61iriti^n^iioiv, oj^ ^mericq^

Not-for-profit Corporation

February 2, 1988Dear Christian Friends:

We covet your prayers for us as we pray for you.

Yours in Christ,

/ - r . , .

George & Ethel Beckman

OSAKA BIBLE SEMINARY

MISSIONARIESGeorge & Ethel Beckman

Jenann Beckman

Greetings from a warm and sunny Japan. Most of the first month 8-40 Kamizono-choof this new year has been exceptionally warm. Every warm Nishinomlya 622, Japanday means less fuel required, a blessing to us. However, 0798-71-7170the weather man keeps predictine cold weather and tomorrow

. _ . T . X FORWARDING AGENTSIS supposed to be real winter weather.Roger & Beryl Johnson

On November 22 last year we had a wedding on our lawn. 3320 Westgate Parlwayiic.j/ . Rockford, IL 61108We were all afraid that it would be too cold to have it 815-399-3690

outside, but it was a beautiful warm day and the weddingas lovely even though our lawn was not too beautiful sincethe grass had already turned brown for the winter. But,the maple tree had turned red the previous week addingcolor to the wedding. Afterward they had a small receptionin the church room prepared by the women of the church.

The next morning when we got up the lawn was white with snow. What a surprise! However,It lasted only a short while and the weather turned warm again in a couple of days.

Our Christmas meetings began December 4 with the annual Christmas dinner and program of allthe missionaries of the Osaka area. This is one time of the year that we get to meet missionarieof other churches and enjoy fellowship with them.

The annual sukiyaki dinner given by the Clarks at the end of the fall semester of the seminarywas,-December 11. The students, and facultyall look, forward to this rimo fnn and fpTlnwghip-

The young people of the Rokko church went caroling on Saturday evening, the 19th, endingat our house for cocoa and cookies.

On December 23 Ethel's Bible classes and the women of the church had their annual Christmasdinner and program. Several ladies of the English Bible class helped Ethel prepare the meal,an American style with turkey and the trimmings. After the meal they had a worship serviceof hymns and scripture reading.

That evening we got everything cleaned up ready to go to Dave and Ruth's for Christmas.We got there in time to go to the Christmas program at the church in Tanabe. Saturday morningbefore we returned John and his family called us so both families got to talk to them.

New Years is always the big holiday in Japan with three days of vacation. Everyone cleanshis house well the week before and the women cook special foods to last for three days knownas ozechi ryori. Two people shared some of their cooking with us.

When Dave and Ruth came New Year's Day they were able to enjoy some of it, too. They stayedwith us until after Sunday School Sunday morning, when they had to leave to get home in timefor their services in their home that evening. Levi was counting all the first experienceshe was having on that trip; a ride on the subway, a visit to a castle, seeing a musical,a climb up Mt. Kabuto (not too high a mountain near our home, but a good steep climb), eatingozechi ryori and a meal in a loaf. He thought it was a pretty good trip.

Seminary began January 5. George is teaching both morning and afternoon Tuesday and Thursdaythis term. That is a three hour class in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon.

Ethel had a new member begin in her English Bible class since the first of the year. Mrs.Taniguchi brings her three year old boy with her and he plays quietly beside her while westudy.

We still have not found land. Our wishes seem difficult to fulfill. Most pieces of landare too small or too far away from a train station. We have faith that God knows where weare to move to and by the time this land registration problem is settled we will know wherewe are to go. In the meantime Ethel is sorting out things in preparation little by little.

Osak^Ghri^tiqii

^iioit9 of ^meric^NotforProfit Corporation OSAKA BIBLE SEMINARY

MISSIONARIESGeorge & Ethel Beckman

Jenann Beckman840 Karaizonooho

Nishlnomiya 622, Japan0798-71-7170

FORWARDING AGENTS

April 15, 1988 Roger & Beryl Johnson3320 Westgate Parkway

Rockford, IL 61108Dear Christian Friends, 815-399-3690We thank God for all of you, for your prayers on our behalf and yourcontinued financial support to us and the work of Osaka Bible Seminary .

