Burney Donald Norma 1963 Japan

1^03

Shikoku Christian MinionMr. ctnd Mrs. Donald G. Burney

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Most of our students here ore 8th graders, but some are high school Sophomores.

Oui Greetings from Japan! In fact, from two different places in Japan. First, from the church in Go-men (Go-men'), which began during our first termin Shikoku, Japan. Secondly, from about 5 miles tothe east of Gamen, where we have built our home justoutside Noichi (No-ee'chee). We are now having worship services at both places.

Knowing how uninteresting a posed group-picturecon be to anyone who is not included in it, we wouldnevertheless, like to use this one to introduce part ofthe work of the Gomen churchthe young people'smeeting. These young people may look very youngto you, but included in this group are two High SchoolFreshmen, one Sophomore, and eleven (all the restexcept the three adults) Jr. High eighth-graders. Theyare all dressed in their school uniforms, which varyonly a little from school to school. Since the schooluniform is also "dress-up" clothes, they wear them toyoung people's meeting, too, usually.

The young people's group has just started at Gomen.The idea of forming one, and the leadership for it,has come from two of the boys who have been attending church services regularly for several months. Itis presently meeting at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon tostudy on English Bible lesson in connection with theJapanese Scriptures. (We have been using the backpage of Standard Publishing's Sunday Storytime,which is used in many U. S. Sunday Schools for Primary children.) This group is also carrying on acorrespondence with the young people of the churchof Christ at Treaty, Indiana (near Wabash) in orderto find our "what American young people are doingfor Christ." We (Don and Norma) provide the EnglishBible study, Mr. Taniyama (Ta-nee-ya'-ma), thepreacher at Gomen, once in a while provides a (Japanese) lesson and always a lot of moral-support. The

two boys provide leadership. And the Youth at Treatyprovide fellowship and the example of Christian youth.We hove all sowed and are sowing, and GOD WILLPROVIDE THE INCREASE. If you will add yourprayers surely there will be a harvest of souls amongthese future leaders of Japan.

Since returning to Japan, there hove been two newChristians added to the Gomen congregation andanother will be baptized next Sunday. Others appear to be very near the Kingdom of God. In a sense,the Gomen church has passed a difficult period andthe life of the church is beginning to take on a differentcharacter. It has always been true that those won toChrist hove been mostly young peopleHigh Schoolage or a little older. As a result, when graduationtime came each year, we lost from the fellowship ofthe local congregation those who went to college orto other cities to work. While we wished them welland recommended them to the Lord's church whereverthey went, we felt their absence deeply. Time haschanged this somewhat. Those in college are beginning to returnwe have now a few school teachers inthe congregation. Since we returned from furlough,there have been three weddings, and for the firsttime there are young married couples attending (although none of the three wives are as yet Christian).The leadership of the congregation is growing in responsibility and abili'ty. Although this is not to scrythere-will never again be any problems, we do feelthat the, congregation has cross^ the hump and thework of the church in the evangelization of the Gomencommunity will now begin to run more smoothly.Your prayers and your giving to the Lord's work inShikoku (She-ko'-koo) have brought forth fruit overthe years.

But we, the Burney family, have moved into a new

area. We live, in terms such as we use here in Japan,about 5 minutes from the town of Noichi (No-ee'chee).This means 5 minutes of picking them up and layingthem down, one in front of the other. (It is very difficult to explain in terms of distance here. Time ittakes to get there gives a much more accurate picture.)We have grown so used to this way of thinking, thatin order to answer questions about how far we livedfrom Gomen (put to us by Americans, of course), wehad to run a special spe^ometer test. It is about 5miles, but a quite different 5 miles than that of whichyou are thinking. If you will park your car in thegarage, and use Jr.'s bicycle the next time you makea 5-mile trip, or go by bus, you will get some idea ofthe distance involved for the average Japanese. Evenwith our Jeep, the trip takes 15 minutes at the best, 30or 35 at the worst.

