Kachelmyer-John-Deana-1968-Japan.pdf

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Christian Home For BoysJohn & Deana KacholmyerHouse No. 2001

Sayana»ehl» S&ltaaa-kenJiPAN

First Quarter 19<

Front:Nakamura, Deana holdingGene-Tieve, John, Maruyaraaand Hattori.

Back!

Sudo, Makoto, Namiki, Na-kazaki, Shigeru,

Dear Friends in Christ,Praise be to tiieprecious Name of Jesus, for at that Name, every knee

shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord over everything andeveryone!

Our baby Genevieve had her first birthday on Dec. 7'th and we thankthe Lord for keeping her safe through the year. She is so very healthyand has had only the most minor of Illnesses. If everything goes according to schedule, our second baby will be bom in June. We are allhappy about it and pray that this next one will be as healthy and well-adjusted as Genevieve.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving and Christmas here. Some Air Forcefriends gave us a turkey. Most of our boys had never eaten turkey. After the meal we had each boy te]J. what he was thankful for. Our Christian boys all said that they were most thankful for Christ because thechange in their lives had been so great through Him. At Christmas,thanks to extra funds received, we were able to give the boys presents.Also two Stateside churches sent presents and one Japanese church. OnChristmas day I took "ti© boys to Karuiaawa in the mountains for two days

skating and through the kindness of the Fleenors were able to use theircan?) building. The boys thoroughly enjoyed it.

Perhaps you remember the boy named Hattori who came to us last May.His Christian father died ^en he was quite young, and his mother diedof cancer in May. She asked us to take her boy and see that he got agood education and upbringing; and promise her that so she could die inpeace. As you recall, he accepted -foe Lord and was baptized not too longafter coming to our Home. The boy's mother had signed a paper givingguardianship of him to us but last summer we received a notice from thefamily court that a man named Hiratomi, who had been a friend of thefather and had helped the mother in various ways since the father died,had instigated a court action against us contesting our right to havethe boy. It seems Mr. Hiratomi thought he should be guardian, but heis not a Christian, has a tainted reputation, and had no intention ofputting Hattori-san through high school. He is a contractor and wantedto use him in his business. Since the case was brought to a court, thematter would have to be pursued fully end someone be appointed the boy'slegal guardian. We vjere doubly alarmed when a lawyer told us that aforeigner (that's us) could not be guardian of a Japanese national.contention was that our objectives as Christians and having this Christian boy were at complete odds with the other man who cared nothing forour Lord and did not even care if the boy got an education. Besides,•theboy himself wanted to live here and have us as his guardian; but ourchances did not look good. We prayed about it and left it all in theLord's hands. The first hearing of the case came up in November. Itwas a private hearing with only Ihe judge, Hattori, a young student lawyer that I hired, and myself. I expected the student lawyer to do hisbest for us but strangely, at the last minute, he turned against us saying that Mr. Hiratomi was probably a nice man, and what difference didit make who was the guardian. It was sort of strange since he was hiredto work on our side and is a Christian. As it was the last minute now,I knew that I would have to muster up my best Japanese and do the talking inyself. The judge was very kind and allowed me to speak first. Istated the whole case as I saw it and the reasons why I thought weshould be guardians of Hattori. The judge asked Hattori to state clearly whom he wanted to be his guardian—Hiratomi, some distant relativesor Kachelinyer-san. Hattori stated clearly that he wanted us to be hisguardian. Finally the judge said that although it was irregular, if Iwould submit a number of papers such as birth certificates, college records, personal recommendations, etc., that he would seriously considerthe case. After much time I received notice to report to the court a-gain on January 23rd. We were shown into a room and a clerk brought apaper. It was a court judgment of the case instigated by Mr. HiratoBiifor guardianship of Hattori. The court's judgment was that the Kachel-

myers should be appointed the legal guardians of Hattori until he reaches the age of 20. We praised the Lord for His giving the victory andHattori was very pleased, Vflien it came time to submit the papers forapplication to enter high school this coming term, we saw -why it wassuch an inqjortant case and why Satan had sought to prevent us fl'om beingguardians. Due to a new law in this prefecture (state), a student having parents or a guardian living in a different prefecture is rot eligible for admittance to a hi^ school in this prefecture. It would havemeant that the boy would not have been able to enter high school andwould then have had to go back and work for Hiratomi since we would haveno legal control over him. If something is important enough to be worthfighting for and is right before the Lord, when all looks hopeless, leanon the Lord! "lou shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is Gk>d*s; and ihe case that is too hard for you, you shall bring tome, and I will hear it." (Deut. 1:1?) Hattori will take his entranceexams on March 1st and school begins here April 10th, the school yearbeing much different than in the States, He is veiy happy and studyinghard for his exams.

