sims harold lois 1987 japan

5/23/2018 Sims Harold Lois 1987 Japan

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Chr i s t i anGo ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature Mark 16:15

VOLUME 8 6

CHR I STMAS 1986We have just completed our 16thChristmas season at Mejirodai. Each oneis different, of course, though there is muchsameness i n t he message, spir i t and Joy ofth e celebration of th e fi rs t c om in g of th e

Lord Jesus to this earth. We always findmany things that make us happy an d keepme saying, T h is must be Christmas.

1. One thing is the good attendance atchurch. On Sunday December 21 we had48 adults and 15 children in ou r worship.This should be compared with our averagefo r the year of 27 adults and 3 children, andnot with th e attendance a t many churchesin the United States.2. Another thing is th e good spirit of ou rchurch membe rs and some ne ighbors andother visitors in th e various meetings. Wealways have l unch togethe r an d th en amusical program and gif t exchange in th eafternoon following th e Chris tmas Wo rship, an d every yea r mos t o f those presentparticipate in t hi s. Not ab le t hi s yea r wasth e first appearance of our local churchband of several J r. and Sr. High Schoo ls tuden t s p l ay ing gu i t a r s ce l losynthesizers, etc. They spent mos t o f t hecold r ai ny a ft er noon of December 18practicing here. Also Lois sang a Japanesesong accompanied by a koto (a classicalJapanese s t ringed inst rument) played byone o f h er English Class ladies.3. Each year we hope to make some newcontac t s a nd h av e s ome f ir s t- time v i s it o r sat church dur in g th is season. At th eChristmas Party of Lois Friday AMneighborhood housewives English Conver sa ti on C la ss o n D ecem ber 12, Mrs.Konno, who is not a Ch ri st ia n a nd hasonly been in church twiceat th e Christmas Eve Cand l e Services in 84 and 85but was in charge o f the commi tt ee planning t hi s p ar ti cu la r p ar ty , made a littlespeech urging al l o f t hem to a tt end t hechurch on Christmas Ev e i n o rd er to ge tth e real meaning and atmosphere o f th eevent. I t is very nice, sh e said. Respondin g to this unexpected evangelism fromon e of their own, 2 of those ladies came tochu r ch for the f ir st t im e i n the i r l ives andbrought 3 children with them. Also, someo th e rs o f th e c l as s who h ad been i n c h u rc hbefore, but not r eg ul ar ly , c ame. So ,although we had only about half of ou rregular members present , we were thrilledto have many visitors, filling th e smallchapel with 49 adults and 6 children. As I

J ANUARY 1 98 7

S IMS NEWSlooked down on al l those candle-lit facessinging earnestly the long rolls of Gloriain excelsis Deo, I ventured to think thatou r Father in Heaven was a lso p leased tose e and hea r tha t .4. Although the whole Orient is alwaysbusy at this t ime of the year finishing upprojects, settling debts, house-cleaning,partying, buying and delivering gifts, etc.,in preparation for the beginning of a newyear, we almost always have an old friendcome to visit us after beingreminded ofou rexistence from th e yearly familynewsletter. This year it was Nobu Ibaraki,a former member a t th e Nakano churchwhom we h ad n ot seen fac e t o fa ce for 23yearsshe remembered. 1986 ha d been ahard year for this working lady who livesby herself in th e old f am il y home nearNakano Stat ion. She had a breastremoved i n th e fall and was still going forweekly chemotherapy treatments forcancer, an d needed comfort, friendshipand revival of a long-faded fai th . We spenta mutually profitable afternoon together,and she wrote a nice let ter to us af tergett ing back home from he r t rip outhere tos us5. This time th e totally new an ddifferent experience was a trip to the U.S.Marine base , Camp Fuji. Some monthsago we received th e nameand address of aMajor Knorr, who is stationed there, fromth e Christian Military Fellowship. Wewrote him, g iv ing our telephone numberan d i nformat ion abou t how to ge t to ou rhouse, and one day in the fall he cameto our house fo r a visit as he was on t hewayto Yokota A ir Base on business. He saidt he i r de t a chmen t was to o sma l l to have aChaplain, an d asked if I could possibly goto th e base and conduc t a service fo r them

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during the Christmas season. So wearranged to go up and have a worshipserv ice f rom 2:00 to 3:00 PM on Chris tmasEve, giving us time to get back here for theplanned Candle Service. It was abeautiful, c lear day, an d the sunshine ref lecting from the gl is tening white cap ofMt. Fuji was almost blinding, so Lois an d Ienjoyed the 2 hours of driving each way alo t an d were happy to be of some small encouragement to ou r service men throughLois special solo, my message and oursinging an d talking together on that afternoon6. It has become a strong tradit ion hereto have ou r Sunday School Christmas Program on Christmas Day in t he evening .The Japanese elementary schools al l begint hei r wint er vacat ion a t noon tha t day, sonobody is away on a trip yet, there is noschool tomorrow an d everybody is in th emood. Thi s yea r we h ad t he theme: Wehave seen His Star in t he Ea st , and havecome to worship Him. Our primary department play featured 3 third grade girlwise men (best at tendance) who workedvery hard and memorized their rather longparts well ahead of t ime. On that occasionwe give the year ly attendance awards an dthere is always intense interest an d competition to get the 3 top prizes, whichinclude medals like in th e Olympics. Weha d 49 children, 13 mothers and fathers, 3older sisters and 6 t e ache rs h e re fo r tha t .

Part of the audience a t Mejirodai Sunday SchoolChrietmas Program Decem^r 5

Outside the chape l at U.S. Marine Camp Fuji on Primary Class play. The 5 wise men come beforeChr is tmas Eve. Herod.


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7. Another solid tradition is a phone callafter the Sunday School program to al l ofou r children in th e United States (Christmas morning there). This is always the clim ax a nd f inale .8. I neglected to men ti on t he manyCh r is tma s c ar d s and le t ters from fr iends .This is certainly one of th e delights of th eseason. We usually read them aloud, andsave them. Several of ou r J apanese friendsgave me chocolate,which they know I like,but they always took th e t rouble to ad d aword of caution abouteating too much of it.One man, who used to come here to churchbu t now a tt ends and is employed elsewhere, stopped by on Christmas day withsome beef a friend of hi s had gotten fromth e PX a t hi s special request. Hewanted usto ea t well i n thi s high yen year. And wedid. H a r ol d S im s

F I F T H - S U N D A YR A L L Y

On Sunday afternoon, November 30, 52people f rom about 10 different congregat ions in the g rea te r Tokyo area gathered att he Sakur ayama church. The programthis time consisted of a 5minute testimonyor talk by one member from each church,and there was much variety and interest inth e various short messages. Mrs. Moritawas the representat ive of Mejirodai, andsh e told about how sh e go t t he f un ds fo rmaking th e once-in-a-lifetime trip to th eHoly Land. Her daughter had taken acheap insurance policy to help a young lifeinsurance salesman 25 years before. Thedaughter gave it up after somemonths, bu tt h e mo th e r took i t over r a the r t h a n was t ewhat was already paid, and i twasn tmucheach month. But now it is going to maturej us t i n time to make this trip possible.

From Mej ir odai we took ou r 3 oldestmembers and one young man. Just as wewere getting ready to leave thephone rang,and our s on Robert was call ing from Cincinnati to inform us of the birth of his babydaughter (our 9th grandchild), November29. The ladies here had al l been praying fora girl, and were very happy as we got intoth e car for th e trip to town, and o f course,w e w ere too.

Th e small congregat ion the re hadplanned well, and for th e evening mealthey served everyone ou t of 2 large pots ofoden one o f th e favori te s tew s h er e inJapan for cold weather . Not only is itserved hot , bu t you eat it with ver y ho tmustard on th e side. , , Ha r o ld S im s

Y U R I KARAB A P T I Z E D

Th e Hara family lives near a station onth e Keio Railroad line about 20 minutes intoward downtown from Mejirodai. Weh av e k nown th em fo r over 30 years, andthey have been Christians a l it tle longerthan that. Both hu sband and wife work ,and they were very infrequent in attend-ance-usually 2 or 3 times a year. So wewere somewhat surpr ised to find themattending almost every Sunday when wereturned from th e U.S. last fall. Their

daughter is now in the first year of college,and when no t busy wit h s omethi ng atschool she w as usually w ith them . Onemorning as they were l eaving church thefather told me tha t it was really th edaughter who was urging them to come tochurch, because sh e was genuinely interested. Afte r some weeks shesa id she wouldlike to be baptized at Christmas, whichwas very fine with us. We made all preparations, bu t that morning th e father andmother called with apologies that she hada bad cold and fever and would not be ab leto come that day. But thenext Sunday sh ecame and was b apt iz ed in to Chri st . H erdecision has revitalized the whole family sfaith and devotion and jo y and we arerejoicing with them.

Haro ld SimsH OL Y L A ND

T R I P P L A N N E DSome m em be rs o f th e Mina to Ch ur chhave been planning fo r years to make atrip to th e Holy Land. Finally thisyear the

oldestmember asked th e men to hurry withplanning so sh e would be able to go beforesh e died. So after considering that with th epresent high value of the yen, and the offseason discounts available in th e winter,this might be th e best time to go, the churchmade some p la ns a nd contacted a travelagency. Everyone was surprised when 38people from several different churches inth e Tokyo area signed up to go. Harold andJonathan Sim s are going, and 4 ladiesfrom the Mejirodai church are a lso on th elist. A report of the t rip will be in the nextTokyo Christian. We will be away fo r onlyth e week of Frebruary 12-19.

H a r ol d S im s

M I N A T O C H U R C HM E E T I N G

Every year t he men of Minato Church goto some in n together to spend one night infellowship, study, prayer and talk.Through t hi s t hey have grown in Christa n d i n bonds o f love fo r one ano the rand fo rtheir families and th e church family. Ihave been inv it ed to join them severaltimes over th e past years, and enjoyed th eexperience every time. This year was the20th year, so they invited wives and peoplefrom o th er chu rche s to join them fo rSunday afternoon and evening, October

Harold an d Lois Sims and Stephen l ij ima in aJapanese hotel.

26, and part of Monday. The place was anice Japanese hot-spring hotel near th eresort t own of Hakone , about 2 hours fromTokyo. It was owned by th e privateschools association of Japan, and oneman from th e Minato Church who belongsto that was able to ge t th e use of it at areasonable price for us . Lois and I joinedover 30 othe r folks fo r a wonderfu l fewhours of teaching, talking, lolling in realhot-springs and eating.

