I^ricnds In Christ in

in America.
America,

.A^^<^^,)
03

hooking "back over the last letter v/c wote to you, it doesn't seem
possible that it was as long ago as October lIi-. It has been i'oxir'months

now since we came to Shikolru, and all of them'busy, and v/c hope, prodiictive of some lasting good to God's Kingdom,

Since we v/roto last we have added a few services to ou:i:> schedule, X '

think, We now have morning worship service at 9 a,m,, children's class at

1 p.m., and evening worship service at 7 P.m. on Sunday, These are all held
111 our large living room which we have kept Japanese style, meaning there is
no furniture, but th8.t all sit on the floor on pillows, X also preach

Besides these services here at Myoken, since the first of November X

have also been teaching a children's class in Gomen, the tovai near us, on
afternoon from about 2:30,

It is a different situation from that

wnich v;e have ^at liyoken, but -we think we can accomplish a lot for the Lord
watli these children. There are about 33 children of all ages from first

grade uhrough Junior High School,

It is a private, part-time, oxtra-study

school in which I v;as invited to teach some Bnglish pronunciation and a

class Ox Bible teaching (in Japanese),

Wo hope that this seed wi3,l eventually

lead to the starting of worship services and establishiuent of a church in

Gomen.

Also in Gomen, Friday morning finds me teaching a class of about 90

^.indergaroon children.

Teaching such snail children is rather difficult in

any language, and I never loiow v/hether I am getting the meaning to them or not,

but many tines the kindergarten teacher will ask for the material I have used
and tell ir herself during the next week, so the children hear of Christ
several times because of this half-hour's teaching,

-^ngllsh classes which are held on Thursday evening (Ilij^ School

and^olderj ana Saturday afternoon (Junior Iligli School,; One fox' yoiinger
studenbs was oeing taught by Noma also on Saturday, but has nov7 been

recessed for two months until after the new baby arrives.
Q 3

Win n

r-*

^ -C*

-L-

xi

We try to insert

main

Shortly afber the middle of November we started plans for our Chri'^tms

progr^n. We had ^quite a different problem hero where^^^;

haf

about the Lord's birth. Both for tho^sake'oftteknGS

parbiGipating, and^tne ones wno would come to see the progrsjii, it had to

- the basic, simple facts so thoy v/ould be understood. There is no backChristian teaching in Japan such as is found in America, We worked

practioing,
OC-PTn+-.17rA

mainly^^consisting of a play and a few songs, and started

I vrcote uhe play mostly by taking the text directly from the

.QAArm-n-f-

- .
was

n-h
at

yoA>.on,

for WGoksI
wore about
in weeks
it here
xhey \7ould
come at 6think
p,xa, there
and pijactioe
for 2^an children
hour--som0

-2-

every night (in this case v/o pi'acticed only half the scenes at a time) and

some weeks three time's a v/eek (in which case we practiced the whole play.)

The plan v/as to practice an hour and then they v/ere to go home, but it tumec
out that nothingnot even our ins is tance-could budge them out of the house

until 3 or 8:30,

They played games,: talked (what a-mild wordi), investigated

everything, and in general raised a rmpus (and a lot of dust out of our

"straw-mat

floors) until they decided it was time to go.

Of course, they

practiced the play too, until 7200. Some of them would come even if their
scenes weren^t practicing that night, apparently for the purpose of playing

afterv/ard.

It was certainly v/earing, but we also enjoyed it.

If they

don*t all know the story of the Lords birth, I don*t loiow what it would
take to teach thorni

Here at Hyoken the program was on the night of December 25. 7/e used the
local "nursery school" building because we thought our large front room which
we use for worship services and classes vrould not be big enough. The older
young people helped us decorate the building, made angel Virings, took care
of the changes of lighting during the program, and in general were very help
ful, We were happy with their interest. Tlie costuming for the play consisted
of most of our sheets, blankets, towels, and piece goods which had been sent
to us, along with a lot of safety pins. Several of the churches there in

the States would probably recognise things they had sent among the things
adorning the children that night. The night of the program there were
around oO people present to sec the program besides those who Y;ere taking
part. It is just a beginning, but some of the community, at least, are
aware of the circimistances of Jesus ^ birth.

