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f-i^ (t li^ ^3514 S.W. 12th S tDes Moines, lA 50315

iMi tf tf ion UKi 1 8 Emas t and N@va f ^ tmNoath 49 , East 15Higa^i ku , Sapporo065 JAPAN

February 1981Dea r F r i e n d s in Ch r i s t ,

Today i s Cons t i t u t i on Day in Japan and a na t iona l hol iday , bu t t he reseems to be very little ac t i v i t y . Our windows a re p las te red with snow andmost o f th e ch i l d r en have been d r iven i ndoo r s by the b l i nd ing b l i z z a r d , weare having a record snowfall th is year so a grea t deal of our time i s con-sumned in shovel ing out the drive and walks. Las t week we had to remove the snow from th e church , house , and garage r oo f s . Four to f ive f e e t ofsnow covered the ent i re garage roof and dr i f t s to eight f ee t deep th rea tened the church roof . The weather va r i e s g rea t l y wi th in the c i ty becauseof the mountains and sea to the west . On January 28th, Ernest enjoyed asunny day over a t the high .school. But on his return a t 3 00 p.m he discovered t ha t snow had dr i f ted into the drive to the height of four fee t .January 18th was a victory day for the Lord when Chibaru Obara wasbaptized. She is a first-year student a t the Christian I-'igl School whereErnest is teaching part time. She has been attending cliurch here since lastApril. Two other girls from the school have been in church recently.Our p resen t plans a re to le av e Jap an on Apr i l l ? th fo r a one-yea r f u r - 'lough. Mr. Noriak i Kimura, who wi l l graduate from th e Osaka Bib le Seminaryin March, wi l l be coming back to Sapporo with h is v ;ife Keiko. During ourabsence they wi l l be l eading the work here . About e ight years ago, Mr.Kimura, who was l i v ing in Sapporo a t th e t ime, was bapt ized in the Tomako--mai church where his brother Mr. Hiroaki Kimura ministers.^ Mr. HiroakiKimura i s a conver t from th e Obih iro chu rch . P ray th a t th is church wi l lalso r a i se up Chris t ian l eadersh ip .Tragedy struck the home of two of our Sunday School pupils. Tomomiand Masami Kimura s ta r t ed coming to Sunday Sch oo l abo ut f ive years ago.Their older brother , . Hiroshi , was in our English program in the f i f t h gradeand returned to study with us again l a s t year. On January 19th a f i re

broke out a t 2:00 a.m. Hiroshi. apparently overcome by smoke in his sleep,died in the f i re which destroyed the house and aj.1- i t s contents. The gir lswere awakened by their mothrer but they had to help her out-of-the burninghouse. She was rushed to the hospital and put on l i fe support machines,butdied five days later . I t was a very traumatic experience for the ten andeleven-year-old girls and their father, who was at a nuclear power plantoutside of the ci ty. Hiroshi was very popular among the students and received a city academic achievement award in the seventh grade. He listenedattentively to the Bible teachings but our hearts bleed as we recall thewords of Tomomi, "My brother didn ' t believe in God." Their mother was agraduate of a Catholic High School and probably had some faith. As Hiroshi ' s teachers we attended the wake service. (The funeral was held thenext day during our Sunday morning church service.) A boy who sat besideus during the service did not attend the Christmas meeting but tne nextv/eek Neva noticed that he was reading a t rac t from the rack in the entry.Both we and the students keenly fe l t Hiroshi's absence in the class the nextweek. At the close of the class we explained the Christian's hope of heavenand made reference to John 14. A boy who has never shown, any interest beforerepeated the reference and undoubtedly went home and read the passage forhimself. As eighth graders they are s t i l l children but do pray for receptivehearts. T^vo other boys in the class have shown interest in the gospel forsome t ime . ^Please pray for the Kimuras and for the churchhere as he takes theleadership. A number of people have been studying in the Women s Bible arithe English classes. Among these non-Christiaus thpe were xiye housewivesand fourteen Junior High students at Christmas services which included an^hour's slide presentation by one oX the members.^nndav School. VBS, or camp programs were invited to a children s unrisxllfferlicl brought frilSds with them for a total of 62 elementary=!nd -nre-school children. Of this number 36 were in^grades foui ,six Six of the twelve children who attended our first VBS here in the win+er*of 1975 were present for Christmas this year. A number of others havecome over a period of 4 or 5 years. Their parents are nox Christians and^^-^he children are not encouraged to come regularly but we know the power o^the Word is great and believe seeds planted in young hearts will eventually^ow and Saffruit. Pray for the cultivation of these seeds at this timeof t rans i t ion in l eadersh ip

