Burney Donald Norma 1958 Japan

in America,

hooking "back over the last letter v/c wote to you, it doesn't seempossible that it was as long ago as October lIi-. It has been i'oxir'monthsnow since we came to Shikolru, and all of them'busy, and v/c hope, pro-diictive of some lasting good to God's Kingdom,

Since we v/roto last we have added a few services to ou:i:> schedule, X 'think, We now have morning worship service at 9 a,m,, children's class at1 p.m., and evening worship service at 7 P.m. on Sunday, These are all held111 our large living room which we have kept Japanese style, meaning there isno furniture, but th8.t all sit on the floor on pillows, X also preach

I^ricnds In Christ in America. .A^^.on, xhey \7ould come at 6 p,xa, and pijactioe for an hour--som0 weeks

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every night (in this case v/o pi'acticed only half the scenes at a time) andsome weeks three time's a v/eek (in which case we practiced the whole play.)The plan v/as to practice an hour and then they v/ere to go home, but it tumecout that nothingnot even our insistance-could budge them out of the houseuntil 3 or 8:30, They played games,: talked (what a-mild wordi), investigatedeverything, and in general raised a rmpus (and a lot of dust out of our"straw-mat floors) until they decided it was time to go. Of course, theypracticed the play too, until 7200. Some of them would come even if theirscenes weren^t practicing that night, apparently for the purpose of playingafterv/ard. It was certainly v/earing, but we also enjoyed it. If theydon*t all know the story of the Lords birth, I don*t loiow what it wouldtake to teach thorni

Here at Hyoken the program was on the night of December 25. 7/e used thelocal "nursery school" building because we thought our large front room whichwe use for worship services and classes vrould not be big enough. The olderyoung people helped us decorate the building, made angel Virings, took careof the changes of lighting during the program, and in general were very helpful, We were happy with their interest. Tlie costuming for the play consistedof most of our sheets, blankets, towels, and piece goods which had been sentto us, along with a lot of safety pins. Several of the churches there inthe States would probably recognise things they had sent among the thingsadorning the children that night. The night of the program there werearound oO people present to sec the program besides those who Y;ere takingpart. It is just a beginning, but some of the community, at least, areaware of the circimistances of Jesus ^ birth.

The Gomen Bible class also wanted to present the same play, so whilev/e Y/ere practicing with the Myoken group, there also had to be practice timewith the G-omon group, Becaiise of other teachers in the Gomen part-timeschool, however, it v/asn^t nea.rly as much of a struggle as Myoken, Here wehad only the tv/o of us (Horma and myself) to supervise and instruct thechildren--it takes experience to scold effectively in'a foreign languagei--but at Gomen much of the v/ork Y/as already done for me,

Theni the principal of the kindergarten asked if they couldn't give theplay, too, ^ The teacher reivrote it so the little children vrould imderstand;I checked it over and corroctod places where the Scriptural teaching mightbe misunderstood the way she had Yn?itten it; and it v/as given for thekindergarten parents, too. The teachers did most of the practicing of thechildren, but I Virent three or four times, and the end result v/as one of thesv/eetest plays you ever want to see. The children are so tiny and cute,but they presented the birth of the Lord quite well.

Hot couQting the practice time, our schedule finally ran: December 21landergarten play (about 20 mothors pros =nt): December 22Christmas SundayiDecember 25Myoken play and program (about oO present); December 26--Party and filmstrip (Jesus' stilling of the v/avos) for the Jr. High, HighSchool, and older people who come (about 30 present); December 2?Same forthose v/ho were in the Myoken play an.d program (about 3^ present); December28Gomen play (perhaps 15 mothers and friends present); December 29Sunday again. We said that this year v/e have had the most (real) Christmasv/e have ever had. We hope wo have helped sow some seed in the hearts ofsome of these people, and pray that the Lord may some day have a bountifiolharvest.