The Gomen Bible class also wanted to present the same play, so while
v/e Y/ere practicing with the Myoken group, there also had to be practice time

with the G-omon group, Becaiise of other teachers in the Gomen part-time
school, however, it v/asn^t nea.rly as much of a struggle as Myoken, Here we
had only the tv/o of us (Horma and myself) to supervise and instruct the

children--it takes experience to scold effectively in'a foreign languagei-but at Gomen much of the v/ork Y/as already done for me,

Theni the principal of the kindergarten asked if they couldn't give the

play, too, ^ The teacher reivrote it so the little children vrould imderstand;

I checked it over and corroctod places where the Scriptural teaching might
be misunderstood the way she had Yn?itten it; and it v/as given for the
kindergarten parents, too. The teachers did most of the practicing of the
children, but I Virent three or four times, and the end result v/as one of the
sv/eetest plays you ever want to see. The children are so tiny and cute,
but they presented the birth of the Lord quite well.
Hot couQting the practice time, our schedule finally ran:

December 21

landergarten play (about 20 mothors pros =nt): December 22Christmas Sundayi

December 25Myoken play and program (about oO present); December 26-Party and filmstrip (Jesus' stilling of the v/avos) for the Jr. High, High
School, and older people who come (about 30 present); December 2?Same for
those v/ho were in the Myoken play an.d program (about 3^ present); December

28Gomen play (perhaps 15 mothers and friends present); December 29

Sunday again. We said that this year v/e have had the most (real) Christmas
v/e have ever had. We hope wo have helped sow some seed in the hearts of
some of these people, and pray that the Lord may some day have a bountifiol
harvest.

Your ministers in Japan,

;e

to W

#Lift up your

f EYES AND LOOK ON

"
THE FIELDS

KOCHl 0MYOKEN
GGMEN

June 195.8

Donr Fnionds in Christ

It nay soon to sonc .of you that M^hcjx wc

loft Kiobo, "WO droppoci off the edge of the

vtforld. Perhaps ^vo had better correct that

impression, although in the opi^on of the

rest of the Japanese, going to Shikoku is

almost the sane as dropping off the edge of

the worldo fe have found, however, that this

is indeed a part of God*s worldalthough not

touched by His Word, and with m^titudes of

people who have had no opportunity to know

Hin, Wo have been the busiest, and happiest,

we have ever beeno Wc would like to invite

you to LIFT CP YOUR EYES AHD LOOS OH THE

FIELDS.

We hope you will bo patient v*ith this longer

than usual l e t t e r

THE TRIP FROM KOBE

Wo havo sottlecl in KocM (Ko'-choe) Pro

vince, in a little farming village near a

town called Gomen (Go-men*) on the island of
Shikoku (Shc-lco*-ku), The village is called

MYOKEN (Myo*ken).

Please remember itr you

will hear it often in our letters from now on,

Aiiyway we look from our house, we can see
mountalha, some of then so close that we have

to get out away from thorn to really sec the

range of mountains^

Wc arrived in Kochi Pro

vince SEPTMiBER 15, 1957 after a tilling and

thoroughly Jolting trip over those mountains

by Jeep

During this trip we pulled one car

out of mud in which i t had Mred down and

later had to bo pulled back onto the road

ourselves. The road across the mouiitains was
so narrow that when one met another car one

either waited for it in a slightly wider part

of_t

two -backed upfeuntil-

tlicy io\md d -placo -where the other could creep

past.

We were forced off the road (on the

valley side) once by a big truck, but the

Lord was with us. Right at that place vas a .

thick bamboo forest, and the tops kept us
from tumbling over. We were on a tilt when
we stopped with two wheels on the road and

two off. The truck stopped and pulled us '

back onto the road again, and we all contin
ued on our way.

We saw so many., many small mountain vill^

ages vjithcut Christ!

We pray that some day

we will bo able to reach into that area, too,

with Christ's message.

