My name is Megumi Kawaguchi. I am 18 years old and am Japanese and have been living in Japan all my life. I am a second generation of The Family International. Yes, I have been raised here and I know no other life.

I can’t understand why this happening should suddenly make “us” and our lifestyle so wrong. I can’t understand why people would want to take our happy lives, and try to tell us and others otherwise.

I have grown up in The Family International and I have known the love of my parents, teachers, friends and my God for as long as I have lived. Never once have I been beaten, or abused in anyway…physically, mentally or otherwise.

We do have a lifestyle different from most people on this earth. We live to serve others and help people. That is the life I know and that I’ve grown up with.
No, I have never attended public school and I am proud to say that I have been home-schooled and have learned much that the average teenager cannot learn in a normal school.

I traveled abroad two times (to India for a few months at a time) to help out in international NPO work; teaching young children, caring for the physically disabled, passing out food and clothing to the poor living in the slums, and even giving classes from the bible to young teenagers my own age. Not every young person in Japan is able to experience this. I count it an honor to have had this experience and to have learned so much in such a short amount of time. Other than that I have done a lot of shows at orphanages and old folks homes to cheer people up and give them Gods love.

It’s not only good for me…. but I like it! I think it’s really fun and helping other people is what I want to do the rest of my life.

Instead of sitting behind a desk or doing some ordinary job, and eventually getting married and then divorced, I would much rather live a life serving GOD and helping people have peace and hope in their hearts. I love the life I live even if it’s not the “perfect” place. It is perfect for me and I have conviction to say that this is where I belong.

I am very sorry for what happened and the tragic way that this woman was murdered. Honestly I was shocked. Shocked that someone would do such a thing. I do not personally know either of these people, but I pray for their souls and for the parents and family of them both. I pray that people will not continue to blame either parents or anyone, or our lifestyle saying that it was our fault that such tragedy occurred. I cannot and do not understand his intent or why he did what he did, but obviously it was hate and not love.

Love is what I have grown up to believe in. “God is love” the Bible says, and I believe He is love. I know that He controls everything, and even what happened was something that He allowed.

I don’t like hearing these things happen to people and I don’t either. So please do not accuse us. Don’t tell us that we are the ones who are so “wrong".
I love you all, and I pray to God that he will help you find the real TRUTH.

Megumi Kawaguchi is a second-generation member of The Family International