Sumako (Sue) Minato and Loekito (Luke) Moeljadi grew up in Asian countries where non-Christian beliefs are predominant. While they do not know each other, there is a common thread in their lives: They always knew in their hearts that there was a God. Both, in fact, spent years of searching for a spiritual home, and in their journeys regularly came into contact with Catholics.

And this year both of them --- Luke, 78, and Sue, 90 --- received the sacraments of baptism, Eucharist and confirmation at Holy Family Church in Artesia as they became members of the Catholic Church.

"I feel like a new person," said Luke, a retired judge from Indonesia, his native country who also had his marriage to Gaby, his wife of 50 years, blessed sacramentally.

"I feel like I am getting younger," said Sue, who projects a contagious peace that surprises and delights her children, who know that her life has had its share of rocky moments.

Loss and inspiration
Last January --- just three months before she was baptized --- Sue lost her husband of 40 years, Harry, who had been in and out of hospitals since he fell and hit his head in the early spring of 2007. He had suffered brain damage that eventually left him speechless.

But not so speechless that he couldn't pave the way for Sue's new life.

After the accident, Laura Kakita, Sue's daughter-in-law (and at the time the only Catholic in the family), kept telling Sue she was praying for her husband. Several times she offered to pray with her and invited her to go to church, to no avail.

In the meantime, Laura's husband Richard had started teaching Harry to communicate by writing on a white board. The task was not easy, since it was hard for Harry to put letters together to make words.

One afternoon, Vincentian Father Vic Pacheco, associate pastor at Holy Family (the Kakitas' parish), was at the hospital visiting the ill husband of a friend of Laura's. Through them, Father Pacheco learned that Sue's husband was across the hall and he decided to visit him.

Father Pacheco introduced himself and asked Harry if they could pray together. Harry agreed and after prayer he wanted to write something on his white board. It took three attempts to figure out what he was trying to say, until finally he could clearly write: "I want to be a Catholic."

Holy Family's pastor, Vincentian Father Johnny Zulueta, went to his bedside and baptized him. He passed away Jan. 6, 2008.

The event ignited Sue's desire to convert to Catholicism and she entered the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, with parish RCIA directors Rudy and Mila Peripan leading her through the process. By now, she was eagerly attending church with Laura and Richard.

Happiness and peace, Sue says, is what she has always sought. Born in Los Angeles to Japanese parents, she went back to Japan with her parents at age three and returned to the United States when she was 18.

When she first arrived, she kept thinking that the Catholic Church was no good.

By then, after some years of Buddhism, she practiced Shinto, an ancient indigenous Japanese religion without doctrine, characterized by a veneration of nature spirits and of ancestors. Shinto followers do not congregate, but read a book that talks about goodness and happiness.

Sue was raised with those principles. Her father, who worked for a top Samurai in Japan, came to the U.S. at an early age in the late 1800s, working at Hawaii's sugar cane fields and with the Santa Fe Railroad in Oregon and Utah, before moving to New York, where he became a tailor.

"My father was a visionary," says Sue. "He knew that in the future Japan would modernize, leaving the kimonos behind, and adopting the Western culture, including fashion. He prepared to become one of the first Western-influenced tailors in his country."

The second of eight children, Sue had an independent character that did not match in a conservative society. After attending a business school in the city of Hiroshima, she asked her parents if she could leave Japan and return to the U.S. In reality, she was running away from an arranged marriage that would tie her forever to a life as a housewife, which she had always rejected.

Her parents agreed because their oldest daughter was living in the U.S. with her husband. Not long after arriving she got married at age 19, to Roy Kakita, a Bakersfield native of Japanese descent. He practiced Buddhism, which Sue liked. But she continued reading her Shinto book.

It was World War II, post-Pearl Harbor. Soon after they married, the couple was forced to move to the War Relocation Camps in Arizona. Before the war ended, they left the camp and moved back to Southern California, where they started their family.

As their children were growing, so did Sue's search for God. At 45 she became a widow and remained single for three years, until she met Harry Minato, who was also a Buddhist. But surprisingly, during the last 15 years of his life, Harry prayed every night asking God to reveal Himself to him.

When Father Vic entered the hospital room to see Harry, says Sue, "it might have been an answer to his prayers. His kindness and compassion affected me."

Last Easter, Sue was baptized days before turning 90. Now, she says, peace envelops her mind and body. She is sure, she says, that her husband is with God, peaceful and happy.

"I never feel alone, because God is always with me," Sue said. "I always feel energized and I do not have to worry for anything."

Drawn to Catholicism
Luke Moeljadi's spiritual path was similar to Sue's. As part of a family of Chinese descent, he embraced Confucianism, the teachings of Confucius that influenced China's culture. It emphasized love for humanity, devotion to family, peace and justice.

He always believed, he says, in a Higher Being who could do miracles such as healing the sick. Although he received no formal religious education, he is an avid reader and he liked reading about the different religions in the world.

"When I compared them," he says, "I felt that the Catholic religion fulfilled my interests."

As an attorney and a public prosecutor for many years, Luke appreciated facts and organization. The central organization of the Catholic Church was appealing to him.

"You go to a Catholic church anywhere in the world and the Mass is exactly the same," he said. He was also attracted by the seven sacraments and by the architecture of the cathedrals around the world. He has visited most of them.

His mom converted to Catholicism at the age of 75 and he seriously started considering it as well. By that time he had already married Gaby, an Indonesian English teacher who became Catholic in 1994.

"I was happy for all of them, but I wanted to know more about the Catholic faith," says Luke. Finally, he decided to become Catholic himself, receiving the sacraments of baptism, communion, confirmation and marriage on Oct. 26.

"I really hope to be an asset, not a liability for the church," Luke said. "The only thing I regret is that I should have become a Catholic earlier."