Your ministers in Japan,

;e

to W

#Lift up your -f EYES AND LOOK ON" THE FIELDS

KOCHl 0MYOKENGGMEN

June 195.8

Donr Fnionds in Christ

It nay soon to sonc .of you that M^hcjx wcloft Kiobo, "WO droppoci off the edge of thevtforld. Perhaps ^vo had better correct thatimpression, although in the opi^on of therest of the Japanese, going to Shikoku isalmost the sane as dropping off the edge ofthe worldo fe have found, however, that thisis indeed a part of God*s worldalthough nottouched by His Word, and with m^titudes ofpeople who have had no opportunity to knowHin, Wo have been the busiest, and happiest,we have ever beeno Wc would like to inviteyou to LIFT CP YOUR EYES AHD LOOS OH THEFIELDS. . - , nWe hope you will bo patient v*ith this longerthan usual letter

THE TRIP FROM KOBE

Wo havo sottlecl in KocM (Ko'-choe) Province, in a little farming village near atown called Gomen (Go-men*) on the island ofShikoku (Shc-lco*-ku), The village is calledMYOKEN (Myo*ken). Please remember itr youwill hear it often in our letters from now on,

Aiiyway we look from our house, we can seemountalha, some of then so close that we haveto get out away from thorn to really sec therange of mountains^ Wc arrived in Kochi Province SEPTMiBER 15, 1957 after a tilling andthoroughly Jolting trip over those mountainsby Jeep During this trip we pulled one carout of mud in which it had Mred down andlater had to bo pulled back onto the roadourselves. The road across the mouiitains wasso narrow that when one met another car oneeither waited for it in a slightly wider part

of_t two -backed upfeuntil-tlicy io\md d -placo -where the other could creeppast. We were forced off the road (on thevalley side) once by a big truck, but theLord was with us. Right at that place vas a .thick bamboo forest, and the tops kept usfrom tumbling over. We were on a tilt whenwe stopped with two wheels on the road andtwo off. The truck stopped and pulled us 'back onto the road again, and we all continued on our way.

We saw so many., many small mountain vill^ages vjithcut Christ! We pray that some daywe will bo able to reach into that area, too,with Christ's message.

OUR HOUSE ATO NEI^ORHOOD

'We ;liaye made our home for several months...now, in^a tTapanese house> and have not foundIt-10.0 uncomfortable* We remodeled two rooms

-however^ which meant taking' put the straw-matflopring,. and replacing it with a wood floor,lowering the ceiling, (for winter heating),andInstalliiig; our kitchen stove,... sink, etc.; Thetest of the house still: has straw-mat floori^but it is really very comfortable. One thingyou would miss in our house is chairs and wallsV7e sit, .Jcpanese-style, on cushions on thefloor when we: have guests, and duriag worshipservices-rwhich are held in our two frontrooms. We have kept these'rooms Japanese*Sttyle, _which means devoid of furniture oxcept .for the c'ushiohS:, for this purpose, Ai^ to-thewalls (between rooms, that is) each one consists, of three of four pa.per and wood doors .

^hich,' slide, along a'- track to^ open"or close offajiyroom.; They may-be taken outyat will andprove .quite handy in erLlafgihg the'- rooms ordividing a large room into--smaller ones. .Strangely enough, one doesn't feel very securebehind them, though.

Between us and the mountains, In everyavailable comer, are rice-fields^ There arerice fielde on threesides of our house,coming right up.to our back fence. Beyond oi^ .back, fence are about l| acres of land whichis divided into six individual fields, andfarmed by at least 4, and perhaps 5, farmers,

In Japan the farmers, unlike Ai-.ierican'ones,live.' in :ismall villages and go out to theirfields. "MTOEEN is one of these villages. Itis a; clo.se.-knit community whe're everyone cooperates for "the good of all.

Eveirywhere in Japan now one sees a strangemixture# Vi?e live witHIn siglat of electrictrains and rice paddiesi;- of a busy highwayand ox-^drawn ploughing^. Wo live in the "coun-.try area*r where family ties and roiigious tiesare very strong. These peopTe will have togive serious thought; to Christianity beforethey become Christian,. and when they do, itwill mean many more *^pcrscautions"- and muchmore temptation than, we of a^ so-called Christ-?ian nation can realize#^-

CHRISTMAS PLAY AND PROGRAM

Shortly after the middle of November westarted plans for otir-Christmas program. Wehas quite a different problem here where veryfew, if any, had ever, heard anything aboutthe Lord's birth# Both -for the sake of the-ones participating, and the ones wouldcome to see the prograrijp. itvhad to teach thebasic, simple facts so they would be unde3>-stood# I (Don) "wrote" the play^mostly bytaking the text directly from the scriptureaccount,^and adding a speect here and there to put it into play form.-