The first news we have to report is that we have a piece of landon which to build a new home and a meeting room. It is in the neighboring city of Takarazuka, about a two minute walk from a train station on the Hankyu line going into Osaka. It is smaller than we hadhoped for, about 274 square meters ( 327.55 square yards). Finallyafter much negotiation a contract was signed and a down pajrment received for the sale of 300 square meters of this land and the downpayment made and a contract signed for the purchase of the new land.With the difference in the price of this land and the new plot we willbe able to build a building that will contain a room large enough toseat 50 to 60 people and living quarters for ourselves. The house isto be finished by the end of October. Mr. Wada, a member of the Rokkochurch is our contractor and we are now busy making plans.

On March 22 to 24, Ethel and Jenann went with Dave and Ruth andchiJ-dren to the all Japan missionary convention in Niigata Prefecture,a nine and a half hour trip. Hosts for the convention were M/M JoelLikins and M/M Bill Belew who did a great job in planning and managingthe convention, and with the help of some of their students and Christians, even to preparing all of the meals for the 53 missionaries andchildren present. We were all encouraged by the messages brought byProfessor Tom Friskney and with the fellowship with him and Mrs.Friskney and our fellow missionaries. Since George still had classesto teach, he was unable to go.

On March 25 two young people graduated from Osaka Bible Seminary.Mr. Motonobu Ikeda received the four year ministerial degree. He istaking an additional course this term and hopes to go to CincinnatiBible Seminary this fall. Miss Naomi Ohmura received the two yearcertificate and began working as the office secretary from April 1.

Four new students entered Osaka Bible Seminary this new schoolyear. Mr. Nakahara is the son of a preacher in a Church of Christ(non-instru-mental) in Shizuoka prefecture. Mr. Kishimoto from Tanabeis a graduate of Ibaraki College. Mr. Yamamoto is from the Minatochurch in Yokohama where Mr. Stephen lijima preaches. Miss Okido isfrom Okinawa and is a graduate of a junior college for teachers inNagoya.

Since April 2nd, George has been suffering from herpes zoster(shingles). After a series of five IV's the vesicles have almost alldried up, but he is still having some pain. The doctor gave him somemedicine to relieve the pain and he is feeling much better.

Now that we can make definite plans for moving, Ethel and Jenannhave begun in earnest to sort out and pack things not needed until wemove. We expect that as soon as the buyer wants possession of the landhere, the garage and the part of the house containing the kitchen andGeorge's study will have to be torn down. Before then we must geteverything from the attic to the basement in that end of the housemoved. We plan to live in the rest of the house until we move.

We are hoping to go to the States for a short time this summer,but it will have to be earlier than we had planned and for a shorterperiod of time. We will probably leave as soon as possible after thisterm ends on July 1 and return by the middle of September.

We are looking forward to the coming of John and his family the21st of this month for a week's visit. They are in Taiwan now visitingTsai's family this week. It will be the first time for Jenann to seeJennifer.

The grace and joy of the Lord be with you.

Y(^r ministers to Japan,

George & Ethel Beckman

3v-

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Miss Ohonura & Mr. Ihedaat graduation

presenting their gift to the Seminary

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4 new students, from left to right:Kishimoto, Miss Okido, Mr. Yamamoto, Mr. Nakahara

Osakq^^hri^tiqn

oj* ^meric^^Not-for-Profit Corporation

Dear Christian Friends,

OctobeTi^ll, 1988

/a^i

OSAKA BIBLE SEMINARY

MISSIONARIESGeorge & Ethel Becknan

Jenann Beckman8-40 Kamizono-cho

Nishinomiya 622, Japan0798-71-7170

FORWARDING AGENTSRoger & Beryl Johnson3320 Westgate Parkway

Rockford, IL 61108815-399-3690

We thank God for the many precious souls who have shown suchkindness and encouragement in the brief trip we made to the Statesthis summer. Your gracious hospitality has been a great blessing tous. Even though some of you were very frail in body you welcomed andencouraged us. May the Lord richly bless you as He has blessed usthrough you. In spite of the fact that there seemed to be so much tobe done here in preparation for our move into a new area to begin awork we believe that it was the Lord^s leading that we return to theStates for this short time and He has given us the strength to get themost urgent things accomplished up until now.