It was over four years ago that the Lord laid it on ity heart andshowed me that, in addition to the needs of the fatherless here, thereis also a need to help the delinquent, runaway and otherwise troubledyoung people, I have had this on my heart also all these years. Inearly November I heard of a new work being started in the Shinjuku areaidiich is the "amusement" center of Tokyo, Most of the drifters, hippiesand others looking for a "good time" hang out there. The work was startled by a woman missionary, Bernie Marsh, i^felt led to come up to Tokyofrom Yokohama on Sunday afternoons to pass out tracts to the young people wandering about Shinjuku, One day she and her Japanese co-workerfell into conversation with a sandid.ch-board man and in the course ofthe conversation learned that it would be possible to find one of thenumerous coffee houses in the area which would rent an upper floor forChristian meetings. These coffee houses are just what the name says:they serve mainly coffee, tea and coke with a very limit^ menu of onetype of sandwich and plain ice cream. Various types of music are playeddepending on the establishment. No one knows vihy th^ are so popularhere, but th^ are and there are hundreds of these places in Tokyo,Anyhow, Sis, Marsh found a place named "The New Gold" >^ich would letthem use the second floor every other Tuesday, provided everyone whocane to the meeting bought something and she paid about $25 each time.Wo found out later that the New Gold had once been the hangout headquarters for most of the Tokyo gangsters. With many invitations beingpassed out on the streets and much personal work, the meetings have become quite well attended* There are usually between 60 and 80 present,with about a third to half of them being young men off the streets. The

rest are Bible school students "vdio have come to do personal work andother Christians who have come to gawk. We try to make the meeting .informal; more of a fellowship hour® The first time I went with Bro»Geyer, a new missionary vho was staying in our home for aiAiile. We sawa hippie sitting in a booth alone, so Bro. Geyer invited him over toour table. I talked to him most of the evening and found out he was 18years old and supposed to be attending a trade school. We invited himout to the Home for the following Sunday. We warned our boys in themeantime not to look shocked when he came and to be nice to him and showhim Christian love. Besides the lon^ hair, he wore a yellow shirt withblack and white polka dots, a purple hat, and black and white checkedcoat and high boots, among other things. He seemed very much touchedby the kindness of our boys who went out of their way to act as if hewere just an ordinary boy. We had to finally ask him, though, to takehis purple hat off when we sat down to eat. He came back again the following Sunday and also seemed moved by our evening service. He told usthe reason he hung around Shinjuku was that he was trying to find afriend. We hoped we could keep contact with him, but he stopped coming.

Just before Christmas I missed a meeting because I was sick, and thatnight a l6-year-old hippie named Hayashi came into the meeting. Hishair came down and curled around under his chin. He was wearing bluejeans three sizes too small and a denim jacket. He had just come toTokyo the day before from Osaka looking for adventure. That night heheard of Jesus Christ for the first time and the message of salvation.He accepted at once. One of the very fine Christian young men took himback to Yokohama with him that night and taught him more of the Word ofGod. A few days later Sis. Marsh called and asked if we would take theboy in. I arranged for them to come out, but remembering the otherhippie, I was not too open to taking him. However, idien they arrived,I saw right away that this was a fine boy. His hair was cut, althougha little long in front yet, and he liad such a friendly, outgoing personality. We took him in on trial and all the boys liked him at once.He fit right in. This was just before Christmas and the next night wehad our Christmas party. He was soj surprised to find that he was included in the gifts and we also got; him some decent clothes. I wentover more ground with Him in the Bible and showed him the many Scriptures concerning baptism. Although not overly brilliant, he quicklygrasped anything spiritual and said that he wanted to be baptized rightaway, so 1 baptized him that night. He did not want to go to highschool but hoped to find a job. As it was the New Year holiday seasonthough, he had to wait to start looking and in the meantime asked if hecould go back to Osaka for three days to visit his family again. I wasa little reluctant about it, but he assured us that his family wouldn'tcare that he had become a Christian and he would be back in three days.

Hattori and Hayashi*

He left some of his personal belongings here and borrowed a few extraclothes from the boys. We were concerned when he did not return, but hadpeace about it from the Lord, A letter has just come from Hayashi, Hesays his mother and older brother(his father died four years ago)wouldn't let him come back, but thatthey did see what Christianity hasdone for him and agree that he shouldcontinue as a Christian, He has a joband returned the money I lent him togo home on. He says he could neverthank us all enough for what we didfor him. His brother also enclosed anote saying how much his new lifemeant to them. Pray that his wholefamily will accept the Lord and thathe will lead mar^ others, too.

