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E">est and Neva Faber3514 S.W. 12h Si.D Moines. U S03IS

Apr i l 1980D e a r C h r i s t i a n F r i e n d s

We en tered th e year o f I98O here in Sapporo with so little snowt ha t they were a f r a id t he re wouldn ' t be enough snow fo r th e famousSapporo Snov/ Fest ival . But we had plenty pf snow7later. The bankback o f the house v/as so high t ha t one coula walk o ff of it r i gh t onto th e ro o f o f the house . The banks v/es t o f th e church comple te lycovered th e windows o f th e audi to r ium. iSven a s o f t oday we stillh a v e s now north of the c h u r c h .

Did you read about Hokkaido in th e January , I98O, issue o f Nat i ona l Geographic? This ar t ic le^ "Hokkaido-Japan *s Last F ron ti er ",wi l l give you a good idea o f th e kind o f 3rea wo a re v/orking in ..It has been a whi le s ince we have wri t t en so w i l l give you a

run down on th e 's er vic es we had dur ing Chr i s tmas . T o ta l a tte nd an cefo r all th e s erv ic es was 112 . Kinde rga r t en to t h i r d grade met onSunday af te rnoon December 23rd with s ix ty-one a t tend ing . That Sunday evening we had th e ad u l t se rv ic e s with e igh teen in a t t endance .On Monday, Ghristraas eve, the j un io r high met w ith e leven p re s en tand on Chr is tmas day the four th through si2:th grades met with twenty-two p r e s e n t .

Our annual winter V a ca tio n B ib le School was held on January 8and 9 . There were two s e s s i on s on each c'ay. The ch i l d r en all brough tl u n ches to e a t be tween th e morn ing and a f t e r noon s e s s i o n s . Therewere nine teen c hild re n p re se nt from kindergar ten through s i x t h g rade .The sma l l a t tendance gave us oppo r tun i ty to become be t t e r acquain tedas we taught and worked with them in the handwork pro jec t s .

During March vie were busy preparing: fo r a new school term inthe Engl ish prograiii here a t the churcli. As you probably know thesch oo l y ea r ends in March and begins in Aprdl here in Japan. Wehave 27 s tuden t s enro lJed in our j un io r high program. We have beenworking on Bible c-:tory booklexs to cor re l a t e with the school t ex t sfo r t ih e -t hr ee y ea rs o f j un io r high . Theso bookle t s fo l l ow- t he - t ex tbook c lose ly using the vocabu la ry and gra^nmar in th e o rder they a ret augh t in school . We teach these Bib le l e ssons to each grade l eve lfo r 30 minutes p r i o r to th e one hour s tudy fo r Engl i sh . We completedthe ? th and 8th grade booklets and wi l l be v.orking on the 9th gradebooklet present ly . Th&re are over 110 students in our English program fo r th e new yea r ,

Tv;o recent events concerning the fs-JTiily. On January 30th (Ernes t ' s fa ther ' s birthday)J^son Richard was born to Linda and Gary.The second ch i ld fo r Linda our tH i rd grandch i ld .Also Charles was ordained to the ministry, !/[ax.ch~l6-th a t the^-'"Ferry Church of Christ, Waynesville, Onio. The F.erry cfiurch is Pat-^ti* s home church.The 31st All Japan Church of Chris t Convention meets th is yearon Hokkaido. The Japanese session is Au^u3t f i r s t to the th i rd andthe English session i s August th i rd to the f i f t h . The theme for theJapanese session is "Abide in Christ" besed on I John. The Englishconvent ion wi l l cen t e r on Romans w ith D ax las Preserve o f San JoseBi j l e Col lege de l i ve r i ng th e messages .Our plans are to be home on furloug-i ii-om la te May I98I unti lApril /May I982. Mr. Nonaki Kimura, who will be graduating fromBible College in March of 1981. wil l be here to look a f t e r the churchwh i l e v^e a re on f u r l ough .I f you desire to use us in your fa i th promise ra l l i e s , camps,e t c , it would be wise to l e t us know a uioon as poss ib le .This l e t t e r has oem long delayed by co.lds and other problems.The delay doesn ' t rect:_ly express our focling ooi.cerning our fai thfu l supporters. You a re c on sta ntly on cur minds and in our prayers .Again thank you for your fai thful fc-/\p:;ort and prayers withoutwhich v;e couldn* t r ema in on th e f i e l d .

