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, , , , s, Aa. . Ernest and Neva Faber

Des Moines , lA 503^5S'ifv 12tn S t . KigaPhi ku. Sapporo0 6 ^ JAPANF e b r u a r y , 1979

D e a r C h r i s t i a n f r i e n d s ,Rishiku, a Korean school teacher, wouldn't worship^at the Shintoshrine as commanded by the Japanese and was imprisoned in Japan.While in prison Rishiku witnessed to others around her. The day before her scheduled execution WW I I ended. This true story i s told inthe film , "But even i f not" which we showed a t the church on Saturdayevening, December 23rd. Sixteen attended this meeting.On Christmas day we had two services for the children. Theyounger ones--K through 3rd grade--came at 1:00 p.m. The older onescame at 3iOO. There were 70 at the f i r s t session and 21 at the secondsession. The program consisted of carol singing, films, and a Nativityplay with a cast of 2k Sunday School pupils. There are always somenew faces at Christmas meetings. We pray that their attention has

b e e n d i r e c t e d toward God.As you probably have read, Japan has a new prime minister. .Ohira i s a Chris t ian who belongs to a group cal led non-Church Movement--a Japanese indigenous church. In January Prime Minister Ohira attendeda Japanese shrine "because other Prime Minister have attended." Prayt h a t Mr. Ohira wil l make a firm stand on his Chri st ian conv ic ti ons.On December 6th the Board of D irectors of Hokkaido Christian Mis-vWi sion, Inc. met a t John Noe's home for the annual meeting. At that time)- ^ Mrs. Margaret DeRuyscher was appointed as the new forwarding agent re-placing John Noe who served faithfully in this capacity for some 19years. Also the date of the annual meeting has been_changed from thef i r s t Wednesday in December to the second Wednesday.in March effective

in 1979. The address of the mission has been changed to 351^ SW 12th St,Des Moines, lA 50315 Remember Marg in your prayers as she assumes theresponsibili ty of this important posit ion.In looking over the receipts for January we have noted that therehas been an increase i n the amount sent by several of the churches. Weare thankful tha t you have remembered us in t h i s way. By the way, af i n a n c i a l s t a t e m e n t i s a v a i l a b l e upon r e q u e s t .Recently we received word that Linda with her husband, Gary, andson, Kevin, will be arriving in Japan on the 19th of February for av i s i t . Gary will be staying a couple of weeks with Linda and Kevinstaying about a month. We anticipate seeing our grandson for the firpt

t i m e .A non-instumental church of Christ here in Sapporo closed i t s doorsin November. The church, which met in the home of the minister , waslocated about 2 miles south of us. At t h i s time one of the members hasbegun to attend Sunday evening services here . A couple with 3 smallchi ld ren ind icated that they will be attending here. We continue topray for others who as yet are not attending any church.Thanks for your prayers, for your greeting at Chrislmias time, andabove a l l for your f inancial support. We couldn't do without you.

I n C h r i s t i a n l o v e - ,

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fill, /! < , AA' / ^ 7 rs Ernest and Neva Faber/ J ^3514 S. W. 12th St .Oes Moines, !A 50315

May 1979

^ North 49. East 15/ Higashi ku. SapporoV \ 065 Japan

Dea r F r i e n d s in Christ,On February 19 - - sho r t l y a f t e r we pu t ou t our l a s t l e t t e r - -L inda ,with husband Gary and son Kevii% v i s i t e d u s . This was th e first t imewe saw our on ly grandch i l d and th e first t ime we sav/ Gary a f t e r t h e i r

marr i age . We were happy to be ab le to sha re in Kevin ' s second b i r t hday on Februa ry 22 and Linda ' s b i r t hd ay on March 2nd. Gary was herefo r two weeks and Linda and Kevin s t ayed f o r a no t h e r two v/eeks . Kevinmade f r i ends qu i ck ly in th e c h i l d r e n ' s c l a s s whi le Linda p layed th eorgan fo r chu r ch .