On a more somber note, we finally had to ask Nakamura to leave ourhome. He was a problem ever since he came and we mentioned this fromtime to time. He began to openly speak against Christianity in the Homeand also preach communism and insurrection. This kept the house in aconstant turmoil, so we felt it better for all that he leave. He got ajob that will allow him to live in and continue in school.

The Chapmans left us in October, Mrs, Chapman felt that she wouldrather have money in hand than have us pay their rent and provide theirfood and clothing as we had been doing. We offered her a salary, therefore, which was standard for household work, but she said she was worthtwice that, so she left us and got work elsewhere,* Since what we offered her was standard, she could not get more and since her work waspoor, she was fired at other places and we understand is not getting a-long well at present. Suffice it to say that the decisions we made werenot hasty, but much, much prayer went into them. Most newsletters contain only the bright news, but we feel that these troubles are part ofany work, be it in the States or on the foreign field, and as we areusing this letter to report on our work, we feel that every aspect ofit is of vital importance in eliciting your prayers. Our mixed bloodboy, Namiki, also left us in January. He just couldn't get himself ingear to study and go back to school and since his idleness was causingproblems here, he left and got a job in Totyo, As far as we know, he isdoing OK in his work. He calls us quite often from Tokyo to chat and

get advice. He is a bundle of complexes and problems and needs yourprayers much. The slightly retarded boy, Sudo, also left the end ofJanuary. He got along well with us but couldn't with the boys. He became terribly homesick for the orphanage where he was brought up andasked if he could go back there. We conferred with the orphanage peopleand they agreed to let him come back.

Since those causing problems have left, there is an atmosphere ofreal peace and joy in the house. There is a renewed interest in spiritual things and a good spirit of cooperation in the Home. The contrastshows how much influence even one contrary person can have. We don'tknow how soon some needy person will come to us to fill our two vacantspots, but we are always ready to help those who need help.

JOHN'S JOTTINGS.—

Our Home is four years old in March.—\ie had a wonderful 8<-inch snowfall in February, the most in 1? years. It usually snows only once ayear in Tokyo, although only I50 miles away on the western coast, blizzards rage all winter.—^We still plan to leave for furlough Sept. 2nd,but still are looking for someone to take over for us for the fourmonths we will be gone.—Through the kindness of a lump sum gift of $600from one of our faithful churches, we were able to buy a *65 Toyopetstation wagon just before our old panel truck fell apart. Thanks be toGodS—There was some misunderstanding about iny Billy Graham statementin the last letter. Note, I said we were praying that the Lord wouldbring in souls, not Billy Graham, Billy Graham can't save anyone. Fifteen thousand came forward during the crusade. We still pray that manyof them will truly find Christ,—Aid a sincere thank you fbryour Christmas cards, bringing us a touch of "back home,**—More about the coffeehouse ministry next time and other victories being won there.—^We needyour daily prayers,—God bless you all.

Sincerely in Christ,Forwarding Agent:

M/M Clarence CordCatlin, Illinois61817

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^ Hifstory of the Christian Home for Boys in Japan

The Christian IIom'3 for Boys in Japan began in fact on March 2Dth, 19^^^ "the p3Ansextend "back over many years.

Bro. John M. Kachelmyer was born in Mankato, Minnesota, October 1, 1932. He was raisedas a strict Ror?an Catholic and religiously followed the laws and regulations of the Romanchurch. Desiring to become a priest, he spent a year in a seminary but gave up the ideaafter disillusionment set in froa not having found peace with God and finding the lives ofthe other students lacking in Christian attributes.

He joinad the Air Force in 1951 and after training in electronics was sent to Japan inthe suii::ner of 1952. He was fascinated by the country and the people, made many friends andpicked up a working knowl20.ge of the Japanese language, lie returned to the States duringthe sumr^cr of 195^ •

For years, John hp.d tried to find peace with God but could not find it in Catholicism.For awhile he toyed with the idea of atheism because it seemed that if God could not befound, ilG did not erist. However, strange as it seemed to him at the time, his rebellionagainct God o.r.rl eicpected freedom brought only an increased sense of sin. In an absurdeffort to disprove the Christian religion, he obtained a copy of the New Testament and be^nto rec.d it, 3.cok:.ng for errors in its pages. It was like using a math book to disprovemathcni^ticG. God^s Word stands and speaks for itself. John had never read the Bible andsoon found hinEalf fascinc-ted by the gospel narrative. But the Book of Acts vas the realcurpriGs for it evident at the first reading that there was no connection between theChurch deTcritrd in the Ksv Testanent and the Roman Catholic Church,

A fev d:'yG later he was invited to a revival by a fellow airman and decided to go. Thiswas a d'^noairr.tional cliurch tut the gospel message of salvation was presented clearly. Themessage t>r-t night wrs on the reality of Christ. This was a new concept and received withwonder. Ljo. John roturnoi to the revival the second night and accepted Christ as Savio\jr.He made a full dedication of his life ri^t then and received the call to return to Japan.The many years of preparation began.