OUR HOUSE ATO NEI^ORHOOD

'We ;liaye made our home for several months

...now, in^a tTapanese house> and have not found
It-10.0 uncomfortable* We remodeled two rooms
-however^ which meant taking' put the straw-mat

flopring,. and replacing it with a wood floor,

lowering the ceiling, (for winter heating),and
Installiiig; our kitchen stove,... sink, etc.; The

test of the house still: has straw-mat floori^

but it is really very comfortable. One thing

you would miss in our house is chairs and walls

V7e sit, .Jcpanese-style, on cushions on the

floor when we: have guests, and duriag worship

services-rwhich are held in our two front
rooms. We have kept these'rooms Japanese*

Sttyle, _which means devoid of furniture oxcept .

for the c'ushiohS:, for this purpose, Ai^ to-the

walls (between rooms, that is) each one con

sists, of three of four pa.per and wood doors .

^hich,' slide, along a'- track to^ open" or close off
ajiyroom.;

They may-be taken outyat will and

prove .quite handy in erLlafgihg the'- rooms or

dividing a large room into--smaller ones. .
Strangely enough, one doesn't feel very secure
behind them, though.

Between us and the mountains, In every

available comer, are rice-fields^ There are
rice fielde on threesides of our house,com

ing right up.to our back fence.

Beyond oi^ .

back, fence are about l | acres of land which

is divided into six individual fields, and

farmed by at least 4, and perhaps 5, farmers,
In Japan the farmers, unlike Ai-.ierican'ones,

live.' in :ismall villages and go out to their

fields. "MTOEEN is one of these villages. It
is a; clo.se.-knit community whe're everyone co
operates for "the good of all.

Eveirywhere in Japan now one sees a strange

mixture# Vi?e live witHIn siglat of electric
trains and rice paddiesi;- of a busy highway

and ox-^drawn ploughing^. Wo live in the "coun-.

try area*r where family ties and roiigious ties

are very strong. These peopTe will have to
give serious thought; to Christianity before
they become Christian,. and when they do, it

will mean many more *^pcrscautions"- and much

more temptation than, we of a^ so-called Christ-?

ian nation can realize#^CHRISTMAS PLAY AND PROGRAM

Shortly after the middle of November we

started plans for otir-Christmas program. We
has quite a different problem here where very

few, if any, had ever, heard anything about

the Lord's birth#

Both -for the sake of the-

ones participating, and the ones

would

come to see the prograrijp. itvhad to teach the

basic, simple facts so they would be unde3>stood#

I (Don) "wrote" the play^mostly by

taking the text directly from the scripture

account,^and adding a speect here and there
to put it into play form.-

V'Je practiced for weeks-r--I think there wore

about S5 children in it here at I4ypken.. They

would come at 6 p.m. and practice for an'hour#The plan was" to practicD an hour and then
they were' to go home, but" it* turned out that
nothing-r!-not even our insistancecould, budge
them out of the house until "8 or 8:'30. They

played games, talked (what a mild word!2),

investigated everything, and in general raiseda rumpus (and a lot of dust'out of our "straw
mat floors")> until they decided it was time
to go.

Of cpursc they practiced the play

too*

Some of. then would- come even i f their

scones weren^t practicing that night, appar

ently for-the purpose of playing afterword
It was wearing, but we also enjoyed it. If
they don't all know the story of the Lord's
birth, I don't know what nit would take to
teach then!
Here at MyOEEN the program was on the

night of December 25, and about 60 people

cone to see it. It is just a beginning,
but some of the community, at least, are
aware of the circumstances of the Savior's
birth.

The same 'play .was given by the Gomen

children's Bible .class, and a simplie-r

version was given by the children of a
kindergarten in Gomen, This latter was
one of the sweetest plays we have ever scon.
Their teacher directed the acting, and the

mothers costumed them with no help from us.

We wish you could have seen it. They pre
sented the birth of the Lord (^uite well.
It was a busy time. We said that this year

we have had the most (real) Christmas we

have ever had. We hu^e we have helped sow
some seed in the hearts of some of ,these
people, and pray that the Lord may some day
have a

bountiful harvest.
OUR PRESEETT SEP.VICES

The first Sunday we were in iCTOKM, wo

weren't sure ahout whether to. have a ser-

vice.

We had only been in the house 4"

who did we know?

Who would come?

But we

invited the folks we met on Eriday and

Saturday, and cleared the front two rooms as
much as we could. I planned to preach a

semon I had preached in Kobe, ' Then disaster

struck! Saturday'night carae,; and I had-:.lost

my voice^.