As you can see in the picture, we live in anotherquonset building with adaptions. (The Gomen churchbuilding is also a quonset.) It is a little improved overthe time at which this picture was takenit now hasdoors and windows, for one thing. Like the other one,we received it through a missionary who had originally received it from the U. S. Airforce when it was nolonger needed. We paid the tax and transportation,and built it on land we bought just outside the-cityof Noichi (No-ee'-chee). We came back to Japanknowing we must move, and desiring to center ourefforts in the area around Noichi. For weeks we triedto find a house to rent, but in this traditionally overcrowded country of Japan, we soon found it impossible. We decided to build, and although it hasn'tbeen as cheap as we thought it would be, the quonset was the cheapest construction we knew. Webought the land and built the building personally (thatis, from our own personal funds, not from missionfunds).

Having decided to build was not the end of thewaiting, however. There was this permission and thatto gelpermission to change rice land into buildingland, permission from the road commission, etc., and

. finally^ hrrving ogrAiaH tr> rVf>r rrt lAORt hnlf tVn=> Irtndwith buildings eventually (since in Japan the yardmust not be larger than the house), we finally movedin on March 11, 1963. Much was still to be done (stillis, for that matter), but we were moved.

If an American were to see our house. I feel surehe would think it very strange. The Japanese thinkso, too. They look at the round roof14 feet tall at thehighest pointand, at the fact thcrt we have no wallsbetween rooms as yetwe are using dressers, chests-

Our Home

of-drawers, and bookcases as room-dividers andthey say, "My, American houses certainly are different, aren't they?"

We live in the back part of the house. The frontpart of the house has three rooms: Don's study; aschool-room where Norma teaches Paul and Sarah(and next year Joe); and a large room where we areholding worship services praying that they will resultin the establishment of a church in Noichi.

At present the Noichi worship service is at 4:30 onSunday afternoon because of other committments at(jomen during the day. For the first service therewere 15 from the community, besides our family andvisitors from the Gomen church (23 altogether). Forthe second there were 17 from Noichi besides visitorsand ourselves (28 counting everyone). For the thirdSunday there were 8 (17 all-told). (We had beenwarned before time that this week being test week atpublic school, the students would not be able to attend.Shhhhh! They were studying for tests!) Up to this writ-4ng-there have -been-only-three-aerviees^

We wont to thank you very riiuch who were responsible for bringing us back to serve the Lord herein SHikoku for another term. We want to thank youwho are keeping up here by your offerings and yourprayers. To others, we know you pray for us, andwe are wondering if you would not add to yourprayers the support of the Lord's work in Shikoku. Weare in need of your help to spread the Gospel to thisarea of Japan.

Don and Norma Burney21 Nakano, OtaniNoichi-cho, Kami-gunKochi-ken, ShikokuJapanForwarding address:

c/o Mr. Robert WinterrowdR. R. 5Wabash, IndianaU. S. A.

Church of Christ at Treaty

Rt. 5, Wabash, Indiana

Non-profit OrganizationPermit 127

Wabash, Indiana

April 2, 1963 "Report For March .

At long last we are moved. On Monday, the 11th of March, we moved 4small truck loads, and completed over 5 years of residence in Myoken. /fearrived at Noichi before the .doors had been installed, with no pump on thevrell, and no tile laid on the floor, in spite of the fact that these hadbeen repeatedly promised.

Many things have been done since then, but it is still not completelyfinished, ^fe are at present using chests of drawers and bookcase^s as room

, dividers, and do not intend to finish this part of the house (living 'quarters) until the front part is finished and a few other miscellaneousthings done. Probably another week will finish the work of the threeworkmen who are helping us, and then we will finish as we have time andmoney. At present the big problem is electricty, we don't have enough, torun the refrigerator, although we did have at Myoken. They have promisedto have it up to par in a few more days, but when it will really be, wedon't know,