Haro ld S ims

COMB INEDS E R V I C E

Fo r th e past 3 years th e Minato Churchhas invited s i s t e r churches to come therefor a final worship and fellowship as theyear closes. This year th e servicewas from4:00 to 6:00 PM on Sunday, December 28,with a church full of people. Messageswere brough by Yukio Itagaki, Minister ofN ak an o C hu rc h and Harold Sims . Aspecial musical number was given by adouble quartet from Minato, singing asongwith words written by Stepehn lijimaand music by the chu rch organist there. Ibelieve this was the first publicperformanceof that particularsong. Thereis a group of at least 3 to 5 songs now ine xi st en ce w r it te n by th is s amecombination. -Harold Sims

m I ' '

Mixed quartet singing new song written by Minatominister an d organist.

E C O N O M YM A R R I A G E

On November 24 HaroldSims performedth e ceremony and Lois played the organfo r a beaut iful wedding in MejirodaiChurch. The meeting of th e bride and

L to R Bride to be, Mrs. Kakizawa, Mr. K., an d LoisSims in living room a t Mejirodai.


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groom an d al l things connected with th eceremony were arranged by Mr. and Mrs.Kakizawa. She is a long-time memberhere, and he a tt ends quite often bu t is not aChristian yet. The Kak iz awas and th eyoung couple and their families didn'twant one o f th e expensive weddings thatJapan has now become famous for, so wemet with them and made al l arrangementsfo r a nice meaningful ceremony and reception and everyone was very happy withth e results. We a re inhopes tha t th e couplewill begin attending here, although theywill be l iv ing some distance away.

H a ro l d S im s

PATTONS NEWS

CAMP COUNSELLORSMEET ING

Eac h y ea r following th e completion ofth e camp season a meet ing of th e counsellors of Shinshu Bible Camp is called. Thisis fo r th e purpose of r ev iewing t heactivities of th e past season, t he making ofa schedule for p roposed activities o f th efollowing camp season, and th e discussionof the counsellors' suggestions fo rimprovements fo r th e camp.The 1986 Counsellors' meeting was helda t th e h om e o f H aro ld and Lois S ims inHachioji on November 29th. The followingcounse l lo rs were presen t: Harold and LoisSims, Jonathan Sims, Satoru Taninari ,Leone Cole, Paul Prat t, Masah i sa lijima,Teruhiko Kanamura and Betty an dAndrew Pa t t on . T hr ee o f th e counse l lo r swere absen t due to o th er c omm itme nts .The discussions were interrupted a t noonso that we could have lunch together a t alocal re st auran t and were resumed uponour re turn to the home of th e Simses.

After the opening praye r i n the morn ingsession, a general d iscuss ion took placeafter the reading of a list of the special projects completed during the past year at th ecamp. The following items of new equipment were added during the year: a newho t wa te r heater, a Casio electric keyboard(which can be used either as an organ or apiano), and tw o metal slat Venetian blindsto solve th e sun problem in th e assemblyhall and in the dining room. The waterheater was replaced i n t he sp rin g but th en ew o ne b ro ke d ow n after 43 d ay s o f use.Ano the r one wa s i n st al le d a t th e make r san d plumber's expense. A too powerfu lpump was given as the reason fo r th ebreakdown but t he s ame pump had beenused with thef i r st boiler fo r 6 yearswith noproblems We now hope we have thatproblem solved, but a re not sure how longth e new boiler will las t . Whi le th e newboiler was being ordered and installed th ec amp had to bear t he expense of baths fo rth e campers at a local hot spring.The fol lowing projec ts were comple teddur ing t he summer: wood on th e largeveranda at the camp building, a t th e

pavilion and the seats at the vespers areawere creosoted; a large portion of thecampboundary line was cleared of brush; largepieces of the hillside surrounding the campbuilding were cleared of brush and stumpsan d that a re a was seeded with grass; th eoutside steps to both entrances to the campbuilding were repaired, an d a lo t of theremainder of th e camp g ro unds wasmowed with a weed and bush cut ter .As for f inances , except ing the campproperty tax paid to the local town government (this is paid by our Zaidan ),and forth e funds from th e Patton Mission whichpays part of Mr. Taninari's salary andsubsidizes special projects, our camp booksbalanced registering only slightly in theblack. The fact that Philip and StephenPatton, who were visiting their parents,worked for about 3 mon th s wi thou t r emuneration from th e camp helped to make thatpossible.The dates se t for our camps for the 1987season a re a s fol lows:

SPRING CAMP, March 25-28, Mr.Taninari, Dean; GOLDEN WEEK,May 3-5, Preachers of the Kanto areaar e in charge; WORK CAMP, July 13-24, Andrew Patton, Dean; JR./SR.HIGH, UNIVERSITY /S INGLES(Juku (jamp), July 29-Aug.l, Mr.Sims,Mr. I ta ga ki , Dea ns ; SENIOR CITIZENS' CAMP, Sept. 14-16, Mr. lijima,Dean.

The Golden Week Camp is to be acombined family camp an d camp for th eunmarried person with programs designedfor both. So is the Seinen-Shukudai Campwhen youth from Jr . High to Universityag es a re invited. Dur in g t he rest of th ec amp sea son th e camp facilities will berented to other church groups. Evenduring these renta l camps the kitchen andcamp facilities will be operated and maint ai ned by our camp staff.We rejoi ce over th e accomplishmentsan d victories ofthe 1986 camp yearand ar eanticipating a fruitful and successful camps eason in 1987. . ,A n d r ew P a t t o n

Present at camp meeting: Lois Sims, Mr. Taninari,Leone Cole, Harold Sims, Betty Patton. Paul Pratt,Stephen lijima, Mr. Kanamura and Andrew Patton.

were in December 1986. The teaching staffwas secured, menu mad e, de co rat io nspurchased, crafts cu t from wood, invi tations made to give out to th e neighborsinviting them to th e services on th e 25th,27th and 28th to be with th e campers,cookies baked and loom made Chr i s tma strees of yarn to be presented to each household in thearea on the 21st preceding campan d the promise of at least 10 campers plusworkers and faculty.

As th e deadline for registrations drew toa close on th e 18th, the camp was stillscheduled. Th en c ame t he c an ce ll at io nsone by one and two by two. Due to th is , onDecember 20th la te in th e evening wecancelled the camp and al lwere notified bySunday morning of th e fact. Thi s was ahuge disappointment.In spite of this, after church service hereat the camp house on th e 21st, Mr.Tan ina r i and B etty read ie d th einvitations, cookies, an d gifts for th e 20homes t h a t were v i si te d t ha t a f t e rnoon .The people were a ll invited to th e 3 programs as was scheduled, EXCEPT i t wouldbe at the camp house, th e home of th ePa t tons .Having prepared the camp house forguests by moving out extra furniture andcleaning well, we opened our doors for 28on the night of the 25th. Some were th eyoung people that we had as pre-schoolersin our Saturday Bible class. Now they ar e3rd graders. Some who were 3 rd gradersar e now 6t h graders and etc. Two grandmo the rs who have neve r mi ss ed on e o f t h eChristmas programs were i n a tt endancealso .After carols were sung, th e video tape ofth e Nat iv it y was shone followed by Mr.Taninari 's message. We continue to prayfor these who have hea rd but yet haveno treceived the Lord a s t he ir Saviour. Againit w as a great time fo r evangelism. Wewere grateful that we could spend moret ime with each one this Christmas nightaswe d id n't h av e t he responsibility of thecampers ' program too.

Al l had been invited fo r t he n igh t o f t he27th too, as we had scheduled to show a tthe camp the new Moody-Science film, Journey of Life. Ten were present fo r th eshowing at t he camp house.

Worship hour for th e regular camp hadbeen se t fo r 10:00 a.m. on th e 28th . Th e i nvitations to t h e a r ea people also made noteof th is. C on se qu en tl y, we had 13 fo r

CANCELLED, but . . .Perhaps we had never been more and better prepared for the annual Christmas resent at the camp house hristmas programCamp a t Shinshu Bible Camp than we December25th.


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worship service that a .m . How blessed weal l were to fellowship together wi th th emor nin g m es sage brought by Mr.T a n i n a r iAt the last meeting of th e year, weencouraged al l to be present January 4 forth e first meeting ofthe new year. F ivehadpromised that they could be present. Butth e schools scheduled a lecture meeting inanother city for that very day. Only 2 ofth e 5 were able to come. However, we had 9in attendance. Andrew preached on Luke15. This has been a new start again for us.We pray that we can pursue it with goodresults. After January 8 th e schools will beback to their regular scheduled programsan d we will jus thave to work around theman d take advantage of every opportunityavailable to teach and l ead these youngones in the paths o f righteousness.-Betty Patton

N E W S I T E M SWe wrote abou t our sons being here fo rth e summer to help in the camp work. Theyar e now living in Edmond, Oklahoma.Since returning, Philip had an emergencygall bladder operation Thank sgivingnight. More than 15 stones were removed.He hadhad some painwhile here in Japan,bu t postponed th e operation unti l he returned to America. T h e i ns u ra n ce t h a tBetty ha d taken outon th e boys during th e

s u m m e r c o v e r e d t h e c o st o f m e d i c a l a ttention here in Japan and wil l cover th e6,600 medical b il l in th e U.S. Since th eboys yet have found no work, t hey havehad no insurance since leaving the Navy.So w e r e t h a n k f u l fo r t r a v e l e r s i n s u r a n c et h a t s a v a i l a b l e i n t i m e s l ik e t hese .

The Pat tons were able to go t oTokyo onFriday, November 28th, to have a turkeyThanksgiving dinner with the othermissionaries. The meeting was held atJulius and Virginia Fleenors' home. That

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Buttray retired . Forwarding Agent: Mrs. Lois Hessler, PO Box 287,Meadville. PA 16335.

Mr. an d Mrs. AndrewPatton, 571-1 Innaihara,Mochizuki Shi, Kitasaku Gun, Nagano Ken,Japan 384-22. ForwardingAgent: Mr. an d Mrs.G. Wade Fletcher,321 N. Hannah St.,RushviIle,IN 46173-1739.

Mr. an d Mrs. Haro ld Sims, 3-33-7 Mejirodai,Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 193 Japan. ForwardingAgent: First Church of Christ, 315 E. OrangeAve., Eustis, FL 32726-4194.Two year subscriptionSubscription an d Flaming Torch . .5 0 1.00

Tokyo C h r i s t i a n(No. 776-320)Published four times a year in January, April,July, an d November for the missionaries of theChurch of Christ, Cunningham Mission, Tokyo,Japan by Mission Services, 7525 Hodges FerryRoad, Knoxville, TN 37920-9731. Second Classpos ta ge p ai d at Knoxville, TN 37901-2427.POSTMASTER: S en d a dd re ss changes to

Tokyo Christian, c/o MISSION SERVICES,POBox 2427, Knoxville, TN 37901-2427.

night theyspent in Tokyo with Leone Cole.The next morning th e 3 of them boardedth e tr ain a n d w e n t to t h e Ha ro ld S im s 'home for the annual Shinshu Bible campmeeting. The Pattons remained a t th eSims' home and attended worship servicesat th e Mejirodai church. At 3:00 p.m. wewere in attendance a t Sakurayama churchin Tokyo for th e 5th Sunday Rally of al l ofth e churches. We remainedovernight withMrs. Cole and helped wit h some repa irwork at th e house (our former home).