Sunday morning I had-even lessj'

and couid only taik in a coarse whisperI But

the Lord providedi "Mr lhada, a Christian
from Kobe who ^uite often takes charge'of Ser
vices at the Kobe church, happened to be

visiting that Sunday, and took over for. me,

leading singing, prayers, etc, Thei-e Were :
20 people here,^ counting ourselves. They say
it. sounded peculiar, although understandable.,
but'I preached by whispering'into a micros
thone hooked to a loud-speaker system-with
the volume turned up^high!
That'was the starts

We now average about

19 in Sunday morning services^

Our services

are : Siniday morning preaching, 10:00 Gomen

children's class, Z 130; MTOKM children's
plas s 5.:40; Evening preaching, 7:30,*: During

the Weefc we have.

mostly -for... the contact .(M

CiejsSes^ vij

of our regular - . :

Simday...attehdancfe comes from" these biass.es),

but al^o hoping we get some teaching of' Christ

to thprn through this means, also.

Besides

these,. .each Friday, mourning I -(Don) teach a'

Bib^e ^Stofy at the Gbmen Kindergarten. Please

pray'for all of these services and classes,

that we inay reach *their hearts with the Gospel,

A BIG-STEP FOmmRD

Starting this past Spring, against prob

lems .that would discourage most , Mr 'Ota, a

young man who is now a Spphmore at the Osaka

Bible Seminary, has .decided" together with us

that he can be of help in the 'gathering in
of souls in MYOKEN, . One of the most import
ant, and-difficult, parts *of missionary-work
in any country is in so

teaching and developing leadership among the

people thcmsclvesj that the church ostaMished can continue according to the teachin^rs of

the Now Testament without foreign (that is

missionary) Influence. As one missionary

said, "Our job is to work ourselves out of a
job." Mr, Ota's coming Is the first big step
toward this objective in Myoken (but by no
means the entire answer).

Mr. Ota, however, is still in Bible Col

lege.

Wo have an arrangement whereby ho

comes evory-other weekend, arriving Sunday

morning and leaving Monday evening.

I preach

and teach all classes one vjcokend and Mr. Ota

docs the sane the next weekend.

On Monday wc

call together on different homes in this and

nearby conmunlties, or wo drive through the

small communitios near us, playing o previous
ly tape-rocordod scrnonotte, handing out
tracts, and inviting everyone we soc: to cone-

to preaching sc-rviccs.

Bo spends a busy

woekendi

You nay bo wondering why Mr. Ota cones

only cvery-othor weekend,- The main reason is

the fact that it takes 15 hours each way to

travel between here and Osaka, He spends all
of Saturday and Monday nights sleeping (?) on
the crowded straw-mat floor of a relatively
small ship which sails through a sometimes
rough Ocean. V.'c thank God for one who has
enough faith and desire to serve Him to make
the trip at all.
Our plans for the near future include an

evangelistic meeting July 9-13.

to have a Vacation Bible School.

We also want

July 26-

August 1, we hope to take all who can go, to

canpo

There -will bo nany who will be making

clG cisions of some kind during those days of

concentrated efforts Pray that; the decisions

may bo for Christ2

The time has cone when Service-link must

be hado

expenses#

The work is expanding, and so are

Mr# Ota's salary and transportation

are the beginningan Indication of a growing

program of evangelization# Can you help

spread the Word more quickly hero in ICY"0KEN?
LIFT UP YOUR EYES MD LOOK ON THE'FIELUS'
THAT THEY ARE IHITE ALREADY UNTO IIARVEST
Your ministers in lapah,

j, V]
Y IflAYU
Non-profit Org;

SHIKOIUJ CHURCH

Bulk Rate

of

CHRIST IvIISSION

Uo S, Postage

596 Wo 11th Sto

Paid
Peru
Ind
Permit No^ 855

Peru

Ind.
L

Perm 3547 requested=

HOWARD MCFARLAND
B0X96e

JOI/XET

ILLINOIS

\KhKHV ir 1^ HflRO TO^

UNDtRSlANO-NOT ^W^V |
JAWWfSE PEOPIX 00 5t-/

fwtu, 1 nuyr go,IT is

t^RTLv Qjs ro/n, ptoat

UOUI-D say that I

DIDN'T lOVE

UEVt IN IT - 1OONJ/ iGRANOFATMtR If t WDN Tgo

V >31^ gAJT IRt/uvgo TO

THANK) AMD

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RFAIJY UpLD ENOUGH TO UNDlUS^ANO