VTc wondered when we moved away from Myoken ;]ust what repairs, etc.,we would have to do, or have to pay the landlady for. Vfe rented, you seeunder the system in which the renter is responsible for restoring thehouse to its original condition when he mOv/-es. Instead of paying money,however, we offered to give her our electric pump (which was on her well)and she wanted Cis to leave^the wooden floors in the two rooms, and thefalse ceilings in the rooms wc had tried to heat. We also left the entire,electrical system, the water system and the clothes poles and lines.Other than this there was just the half month's rent and the unpaidportion of the electric bill to take care of in cash- So wc are verythankful that the large expense we expected on this, score did not materialize. However, although it does not yet appear as to what her fin..alintentions arc, wo do know that she has already torn.^down the low ceilingsshe can get about ^10 out of the lumber. The used pump vrould havebrought about ^20, but I doubt that she will sell that. It would havecost us more than the salvage value of everything to have restored the house to its original condition, so wo don't begrudge her what she getsout of it.

Here at Hoichi, we have mot a lot of porple who have come mostlyto"see" the foreigners and their house. There have been a whole Hock, ofkids around, for about 2 weeks now (it is betv/een school years here andthey have 2 weeks of vacation). There seem to bo a number of youngpeople who want to study English, as is usual everywhere. We have motseveral adults, however, and some have asked about when church serviceswould start.

Among those who came asking when services were to start was a youngman employed in the tax department of the local government office. LastMonday night as I' came home from the Bible Study in Gomon, a man had -been v/aiting for mc in front of the entrance to the house. Ho was drunk,very,' Worma hadn't knovm he was there, although he must have been therefor some time. Ho wanted to know if "the church was open yet." I toldhim no, but invited him in. His problem was a bad conscience. He had"killed" two neighbor boys when the throe of them had crashed through therailing of the bridge of a local river' while ho was drurfc at the wheel.He said that he often came to the mountain just in .front of our house atnight to meditate, (It contains many graves and thclargo community war-dead memorial). After assuring him repeatedly that,Christ would helphim in his situation, I made arrangements with him to talk with thepreacher of the Gomcn church, Mr, Tanitama the following evening, andpointedly asked him not to, drink before he came.

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I thought he probably would not even rcmembGr having been horc by the nextoycning, since by this time ho was so unsurcoon his feet that I had to itake him homo, but ho was hero at the appointed time the next night andsober, "jc have seen him several times since. Please pray for this man.

Miss Nakata has said that she will be here to help us at the last ofaugust. (The last time we told you, I think it was the first of Augustshe had said. ) I hear that her "romance" was not boing to well, but she-is to vrork as secretary for Osaka Bible Seminary until September when areplacement is to come.

Somewhat in this connection, we would like to discuss the SundaySchool at Gomeii with you, '/hen Miss Nakata was here for the evangelisticmeeting the number of children increased tremendously, but they havegradually come down to where they vrcro before. The young woman who has^been in charge of the Sunday School teaching for throe or so years now isthe most faithful of any of the Christians at Gomon,.. probably. She is -alwqys there. She teaches the class bcoausc the class should bo taught

and no one clso has boon available to toach it, in spite of the factshe docs not like to teach and docs not like children* It socsn.'t makefor a large Sunday Sunday , however,. Recently, Mr- Tanaka, who wantedto go to Bible College but must wait, has been helping her. He loveschildren and they love him, so wc arc hoping the situation will improveeven before Miss Nakata comes from Osaka,but certainly it will when MissI^akata comes. It is our opinion and^ that of the preacher, Mr. Tanigcma,thatany attempt to help the Sunday School teacher without being asked todo so would end iji his or our taking over the job and we would be v^ith-out a Sunday School teacher, ( Iho Japanese psychology of not causing-another to lose face cntcps in here. Although there may be others whovjould teach if there wore no one else to do so, no one will teach as"long as there presently is a tce-chcr, nor would they immediately aftershe quit), '.-c arc oon'^ xiiGOdL that the best thing for the church rightnoyr is to bide our timei and if another class oan be established atanother tijac, perhaps in tha cxosiiiig after school, wc may find this^alsoto bo a:solution. Please pray for tho church in this situitation# too..