We had hoped that the new house would be finished by the end ofOctober, but when we returned we learned that it will not be finisheduntil the end of November because of delays due to the many days ofrain this summer, and the buyer of this land wanted the buildings onthe lot he purchased demolished by the fifteenth of this month. Thatmeant many busy days getting the garage, kitchen, pantry and studycleared out by October fifth so the men could begin tearing them down.Thanks to the help of David Hinson, our son-in-law, we finished get-ting"everythTng moved out of"the study and George's dsk moved into acorner of the living room in one day. During the next week we movedeverything we wanted out of the garage, kitchen and pantry. From thethird (Monday), the plumbers, gas men, carpenter and electrician cameto hook up our appliances into our former dining room. They also hadto move the water heater, electric meter and fuse boxes and telephoneto the part of the house in which we will live until we can move. Themen came to begin demolishing the vacated areas on the sixth.

After visiting with some of the churches and our board of directors, it has become evident that there is some misunderstanding concerning the land sold here and the new land bought. Both the land andthe buildings on this land belong to Osaka Christian Mission, a notfor profit organization for religious purposes registered with theJapanese government, and the new land and building is also the property of Osaka Christian Mission. The church that has been meeting herehas acquired enough money to put up a building, but because of theprohibitive cost of land, they asked Osaka Christian Mission forpermission to build on a part of this land. Since they are now independent of any missionary help, we felt that it was time for us to gosomewhere else and try to begin a new work. Therefore, we asked theMission to sell part of this land, buy a piece of property and build a

combination meeting place and home for us in an area where land ischeaper and where we do not have a church. The church could then teardown our present house to put up their own building. This request wasgranted and the the Mission sold 297 square meters (3195.7 squarefeet), about one third of the land here, and bought 274.47 square

meters (2932.8 square feet) of land in Takarazuka, a neighboring city.The difference in the size and price of the two plots of land providedthe money to build a combination meeting place and house, thoughsmaller than the present house. There will be very little or no moneyleft over after construction. While the price from this land seems toohigh to imagine, the price of land in any area is also very high. Wethank God that the land here was large enough that we could divide,making it possible to begin a new work, resulting in churches in twocities, even though that means both places will be small. Such highprices make it virtually impossible for a new church to buy land andhave a building of its own.

For the same reason a new missionary coming to the field has avery difficult time. The cost of living, even when a niissionary homehas been paid for, is double or treble what it is in the States, andevery missionary here is getting along on less than the average churchmember in the States. Most of them have had no raise in support tocover the 50% loss in the value of the dollar in the last year.

When anyone gives to Osaka Christian Mission (of America) or tothe Beckmans, he is giving to a state side organization incorporatedto support George and Ethel or Jenann Beckman for their living andmission expenses. As you can see from our annual financial report andbudget, most of our mission funds go to help support Osaka BibleSeminary, the only seminary in Japan among our people, . When we moveto Takarazuka we plan to have one of the seminary students help us ona part time basis until he graduates. So far we have not added thisexpense to the mission budget, planning to pay it out of our livingsupport until the church can begin to give toward his support.

Mr. Nakahara, the son of the preacher of a non-instrumentalchurch of Christ in Shizuoka prefecture, began studying at the seminary in April this year in preparation to follow his father as thepreacher in the church. Early in September his father died of cancerleaving the church without a preacher. We ask your prayers for Mr.Nakahara as he attempts to make the long trip several weekends a monthto preach at the church while continuing his study in the seminary.

While we were in the States the last part of August the twochurches that had been meeting here began meeting together and havetaken the name Kamizono Church of Christ. Upon our return we learnedalso that Mr. Kubota, who has been attending worship for about ayear,has decided to become a Christian and will be baptized thismonth. Praise the Lord.

May the grace and peace of God, our Father be yours.

For Christ in Japan,

Geor'ge & Ethel Beckman