We want to thank al l of you whoremembered us in special ways during theholiday seasonmagazine subscriptions,cards, let ters , gif ts , monetary gifts an dprayers. Ou r fireplace mantel and smallwindow were lavishly decorated withcard s. Tho se who came to the programsadmired t hem s o much, too.

January 1 the Pat tons were invited to atraditional Japanese meal, sitting on thefioor a t th e T a n i n a r i s home. I t w a s a nocca sion to be remembered.

Mr. F u k u s h i m a a n d h is bride-to-bestopped by on th e second of January to sa yhello. Mr. Fukushima helped manysummers here at t he c amp during workweeks.

During th e Japanese holidays severalpeople visited th e camp. Junko, Mrs.Taninari 's sister, came up fr om Tokyoafter he r kindergarten duties were finished an d remained with us until January.

6 thWe thank he r for he r help with th e workand also with shoveling snow a couple oft i m e s

Mr. Taninari and Andrew paid the irhello greeting to al l th e farmers of th elocal area at th e tradit ional meeting at10:00 a.m. on January first. Theyremained at th e meeting just for a shorttime as th e remainder of th e programmainly consisted of drinking an d pouringd r i n k s fo r e a c h other .

We're glad to have Bill an d Betty Turnerback in th e Tokyo area to work as ofJanuary first. TTiey have been faithfulw o r k e r s a n d b ac ke rs o f t h e S h i ns h u Bib lecamp since it s very beginningeven th eground breaking service.

A Japanese-English word processor hasbeen purchased by the camp. It will greatly help us with th e advertising of thecampas th e size of Japanese Characters anddifferent kinds of writing an d designs itcan do ar e many. We were able to purchaseit at one third t he o ri gi na l cost. Mr.Taninari and Betty will be designing th e1987 camp schedulebrochure to be sent ou twithin th e month of January.

On January 7, 1987, Andrew celebratedhis 39th year in Japan, arriving 6 weeksafter the Harold Sims family who arrivedin November 1947. May God give us a fewmore year s o f service here in Japan.-Bet ty Pat ton

c Befoie you move, please send the mailing label below, along with a copy ot your new address toMISSION SERVICES ASSOCIATION. PO Bo* 2427. Knoxville . TN 37901-2427Fo rm 3579 Requested, PO Box 2427, Knoxvi lle , Tennessee 37901-2427.


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Chr i s t i anGo ye into all the world and preach the go spel to every creature Mark 16:15

VOLUME 8 6

PATTONS NEWS

The group of young people from Mejirodai Churchwho attended th e camp. In the background is th esoft-ball field an d beyond that th e mountains,

S PR ING CAMPAlth ou gh t empe ra tu re s b etr ay ed th ename of Spring Camp this year18 to 25

degrees in th e morningsit was th e firsttime s in ce we Fattens came to t he c ampthat there wasn't a patch o f snow somewhere on the campgrounds during SpringCamp. The low temperatures prevented usfrom turning on th e wa ter supp ly un ti l th emorning ofMarch 25, th e first day o fcamp.The plumber had been summoned to comeand check th e operation of the water boilertha t day. He announced it o.k. but fixed 3o t he r l eak s in t h e o t he r a re asWe were enthused before camp began as22 campers had signed up before th edeadl ine dat e. Of these, si x were first-timers at Shinshu Bible Camp andreceived th e promised discount offered byth e Fa t t e n s S om e o f t hese h ad been wa i ting impa tiently to g radua te in to J r . Hi andbe eligible to come to th e camps . Twogir lsfrom ou r local area came to camp fo r 1 dayonly. Also a young boy from Mrs.Christiansen's English class signed up for1 d ay but remained until th e end of camp.So a total of 25 campers were ina t t endanceDean, Mr. Taninari , chose Isaiah 40:8 asth e theme fo r th e 3 day camp. He was ass is te d by Bill and Bet ty Tur ne r, Har ol dSims an d Andrew. Also, 2 college studentshelped with some of th e other respons ibilities of th e c amp p ro gram. JunkoFukayama, who is a s is ter ofMrs. Taninar iand a Christian kindergarten teacher,once again offered her services in th ek it ch en a long w it h Bet ty Fatton.

APR I L 1 9 8 7

The 3 High School students who rode their bicyclesfrom Hachioji City to th e Camp an d back 173kilometers each way).

There were several firsts at t he c ampfo r different ones. Three boys from HaroldS ims' c hu rch decided to r ide bicyc les tocamp an d back home, a distance of 173 KMeach way. They endured 13 hours of cycling against March's strongest winds toarrive at camp 2 hours before dinner. Thereturn trip to Tokyo only took 10 hours andwas full of pleasant memories. Anotheryoung man from Sims' church had cycledto camp several t imes before, bu t he pr eferred coming by train this year with aspecial friendAnother f irs t was th e nailing together of12 pre-fab bird houses that Andrew hadcu t ou t fo r an afternoon's project. Due toth e cold weather, th e work was completedin th e b asement o f the c amp house. Th enext day the campers went in to th e woodedareas and p ut th e houses up fo r th e newwinged dwellers that ar e steadily arrivingon th e scene wi th spr ing. Ferhaps somebirds will st il l prefer do-it-yourself nests.During camp, Betty experienced bakingapplesauce muff ins and homemadebiscuits fo r th e group. The biscuits were fo rturkey a la king. It was also a first for th ecampers. All 80 b is cu it s and 80 muffinswere c on sumed w i t hou t h e si ta ti o n

A contest between the teams put together2 fiv e hundred piece jigsaws in a very shorttime. Nex t tim e we hope to get 2 on ethousand piece p uz zl es put together inr e co r d t ime

Mr . an d Mrs. Taninari an d their 2 boys. He is th ec a m p m a n a ge r

NUMBER 2

The Friday evening hike was t he h ighlight for some ofthe campers. Mr. Taninariled the campers to a higher and more openspace to v ie w the starry heavens, constellations, planets, etc.all of God's creationfo r us . The s tudies of the heavenly bodies istaught in great deta i l in th e schools, but nomen tion o f God th e Creator accompaniesth e teachings. The campers were delightedto se e so many heavenly bodies that theycould name standing i n one sma ll s po t o nt he ear th . Ferhaps night hikes enlivenedwith references to s cr ip tu ra l e ve nt sbrought to mind by the scenery will become a p art of the camp program in th efu ture

Bill and Betty Turner s 2.5th wedding anniversarya t Shinshu Bible Camp.

We're always happy to celebrate specialoccasions at camp time. Usually it is abi r thday or spiritual birthday ofone of th ecampers. This time we al l celebrated Billan d Betty Turner's 25th wedding anniversary on the first evening of camp. BettyFat to n made angel food cakes, strawberries and cream and punch fo r th eoccasion. A picture drawn by Mr. Taninariwas signed by al l that were present duringc amp and presented to th e Turners. Billand Betty were present at th e campground-breaking c er emon y in 1979 andhave continued to be staunch supporters ofth e camp along with their 3 grown childrenwho have worked in the ensuing summers.This year we are looking forward to SteveTurner's coming to help out in t he c ampwork. Tim an d hi s wife wil l be coming toJ ap an a s missionaries in a year or two.We thank Stanley an d Mabel Buttray fo rsending boxes containing J el l- 0, c akemixes. Calumet baking powder and soda,Fam an d goodie-goodies for camp. Thecampers enjoyed th e lollipops especially.Also, th e Parman Hills church women senta camp box of cake mixes an d Jell-O. Thesesmal l t hings al l make camp work lighterand menus better at camp.We are looking forward to the GoldenWeek camp program. Due to a misunder-


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standing o f t h e dean for th e camp, advertis ing is b eing p ut o ut a l it tl e late. Thetheme for thecamp is A ChristianHome,e sp ec ia ll y a d ap te d for those ofmarriageable age. Also, th e Christ ianHome wil l be dea l t wi th fo r th e f ami l iesattending.

The group at Spring Camp. The snow-capped JapanAlps can be seen in the background.Pleas e con tinue to pray fo r th e c ampwork a nd th e leaders. We're t rying hard to

interest more people to come to camp and toge t more to se e th e true spiritual value of aChri st ian camp program. The Mejirodaichurch has benefitted greatly from th ecamp program here a t Shinshu BibleCamp. The campers, along wit h Har ol dand Lois S ims , make an a ll ou t effort to bepresent at 2 or 3 o f t he yearly scheduledprograms. We feel camp is a necessity fo rspir itual growth among ou r churches as itb r ings the Word ofGo d to t he h e ar ts o f th ec amp e r s .

I N NA I C HURCHS ERV I C E S

Until warmer weather, perhaps May10th, th e Sunday worship services willcontinue to be held a t the cam p housebefore moving to the main room at th ecamp building. We are st il l re joicing thatM iss Y um i h a s cont inued to a t tend th eservices since December. Becauseof that, 2m ore o f h e r f r iends a t tend from ti me totime and came to th e Spring Camp. Wepray that she will be able to influencemoref ri ends t o come to hear th e message ofChr i s t .On April 4 there were eleven present atworship services, including 2 teachersfrom a Christ ian kindergarten nearTokyoan d 3 high school gir l s f rom th e local area.On March 22 seven from Niigataprefecture were here at worship servicewith us , making a total of 13. Mr. an d Mrs.Bill Belew (formerly of th e Yokosuka work)now evangelizing on th e west co ast o fJapan, brought 3 from their church work tovisit us for 3 days. We're praying fo r othersfrom th e local area to be with us eachLord's da y to learn of His plan fo r theirlives. Patience and fervent prayer canbring this about. Will you pray?