V'Je practiced for weeks-r--I think there woreabout S5 children in it here at I4ypken.. Theywould come at 6 p.m. and practice for an'hour#-The plan was" to practicD an hour and thenthey were' to go home, but" it* turned out thatnothing-r!-not even our insistancecould, budgethem out of the house until "8 or 8:'30. They .played games, talked (what a mild word!2),investigated everything, and in general raised-a rumpus (and a lot of dust'out of our "strawmat floors")> until they decided it was timeto go. Of cpursc they practiced the play

too* Some of. then would- come even if theirscones weren^t practicing that night, apparently for-the purpose of playing afterwordIt was wearing, but we also enjoyed it. Ifthey don't all know the story of the Lord'sbirth, I don't know what nit would take toteach then!

Here at MyOEEN the program was on thenight of December 25, and about 60 peoplecone to see it. It is just a beginning,but some of the community, at least, areaware of the circumstances of the Savior'sbirth.

The same 'play .was given by the Gomenchildren's Bible .class, and a simplie-rversion was given by the children of akindergarten in Gomen, This latter was one of the sweetest plays we have ever scon.Their teacher directed the acting, and themothers costumed them with no help from us.We wish you could have seen it. They presented the birth of the Lord (^uite well.It was a busy time. We said that this yearwe have had the most (real) Christmas wehave ever had. We hu^e we have helped sowsome seed in the hearts of some of ,thesepeople, and pray that the Lord may some dayhave a bountiful harvest.

OUR PRESEETT SEP.VICES

The first Sunday we were in iCTOKM, woweren't sure ahout whether to. have a ser- vice. We had only been in the house 4"who did we know? Who would come? But weinvited the folks we met on Eriday andSaturday, and cleared the front two rooms asmuch as we could. I planned to preach a

semon I had preached in Kobe, ' Then disasterstruck! Saturday'night carae,; and I had-:.lostmy voice^. Sunday morning I had-even lessj'and couid only taik in a coarse whisperI Butthe Lord providedi "Mr lhada, a Christian -from Kobe who ^uite often takes charge'of Services at the Kobe church, happened to bevisiting that Sunday, and took over for. me,leading singing, prayers, etc, Thei-e Were :20 people here,^ counting ourselves. They sayit. sounded peculiar, although understandable.,but'I preached by whispering'into a microsthone hooked to a loud-speaker system-withthe volume turned up^high!

That'was the starts We now average about19 in Sunday morning services^ Our servicesare : Siniday morning preaching, 10:00 Gomenchildren's class, Z 130; MTOKM children'splas s 5.:40; Evening preaching, 7:30,*: Duringthe Weefc we have. CiejsSes^ vijmostly -for... the contact .(M of our regular - . :Simday...attehdancfe comes from" these biass.es),but al^o hoping we get some teaching of' Christto thprn through this means, also. Besides these,. .each Friday, mourning I -(Don) teach a'Bib^e ^Stofy at the Gbmen Kindergarten. Pleasepray'for all of these services and classes,that we inay reach *their hearts with the Gospel,

A BIG-STEP FOmmRD

Starting this past Spring, against problems .that would discourage most , Mr 'Ota, ayoung man who is now a Spphmore at the OsakaBible Seminary, has .decided" together with usthat he can be of help in the 'gathering inof souls in MYOKEN, .. One of the most important, and-difficult, parts *of missionary-workin any country is in so

teaching and developing leadership among thepeople thcmsclvesj that the church ostaMish-ed can continue according to the teachin^rs ofthe Now Testament without foreign (that ismissionary) Influence. As one missionarysaid, "Our job is to work ourselves out of ajob." Mr, Ota's coming Is the first big steptoward this objective in Myoken (but by nomeans the entire answer).