The annua l A ll Japan Church o f Chr i s t Convention met a t CkayamaMarch 30 to Apr i l l.__ The theme of th is year ' s convention was " SetYour Hear t s on Things Above " based on Co lo ss ia ns 3 :1 "1 7. The Eng l i shconven ti on immedi at ely fol lowed a t th e same lo ca tio n A p ril 1-3- Brot h e r George Alder o f San Jose Bib le College was spec i a l gues t speakerThe t h eme was " Christian C o n fid en ce " b a s ed on I J o h n . Ernest attende d both conventions.

The 31 s t conven t ion w i l l mee t nex t y e a r on Hokka ido . This wi l l -be a f i r s t fo r the churches he r e . It wi l l be from August 1 -^ fo r theJapanese por t ion and August ^-6 fo r the English por t ion. The Japaneses e ct io n w i l l meet at Lake Toya some 50 mi le s sou th o f Sapporo and th eEngl i sh po r t i on wi l l meet with in the c i t y o f Sapporo.

If any o f you have ever en te r t a ined th e idea o f coming to Japan tos ee any o f th e work t h i s would be a good t ime to do s o . You can s eeHokkaido as wel l a s meet most o f th e miss iona r i e s working in J apan .

On Eas t e r Sunday even ing th e church he re had a f e l l owsh ip d inne r . "We he ld it in th e even ing so some who a r e n ' t ab le to a t t end Sundaymorning could also fel lov/ship with the church. There were 1^ adul t sand 8 c h ild re n p re se n t.On Apr i l 26th an engagement serv ice was held fo r Miss Koto Myoo-j i t s u . o n e o f our members here , and Mr. Koj i Ueyama who r ecen t l y gradua t e d from O saka Bib l e Semina ry . We p ray God ' s gu idance on them a s

th ey p re pa re f o r a fall mar r iage and a min i s t ry fo r the Lord .One o f th e o ld e r Sunday Schoo l pup i l s became d i s s a t i s f i e d with

someth ing at Sunday Schoo l and l e d a number o f th e ch i ld ren away res u l t i n g in a ve ry low a t t e ndanc e l a t e l y . We a re n o t on ly concernedbecause o f th e Sunday Schoo l b u t because o f he r bad i n f l uence on somany o f the o ther s . Besides some she had inv i ted she took ou t eveno t h e r s when she left. Such an unhappy f r u s t r a t e d c h ild d e sp e ra te lyneeds J e su s . The pa ren t s a re all non -Chr i s t i an and t he re fo re don ' tencourage a t t e ndanc e .

On th e o the rhand we have s een some new a d u l t faces in th e morningand eveni ng wo rship s e rv i ce s . Three a re from ano ther church o f Chr i s tand a l r e ady Chr i s t i a n s . One i s th e d au gh te r - in -law o f a fo rmer Engl i shs t u d en t , and ano t h e r housewi f e who r e c en t l y moved back to t h i s a r e aafter be ing away f o r ove r 2 y e a r s . We have been encouraged to se et h e f o u r women also at Nev a ' s women ' s B i b l e class.

Char le s has a s l i d e program ava i l a b l e on our work as seenthrough the eyes of a miss ionary 's son. Write to him a t 3^28 RidgewoodDrive , Er lange r , KY 41018.

Please remember t h a t our miss ion address has changed to 35^^SW 12 th St., Des Mo-"nes, lA 50315* P l e a s e do n o t u se t h e o ld Ade laddress .

With t h i s letter we send our thanks fo r your praye r s , - l e t t e r s ,and suppo r t o f th e work.I n t h e M as t e r 's s e r v i c e ,

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7 ^ Ernest and Neva Faber/'Q North 49. Kast IS3514 SW, im i STREET Hfgashi ku. SapporoOES MOINES, IOWA 50SIS September. 1979Dear Chr i s t i a n Fr i end s ,

Today the announced that the f i r s t snow of the season had fa llen somewhere on Hokkaido. By the end of September we will have ourf i r s t f rost . Winter will soon oe upon us. 'However, we v/ant to turnyou r a t t e n t i o n h : ck to the summer.