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GOOD
WHERE

ARE YCXI

ABOUT 7RE
V.i'S-

6UT GRAN0n0T>iR )UQD

=U4D rWY OTHEI^ OO/MADt THE

^^/ORLD
(DO YOO BELIEVE

I >N Hin

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AND Wt HU5T gO TO
G*aANPEATHH?S gRAvE
EVtRY-ONE JRR^,
SEVEN, ANO THIRTEEN
YEAR> alter N<> death

k.,

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holsm
eabu

MAKCA CHAIN OF RUBBER BANDS

ANO^TCH IT etTWEENTlJOTSS

III
TOE.

YOU

iCAN get ATOE

{OVER IT, YOU

CAN JUMP If/

V-r.

THANK YOU

TRAINS M. AlWAV'5

SABU-CHAn) on timeBOTAIWAY)
I

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NOW GOING HOME

6hER is a C-RANPnOTMER 5AYS

GRANWAlMtRl
BECA/lt
Toon't^

ONOCffV^

" ^

305, Wferoken, Kacho-Mura

Nagaoka-Gun, Kochi Pref.
Shikoku, Japan

JUL 311368

1958

Dear Co-workers in America,

Greetings fro. southern Japan. The rice

cro"'aTear!)'Tt ^atefurtLfk^f that other great Harvest, and the

prepLation rtich must be made before it can be gathered in.

thfLord's work CeLat^willevtr'

^Jainsta^problems
fhirro^lfdls^oSe^ost
man Who is'temade!
n aSophomore
Osaka Bible Seminary, has decided together with us, that

fiT^ffcuirStf

"-"th: Shlst^t

foreign (that is,

,.j.. ota's (pronounced 0-ta) coming is

s. .i...^.. i-

entire answer,

.-r, the Soring when we discovered that in order to go to the

gathering of the

^"thaf"orderate gfl'wouu'ha^e to miss one

^-^re!
f afke^Mr, Ota
This was the beginning. When h

q became well acquainted with him,

(f-Wr.S"''h/;2 Toighf10 CM., by Bob .bb ..B

wants to win souls here as much as we do,

Mr. Ota, however, is still in

^^a^^atrt :hLeS Vomes^^vJI-othirwe

=i,-3oL
two sermons, he teaches two children s
On Monday we call together on
by communities where we have
communities near us with a

H'

be in^sohool^ We have
. pon^unity end in near-

^ ^omes in this co^M

L ^hfieen pla^ng a previously

handing out tracts, and inviting

LX- rrfo%:LTo X-hSr-^lces. le spends abusy week-end.

You may be wondering why Mr. ^^^^^l^gf^'thariTt^s'l5 hours

fa^hTarto S'a Lt^^erh^rrand Osaka. He spends all of Saturday and

- 2 ik

. . .

Monday nights sleeping (?) on the crowded straw-mat floor of a relatively

small ship which sails of necessity, not through the calm inland sea, but
through the ocean. Or, if the weather is bad and the ship cancels the trip,
he must spend the same-time sitting up on the train most of the way. For
the eake of his health, all concerned throught he could not keep up with
his studies and make that trip every week-end. We thank God for one who
has enough faith and desire to serve Him to make the trip at all.
Other reasons are the money involved in paying his fare every weekend,
and as I mentioned before, has health. Thank God with us for this great
step made, and pray that Mr. Ota can remain healthy. We are planning an

evangelistic meeting for this summer, and a nvBS.

From July 26 to August 1

we want to take all who can go, to camp, again a 15 hour trip since the
nearest one is at Osaka.

The time has come when Service-link must be had.

So far we have paid

Mr. Ota from our own salary, and also his transportation, and costs relating

to preaching (tracts, etc., mentioned later). Mr. Ota receives 5000 yen
(In) a month, his transportation costs 4-, 125 yen (111.50), and another
5000 yen has been allocated for tracts, books to loan, rent of loud-speaker,
visual aids for children's classes, and the many other things that must come

from an "evangelistic fund".

