Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

Hews From Our Mission Field*0ADear Friends,Twenty years have passed since my arrival in Japan.Ruth Spear called last night to ask me to bring along someslides from the early days in Japan for the evening of ourMission get-together for Jim Pennington before his returnto the States. As I went through the slides, I came acrossthe one taken that first day, February 1, 1951. Sam Boylehad come to meet Miss Stewart and me at the ship, and onthe way home he stopped in a little market street to getsome bread. There I saw a Japanese mother with her littlegirl, looking at kimono material in a shop, and I took theirpicture. That jeep in which we went from the ship to theBoyle-Huston-Adams home was an old army jeep, painteda lovely light green, and in those days in Japan, it was quitea wonderful vehicle. On rainy days we needed a raincoatwhen riding inside it, as well as when we were outside. Thelittle market streets, such as that in which we stopped thatfirst day, were so narrow and so many people walking, andno sidewalks at all, but shops opening right out on to theroadway, so that we wondered how we could manage tomake our way on through the market. In those days wecould drive up in front of the entrance to the largest trainstation in Kobe and leave the car there for the day, or parkright in front of the doorway of the biggest departmentstore in the city of Kobe. Instead of traffic lights we hadpolicemen standing on boxes in the center of a couple ofthe main intersections in Kobe, waving their arms inelaborate motions when a car came in sight.Through the years the literature ministry of theCovenanter Book Room has gradually increased. The firstyear, 1952, we sold just over $3000 of Bibles and Christianbooks, 1955 was $6700, 1960 was $8200, 1965 was SI 1,700,and 1970 sales of Bibles and books came to over S28,000.As more and more good books have been published inJapanese, there has been a shift through the years to alarger and larger percentage of the books sold beingJapanese rather than English.In January, on a national holiday when ones werefree from work, there was an all day meeting and time offellowship for the women from all three groups together.The three ministers and several of the young people werealso present for the day. The subject was "Witnessing,"before friends and relatives, in the neighborhood, and atwork.The Keiyaku group, Kasumigaoka group, andHigashi Suma congregation all had congregationalbusiness meetings in January. Members showed a finespirit and a great interest in planning for the coming yearand carrying on the business matters of the church. AtHigashi Suma the budget has usually been planned by theAPRIL 7. 1971Growing Church In Japandeacons, but this year was planned by a finance committeewith an elder as chairman, and representativesfrom each department of the church as members. Theymet for some hours, carefully considering all aspects andplanning the budget for the coming year.Our first use of Psalms for praise in worship servicesin Japan was the writing of the Psalms in large letters onbig sheets of paper hung at the front of the room. At firstthere were one or two and then gradually others wereadded. In 1957 a Psalter selection book was printed. Alimited number were printed, and soon we were again inneed of printing a Psalter. Before reprinting, though,revisions were made, and other Psalms prepared, andmimeographed copies made available to the members.Through these fourteen years several differentmimeographed Psalter selection books have beenprepared, and the committee has worked very hard on thepreparation of the Psalms, and all are anxious to have theJapanese Psalter printed. The long-awaited JapanesePsalter selection book is to be printed this April, though,and for this we truly give thanks. Pray for the committeein their final preparations for this.Rev. Mr. Masunaga is a very fine minister, and agifted Bible teacher, and we are most grateful that Godhas provided him as a leader of the church here in Japan.Our church has been in Japan for twenty years now. Wehave four centers of work — Keiyaku Church, CovenanterBook Room, Higashi Suma Church, and KasumigaokaChurch. But we still have only one Japanese pastor. Howwe do pray that there might be more Japanese pastors!How we do pray that there might be more centers ofwitness! How we do pray that many more might bebrought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ!We are thankful for Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Masunaga, and weare thankful for each of the Christians and for the witnessof their lives. Pray for Mr. Muto, Mr. Miwa, and otheryoung people, that each might know God's will for hisplace of service to the Lord, and be wholly yielded to beused of the Lord.We sometimes have the disappointment of seeing oneswho have been coming faithfully and showing considerableinterest in the Gospel suddenly drop away andstop coming. Some of these return again at a much laterdate. Some do not. And then we sometimes have thatcreat jov of seeing ones, who have come for variousreasons other than just to study the Bible, come to knowthat this is truly God's Word and to see themselves assinners in God's sight and in need of the salvation, which isthrough Christ alone. Recently I had this joy as Miss Yoko