Mr. Ota, however, is still in Bible College. Wo have an arrangement whereby hocomes evory-other weekend, arriving Sundaymorning and leaving Monday evening. I preachand teach all classes one vjcokend and Mr. Otadocs the sane the next weekend. On Monday wccall together on different homes in this andnearby conmunlties, or wo drive through thesmall communitios near us, playing o previously tape-rocordod scrnonotte, handing outtracts, and inviting everyone we soc: to cone-to preaching sc-rviccs. Bo spends a busywoekendi

You nay bo wondering why Mr. Ota conesonly cvery-othor weekend,- The main reason isthe fact that it takes 15 hours each way totravel between here and Osaka, He spends allof Saturday and Monday nights sleeping (?) onthe crowded straw-mat floor of a relativelysmall ship which sails through a sometimesrough Ocean. V.'c thank God for one who hasenough faith and desire to serve Him to makethe trip at all.

Our plans for the near future include anevangelistic meeting July 9-13. We also wantto have a Vacation Bible School. July 26-

August 1, we hope to take all who can go, tocanpo There -will bo nany who will be makingclG cisions of some kind during those days ofconcentrated efforts Pray that; the decisionsmay bo for Christ2

The time has cone when Service-link mustbe hado The work is expanding, and so areexpenses# Mr# Ota's salary and transportationare the beginningan Indication of a growingprogram of evangelization# Can you helpspread the Word more quickly hero in ICY"0KEN?

LIFT UP YOUR EYES MD LOOK ON THE'FIELUS'THAT THEY ARE IHITE ALREADY UNTO IIARVEST

SHIKOIUJ CHURCHof

CHRIST IvIISSION596 Wo 11th StoPeru Ind.

Your ministers in lapah,

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" ^ 305, Wferoken, Kacho-MuraNagaoka-Gun, Kochi Pref.Shikoku, Japan

JUL 311368 1958

Dear Co-workers in America,

Greetings fro. southern Japan. The rice

cro"'aTear!)'Tt ^atefurtLfk^f that other great Harvest, and theprepLation rtich must be made before it can be gathered in.thfLord's work CeLat^willevtr''temade! ^Jainst problemsfhirro^lfdls^oSe^ost man Who is n aSophomore a^

Osaka Bible Seminary, has decided together with us, thatfiT^ffcuirStf "-"th: Shlst^tforeign (that is, ,.j.. ota's (pronounced 0-ta) coming is

s. .i...^.. i-entire answer,

.-r, the Soring when we discovered that in order to go to thegathering of the ^"thaf"orderate gfl'wouu'ha^e to miss one^-^re! f afke^Mr, OtaThis was the beginning. When h q became well acquainted with him,

(f-Wr.S"''h/;2 Toighf10 CM., by Bob .bb ..B H'wants to win souls here as much as we do,

Mr. Ota, however, is still in be in^sohool^ We have^^a^^atrt :hLeS Vomes^^vJI-othirwe

=i,-3oLtwo sermons, he teaches two children s . pon^unity end in near-On Monday we call together on ^ ^omes in this co^Mby communities where we have L ^hfieen pla^ng a previouslycommunities near us with a handing out tracts, and invitingLX- rrfo%:LTo X-hSr-^lces. le spends abusy week-end.

You may be wondering why Mr. ^^^^^l^gf '^thariTt^s'l5 hoursfa^hTarto S'a Lt^^erh^rrand Osaka. He spends all of Saturday and

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Monday nights sleeping (?) on the crowded straw-mat floor of a relativelysmall ship which sails of necessity, not through the calm inland sea, butthrough the ocean. Or, if the weather is bad and the ship cancels the trip,he must spend the same-time sitting up on the train most of the way. Forthe eake of his health, all concerned throught he could not keep up withhis studies and make that trip every week-end. We thank God for one whohas enough faith and desire to serve Him to make the trip at all.

Other reasons are the money involved in paying his fare every weekend,and as I mentioned before, has health. Thank God with us for this greatstep made, and pray that Mr. Ota can remain healthy. We are planning anevangelistic meeting for this summer, and a nvBS. From July 26 to August 1we want to take all who can go, to camp, again a 15 hour trip since thenearest one is at Osaka.

The time has come when Service-link must be had. So far we have paidMr. Ota from our own salary, and also his transportation, and costs relatingto preaching (tracts, etc., mentioned later). Mr. Ota receives 5000 yen(In) a month, his transportation costs 4-, 125 yen (111.50), and another5000 yen has been allocated for tracts, books to loan, rent of loud-speaker,visual aids for children's classes, and the many other things that must comefrom an "evangelistic fund". Altogether, |39 a month is being spent in thisway. The summer evangelistic campaign, the fares to camp, and salaries ofextra Osaka Bible Seminary girls who we hope will help with the DVBS, willbe an added load during the summer. Will you pray, and will you help?

