from the Area are like adding stepping stones that make the distances smaller and the river easier to cross. We envision future generations crossing the wide river of difficulties on a beautiful bridge to world peace. The early stepping stones in the river are us, the current members, and our efforts for kosen-rufu are the foundation for a strong bridge

Discussion continued for the remaining part of the evening with the sharing of the challenges of introducing Nichiren Buddhism and the different approaches we are applying.

The next day, the participants continued the discussions and gave their individual determinations. Evadne shared the guidance and the key points she learned at the recent North America Leaders Study Conference in Los Angeles.

The main messages that came out of our historic meeting can be summarized as follows:

• Introducing others is a challenge but as pioneers our current struggles can be compared to preparing a field for sowing.
• We need not be discouraged if our present efforts are not bearing fruit immediately.
• Victory in life means to never give up.

Participants felt fortunate to be part of such an historic meeting. They were greatly encouraged by the experiences and guidance from the visiting leaders and were determined to go back to their respective areas to continue their efforts for kosen-rufu.