After being (^ischarG3d from the Air Force in 1955 he entered a dencsnination Bible Collegebut continued reading of the Scriptures left him unsatisfied as to his position. As aCatholic, Bro. John hr.d n'^ver liked the term Protestant and now he found he liked it evenless. The Chiarch in the New Testament kept coming back to him and he decided he only wantedto be a Chi-istl-n.

It was in Bibl-^ Collcse that the nature of the missionary call became more specific andBro. John felt that he \7as to do orphanage work. He quit the Bible College and transferredto Gordon C_-?J-e£;3, an interdenominational liberal arts college near Boston, so he couldbetter pi-ep^re l.inc3lf for orphanage -work. As time went by, Bro. John became more convincedthat dcnonin2Lticnn..lir,m was not basic New Testament Christianity and determined that henceforth, when asked of :rhat dencr^ination he was a member, would reply only that he wasa Christian.

Upon grad'iation from collej^e Bro. John secured a position in an orphanage in New Jersey,again to prepare hlr.self for mission field. However, actually getting to Japan did notseem to be in the rjear future. Mission boards did not react favorably to his views and ifnot cent by a mission boo.rd, hc.r else could one get on the field? Another problem was thata-Il inquiries concerning uoins orphanage work in Japan brought a negative response. It wassaid that the Japanese government had plenty of orphanages so the orphans were being caredfor. Ero. John could never undsrstand how this did anything for their souls. It had neveroccurred to hin that j.t would be up to him to start an orphanage himself.

It while i.crhing at the orphanage in New Jersey that Bro. John first heard of theChristian Acadcr.y in Japan. It is a school on the outskirts of Tokyo serving the childrenof Anieriean niccionaries in Japan. After a month or two of correspondence Bro, John washired as a high school science teacher, and in August I96I arrived again in Japan.It soon beccne evident that if Bro, John were going to do orphanage work he would have tostart one hir^elf but denc"ninational missionaries continually discouraged him. "Your wholeidea is ir.prc.etical," they said, "You can*t do anything like that by yourself. You needsome povsr behind you--a big mission board; but seeing as how your «^enomlTiftt.i opftl stand isnot clear and yeu have no home church in the States we don't think you're going to make it."

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It seemed God's call had been so clear. "Teach only two years at the Academy and thenbegin the orphanage," the Lord had said. But Bro. John vas already well into his secondyear of teaching by now and the orphanage seemed awfully remote, in fact an impossibility.But this is what God wants. We must re^li^.e that we can do nothing in our own strengths,that even the very work God calls us to is possible only through Him. "So then it is notof him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy."(Rom. 9:Id-)

Then the Lord began to take over. In late November Bro. John met the Fleeiiars whose sonSteven was in his chemistry class. Sister Fleer.jr invited him to spend Thanksgiving withthem and during that time Bro. John mentioned his desire to start an orphanage. Bro. andSister Fleenor immediately became interested. They too had seen the necessity of orphanagework and had been praying that God would send someone with that desire. One of Bro. John'sfirst questions, of cource, was what denomination are you. They explained that they didnot belong to a denomination but were only Christians after the pattern in the New TestamenttThis surprised him, but he was even more surprised to find that he and they believedexactly alike and agreed on everything. After a few more talks and plans for the future,Bro. Kachelmyer was ordained by Bro. Fleennr.

The Fleenors, of course, hcid their own work ard ministry so it was not their intentionto engage in the orphanage work themselves. They would furnish a recomxcndation to thebrotherhood and come Stateside contacts. The rest would be up to Bro. John. Thus, inJune of 1963 Bro. John arrived in Los Angeles and beg^n the task of raising support andfunds for tho Christian Home for Boys.

In talking over the nature of the orphanage and after visiting many orphanages, it wasdecided that one of the £."..'eatest needs lay in t'^.king care of older children. It waslearned that orphan children were given only a junior high rchool education, ^^any of them,talented, were denied a higher education. Considering the aims too, that the purpose ofthe orphanage vas to train young people for useful lives as Christians and especiaj.ly asChristian workers in this heathen land, it was decided that the orphanage would be foundedfor boys who had graduated from junior high school c.nd wished to make something of themselves in life.