And don't forget to continually pray for the people of this community,and for Japan, that they may have open hearts to receive the Gospel.

Your ministers in Japan,

Dear Co-workers in the Harvest,

305, MSyoken Kachomura,Nagaokagun Kochiken, ShikokuJuly U, 1958

Together we have accomplished something for the Lord whichwill be of lasting effect in this community. Last evening at^he close of a 5-day evangelistic meeting, a young man was bap-;ized into Christ in the river"near us! This is the firstChristiana young college student about 23 years old--born intothe Kingdom through our'efforts (yours and ours) to bring Christto Myoksn. He is Satoru Matsumura (Sa-to'-ru Ma-tsu-moo'-ra),one of our neighbors, the oldest son living at home of the familywe called "Pine Village" in our slide series recently. He,together with two younger brothers, has not missed more than atime or two of attending every service we have had since we camehere 10 months ago. He has read about everything we could givehim to read, has asked more questions than anybody else, and hasstudied for a long time. He, being the first, has opened the wayfor others, and we feel will be a strong influence in %oken, aswell as a stabilizing influence in the church.

1 would like to tell you about the meeting, We (Mr, Ota and I)started Planning early, had about 1,200 leaflets printed advertisingthe meeting, and made tape recordings announcing it. For a week orso before, the meeting, sometimes with Mr. Ota, sometimes with otherswho helped pass out the advertising, but many times by myself, Idrove up and dcwn the main roads, creeped through the narrcw side-roads, and any number of times dug myself out of the .seldom usearoads, in an effort to get to the many small villages around ua.Standard equipment was loudspeaker, amplifier, tape recorder, s'^acksof advertising leaflets, and two shovels. In these last few wetks1 have slid wheels off roads into rice fields, knocked carefullydug embankments into rice fields by having to' run too close to t'reedge of them, tilted over into a deep ditch, done a lot of repair'jigcf all these things afterwards, had to be pushed several times be^cause the loudspeaker runs ny battery down, and in general decide:that in order to reach the thousands of people in this section wi'.hinformation about our services and introductory literature, I wouldhave to use a portable speaker and mike and walk into the raaryplaces where tlie car will not go.

The 1,200 pieces of printed advertising were used within thefirst few days, and we then mimeographed the same information, ancdistributed altogether A,800 pieces, 1 hope you can understand h;this how densely this area is populated, even though it is "countyarea", and the immense possibilities for evangelism in rural Jap^i,

The meeting started on July 9 and ended on July 13 (Sunday^Mr, Taniyama (Ta-mee-ya*-ma), an advanced student at Osaka BiblsSeminaiy, did the preaching, A Mr, Nakamura (Na-ka-moo'-ra), tiepreacher who works with Bob and Audrey West (and who is Mr, Ota'shome preacher) was also to come for the first two days, but he fotso wrapped up in the meeting that he didn't go home until it waffinished! There couldn't have been a'better combination, Mr,Taniyama is an excellent preacher, and kept the people coming back

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night after night. But Mr. Wakamura is a personal worker andwould sit with his Bible open and talk by the hour with anyone whowanted to talk. After each service people who wanted to hearmore stayed to talk or to listen in on others' conversations. Itwas almost alw^s 12:00 midnight before the last people left (servicesstarted at 7:^0 p.m.), and one night it was 2:00 a.m.! Then lastnight after Satoru was baptized, many people came back to the houseand stayed and talked for a long time. It was 1:30 a.m. when S&toru,Mjjio was the last to leave, went home. It had been a busy time,tut all involved were talking about the possibility of anotheraeeting soon.

The attendance went from 4-8 the first night to 78 the lastnight, increasing eveiy night. After the first two nights, our

, bouse would no longer contain them, and we had to fix extra benchesjn the yard where those outside could still see and hear the preacher,It was before this crowd of 78 friends and neighbors that Satoru^ade his confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ~before 78friends and neighbors who worshipped the traditional gods of Japan>

was the first to step out for Christ. Fortunately, Satoru'sfamily is hot antagonistic toward Christianity, as some are. Herill some day bring them all to Christ, we think. He is yourbrother in Christ now. Pray for him hy name.