BR I E F S FROMS H I N S HU

Shuichi Tan ina r i celeb rated h is 2 ndb irth day after th e worship services on

February 22 with those present. Also, hi smother gave him a party the next day, hisreal birth dat e. His father's birthday wasa l so ce lebra ted a ft er t h e c hu rc h s e rv i ce onMarch 8. Again, we enjoyed refreshments.On March 6 missionaries in th e areaa long with a group of Japanese people,

were invi ted to Mr. David Hoshino 's hotsprings hotel in Karuizawa. The groupwelcomed Jeana Yaeger an d Dick Rutan,the two pilots of th e Voyager around th eworld non-stop-non-refueled plane. Wewere amazed to hear of th e 6 yea rs of preparatory work that preceded the actualflight that almost ended in disaster onseveral occasions. Mr. Rutan said theamoun t o f fuel remaining in the plan e'stank upon landingwasn't enough to back acar o ut o f th e driveway Al l those presentreceived autographed hats and patches tocommemorate th e occasion. Ea rl ie r i n t heday, th e p ilot s v is it ed the KaruizawaChr is ti an g rade school for missionarychildren and thrilled their hearts w it h t hestory of th e flight.Betty's home church. Church of Christ,

Piqua, Ohio, celebrated its 100thanniversary in January with a small program. On May 3 t he church will have ahomecoming celebration fo r formermembers an d preachers . Bet ty an d he rfa ther became members of th e churchduring a tent revival meeting led by Mr.an d Mrs. Charles Reign Scoville (composerof Christ is King song) in th e early1930 s. Betty's mother became a Christianat th e a ge of 12 in a smal l town church inMercer county that on occasions, wasvisited by some of the circuit riderpreachers of the Restoration Movement.The Piqua church has supported Bettyfaithfully since 1949 when s he beganmi ss io n wor k on the Yakima Indian Rese rvation, Toppenis h, Washi ng ton. Mayth e Lord con t i nue to bless t h i scongregation an d continue to raise upleaders from th e congregation fo r the Kingdom of God.We're happy that films ar e being

checked out of t h e Sh in s hu F ilm L ib ra ryfor use in evangelism. Sixty people viewedone film in a 3 day children 's evangelis ticprogram at the Isehard church. One film isbeing shown on April 19 a t th eSakurayama church. We are thankful forthese films an d a ga in t ha nk those whohave made them possible.The Pattons will be spending a weekaway from t he camp work in April. They

will be in Osaka fo r th e 50th anniversary ofth e Osaka Bible Seminary on Apri l 20 21.Andrew will be bring ing the message fo rth e occasion. Apri l 22 Betty will be at th eU.S. Embassy and Japanese Immigrationoffices getting a new passport. She doesn'tthink she'll need th e 10 year passport thatthey now issue but On A pril 23 they willtravel to th e S im s' h ome fo r th e annualZaidan business meeting.Friday they planto visit the Chris t ian Academy school an dmeet old acquaintances, attendThrift Shipan d ge t food items for t he camp from theP.T.A. food store before re turning hometha t day.

Andrew Pa t ton

S IMS NEWSMA JOR N ICHOLAS

PA S SE SWhen we first came to Japan there was a

c ar ee r Army Officer who was an activesupporter of ou r work in eve ry way whiledoing his job with the U.S. Army of Occupation. He taught an English Bible Classbefore the evening service at ou r Setagayachu rch eve ry Sunday, and often had usmissionaries to dinner at hi s quarters andgave f inanc ia l support an d words of encouragement. After he returned to the U.S.he kept in touch by letters, an d when he retired he gave many years o f service to th ework in Hawaii, in cooperation with th eStill family.For some years now he had been living inhis ol d h ome town of Hodgenv il le , Kentucky, bu t he still continued to write to usevery Christmas and to support an orphanage in Tokyo founded by his group ofChristian mili ta ry men in the immediatepost-war period. He passed away on January 6 this year at th e a ge o f 89. Hi s wifepreceded him in death a year or so ago.He was a life-long cigar smoker, bu twhen one of our Japanese Christian youngmen who translated for h im exp ress edshock a t seeing him light up outside of thechurch on e Sunday night, he quit smokingwith that one. I have a lways admi red h imfor that strong will-power an d the attitudehe expressed. He didn ' t th ink i twaswrongto smoke,but if it would cause that youngman to s tumble he would quit now. S o thisis my final solute to a good soldier.S H IN G O T SU D O TOU .S . A S EXCHANGE

S TUDENTThree years ago, during thespr ing camp,I baptized a young man from Mejirodai in

th e cold w a te rs o f t he rive r. H e h as beenvery faithful in at tending church, and inMarch finished th e 11th grade. Duringthis school year he took a government examination an d qualified to become a government sponsored exchange studentin anAmerican high school fo r some months.He will be going to Santa Rosa, Californial at e i n April fo r home-stay to ge t used toAmerican culture and schooling in conversational English. Then he will be attendin g some high school in th e U.S. as aregular student fo r th e next school year, itwill be a very good experience fo r him inevery way. We a re h op in g h e will have achance to vi s i t s om e o f ou r c hu r ch e s in th eU.S. dur ing these mon ths .

GROUP FROM WHITEOAK CHURCH VIS ITS

A group of 15 people, mainly from theWhite Oak Christian ( jhurch in Cincin-


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nati, Ohio, made a trip to China an d Japanduring February. The main purpose was tovisit a friend of most of t hem who is temporarily teaching English in China. But theyalso wanted to see Hong Kong and spend al it tl e t ime in Japan.Harold was away in I sr ae l when t heyarrived in Tokyo t he n ight o f Feb. 15 butLois got in touch with them by phone, andth e nex t day she and some ladies from he rEnglishClass here wentdown to the TokyoHotel to meet them and escort them al l th eway out here to Mejirodai in WesternTokyo on th e electric trains.Meanwhile, a group from our church ha dworked hard and prepared a sukiyakidinner fo r them in o ur church all-purposeroom. They ha d a short, bu t memorable experience enjoyed by bot h sides.

P R O M O T I O NS U N D Y

Since a ll Japanese school years end inMarch and be gin i n April, we have pr omotion Sunday i n our Bible Schools on th elast Sunday of March. This year we ha d agood class of 7 who graduated from th e 6thg rade . They have mostly been comingsince pre-school days, an d we are doing al lwe ca n to keep them coming. We gave eachon e a parallel English-Japanese NewTestament, and Lois Sims has started anew c lass on Sunday mornings using thisas th e text. We ar e also encouraging themto stay fo r th e worship service.

F I F T H S U N D YR L L Y

On March 29 a record crowd of 96 peoplegathered at th e Nak ano churc h for ourRally. This t ime the re was a special pr ogram announced: A missionary of th eAlliance C hu rc h is a former actor, andd r a ma ti z e s v a rio u s Bible characters Hedi d Abrahamthe part about offe ring upIsaac. It was v er y dramatic an d moving,an d al l present go t a lot of inspiration fromtha t as well as the s inging and fellowship.

P I N T I N GOn Mar ch 30 31 when al l students wereon vacation, we had 5 high school boysfrom ou r church come to help paint th eporch roof an d fence around the property.B ot h o f th es e were badly rusted, and wespent much of the f irst day scraping thatof f and preparing fo r t he p ai nt . One of the

boy's mother made th e remark that theywere not able to give much in th e offering,and they don't help when we have meals atth e church, so this was a way fo r them toserve. I enjoyed working with them. Jonathan also came and helped.

D V E S M I T HF M IL Y T O C O M EOn May 30 David and SylviaSmith andtheir 3 children will arrive in Japan from

West Des Moines , Iowa. They have been

planning this trip for a long time and fort hi s y ea r before the oldest daughter becomes 12 an d takes adult fare.We are p lanning various programs for

P R E C H E R SM E E T I N G S

Almost every month we have a gettogether of our Japanese preachers an dmissionaries on a Sunday afternoon. Always there are some who cannot comebecau se o f va ri ous o ther church activities,bu t we have found tha t since mos t of themwork to supplement their income from th echurches, this is t he most convenient day,an d they feel th e need of the fellowship.This past Sunday we ha d one suchmeeting, with Japanese preachers an dmissionaries present. Each one tells an ynews o f h is church or family that he feelslike sharing with th e groupboth goodand bad, and s ince p reacher s ar e professional talkers, we all feel we receivesomething important from this informal,unstructered vis it ing time. At this meeting5 baptisms were reported, including th edaughter of one of th e men. Everyoneknows t ha t J ap an is a field of slow andsmall results, but this shows us that we ar eno t working in an impossible si tuat ion,and that th e Lord is indeed giving thegrowth in a quiet an d steady way just likein a field anywhere. Also, on e preacher wastelling what a problem th ey a re havingwith both parents of hi s wife very sick an daged an d needing constant care. They live

them to t ake par t in , and ar e looking fo rward to having our children a nd g ra ndchildren with us fo r th e summer. We hope itwill be th e experience of a l i fe t ime for all.

with the preacher, although one is in thehospital now. The preacher said that inspite of no t having adequate time to prepare sermons the attendance seemed to bekeeping up and he is one who reported 2baptisms. An older preacher commentedthat th e people coming to church werewatching thei r life-style an d their lovingcare for th e aged parents and that theywould ge t as much encouragement for theirChristian l ives from seeing this practicaldemonstration of love as they would fromhis looking up th e words in a concordanceand giving some deep discourse on lovefrom books. Se e what I mean by gettingsomething ou t of th e conversation?

The Tokyo area missionaries at a recent prayermeeting- 1 to R. Jonathan Sims an d Leone ColePaul an d Kathleen Pra tt , Rill an d Betty Turner.Harold and Lois Sims, Ju lius and Virf{inia Fleenor.

L S T I N G I M P R E S S I O N S O FO U R T R I P T O I S R E L

by Harold Sims1. Deciding to Go

When I came back from a 10 week trip toth e United States last September, I noticedon th e bulletin board a t Mejirodai Churchan a n n o u n c e me n t from M i na to C h ur chabout a Holy Land Tour being planned fo rFebruary, and a printed brochure givingt he d et ai ls a bout price, schedule, etc. Myf i rs t react ion was that I would not go onanother trip at this time. I had turned downa n um b er o f in vi t at io ns a n d adver t i s ements fo r travel to t ha t pa rt o f th e world inpast years also.But I announced it to ou r church people,an d one day I noticed that one of ourmembers was care ful lyreading th e printedmaterial. When I asked if she was planning to go sh e said, If th e 'sensei'(teacher) goes, I will. Then at one of th emonth ly preachers' meetings I f ound outthat a large number of people from Minatoand Nakano c hu rc he s, i nc ludi ng thepreachers, and some preachers and folksfrom o ther par ts of Japan had alreadysigned up . They told me that with th e valueo f th e yen b ei ng so high t hese days, andsince th e t r ip was planned in th e off-seasonwhen discount fares fo r planes and hotelswould be in effect, th e price quoted fo r th et ri p was th e cheapest ever.