Altogether, |39 a month is being spent in this

way. The summer evangelistic campaign, the fares to camp, and salaries of
extra Osaka Bible Seminary girls who we hope will help with the DVBS, will
be an added load during the summer. Will you pray, and will you help?
And don't forget to continually pray for the people of this community,
and for Japan, that they may have open hearts to receive the Gospel.
Your ministers in Japan,

305, MSyoken Kachomura,

Nagaokagun Kochiken, Shikoku
July U, 1958
Dear Co-workers in the Harvest,

Together we have accomplished something for the Lord which

will be of lasting effect in this community. Last evening at
^he close of a 5-day evangelistic meeting, a young man was bap;ized

into Christ in the river"near us!

This is the first

Christiana young college student about 23 years old--born into

the Kingdom through our'efforts (yours and ours) to bring Christ

to Myoksn. He is Satoru Matsumura (Sa-to'-ru Ma-tsu-moo'-ra),
one of our neighbors, the oldest son living at home of the family

we called "Pine Village" in our slide series recently. He,

together with two younger brothers, has not missed more than a
time or two of attending every service we have had since we came

here 10 months ago. He has read about everything we could give

him to read, has asked more questions than anybody else, and has
studied for a long time. He, being the first, has opened the way
for others, and we feel will be a strong influence in %oken, as
well as a stabilizing influence in the church.

1 would like to tell you about the meeting, We (Mr, Ota and I)
started Planning early, had about 1,200 leaflets printed advertising
the meeting, and made tape recordings announcing it. For a week or
so before, the meeting, sometimes with Mr. Ota, sometimes with others
who helped pass out the advertising, but many times by myself, I
drove up and dcwn the main roads, creeped through the narrcw sideroads, and any number of times dug myself out of the .seldom usea
roads, in an effort to get to the many small villages around ua.
Standard equipment was loudspeaker, amplifier, tape recorder, s'^acks
of advertising leaflets, and two shovels. In these last few wetks
1 have slid wheels off roads into rice fields, knocked carefully
dug embankments into rice fields by having to' run too close to t're

edge of them, tilted over into a deep ditch, done a lot of repair'jig
cf all these things afterwards, had to be pushed several times be^
cause the loudspeaker runs ny battery down, and in general decide:
that in order to reach the thousands of people in this section wi'.h

information about our services and introductory literature, I would

have to use a portable speaker and mike and walk into the raary
places where tlie car will not go.
The 1,200 pieces of printed advertising were used within the
first few days, and we then mimeographed the same information, anc
distributed altogether A,800 pieces, 1 hope you can understand h;
this how densely this area is populated, even though it is "county
area", and the immense possibilities for evangelism in rural Jap^i,

The meeting started on July 9 and ended on July 13 (Sunday^

Mr, Taniyama (Ta-mee-ya*-ma), an advanced student at Osaka Bibls
Seminaiy, did the preaching, A Mr, Nakamura (Na-ka-moo'-ra), tie
preacher who works with Bob and Audrey West (and who is Mr, Ota's

home preacher) was also to come for the first two days, but he fot

so wrapped up in the meeting that he didn't go home until it waf

finished! There couldn't have been a'better combination, Mr,

Taniyama is an excellent preacher, and kept the people coming back

-2-

night after night.

But Mr. Wakamura is a personal worker and

would sit with his Bible open and talk by the hour with anyone who
wanted to talk. After each service people who wanted to hear

more stayed to talk or to listen in on others' conversations.

It

was almost alw^s 12:00 midnight before the last people left (services

started at 7:^0 p.m.), and one night it was 2:00 a.m.! Then last
night after Satoru was baptized, many people came back to the house
and stayed and talked for a long time. It was 1:30 a.m. when S&toru,
Mjjio was the last to leave, went home. It had been a busy time,
tut all involved were talking about the possibility of another
aeeting soon.

The attendance went from 4-8 the first night to 78 the last

night, increasing eveiy night. After the first two nights, our
, bouse would no longer contain them, and we had to fix extra benches
jn the yard where those outside could still see and hear the preacher,
It was before this crowd of 78 friends and neighbors that Satoru

^ade his confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ~before 78

friends and neighbors who worshipped the traditional gods of Japan>
was the first to step out for Christ.

Fortunately, Satoru's

family is hot antagonistic toward Christianity, as some are.

rill some day bring them all to Christ, we think.
brother in Christ now.