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SHIKOKU CHRISTIAN MISSIONREPORT PGR APRIL

We are beginning to dig out of the choas of moving and to get things fairly-well settled. The electricity is better now. The refrigerator runs andthe lights do not all go out when the pump starts. We are beginning tobe able to decrease the time it takes for "just living".We have undertaken three new classes where we teach Bible content, andone where we do not as yet. The three classes are all held here in ourhome at Noichi, teaching English using their school text and Bible relatedmaterials and illustrations. They are not yet advanced enough to studydirectly from the Bible, or from the backs of the Sunday School papers,either, which we hope to be doing before long. They have not been meetinglong enough to be able to evaluate their effectiveness, or even theirmembership. We are undertaking them on a three months basis as a trial.

The class in which we are not teaching Bible is at a Gomen hospitalteaching a group of student nurses once a month from their class text.We undertake it for the contact involved. It is the same hospital inwhich WD had an English Bible Class with a Japanese Bible lesson beforewe went to the U. S. on furlough. Since we left, the administration ofthe hospital has changed, and we were not free to go back on the samebasis as before. We really think we may be able to accomplish more forChrist at this hospital under this administration eventually than underthe last administration. We feel we can afford the hour or so a monthto start with for the contact involved here.

Our first^.services in the-house here-at No-iehiare- toHje heid"On May~T2,Thi^'prbbSbie attendance will be drawn largely from the young people whoare in the classes, with a few others whom we know. Wo say this judgingby our experiences in ly^oken, where our contacts came mainly throughEnglish Bible classes and evangelistic meetings. After the initialcontact many of the young people did not continue with English, butcontinued to come to church. We have set 4:30 Sunday afternoon as thetime for the begining of Noichi meetings. Please remember us in prayer.

Word from a few people: Miss Nat',kata still plans to come to work withus the last of August, Mr. Tanaka, who wanted to go to Bible College,recently heard from his doctor that he is growing worse instead of better,and that he will have to ask his company for easier work. The man whocame drunk and with a bad conscience has gone to Gomen to church with usseveral times. We expect him to be among those who will come Sundayafternoon, Satoru Matsumura, the first to become Christian at Myoken,now a school teacher, was married recently to another school teacher,not a Christian. They were both assigned to different schools farseperated for this school year which begins in April here. He is backon his little island south of Shikoku,

Don & Norma

New Address;Donald G. Burnoy21 Nakano, OtaniNoichi cho, Kami gunKochi ken, Shikoku, Japan

SHIKOKU CHRISTIAN MISSION

iTNANCIAL RSPORT

MAY-1963

ReceivedLancaster Church of Christ, Mt. Carmel, 111Sheldon Church of Christ, Sheldon, IllinoisSalem Christian Church, Peru, IndThe Christian Church, Beaverton, OregonHappy Pardners Class, Salem Christian Church (PersonalMacy Christian Church, Macy, IndSanders Hill Christian Church, Ramsey, 111Bachelor Greek Church of Christ, Wabash, IndLone Oak Church of Christ, Perrysville, Ind

Total ReceivedBalance from AprilTotal Funds Available

gift)

Paid OutBank of America, Kobe , JapanDon Burney (Personal Gift)Don Burncy (May Salary)Don"Burney'(April Expense)Homo Loan & Savings (Furlough Fund)Banking service

Total Paid outBalance May 31> 1963

100.0020.00

405.00144.3860.00

.67

Missionaries new mailing address

Donald G Burney21 Nakano, Otani :Noichi-cho, Kami-gunKochi-ken, ShikokuJapan

Amount10.0042.0057.0010.0020.0020.507.00

240.0070.00

476.50294.38770.88

730.05"T0TH3

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SHIKOKU CHRISTIAN MISSION

Financial Report June 1963

ReceivedChurch of Christ,Treaty

Amount172.65

Ocean View Church of Christ, San Francisco,Gal. 20.0010,0016.54

-10.00

Lancaster Church of Christ, Mt.Carmel, 111Salem Christian Church, Peru, Ind.The Christian Church, Beaverton,Oregon