So I began to think more positively aboutgoing. A good part of th e joy of an y trip isgained from th e t ravel companions, and Iknew it would be a lo t of fu n to go with thisgroup of Japanese Christians because ofprevious experience during th e U.S. Tourin 1985. B u t th e cos t in d o ll ar s w a s still abig i tem to con si de r.On my birthday the deadline wasapproaching an d I was si tt ing in thestudythinking about the pros and cons ofsigning up fo r th e trip. Lois came into th eroom wi th a f a m i l i a r s m i le on h e r face t h a tI have called since ear ly in our marriage, a grin like th e cat that at e th e canary.She handed me her bank-book, and said, Use a s muc h of th is as you need, and go toth e Holy Land. Happy Birthday Immediat el y the decision was sealed, and Iwas sure i t would be a blessing, because itwas undergi rded by p rayer , con fident itwas in accord wit h God 's will, and true,self-sacrificing love. Soon, 4 ladies fromth e Mejirodai Church decided to go .2. The GroupA total of 40 people made th e trip and i tw a s t h e f i rs t t ime fo r a ll b u t 2 o f us t o s eeth e l an d w h er e J e s u s walked There were10 preacher s, i nclud ing Ha ro ld and Jon-


8/22

athan Sims, bu t only 1 preacher's wife Iwent.Therewere 5 other couples Three of Ithese men were elders of our Japanese Ichurches, and the other 2 were non- IChristian husbands of faithful women, IOne ofthese men isnowattending his local Ichurch every Lord s Dayand participatingmore and more. There were 2 other men, anelder an d deacon, whose wives stayed inJapan. The r es t were women. Over half ofthem were widows, and there were a fewsingle, working ladies and a few wiveswhose husbands could no t go because oftheir work. Most of th e group had beenChristians for 20 or 30 years, and were ir ea ll y l ooking forwa rd to th e spiritual benefits of th e trip. The Minato church had kindly printed a small booklet of varioussongs that we used on var io us o cc as io ns tduring th e trip. A man from th e Japanese travel agency accompanied us al l th e wayand made th e necessary announcements ofwhen and where to meet next, etc. Wed idn' t h ave to check-in, carry suitcases,etc., ourselves. Th e Japanese like groupliving, and no on e was late, got lost orcaused any trouble to others.3. The Trip OverWe took off f rom Toyko in a cold rain at 4. The Tou r I ns id e I sr ae l9:30 PM on Thursday, Feb. 12, vi a Day 1Scandinavian Air, After a 6 /; hour flight We w ere rushed through security check fattening,we stopped at Anchorage for refue li ng , and customs without the usual thoroughThen we flew over the pole for more than 8 baggage inspection, because with dark- Day 2hours, arriving in Copenhagen at 5:40 AM ness the Sabbath would begin, and every- I began the day by taking pictures of thein dense fog. There was a wait of several one wanted to be of f work an d at home as city and the Sea from ou r 8t h floor hotel

balcony. Then we went down to t he shoreWe gathered in th e hotel dining room for for a few minutes to p ick up a little sand

JapaneseChristian Church TourGroupatDomeof the Rock in Jerusalem. February 1987.

hours in the airport there, during w hi ch we soon as possible,h ad a t ime o f devo t ions in a corner o f th elounge and then roamed th rough the tax- dinner at 7:30 PM, I noticed tha t there was an d some shel ls for souveniers,free shops, etc. Weleft for Israel on another no butter on the bread p la te or the table. Breakfast every morning in Israel was SAS plane in a light snow for anoth er and t hought there had been an oversight, sei-ved buffiT sty le . At t hi s time there wasflight of5 or 6 hours to Tel Aviv.All of east- Bu t before I asked th e waitress for it, I an abundance of cheese, yogurt an d milkern Europe and Turkey was covered by happened to think of that rather obscure products on the table, in addition toclouds, bu t as we neared our destination Scripture in Exodus 23:19 an d several various fr esh f ru it s and juices, salads,and flew in over t he Medi te rr anean the other places forbidding boiling a kid in it s breads, fish an d ho t an d cold drinks. Ofskies c lea red and we were able to se e snow- mother 's milk, I then asked th e waitress if course t he re wa s no bee f o r pork,capped Mt. Hermon, s ea si de and Mt. th is w as t he re ason t he re was no butter,Carmel a s we approached. We landed at She answered yes, an d said I should as kLod Airport at 5:10 local time Feb. 1334 for margarine, notbutter.if I wanted some.hours after we took off from Tokyo. It's a She also added that there w ou ld be no milk To be continued in the next issue ofTokyolong way.

b ee f w a s on th e menu T he b re ad ta ste dgood enough plain, and was, ofcourse, less

for coffee with that meal, because veal an d Christ ian.

Mr. an d Mrs. Stanley Buttray (retired). Fo rwarding Agent: Mrs. Lois Hess le r, PO Bo x 287.Meadville, PA 16335.Mr. an d Mrs. Andrew Patton, 5711 Innaihara,Mochizuki Shi, Kitasaku Gun, Nagano Ken,Japan 384-22. Forwarding Agent: Mr. an d Mrs.0 . Wade Fletcher,321 N. Hannah St.,Ru8hville,IN 46173-1739.Mr . an d Mrs. Harold Sims, 3-33-7 Mejirodai.Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 193 Japan. ForwardingAgent: Fi rs t Church of Christ, 315 E. Orange

Ave., Euslis , FL 32726-4194.

B e lo re y ou mov e please senO the mailing label Oeiuw. along wi in a c opy ol you' new aOd'ess loMISSION SEflVlCES ASSOCIATION PO BO i 24?? Kno iv i ll e . IN 37901-2427

Two year subscriptionSubscription and Flaming Torch .5 0SI.OOTokyo hrist ian^No 776-320Published four times a year in January, April,July, an d November fo r the missionaries of th eChurch of Christ, Cunningham Mission, Tokyo,

Japan by Miss ion Serv ices , 7525 Hodges FerryRoad, Knoxville, TN 37920-9731. Second Classpostage paid at Knoxville, TN 37901-2427.POSTMASTER: Send a dd re ss c ha ng es toTokyo Chris t ian, c/ o MISSION SERVICES, POBo x 2427, Knoxville, TN 37901-2427.

Form 3579 Requested , PO Box 2427, Knoxville , Tennessee 37901-2427.


9/22

S I MS. N E WS L E T T E R M ay 9 7

Dear Fr i endsIn Japan the school year and f i sca l year ends on March 31; so everystudent who plans to enter High School or College has to go through what theyca l l examination hel l and every company employee has to do his part towardclosing the accounts in the black and t ak ing inventory. This is when al lcompanies promote, transfer, ret i re and hire . So spring is a time for manychanges in people s lives, and there is not all that much leisure for lookingat th e cherry blossoms. For instance, in ou r own l i t t l e congregation hereShingo Tsuda left for 1 year of l i fe in the United States as a High SchoolExchange Student, Mr. and Mrs. Toyama went to Germany for his Sabbatical fromMciji University and he will be lecturing in modern Japanese philosophy Mrs.Muraki moved down to her retirement home in Yugawara along the Pacific CoastMr. Sai to returned from 4 months of work on Osaka where he installed acoroputer~control system in a private railroad for his Toshiba Electric Coand Prof. Ito returned to presiding at worship services after about 10 weeksoff helping a Ph.D. candidate from his class with his dissertation and gradinghundreds of entrance examinations for his University. We are thankful thatthere were no great changes in our lives, but ve have been through a series of

YEARLY ME E T I N G S1. On March 29 we had our annual Sunday School Promotion Day with 6 girlsand 1 boy who started in the pre school class and have been very regular inattendance graduating from the sixth grade. Each of them was given a parallelEnglish Japanese New Testament and an exhortation to start coming to church

services now. The next Sunday they were in our living room at 9:30 A.M. forthe new Eng. Bible Class Lois started for Middle High Students and some ofthem have been in worship every Sunday in April. Since these were enteringMiddle School level they were qualified to go to the Camp March 25 28. Fourgirls who had been waiting for this chance were among the 12 who went fromMejirodai Church. Also 3 boys who all passed the entrance exams for the HighSchools they had hoped to get in celebrated by riding their bicycles 173kilometers up to the camp in one 14 hour windy day. The road back was moredownhill and they came home in 10 hours. The next 2 days after gettinghome they helped Jonathan and me painithe iron fence around the church lotan d the porch roof .. 2. On April 23 we had the annual meeting of the Yotsuya Mission Zaidanwhich is a part of our work and responsibil i ty. This board of trusteesadministers the remainder of the property which was purchased years ago by theCunninghams. As a non-profit corporation we are required to report allactions and finances to the Japanese government every year. Since the saleof one piece of land in Tokyo over 10 years ago we have maintained a loanfund to help Japanese Churches and Church of Christ Missionaries to buy landand build churches and homes. Some early loans are already paid off, andwe have new requests every year. This fund has been a help to many peopleand we are thankful to have a part in th i s .3. The congregation at Mejirodai has a yearly meeting also. Since weincorporated 5 or 6 years ago we are required to have an official meeting forreporting finances and adopting a budget within 30 days of Mar. each year.


10/22

2 oany hours every April are spent in preparing reports, financial records,zeroxing and sending out information connected with this. have 46 on themembership ro l l now and the church business i s being .understood and donebe t t e r eve ry y e a r .

4 . Easter i s also becoming a yearly event here . I d on t p re fe r tha t word,but the 20 Pro t e s t an t Churches in our c i ty of 400,000 coopera te in a ci ty -wideaf te rnoon Eas te r Gather ing to br ing th e a t ten t ion o f the general p ub lic tothe gospel of Chris t . This year was the 12th, but it was the f i r s t time wewere able to use th e c i t y audi torium. About 900 people attended. I had a minorpar t on th e programmaking th e of fe r ing exp lana t ion and appea l . Also 15 ofour Sunday School s tuden ts took pa r t in th e 80 voice chorus t ha t opened theprogram. Some o f th e young people went forward a t th e inv i ta t ion , and we wil lbe fo l lowing up on t hose . Only a few women were a t the sunr i se prayer meetingin th e l o ca l pa rk , which was Sc r i p t u r a l , but we had 49 adu l t s and 13 ch i ld rena t th e morning worship fo r th e b es t a tt en d an c e s in ce Christmas. A good numbero f these brought t h e i r lunch an d a te toge ther in Sims Hall b efo re going downto th e cen t e r o f town fo r t he a fte rn oo n meet ing . Even th e weather cont r ibu tedto making it a memorab le , happy day.

NNIVERS RIESl.On Sunday afternoon April 12 Mrs . Leone Cole had open house in Higashi-

Nakano celebra t ing 50 years to the day since they arr iv ed in Japan to beginthei r missionary work. He died of cancer about 10 y ears a go .) All 4 of he rchi ldren came from the United Sta tes to jo in her fo r the occas ion, and Loisand I were happy to jo in a laf^e gfbiip of Jap^ese and Americans there .