We look forward to seeing you while we are in the States.InK^ service,

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JUL2 0I981Dear Fr iends in Chr i s t ,Most of you know that we le f t Sapporo on April 17th. We le f t the housea t 10OO A.M..and arrived in Seattle at lOiOO A,M, the same day althoughi t was a l4-hour trip.Charles met us at the airport with the Ford pick-up which he found forus to use as our fur lough mission vehicle. We arrived la te that evening at his house in Boise, Idaho, where Patti and Melissa were awaiting us .Much of the next 10 days was spent in getting the hitch on the truck andhooking up the electrical system to the house trailer . Ernest spoke atthe chapel service, Boise Bible College, where Charles- teaches, and a tFir s t Church of Christ in Boise. Neva ^oke to thei r women's group.From there we went to Hill City, Kansas, where Linda l ives. We werethere just a short time "before leav ing for Oklahoma where Ernest a ttended the Kaimich Men's Clinic . During M is time Neva vi s i t ed heryoungest brother a t Fort Smith, Arkansas.On May 8th we made our way East to the Cincinnati area. At Covington,Kentucky, we vis i ted our second son Allan whom we hadn' t seen sinceAugust 197^. We met for the f irst time our daughter-in-law, Debbie.During the ten days we spent in Covington we met with the Mission Committee , New Burlington Church of Chr is t , Cincinnat i and Ernest spokeand showed s l ides there Sundayp May 17th . Then we were able to go toMinburn, Iowa, and v i s i t Ernes t ' s mother fo r a day or two.Other opportunit ies to t e l l of the work are as follows* VBS a t Hil l City,Kansas tweva) ,' preachV show slides and speak' to the VBS at First Churchof Christ, Cherokee,' lowa, show s l ides and VB a t Pleasant Grove Churchof Christ , Mt. GileadV Ohio,' preach and tshow s l ides a t Hanover ton, Ohio,show s l ides a t Morrison City Christ ian Church, Kingsport, Tenn, VBS a tHays (Kansas) Christian Church (Neva), 2 camps in Georgia,' show slidesa t Rincon Chris t ian Church and preach a t Martinez Fi r s t Chris t ian Churchboth in Georgia .At Minburn," Iowa, Ernest* s family were togiether for a rexmion on July^ th and 5th . , Although s ev e ra l n ie ce s and nephews and Ernest ' s youngestbrother were unable to at tend there were 52 presen t from 10 s t a t e s andJapan. This included Linda and her husband Gary and Kevin and Jason,Charles and h is wife Pat t i and Melissa , A llan and his wife Debbie, andDonald wi th Pam h is f i ancee . While a t Minburn Ernes t spoke and showeds l i d e s at th e Church o f Chr i s t .On Ju ly 11th and 12 th some o f Neva* s bro the r s and s i s t e r s gathered fo r areunion a t Clay Center , Nebr. One bro the r and one s i s t e r were no t ableto at tend. Ernest spoke and showed s l ides then on Sunday morning.Reports from Japan show t ha t thpy are ge t t ing along wel l and have somenew ones a tte nd in g th e s erv ic es . ^This l e t t e r has b een d elay ed due to di f f i cu l t i e s in loca t ing a machinet ha t would use our address p l a t e s . . We hope to wri t e you sooner then e x t t im e .We are l iv in g in our 17* t r a ile r a t Hays, Kansas, where Neva i s a t tending Fort Hays State College. But we ask you to contact us through ourforwarding agen t .We have aireaByt visited, contacted, or will be contacting oi^ supportingchurches. But i f you have a specific request please le t us ^ow and wewi l l t r y to accommodate you.Again, as always, thanks for your fa i thfu l and continued support , whichmakes it possible for us to cbntinue the witness in Japan.

o k3514 SW . 12TH STREET

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Yours i n His se rv ice

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December 1981Dear Fr i ends i n Chr i s t ,

Firs t of a l l we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Hapoy New Year,May Cod bless you as you continue to serve Him. Secondly, we want tothank each and everydne of you for your continued and fa i th fu l suppor t . Many of you have been partners with us for the fu l l 27 yearswe have been in Japan .We have moved the t r 'a i ler from Hays, Kansas, to Hil l Sity, Kansas, where our daufchter Linda l ives . Neva has been baby s i t t i ng inthe morninff and a t noon she dr ives s ix ty miles to Hays fo r her c l a sses . She wi l l do di rec t ed t ea ch in g: and take a few n ig ht c la sse s t h i s

next semester.