Rejoice with us in the progress of the Gospel in Myoken,Your ministers in Japan,

?.S, The slide series mentioned in this letter is availablej'rom our forwarding secretary, Mr. Garland Petty, 596 West 11thSt., Peru, Indiana. Ask for the "RtT-oken" series.

OCT "51958Broken,.. 3blkolaiAugust 9, I95S

Dear Christian Friends,

1 intended to make this a short, 1-page letter, but since Istained to think of all of the things I want to tell you, I am afraidit will run over onto two pages again.

iPhe first and best thing is the news that anotter s^-MissMitsUko Takahashi (Meet-su-ko Ta-ka-ha-shs)--has been born Into theKingdom. MitstAo is a High School Junior, and one of those peoplewho have not missed a Sunday in attending the services we have heldin Mvoken. When we first moved into our house, and were t^ing toset settled, the electrician who was wiring it for us asked one dayif he could sbring his two nieces to visit. One was Mitsuko, and tteother her older sister: At first Mitsuko was the only person who hada Bible of her own, and since she is an excellent reader, she becameny '^ Scripture-reader", reading both the original Scripture lesson, andany Scripture used in y sermons. This she does to thiscapably. She was one of the three young people who went to ChristenPamp. She made her confession on th last evening of camp, made it againbefore those gathered for worship here Sunday morning, and was baptized into Christ in the river near us after morning worship. She isplanning to help one of the teachers in the Vacation Bible School wehave planned for next week. Pray with us that both she andfirst to become Christian since we came to Itroken) will grow to bewinners of the souls of their countrymen.

This week Satoru and I have been making,a communion tr^ eachevening after he is out of the fields at night; This is the busiesttime of the in Biyoken, I have never seen anyone as husy as ttesefarmers are now. While they raise two crops a year here, lihey don tdo it at their! leisure. This is harvest time, but it is also plantingtime, near us was cut early one morning, gathered in thatevening,"^pTS^ during the night, and when we got up the next morningit was already partially planted (transplanted) in new rice plants.If you can imagine doing all your planting and harvesttog at the s^etime, you know hiow busy these farmers are, Afarmer's fields usuallyaren't located all in one place, but he has small fields scattered tereand there across the countiyside. Satoru's family have severalbut since both the father and mother, and the five sons work togetherin the fields, (while the grandmother takes care of things at home;,they think th^ will finish three or four days ahead of schedule.Each evening this week, Satoru came over about 8:30 or 9 p.m. workon making the cojnmunion tr^ we had planned. We made it by drilling holesin a piece of masonite which has been cut to fit inside a round tray,and then filing the holes to fit Japanese-made communion cups. Mitsukoplans to paint "In Remembrance Of Me" around the outside margin, andwe will have a tray pretty and serviceable j but what is just as important, they will have learned how to provide for themselves fromthings available in Japan.

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New tV&t there are Christians here, we have started taking anoffering. It is"not a large offering, but ^fo far it has paid for theaccount books and the communion tr^, and an offering to the Christiancamp to which the young people went has been voted. We are stillpaying for such things as Vacation Bible School materials, songbooks,etc., ourselves, but one of the tasks of lelping the chijrch to grow, isthe gradual assumption of more and more d the financial burden by thechurch itself. TV goal is a self-ruling, self-financing, evangelistic,true-to-the-Lord'avteachings church for Jyoken. When this happens, allties except those cf love and fellowship will have been ^Jroken, and wewill be working elsswhere. Make the chidl'ch in Rf^oken am? its growth amatter of regular prayer.

Next weekAugust 18-22we have sciseduled a 5-day Vacation BibleSchool. We have also ^entatively set NoVsmber 1-9 as the date of ourfall Evangelistic meeting. The same evangelists are to come, and weexpect a time of great increase in the knowledge of Christ in thiscommunity, and souls bt*ought to Him. Keep these dates in min4 and inyour prayers.

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

Some have asked about iaby Joe, and whether his health has improved. He is growing and gaining very veil, now, and is as large asnormal. Thank you very much fcr prayjjii for him.