2. April 20,21 Lois and I went with Andrew and Bet ty Pat ton on the fa s tt ra in to Osaka to jo in in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the s t a r to f th e Seminary t h e r e . It was good to meet and hear th e t a l k o f o ld -t im e rst h e r e . Actua l l y th e school was c losed from 1939-1948 because o f m i li ta ri smand World War 2 .

3.We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary on March 21 by going out fordinner and at tending a s t r ing quar te t concer t in downtown Tokyo. e knew 2of the Chris t ian pro fess iona l s who played. The music was Hayden s Seven Wordson the Cross with the related Scrip ture being read in Japanese before eachmus i ca l sec t i on , making it an evening of more devot ion t h a t en te r t a inment .Lois Ladies English Class had a photographer come to the house and take ourpic ture as th.eir spec ia l g i f t , and then took us to a popular noodle shop forlunch . During th e day f lowers were de l ivered from our ch i ld ren in the U.S.and f r iends in Japan.

YEN DOLL R E X C H A N G E R TESCertainly a l l o f you a re aware o f the dec l ine in the value o f the U.S.

do l la r in re la t ion to Japanese yen ando the r major currencies . During 1985the dol la r averaged 234 yen through a l l the f luctuat ions. In 1986 the figurewas 167. This means there has been a dr as t i c drop in income fo r a l l missiona r i e s . The only conso l a t i on i s tha t we paid l e s s income t ax . But we neverthought we would see one dollar fa l l as low as t he p re se nt 138 yen.

I f there were some hope tha t through th i s the United Sta tes would make agrea t economic recovery or be able to reduce the enormous na t iona l def i c i t ,we would be happier a bout e nd urin g the f inancia l pinch; but tha t doesn t seem


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3 to be th e d ir ec ti on in which th e econonay i s moving.Naturally we a re a l l concerned about these matters, and when missionaries

g at he r t he se days the conversation usually gets around to this subject. Butwe would like to assure you 1. that we do not spend a ll of our time readingthe f i n a n c i a l pages o f th e paper an d worrying about economics an d 2. we arenot about to s t a r v e to death and making a cr i s i s appeal fo r funds. e a reth ank ful to say that we receive some yen income from the Hejirodai Church,and also from part-time English teaching in ou r home and at a High School inour neighborhood. The d o l l a r value of t h i s has act ual l y increased, and i t i sre a l l y a help in these days. As long as our health permits and th e presentsi t uat i on continues we f e e l i t i s r i g h t fo r us to us e these opportunities top u l l p a r t of the weight ourselves and not put an additional burden on you.Bu t we do si ncer el y request your continuing th e f i nanci al support you havebeen doing an d e s p e c i a l l y t h a t you pray f o r us an d th e work of C hri st here.nd I do no t think i t would be presumptuous for us to pray about th e relationsbetween our 2 countries, which are no t going smoothly and happily now. ayour n atio n s leaders not make decisions on the basis of anger, greed, prideo r o t h e r unworthy m o t i v e s , and may peace and well-being p r e v a i l over a l l .I might add t h a t in our relationships withihe local peopleboth non-Christianan d C h r i s t i a n we f e e l the r e i s no e nm it y to wa rd us an d we fee l comfortableand happy to continue our l i fe here as we have been doing these many years.

DAVE SMITH MILY VISITn ay 30 we are looking forward to th e arriv al of David and Sylvia oursecond daughter) Smith and Rachel 11 Joshua 9 and Suzanne 7)at our house

to spend the summer. Dave has been m i n i st e r i n g a t C h r i s t s Church in West DcsMoines, Iowa fo r almost 5 years now. Back in 1970 he and Sylvia gave us th esurpr ise o f a l i f e t ime by dropping in unexpectedly jus t b e fo re C h ri st m as .They were married a t Nakano Church Jan. 15, 1971 and spent. 6 months in Japana t t h a t Lime. S y l v i a has been saving a l l o f her money received from babys i t t ing and ot her j obs f o r about 5 years in o r d e r to make t h i s t r ip fo r th ec h i l d r e n to see her roots . Dave i s going to be doing, some preaching andt e a c h i n g with Harold t r a n s l a t i n g a lm os t e ve ry week a t churches, camps etc .an d of course we plan to spend some time s i g h t s e e i n g , going to conventions,an d g e t t i n g to know t he g ra nd -c hi ld re n an d helping them to know Japan and i t speople as well as us .and our work. Should be a good, busy summer.

Yours in Chr i s t s S e r v i c e ,

H A R O L D AND LOIS SIMS


12/22

SIMS TOKYO MISSION ewsletter

Forwarding agent :st Chur ch of Ch r i s t315 E. Orange Ave.Eus t i s , PL 32726 4194

Make checks payable to SimsTokyo Mission. Clearly markpe r sona l checks fo r th e Sims P e r s o n a l . Annua l financialrepor t avai lable by requestfrom Forwarding Agent.

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P e rm i t 57Eus t i s , L 32726


13/22

y ^ ^3Tokyo m ChristianGo ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature Mark 16:15

V O L U M E 8 6

S I M S N E W S(Continued from April 1987 Issue)

T he streets of Tel Av iv we re not crowdedor noisy on the Sabbath morning, and th efew people walking were going at a leisurely pace. All stores were closed andeven private homes an d apartments wereshu tt er ed with sliding louvered panelswhich gaveshade, privacy an d protection.Most men were wearing saucer-sized skullcaps. A l it tle boy and h is mother werewaiting in th e hotel lobhy that morning,and 1 asked her if he was wear ing the ca pbecause they were going to th e synagoguefor worship. Sh e answered that healways wears i teven to bedand sodoes h i s f a th e rWe spent mos t o f the 4 days, Sat.-Tues.i n t he same bus, and with the same driver.We had a very young J apanese man as ou rguide who was very knowledgeable inHebrew language, history, geography an dth e Bible, including th e New Testament.At the start of ou r bus trip, we drovethrough th e Joppa section of Tel Aviv bu twere disappointed that we didn't stop atth e t radit ional site of t he h o us e of Simonthe Tanner. The reason given was lack oftime, bu t I suspect there might have beensome concern fo r ou r safety, because th earea is like a slum, with many half-destroyed, windowless bui ldings an dmany Arabs standing around. Soon wewere going north along th e coast, enjoyingthe t rees and flowers of the Pla in ofSharon. We stopped and enjoyed a goodwalk around old Caesarea. At the ol dharbor we enjoyed th e feeling that we werewalking in Paul's footsteps, because this iswhere h e w e nt out and returned from mos tof his miss ionary journeys. From there wedrove up to th e top ofMt. Carmel on a nicehighway, and enjoyed th e view of thecurving coast l ine and th e modern c ity ofHaifa. That mountain to p area is now af irs t-class r e s iden t ia l a r e aWe had lunch in a l ar ge s ea si deresturant in Acco. As we were waiting forth e second course, a t able ofJewish peoplebegan to sing a lively song.They weresoonjoined by most of th e people in th e largeroom. All were clapping their hands andenjoying their life music and the beautiful

weather . I t occurred to m e t h a t s ince thisw as the Sabba th th e waiters mus t beArabs, so I asked t he young man who wasserving our table (about college age) if hespokeEnglish. He said he did and wentonto sa y that he was A Palestinian, andthat he was prac t ic ing Japanese Karate

Ju ly 1987 N u m b e r 3

L A ST IN G IM P R E S S IO N S O FO U R T R I P T O I S R A E Lby Harold Sims

every day. Then looking me in the eye withgreat convict ion he said slowly andquietly We will win. A whiff of underlying tension on a peacefu l Sabbath after oo

We spent some time in the darkunderground chambers an d tunnels of oneof th e large church-fortresses built duringthe Crusades about 1000 years ago. In on eroom there were s ome mode rn benches ,and as we sa t down fo r a few minutes ofr es t our group broke into singing a hymnwhich reverberated through th e ancientwalls as an expression of ou r faith in th eeternal Chris t. After tha t we strolled alongth e anc ient water-front with thousands oflocal people and tourists taking in theMediterranean air.F rom thi s point our b us turned inlandan d began c limbing into th e hills ofGalilee. The hills were speckled with ou tcropping of white rocks everywhere bu tth e grass was fresh and green from recentrains, an d there were flocks of sheepgrazing here and there.Suddenly we came to Nazaretharather large city. We parked and walked upto th e l arge church that dominates thecenter of th e town, but since i t was shortlyafter 4 PM they wouldn 't le t us enter.Therewas noisy t ra ff ic and a ll k inds of shopsalong th e streets, an d people both i n th estreets and on th e roofs of th e houses. Itried, bu t could not bring my emotions toany feeling that Jesus used to live there orto see an y evidence of th e effect of His lifeon this town. I t was a rather lonely, d iscouraged feeling that Jesus Himself musthave ha d when h e said, A prophet is notwi thout honor s ave i n hi s own country.Some minutes later we went through thetown o fCana , a nd took pictures of the red-roofed church from the bus window. Thenwe hurried on down through th e hills to aKibbutz a t Tibe r ia s bes ide th e Sea o fGalilee. We at e PeterFish fo r supper, butdidn't find any coins. After dark a few ofuswalked down t o v iew the c alm l ak e u nd erthe full moon. Doubt less there had been nochange here from the conditions whenJesus walked bes ide and even upon thiswater. What a joy and blessing to be hereand se e and feel this place and anticipateth e Lord 's Day tomorrowDay 3I got up at 6AM to ge t a pictureof th e sunr is ing across th e lake. Then I phonedMejirodai. It was 1:40 PM, and they ha d al

ready finished th e worship service inJapan.In th e morningwe went up to th e to p of agreen hill where the Church of th e Beatitudes is. The re was a worship service inprogress , so we couldn't go inside, but wewentaround behind th e building andhad aprofoundly mov in g worship service,reading of th e beatitudes, prayer andCommunion while sitting on thegrass andlooking a t th e lake like th e 5000 and manyothers who heard Jesus ' words gladly. Thesinging was so inspirational we justcont inued i t on th e bus fo r a while.Capernaum was nearby, and it was agreat joy to stand in the famous synagoguethere and se e th e nea rby rui ns o f Pet er 'shouse.There we got on a boat for the tripback toTiberiastaking many pictures of such

scenes as 2 fishermen in a small boatcasting nets the distant village ofMagdala nestling between the hills th ebirds following th e boat an d grabbing bitso f b re ad o ut o f th e air .We got back on the bus for a rather longdrive down to Jericho . This was throughth e WestBank area, and aside from th eIsrael border fences and patrols we sawonly a few poor vil lages along the way. Ofcourse th e Jordan Valley was visible on th eleft part of the time and the hills ofSamaria on th e right. We saw the famousruins of old Jericho only briefly, an d thena te l un ch a t an Arab Res taurant called Temptation on a prominent corner in thecity. It was summer-like heat, and wesensed t ha t Jericho was an oasis.Another long drive took us down alongthe Dead S ea to the area of Sodom. I wasdisappointed not to see any pillars of salt,bu t we did get to our hotel in time to changean d take a brief dip in the briny water. Itwas mid-summer wea the r on Feb. 15 Thewa te r i n t he re s tauran t d idn ' t taste good,so we bought mineralwater at the bar an denjoyed that.Day 4We went back along t he DeadSea a s f aras Masada, themountain-top fortress thatheld ou t a long time against th eRomansinth e 70 AD war. This is now a majortouriststop, an d we rode th e modern rope-way tothe top and spent some t ime see ing theruins there, and taking many pictures.To be continued in thenext issueofTokyoC h r i s t i a n