Received in JuneBalance from MayTotal avilable Funds

Paid OutRobert Winterrowd (Mailing Ex,4 mo)Bank of America, Kobe, JapanHumer Printing Co, (Newsletter)DonBurney (Partial Salary-June)Banking Charges

Total Paid Out

21.87100.00

22.50130.00

.90

Balance June 30th

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259.1940.83

300,02

274.3725.65

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REPORT FOR AUGUST 1963

^ August saw us with a busy summer program including two camps, a suramerEnglish BibleSchool of 10 days with 2|- hour morning sessions, besides the regular round of clashes?nd services. In addition we had an unheard of two day typhoon and the rains andfringe winds of another. Shortly afterward Mrs. Exie Fultz spent three days with uswhile she and I went over some articles of incorporation for the proposed Christianbroadcasting station. Late in the month a school teacher from Oregon spent the weekend with us. She is Fiiss Velma Wier, teaching in an Airforce dependents school inTokyo, and visiting the various missionaries whenever she can.

I took Paul with me to camp at Osaka during the last part of July and'the firstdays of August, where I was chapel speaker each morning. We had no one go from here.The week iir. Taniyama was here we had "Stay-Home Camp' every 'evening starting Tuesdayeve., with a modified camp program including both fun and Bible study. We ran ourEnglish Bible School during these days also, and gave him an hour each day to speak

- to -the young people. Then on Saturday l^i people, all from the Gomen church, wont -to -a mountain about an hours drive away and "camped out' until Sunday evening. We hadworship services both on the mountain and at the church building that morning. KissNagata visited that weekend and went to camp with the Christians to kind of.getacc^uainted. She x^ent back to Osaka on the Sunday night train and is scheduled tocortTe back tomorrow or the next day.

Our Summer English Bible School was for Jr. High School and up. We had.33 register, and .. the highest attendance was 2?. V/e had about equal numbers of Jr.High and High School young people with two or three college studentsc arid dine 30- orsb years old mother of the community. We did it as an extention of the Sunday afternoon young people's group, as an effort to contact more young people and to teach whatwe could, of course, through English. We hope we can carry many of the new contactsover into the Sunday afternoon young people's group and from there into the church.

Regular classes and services went on as usual, of course^Everyone keeps saying the weather this year is unusual, and it certainly is. We

have no famine here as they are having in Korea, but food prices are extremely high.(We pay 10^ for three rather small potatoes. ) The old-timers have never heard ofsuch a thing as a 2- day typhoon. They usually last ^ to 8 hours and go on somewhereelse. This one was over 3^0 miles across (a typhoon is a large circular storm)andmoving- only 10 mph an hour, although the winds inside were stronger than the usualtyphoon we get. Arithmetic tells you it shouldn't have taken 2 days to go by, but itcouldn't make up its mind where it wanted to go' and wandered around a while before itwont by." For a few days we were cut off from all the outside provinces ( states) bylandslides in the mountains which cut the'rail lines and roais, telephone and telegraphlines down, and the air and sea to rough for planes or ships. A week or so later wegot the fringe winds and heayy rains of another typhoon,but it went by out to sea andhit Japan farther north than Shikoku.

Exie and I worked almost stesdily all the time she was visiting with us to revisethe constitution of the Broadcasting Mission so that it will be acceptable to theJapanese government. It was her first trip to Shikoku, But she didn't see anythingbut the inside of 6ur house and the church building. I have explained before thatI have no real involvement in this except that I am the only one of her"missionaryadvisors" who understands radio terms and also can and understand some Japanese.

Miss Weir, unlike Mrs. Fultz, sax^ all the sights of the area, with Worma andthe children. Wo have a 2-mile long unde;rground cave, roostere with tails 18 feetlong (honest), a fuedal castle, fighting dogs, and other things not so unusual butinteresting to foreigners.