He

He is your

Pray for him hy name.

Rejoice with us in the progress of the Gospel in Myoken,

Your ministers in Japan,

?.S, The slide series mentioned in this letter is available

j'rom our forwarding secretary, Mr. Garland Petty, 596 West 11th
St., Peru, Indiana. Ask for the "RtT-oken" series.

OCT "51958
Broken,.. 3blkolai
August 9, I95S
Dear Christian Friends,

1 intended to make this a short, 1-page letter, but since I

stained to think of all of the things I want to tell you, I am afraid
it will run over onto two pages again.

iPhe first and best thing is the news that anotter s^-Miss
MitsUko Takahashi (Meet-su-ko Ta-ka-ha-shs)--has been born Into the
Kingdom. MitstAo is a High School Junior, and one of those people

who have not missed a Sunday in attending the services we have held
in Mvoken. When we first moved into our house, and were t^ing to
set settled, the electrician who was wiring it for us asked one day
if he could sbring his two nieces to visit. One was Mitsuko, and tte
other her older sister: At first Mitsuko was the only person who had
a Bible of her own, and since she is an excellent reader, she became

ny '^Scripture-reader", reading both the original Scripture lesson, and

any Scripture used in y sermons. This she does to this
capably. She was one of the three young people who went to Christen

Pamp. She made her confession on th last evening of camp, made it again
before those gathered for worship here Sunday morning, and was bap
tized into Christ in the river near us after morning worship. She is
planning to help one of the teachers in the Vacation Bible School we
have planned for next week. Pray with us that both she and
first to become Christian since we came to Itroken) will grow to be

winners of the souls of their countrymen.

This week Satoru and I have been making,a communion tr^ each

evening after he is out of the fields at night; This is the busiest

time of the
in Biyoken, I have never seen anyone as husy as ttese
farmers are now. While they
raise two crops a year here, lihey don t
do it at their! leisure. This is harvest time, but it is also planting
time,
near us was cut early one morning, gathered in that

evening,"^pTS^ during the night, and when we got up the next morning
it was already partially planted (transplanted) in new rice plants.
If you can imagine doing all your planting and harvesttog at the s^e
time, you know hiow busy these farmers are, Afarmer's fields usually
aren't located all in one place, but he has small fields scattered tere

and there across the countiyside. Satoru's family have several

but since both the father and mother, and the five sons work together
in the fields, (while the grandmother takes care of things at home;,
they think th^ will finish three or four days ahead of schedule.
Each evening this week, Satoru came over about 8:30 or 9 p.m.
work

on making the cojnmunion tr^ we had planned. We made it by drilling holes

in a piece of masonite which has been cut to fit inside a round tray,
and then filing the holes to fit Japanese-made communion cups. Mitsuko

plans to paint "In Remembrance Of Me" around the outside margin, and
we will have a tray pretty and serviceable j but what is just as im
portant, they will have learned how to provide for themselves from
things available in Japan.

New tV&t there are Christians here, we have started taking an

offering. It is"not a large offering, but ^fo far it has paid for the
account books and the communion tr^, and an offering to the Christian

camp to which the young people went has been voted. We are still
paying for such things as Vacation Bible School materials, songbooks,
etc., ourselves, but one of the tasks of lelping the chijrch to grow, is
the gradual assumption of more and more d the financial burden by the
church itself. TV goal is a self-ruling, self-financing, evangelistic,
true-to-the-Lord'avteachings church for Jyoken. When this happens, all

ties except those cf love and fellowship will have been ^Jroken, and we
will be working elsswhere. Make the chidl'ch in Rf^oken am? its growth a
matter of regular prayer.

Next weekAugust 18-22we have sciseduled a 5-day Vacation Bible

School. We have also ^entatively set NoVsmber 1-9 as the date of our

fall Evangelistic meeting. The same evangelists are to come, and we

expect a time of great increase in the knowledge of Christ in this

community, and souls bt*ought to Him. Keep these dates in min4 and in

your prayers.

We depend upon the Lord for strength. Help us with your prayers.
Your flinisters in Japan,

Some have asked about iaby Joe, and whether his health has im

proved. He is growing and gaining very veil, now, and is as large as

normal.

Thank you very much fcr prayjjii for him.