The day following the close of school for the summer (July 26th)we began VBS. We t r ied something different this year. Since it isdifficult for the children to come for five consecutive days, we invited them to stay overnight and had both afternoon and morning sessionsf.or the two days. There were 3^ children from f i r s t through sixthgrade whom we divided in to teams with names of f ru i t . The variousteams were given specific tasks to do so that a l l the cooking, dishwashing, housekeeping;, and room preparations were done by the chi ldren with Neva's help. lirnest supervised games with the groups whowere free. The children's co-operation was excellent. I t was no problem to have a l l of us down at the park for the community morning exercises at 6:30 a.m., breakfast prepared, clean up finished, beddingpacked, and vbs in sess ion before 9^00. Enthusiasm in the classesmatched that exhibited in the chores so that i t was a happy profitabletwo days o f work, p lay , and s tudy o f Jonah .

bummer camp th i s year met over the. weekend of August 11-13 inorder t h a t the Chris t ians could a t tend . For the f i r s t t ime we rentedfac i l i t i es instead of using t ents . The camp s i te is located on ah i l l overlooking the Japan Sea and includes a dining hal l , kitchen,and cabins furnished with matt resses . We are gra te fu l to the Overseas Missionary Fellowship for lending us the use of their camp sitefo r the th ree days. One of the Chris t ian women, Mrs. Munakata, ledin the menu'planning and cooking. Her husband was ab le to a t tend Sunday and b rought th e vesper, message and supervised the swimming. Another young lady led singing and games a t the campfire and one of themorning devot ions , i^rnest and Neva conducted c lasses based on a littlebooklet wri t ten by Mr. Sato. The theme was "Introduction to the Church."Although the majo rity o f the group. of ^1 campers had__never attended~i^urch services the communion service was one of the quietest we haveever conducted. Registration began with fourth graders but four youngerchildren were allowed to come with adul ts . Most of the youth wereSunday School o r VBS co ntac ts b ut there were a few new faces from theEngl i sh c l a s se s .

There was time for a three-day t r ip befo re Eng lish classes resum-ned. We were able to v i s i t br ief ly with a young American a t the CoastGuard s t a t ion , the preacher and h is wife in Obihiro , some f r iends insouthern Hokkaido, and to .stop by to see the kindergarten building thatthe Kimuras have bu i l t in Tomakomai and v i s i t a while w ith Mrs. Ki-mura.

Back home it was time to s ta r t preparations for the evangelist icmeeting tha t was held September 7-9. Announcements were printed, soundequipment checked out , sign prepared fo r the building, and 3000 t rac tspassed ou t to homes around th e church . Three o f th e Chr i s t i a n s a s s i s t e din passing the t rac ts on the ra iny Sunday af ternoon pr ior to the meeting . There a re now 3000 homes in le s s than a two-square mile areaaround us and new homes are going up a l l the t ime. Five years ago wecou ld r e a ch mos t o f t h i s a r e a wi th l e s s t han 2000 t r a c t s . luhen wemoved onto th is block five years ago v/e were the fourth house, todayt he re a re 30 households and still three empty l o t s .

The evange l i s t f o r the meet ing was Mr. Toshih iko Shimada o f Senda i .On bunday evening, the l a s t night of the meeting, Mrs. Fuse, a 39-year-o ld housewi f e wi th tv;o ch i l d r en , con f e s s ed J e su s a s he r s av i ou r andwas immedia te ly bap t i zed . Mrs. Fuse l iv e s ju st a few blocks from thechurch. Follow ing zne baptism a l l the Chr i s t i ans joined v/ith her inthe par tak ing o f the Lord ' s supper . At l e a s t 9 adu l t s from the areawho are not members o f any church a t tended the th ree-day meeting.TheMoiwashita church in southern Sapporo had members in a t tendence eachevening, a l so . Neva conducted chi ldren ' s meetings for the 12 youngchi ldren who ac^companied t h e i r paren t s .

Charles wrote t h a t he would l ike people to use the s l i des he hasavailable. I t may be possible_that he could personally show them.Virite him a t : 3^28 Ridgewood Drive , Erlanger , KY ij-lOlS.Many th?mks God ble ss yo.i .

' ice,