The story of raising funds in the States is another tale in itself so that will bepassed over here. In February 196'i- Bro. John arrived back in Japan with much rejoicing.The following month the Christian Home for Boys in Japan began in a eiiiall rented hoi^^ewith one boy, Sato Shuji. (The Japanese school year begins in March.) From the beginningSato-san sho'jcd great promise and had a great interest in the Lord. He also had a stubborn,selfish and rebellious nature which unfortunately is a problem of many peop3.e. However, inJune of 196^+- Sato a-eeptsd Christ, was baptized and showed great zeal for the Lord's workby dedicating himself to enter the ministry. There vas indeed a great change in hispersonality. Then eatan began to work. How mar^ Christians have lost out with the Lordbecause they took their eyes from Him and began to look back to "Egypt"?Sato became more and moie rebellious as his temptations grew. Finally he not only completely rebelled against the Hone, but also against the Lord. With a new boy ready toenter the Home, Sato'c attiti.i.de could not be allor/ed to remain £.nd corrupt so with a heavyheart, for Sato was as a son, Bro. John discharged him from the Home. (He has continuedin school by working and living with a merchant. Recent contacts with him have givenencouragement to his possible return.)

In March of I965, Ilak^^^aki Kasaharu came to stay. He was recommended by a missionaryand the boy's brother was a minister. Kakazaki was a very shy boy. He vas not as open oras eo.sy to talk to as Sato but he was somewhat better behaved, although like most teenagers,the seeds of rebellion were there too. Ilalcasoki ho.s shown excellent spiritual progress,has been baptized and dedicated him."elf to the ministry. The problems that Satoencountered are not expected in his case. Nakacaki reads the Bible and prays by himselfdaily. He also understands himself and his problems so is better able to face them.

In June of 3.965 Bro. John returned briefly to the States to marry Miss Deana Home ofCrane, Texas. Deana is a graduate of Dallas Christian College and had been working at theIndiana Children's Christian Home in Ladoga, Indiana. They returned together to Japan inAugust 1965. They are expecting an addition to their family, this time their own, inDecember I966.

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In March I966 four new boys applied for admittance to the Home but two of them failedthe hig^i school entrance exams. The two who passed and are now living in the Home areNakamura and Ichikawa. Nakamura graduated from junior high school two years ago and hadbeen working in a factory, attending high school at night. But night high schools givevery poor education in Japan and so Nakamura wanted to start all over again in a regularschool if the Kachelmyers would take him in. Such an attitude was thought worthy of allthe help possible so Nakamura was accepted. Although he is I8 years old he is startingout as a 10th grader.

Ichikawa-san has graduated from nigiht high school and because of his character andpotential is being sent to electronics school. Both boys have an interest in the Bibleand it is hoped that they will soon accept the Lord.

The house that presently is the permanent building for the Home was purchased inAugust of 196^1-. In August I965 the house next door was put up for sale and theKachelmyers decided to go into debt again and buy it to insure ample facilities for allfuture contingencies. They plr.n to eventually have 10 boys in all in the Home. TheirdoGire was also to start a church go the extra rocn ;.'as needed. As of May 1966 there isstill a debt of $^000 owed r.^ainst the Home.

After many months of planning, the KachelmyerG were finally able to start a church intheir homa on Surxday April I7, I966. With the help of Christian young people from otherNew Testament churches, at the first service there were 20 in attendance. They werenaturally concerned as to what the attendance might be at the second service on the2^th seeing as how there would be no outside help at that service. There was thereforemuch cau.^e for praise and thanksgiving when there were 21 in attendance, 1^ of themstudents. As the start of the orphanage was in the Lord's hands, so also the starting ofthis church. Their prayer is that "Th3 Lord v/ill add to the church daily such as shouldbe saved." (Acts The n?jLa of the church is Saysma Christian Youth Church (SayamaSeincn Klricuchiyan Kyokai). The purpose of the church is to specifically reach highschool and college students.

The Kachelmyers do not have a specific living link church but are supported by thegenerosity of churches and individuals who contribute as they are moved by the Lord.Their address in Japan is: Mr, & Mrs. John M. Kachelmyer, House No. 2001, Sayama-shi,Saitana-ken, Japan. Their forwarding agent is Mr. Clarence Cord, Catlin, Illinois, 61817.

CHRISTIi.N HOi^a FOR BOYS liM JaFaN

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