14/22

T H E S M IT H F A M IL YG OE S T O T O K Y O

Smiths arrive in Japan.Our second daughter , Sylv ia, and her

fiancee, Dave Smith, gave us th e surpriseof a lifetime by appearing at our doo r atmidnight December 19, 1970. They weremarr ied in the Nakano Church on January15, 1 97 1, and stayed fo r 6 months helpingin th e work o f t h e c hu rc h in Isehara whilethe Paul Pratts t ook a furlough trip. Theyt hen re tu rned to the U.S . t o f inish their co llege education. Dave has ministered to fourdifferent churches. They now have threechildrenRachel 11), Joshua 9), andSuzanne 7). Sylvia has been saving al l ofth e money sh e received from babysittingand other part- t ime jobs so th e could makethis trip. There ar e 2 purposes: 1. So thatth e children will have a clear, long-lastingimpression of their mother s roots and, 2.so they will ge t to know their grandparentsand their work. The r ea son for this yearw as because t he o ld es t wou ld t ake adu l tfare if it were delayed any longer. The highcost of th e yen agains t t hedo l la rmakes thecos t of everything in Japan veryexpensive. However , t hey a re not t he t yp ethat lets such difficulties stand in th e wayof carry ing out well-laid plans . There werealso a lo t of other preparations to be made,both for leaving their ministry at Christ sChurch in West De s Moines, Iowa fo r 3months and fo r the children adapting toanother country, bu t after 16 /^ years theyarrived a t Narita Airport early in themorning. May 30, 1987.

Needless to say, we had some lively, interesting an d enjoyable times since theyarr ived .House Pa int ing a nd Y ar d WorkA day or two after they settled in, Davewanted to know where the neares thardware store was. He said h e w as goingto p ain t t he outside stucco wal l of thechurch and hous eno t t ou c he d s in c e wemoved here 17 years ago, and badly in needof it. He wanted to see if J ap an es e h ad Pa in t Pads like the ones he had beenusing in th e U.S. I n f ac t, it was quite remarkable that he could ask fo r anything hewanted in our local do- it-yourself store inEnglish and th e J apanes e man in thatsec tion shook h is h ead positively an d invariably showed him wha t h e wanted inpaint, varnish, tools, etc. The Englishwords fo r things like paint colors, sandpaper, etc., are much more commonly usedhere than th e original Japanese.The outside painting is pret ty well alongnow, except for the trim, an d Dave also hasvar ni sh ed our pulpit. This s umme r hasbeen one of th e driest rainy seasons in hi s

tory, an d our water supply is now severelyrestr icted. Some of t he chu rch people ar ejokingly accus ing Dave of praying toohard for good painting weather.He has also spent some t ime t r immingour shrubbery, and Sylvia has dug up mostof the courtyard betweenour house and thenew part of the church building and re-seeded it . I t i s now up like a th in beard andseems to have a good s ta rt . The churchpeople are really appreciative of this workbeing done voluntarily during vacation.Act ivi t i es fo r th e Chi ld ren

The chi ld re n have been to several interesting places in th e Hachioji AreaTama Zoo, Tama Tech (where t hey havevarious things to r id e) , Takao Mountain,an d Summer-land (where they have awave-making machine and sliding boardin t he la rg e pool.) The mos t s urpr is in gthing to us is how much they like to watchTV programs in Japanese language. Thereis a 20 minute ser ia l t ha t runs fo r 4 weeks 5nights a week 20 e pi sod es ). The childrencannot go to bed without seeing Etsukoand gettingGrandpa to explain thetalkingparts they don t understand. They can follow the gist of the story by the movementson th e screen .One of our members suggested that th echildren might enjoy a da y at th e local elementary school. She laid the groundworkfor us to go to the school one afternoon foran interview with the principal. When weappeared at the school gate, a large crowdof children gathered around us an d followed u s i nt o th e building. We talked withthe principal, his assistant an d teachersfrom th e second, fourth an d s ix th g radeclasses. The principal was hesitant because of th e language problems bu t th eteachers wee interested in the childrenfrom th e U.S. and th e educational possibilities fo r th e children here and anxious tohave them come. They asked each child towrite thei r names in large le tters on a sheetof paper. When school was ou t that afternoon we had a number ofs tuden t s from th esixth grade class in front of the housewanting to see Rachel. Soon 3 of them werein t he hou se showing them how to foldpaper things, an d they had agreed to comehere and walk t o s choo l w it h t hem. By Friday, some of the housewives were tellingLois t h a t th e school their chi ldren went towere feeling neglected because theyweren t going there. At Sunday School Iwarned our noisy, excited 6t h graders thatif they didn t behave the chi ldren wouldonly be a ll owed to visit one day , so theywent down the street busily exhort ing eachother to be sure al l th e kids were quiet andon thei r bes t behavior. The da y worked ou tto be a big t ime for al l, and t hey have sincebeen back two other days. O ur SundaySchool attendance th e following Sundayincreased by 10. The fourth grade teachergave Josh a bug that is his treasure and joyas well as a picture of th e school and classwith th e n am es o f all th e students signedon th e back, etc.Meeting PeopleWe had the month ly miss ionary prayermeeting here on June 5, and on Pentecostevening we had 4 couples come fo r a cook-ou t and evening of fellowship. At least on eof each couple is Christ ian, and a t least on e

speaks pret ty good English. It was a goodtime of fellowship fo r al l of us. There havebeen several opportunities to meet friendsfrom school days and from variousc on ta ct s t hr ou gh t he y ears. Rachel hasmet with a number of my English classes,and all helped m e grade 160 workbooksand mid-term t es t papers from th e localHigh School where I teach.T r a v e lJune 29-July 7 t hey wen t to th e Osakaregion. Dave spoke in chapel a t OsakaBible Seminary and then in Okayama Prefecture. They also visited some people anddid somesight-seeing. From July 22 we willmake a trip by ca r to Hiroshima for theyearly missionary and Japanese conventions, an d then we will go from there to th eyoung people s camp.

In August there will be Vacation BibleSchool and other things to keep us busyand happy until they must return to Iowa.

E V A N G E L I S T I CM E E T I N G S

On June 21, Harold Sims preached forthe opening night of a 3 day meeting at theMach ida Church , where Bill and BettyTurne r a re now working . They had pr epared a program of songs for Father s Dayand had made a major effort to ge t th efathers out. Everyone was very happy tose e about 10 f ath er s in th e aud i encemany of them in church for the first timefo r a tota l o f 33 chi ldren and 32 adul ts .That night we met th e Rostvit Twins,After t he ir progr am , t he chil dr en weret ak en d owns ta ir s to see a video abou tNoah s Ark while I preached to the adults.It was a great opportunity to s ow s omeseed.The following night Dave preached and Itranslated. We had a good meeting andsome young girls signed decision cardsthat they wanted to become Christians.Our meet ing at Mejirodai was plannedon rather short notice, because we learnedof the avai labi li ty of th e Rostvits andDave. It is no t usual to have special meetings at this time of year because of therainy season, but i t d idn t rain during anyof th e meetings. We ar e thankful we wentahead with plans for th e meeting, and feltGod rewarded th e ef fo rt s beyond our expectations in answer to prayer and faith.We planned 3 meetings. The f ir st on Fr iday morning for h ou sew iv es . We wer ehappy to have 37 and some were from Loisregular Friday morning English Conversat ion Class. Also, there were som e newpeople who came af ter r ead ing thehandbills we had passed out. We hadprinted 3,000 handbills an d distributedthem to al l the houses a nd a pa rtmen tbuildings in th e area. On Saturday nightwe had over 52 people present, bu t failed toge t an accurate count. Aga in the re wereseveral people in church for the first t ime. Iam sure there were a t least 3 first-timers ineach service, which was quite unusual,even in Japan. On Sunday evening wehad


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38 adults and 13 chi ldren . The large numbe r of chi ld ren who s pe ci al ly want tohear the Rostvits sing kept their promise tosi t still dur ing t he sermon very well. Atthat service a lady who attends here sometimes go t he r husband inside a churchbuilding for th e f irst t ime in his life, an dshe was radiantly happy.So we are very thankful to have ha d th e 3visiting evangelists from America to helpus. We hope we can be used o f the Lord infollowing up on th e contacts made duringthese meetings. I am sure that the opportunity to hear music an d messages inEngli sh was a drawing card, and we emphasized tha t in th e handbill. We u se a llmeans that al l might hear an d some maybe s a v e d

oOth Anniversary nf Osaka Bible .Seminary.

A N N I V E R S A R I E SOn April 20,21 Lois an d Harold Sims andAndrew an d Betty Patton went down to

celebrate th e special anniversary ofOsakaBible Seminary. Andrew was the speakerfor the service. Exactly 50 yea rs ago onApril 12, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Cole arrivedin Japan to begin their missionary work,a n d on th e 21st o f t h a t s a me m on th th ef i rs t class w a s held with Harold Coleteaching, one student an d one interpreter.Harold Cole died about 10 years ago, bu tMrs . C ol e a n d all 4 of h e r chi ldren werepresent for this occasion at which a plaquewas put up on thewal lof themain buildingcommemorating tha t opening day.Also Grace Madden Braley, whoseparents es tabl ished the work in Osaka andwere living on th a t .spot a t tha t time, camefrom Maryland fo r th e occasion. It was avery happy and memorable day for all, bu tespecially fo r th e ol d timers.After just a short time in opera tion theschool was closed dur in g t he war y ea rs ,an d it was re((pened in 1950. For mos tof it slife i t h as been a small school, bu t over th ey ea rs m an y h av e gone out from there toserve in th e work of the churches in Japan.