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/ Ernest and Neva fabtr3514 S.VV. 12lh St. /Des Moine^ lA 5031S / '"Ta^ANOV 1 0 1980September 19B0

Dear friends in Christ . OV i 0 1980Recen t ly Marg s en t us a list o f c o ntr ib u tio n s fo r the month o f J u l y .

Afte r Neva made ou t the r e ce ip t s and typed up the informat ion on the 3^5cards we keep fo r each sui)porter she sa id, "We've got to put out a l e t t e r .We have rece ip t s in th is book dating back to Apri l . " It d idn ' t seem bel ievable . "K'asn't i t . j u s t l a s t month tha t v/e put out a le t te r^^^^rhapsit was the especially buify summer scheaule tha t made the time pass rapidly.

The even t t h a t th e Hokkaido Chr i s t i an s have been l ook ing fo r and preparing for~~the 31st All Japsn Church of Christ Convention is now history.Ovei" 220 people--from as fa r away as Okinawa--came by planes, cars, andmotorcycles to take part in the convention. Ihis was the f i r s t time itmet on Hokkaido, 'The convention was held from August 1 to 3 a t the newhotel facing Lake Toya._ Lake Toya is a t the si te of the active volcanot h a t erupted t h ree years ago.Follov/ing this convention the missionaries moved to a smaller place,the Hokkaido Youth Center in Sapporo, for a 3~f^3.y convention. Dallas Me-serve of San Jose Bible College gave us four enlightening s tudies based onthe book of Romans. Ernes t had forgot ten to take the overhead pro jec tc rvdth them to the Japanese convention so had to rush home between conventions to get i t . Mr. Meserve used the overhead in a ll four of his lectures . Since we don 't often get to the convention we especially enjoyedthe fellowship. For Neva this was the f i r s t one in ten years.Now "Aa wil l turn our at tent ion to the church and i t s summer ac t iv it i es . The VBS was a two-day overnight event on July 28th and- 29th. Therewere 21 chi ldren present, The four lessons were based on the l i ie ofPeter . The teachers were Jfir. Kimura, our Bible coll eg e s tudent back forthe quarter= and Krnest and Neva.Then from July 31 tc August 2 we had a summer camp for fourth gradersand older including Junior High students. There were kk students plusadults and seven chi-ldren- Vvhc v/^-re under fourtr grade and_ came with^heir mothers. The study was on Godwho He is and what. He is like.^

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third trader, son of a lady who was baptized lasx year, went home and told^is -^athpr, "Did you know that God made the world?" His fa the r sa id, "Theytold you that at camp, didn't they? Man came from a monkey." Then^theboY i'eplied. "But, Dad, if that is so then why arerJ : ir:onkeys becoming men-low " He hasn't shown any interest in Sunday School but asked his mother'^or'a Bible. His l i t t le brother, just three years old, now insists onprayer before meals. Pray that these boys can lead their father to unitethe family in Chr i s t .A one-nisht camc for families followed the children s camp a.t thesame site This 'was" on August 2nG rind 3rc. The Sunday morning worship _fiervice was held at the camp s i te . This camp site is omied by t.ne Ho.^aseiC-lrl's High School in Sapporo. The theme of the camp was God anc. nature.There were Zk present a t th i s camp.I By now you probably have read that Charles and Patti have moved to-/Boise. Idaho, where Charles has become_an aspciate professor at Boise/Bible College. Their present address is 1^204 Hill Drivt;, Poise, Idan^, ,^S3703.Ernest has been to see a dcotor a oouple of times because oj^low^^^^Tood pressure but is r^ssured there nothing to worry about. j.ir6u.--^s

eeems xo cs th e main symptom .Vje want to again call your attention tc our lur lough next year. i-fyou have 30ine specific date and meeting in aind let us Xnow early^ so ".vecan easily work ix in. We nave requests alreaay lor a -aith^promi&e ^VBS. and for 1 to j WioVt of camp. I t seerDf oertarn thit E.r.^st willbe able tc push himseli like he did the last xurlougM.^ 1^ lo unlikel; hewill be making long extended drives. If possible prcviae alternc.,t(: a.ite,.so that we might conserve both tiiTje and iuel .Many, many thanks for your faithful supp?rt. le-.:ters. and prayers.iour receipts are enc-i-osed. May God bless you.