We wanted to tell you all this first as a background for this best of all news:The gosple is God's power this month "the firs't truits of the gosple were gatheredfrom the planting done here in Noichi, Miss Junko Noguchi(June- Ko No-goo- dhee)was baptized into Christ in the little river about 50 yards from the house. Shehas attended church services here fairly regularly from the beginning, and comesregularly to English classes.

She attended our English Bible School -this sumer and went to most of the Stay homeCamp sessions in the eva^iing. Last Tuesday evening after class, she stayed late andas soon as I had said goodbye to the rest, she told me she wanted to become a Christian.We pulled a couple of Bibles off the shelf and spent about 40 minhtes examining theconversions in Acts and other scriptures related to the steps involved in becoming aChristian. I sent her home with a list of 'Scriptures to read, and Thursday night shecame prepared to be baptized. -She is one of the brighter students but she is sure.toface some problems at home as her family run^ a liquor store (Saka shop), ' She'is, aHigh School Junior. Pray for this babe in Christ. '

i'iiss i^agata is scheduled to arrive in a day or so. She was down for the last dayof our camp and for Sunday services. During the time she was here she located a roomabout a quarter of a mile away and the move down here was made easier as a result,her coming should be a big boost to the work. It will be the first time since wehave bedn in Japan that we have had a full time worker on 'the field. ' She will work inthe field of teacher- training and direct teaching of children, besides helpingwith translation and Bible study ^ine-- teaching me more vocabulary). She is alsotalented in music, and is going to try to de3^elope t^iis area of the church work also.She will develope children's lesson material for printing along With us.- She will bekept busy. She has a grade school teachers license besides being as Osaka BibleSeminary graduate. Some of the OBS people want her teaching at the Seminary, butothers are holding out against it because she is a woman. She is perfe'ctly capableof college, level teaching, and we hope whether she stays with uis 1 year, 5 or 10 yearsthe church will have been greatly strengthened by her being here.

She will mean an added item in our budget, of course, Her starting salary will be1.t),000 yen plus transportation and half of her housing (up to a maxium cost of 1,000 yen ($2,80) per month. Actually her rent is only 1,300 yen per month, so we will pdy 'only 650 yen a month (.$1.80). Besides funds for supplies to carry an expanded programparticularly in children's work. For salary should be increased to about 18,000 yen($o0) after about three months. I anticipate a need for about 365 per month for thenext three months to carry this phase, of our program. Ker salary and housing allox-jancewill be met from the Kobe Yen account and the other items submitted on the regularaccounting of expenses.

For several months I have been considering the usability of a small Japanesemotorcycle of scooter, dow with liiss dagata in need of independent transportation,I think the time has come to speak of it. Few they cost $185, used around $110 forthose that are begging to be traded in for heavier machined. There are smaller andcheaper models, but the one of which I speak is the- smallest which is legally allowedto carry two.passengers. -The motorcycle style is preferable because.the larger wheelsize-doscn't let it slide sq easily on-wet street car tracts and loose gravel. These

speed limit of 25 mph and ,arc..light enough for women to handle easily. ~They also have a frame that,is low in front to permit normal skirts to be worn, all 'three of us would be able to use it for trips where hauling capacity is not a primeconcern. ' ," ' ,

There are some other needs' Which can be included it the catagory of the foregoingtwo subjects; however, these .lead me to suggest that we try raising funds for Hisswagata's salary as the living,link of some {;hurch or class group. Another project ,like the motorcycle would be.an English type.writer. Then-there are the children'sbooklets which we vjant to ask classes to sponser. ' '

School time has come again. Three students this year. Joe will' be starting1st grade. ' ,

Pray for us all, including Miss Magata.

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Your miftisters in Japan,'

Don & norma Burney21 Wakano , OtaniNoichi oho, Kami gunKochi Ken;. Shikoku, Japan . . 'V

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