F I F T H S U N D A YR A L L Y

I have mentioned in previous issuesabout various Rall ies in Tokyo. We asked

to have th e one fo r May 31 because it wouldbe a good oppor tunity to welcome Daveand Sylvia Smith to Japan. Dave was t hespecial speaker for th e afternoon. Weexpected about 70 people so th e ladiesdecided we would be able to s er ve t hem ameal for a nominal cost and al l preparat ions began to fall into place.But t hen t he ca ll s began to come in fromth e various churches with figures forexpected attendance, and when th enumber reached around ICQ we began toget a little panicky. Th e church has only 70chairs, so we borrowed 30 from th e HighSchool. But t he most we cou ld ge t in ou rs m a ll a u di to r iu m w a s 78 . T he r e st o f t h epeople had to stand by th e open windows orsi t in th e classroom in Sims Hall and tr y tohear over a speaker that was not workingproperly.We had a record-breaking a t tendance of132 people, counting children. It was abeautiful spring evening, and impressiveto see how quickly an d amply a ll were fedand the people enjoying fellowship andeating al l over th e place. Thirteen congregations were represented. Many of th epeople present remembered Sylvia as alittle girl or maintaining a store at campfrom years past. It was truly a memorableday fo r al l of us. Dave preached on Th ePea rl o f Grea t Price and many were trulythankful to feel they had found it.

Dave Smith preaching; Harold Sims translating.

P A T T O N S N E W S

A N N I V E R S A R I E S

Andrew Patton bringing th e 5 )th anniversarymessage at UH.S.

Anniversar ies are important in Japanth e first year af ter death, the family has amemorial service at a Buddhist temple andon other specified yea rs . The 88th birthday is a very special occasion in Japan.Bu t 50th year anniversaries are not

special. However, this year the 50th anniversary of th e exi st ence o f Osaka BibleSeminary was given prominence. The lateHarold Cole, founder of O.B.S., and th eM B M a d d e n s w e r e h o n o r e d M r s L e o n eCole a nd h er 4 children were present a t th eceremony when sh e unveiled a plaque inmemory of th e occasion. The Maddensdaughter , Grace Braley, madethe trip fromth e U.S. and Andrew gave the message fo rt he morni ng program April 21, th e s amed a t e o n w hi ch t he s c h o o l w a s s t a r t e d 5 0years ago. We made the trip with th eSimses to Osa ka . T he re we met againmany of our co-workers an d JapaneseC h r i st ia n b r o th e r s a n d s i s t e r sMr. Fumio Sato, preacher of the Kamio-chiai chu rch, and Mr. Oda, professor a tOBC, were 2 of t he f ir st graduates. (Mr.Taninari, ou r co-worker, Mr. Suzuki of theArakawa church, Mr. Hiroaki Sato,preacher-son of Mr. F. Sato an d preacher atSakurayama church where we haveministered, ar e al l graduates of O.B.S.)

Mrs. Leone Cole celebrated her 50 yearsin Japan at th e same time. Sh e was givenrecognition of this fact at Pacific BibleSeminary in May.Mr. a n d Mrs. M a r t i n C l a r k celebratedtheir 50th wedding anniversary on June 20with the pre sence of their two daughtersfrom th e U.S. and Paul and family who ar em is si on ar ie s i n Japan. Mr. and Mrs.George Beckman, teachers at OBS, gavethe party for th e occasion. Mr. Clark is th epresident of OBS.

We t h a n k t h e L o r d for O B S a s i t is t h eonly Bible College we have in Japan. Mayth e doors remain open i n s pi te of t he fewwho train there. It is Japan s hope fo rfuture evangelism.

(Mr. Taninari recently was elected as acounselor of OBS.)

C A M PWith temperatures in th e 30 s, Mr.Stephen li jima, with the help of 2 elders,

Mr. Kanamaura and Mr. Oka, led th e se ssions at Golden Week Camp , May 3-5.Studies fo r a Christ ian life a n d Christ ianhome were th e focus of thecamp program.Before the campers left for home they ha dal l agreed that next year th e Golden WeekCamp would continue w ith the sametheme. The witness of th e Christ ian homeis very weak in Japan as still 99 of theJapanese people are without Christ.

Golden Week Camp

A D R Y R A I N YS E A S O N

L iv in g i n t he moun ta in ou s regions of


16/22

Japan has it s advantages and disadvantages. The great advantage at this time ofthe yearly rainy season is that water in oura re a i sn 't r at ioned. On th e plains waterreserves are only a small percent ofnormalamounts. Water in some areas is being delivered to households fo r drinking purposes. A couple of good typhoons can eliminate the emergency as rainfall is stillsporatic. A t the S ims' home t he water inwhich corn is boiled is cooled to pu t on t heflowers We're no t thankful fo r God's blessings until our wel l runs dry.

P R E P A R A T O R YW O R K

Warme r wea th er p re sent ed i ts el f afterGolden Week Camp, th e outs ide clean upand repair work was re sumed . Moreground and hillsides were c le are d ofstumps an d roots an d readied for grassplanting. Other g ra ss on hillsides wasm owe d by pushing and pulling a powermower. Now that we were able to purchasea weed eather, everything is cu t withease an d at a faster pace. Th e beauty ofthecamp grounds increases each year.Steve Turner, back home from AtlantaChristian College, gave us a hand for 10days in June. Also, th e two teenaged sonsof Warren Christ iansen helped. Bettyr aked th e tw o t e n n i s cour ts o f needles a n d

Shuichi Taninari helpinK with Spring camp work.helped Andrew prepare it for rolling. Loadsof hay were raked off the hillsides aftercutt ing two t imes.

Volleybal l cour t, baseba ll a rea with aMr. an d Mrs. Stan ley Buttray (retired). Fo r

warding Agent: Mrs , Lois Messier, PO Box 287,Meadv il le , PA 163 15.

Mr. an d Mrs. Andrew Patton, 571-1 Innaihara,Mochizuki Shi, Kitasaku Gun, Nagano Ken,Japan 384-22- Forwarding Agent: Mr. and Mrs.0 Wade Fletcher,321 N. Hannah St.,Rushville,IN 46173-1739.

Mr. an d Mrs. Harold Sims, 3-33-7 Mejirodai,Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 193 Japan. ForwardingAgent: First Church of Christ, 315 E. OrangeAve., Eust is , FL 32726-4194.Tuio year subscription S.50Subscription an d Flaming Torch SI.00

T o k y o C h r i s t i a n^No. 776-320Published four times a year in January, April,J u ly , and November for th e missionaries of th eChurch of Christ, Cunningham Mission. Tokyo,Japan by Mission Services , 7525 Hodges FerryRoad, Knoxville, TN 37920-9731. Second Classp os ta ge p ai d at Knoxville, TN 37901-2427.POSTMASTER: Send add re ss changes toTokyo Christian, c/ o MISSION SERVICES.POBox 2427, Knoxvil le, TN 37901-2427.

newly seeded grass area, vesper-BBQareas, are all ready to serve the campersneeds.This week Mr. Tan inar i and Betty ar eworking inside. The room with the hot-water heater cannot have any th ing burna bl e i n it so 2 other areas had to be madeinto storage places. The kitchen anddining room areas will be cleaned beforeWor k Wee k. During Wor k Wee k all windows a n d rooms will be cleaned. The ou tside areas wi ll be touched up an d readiedfor camp on July 20-22.Work Week ends onJuly 24.We're looking forward to th e JukuCamp. We ll be missing 2 young Christianmen from th e group as they went to th eU. S. to study. Mr. Yokomizo, preacher atYokosuka church, will be dean that week.Special teachers to help with the summerassignments will be on hand as well asBible teachers and leaders. Pray that Godwill give th e increase as Hi s Word istaught. Visitor-helpers wi ll be Dave an dSylvia Sims) Smith from Iowa and theirc h i l d r e n

Camp wi ll be of great spiritual value aswe hear o f many first time campers planning to come. Some will be traveling fromAwaji Island by ferry to Honshu and transported to th e camp by Mart in Clark. Somecampers have never attended church buthave come in contact with th e Gospelthrough the missionaries' English classes.

G U E S T SWe ar e happy to have Leone Cole and herfour children come fo r a briefvisit. Her son,

David, and family will be returning toJapan in January to continue theirm i s s i o n work .

Also, Mr. an d Mrs. Christ ian and familyfrom Jonesboro, Georgia, visited us .

Mr. Yamaguchi, who attended th ec h u r c h we were a s s o cia t e d w it h i n th e1950's, visited us in Ju ne. A ltho ug h h eneve r became a Chris tian, he was full ofquestions about God's word. Perhaps he 'sgiving thought to th e fact that over one-half of hi s life is gone an d he may nothavemany more years ahead of him. He l ivesn e a r Mr. A k a d a s c h u r c h a n d we encouraged him to attend. Pray fo r h im a nd hi sfamily.

Mr. Schone, head o f In te rna t iona l Cam

ping in Asia, brought a retired couple toview our camp. The couplewill be directingcamp work in Africa for 2 years. What awonderful way to spend your later years.

Mr. a n d Mrs. T a k a h a s h i a n d 2 c h i l d r e nenjoyed a BBQ with th e Pattons and th eT a n i n a r i s Mr. a n d M r s T ak as hi a r eChristians and a tt end t he chu rc h led byW a r r e n C h r i s t i a n s e n

I N N A I C H U R C HF o u r f o r m e r Bible C l a s s s t u de n t s a r e a t

tending t he worship services an d we ar every grateful fo r their interest in His Word.

Some Sundays Mr. Taninari must travelto Tokyo for th e 5t h Sunday Rallies andpreachers ' mee tin gs. H e r ep re se nt s t hecamp and church work a t Shinshu BibleCamp. He traveled to Tokyo on May 10 tobe a t th e baptism o f one o f th e campers.A n d r e w a n d Mr. T a n i n a r i t a k e t u rn spreaching each week.

T H A N K F U LTo each of you who have prayed for ou rforwarding agents' and ou r granddaughter' s heal th , we thank you. Each one hashad good progress in their respecitve ill

nesses but prayer is still needed.Also, we have seen a very small increasein t he dollar-yen exchange r at e a s o f July.Our sons , Phi lip an d Steve, shopped fo r

camp items in the U.S. One is a food processor. Betty already has canned quarts ofpickles using th e slicer attachment and sheha s made 19 pints of gooseberry jam. Anew m ixer in th e camp kitchen will alsohelp out with cake mixing. All th is makesth e k i tchen work a little more pleasant.

P R A Y E RPlease continue to pray fervently fo r th ework in Japan. Many ofour co-laborers ar ehaving to teach English to keep their children in school and p ay th e bills. However,each one is striving to carry on hi s full

schedule of church work and g iv e God' swork priority over all. It 's been difficult fo rsome but is being done, giving Go d th eglory a t al l times.

Belore you move p le as e seno the mail ing label below, along wiin a copy o' you' new addiess loMIS

sims harold lois 1987 japan

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