We plan to be back in Japan in t ime fo r t he i r summer ac t i v i t i e sb u t definite d a t e s have n o t b e en d e t e rm i n e d .

We have heard from th e p re ac he r, h is wife and s ev e r a l o f th eCh ris t ia ns o f the Hi^ashi ku Church o f C hr is t in Sapporo. They havein formed us t h a t th e summer camp and VBSvw^e held as scheduled . Therewere 13 c hild ren in VBS and 37 people in the family camp. One of theCirls who has been in the Sunday School fo r the pas t s ix yea r s hasi nd i ca t ed she wants to be a Chr i s t i an . Pray t h a t she wi l l be ab l e tof u l f i l l t h i s des i re . She i s now in Jun io r High School .

They had an "Evangelistic Meetin^^, October 23 to 25- Kimura,the preacher the re , was the evange l i s t . They showed Chr i s t i an f i lmsbe s i d e s th e p re ac hin fr s e rv i c e . Most o f th e members o f th e chu r ch , acouple o f the women's Bible Study Croup members as well as three newoeople a t t ended , Mr. Kimura has bee^n home Bible s tudy in four homeso f members s c a t t e r ed abou t th e c i t y .

A typhoon, the wot'se in tha t area for s eve ra l y ea rs , h it Hokkaidoon Aue;ust f i f t h . Two o f the member 's homes were sur rounded by wate rb u t it r e c e e d e d b e f o r e i t e n t e r e d their homes t h u s t h e r e was no ex=tensive damaece. On September fourth one of the members, Mr. l imura,cut h is foot halfway off in an accidenjt with a chain saw. He wil l behosp i t a l i z ed f ^~ ' s i x months. " It i s in t imes l i k e t h ese t h a t make fu r -lou^ch so d i f f i c u l t , We a re n o t th e re to s u f f e r wi th th e church .

Since July S r ne st , o cc as io n all y accompanied by Neva, v i s i t ed thefollowinfc churches* VBS, Perry , lA j Washington Chapel , Minburn, lAjVBS and spoke a t Pisin^^ Sun and West Side, Des Moines, lA; WalnutCorner, Alvin, ILLj Dover, INDj Biadensburg and Clear Creek (Ashland),0H | But le r , IND; Hooton and S econ d, Danvi l le , ILLj Earlham and Exl ine ,lA; Galva and Newton, ILL; Cedar Rapids, lA ; Pla ins and Libera l , KS;Ballards (Sparta) and Waldron, MIj Clif ton, Louisvil le , KY| ScotchPla ins , NJ| Russel l , KS| DeKalbv, MO? Beechwold a t Columbus and Miamis-burg , OH,

Ernes t a lso took pa r t in p re se nt in g th e work to s ix churches inth e S,W, Schoo l o f Miss ions and th e N,E. Texas Schoo l o f Miss ions ,He spoke to a mission ' s class a t Cincinnati Bible College and was chape l speaker a t Iowa Chr i s t i an College. He gave a sho r t t a lk a t aprayer and f a s t se rv ice a t th e Natio na l Missionary Convention in NewYork, and had a display a t the Conference on Evangelism in Cincinnat i .We wi l l be goine: to Cincinna t i fo r Donald* s w_edding which. .wi l ltake place on December 22. He i s to be marr ied to Pan xruesde l l daughte r o f Mr, and Mrs. Don Truesdel l o f Madison, Indiana.Ernes t ' s p lans fo r 19S2 are as fo llowsi J anua ry ^ th and 11th inIdahoj February 26th to 28th, Fai th Promise Rally, in Richmond Hil l s ,GA.{ March 6th to 8th a t Kentucky Chris t ian Collegej 26th~ to 28th,Faith Promise Rally, in Enfield, ILL, Other dates are pending.May God bless a l l of you.

In Chris t ian love ,

S514 SVV. 12TH STRRPT I51 4 S\V. 12TH STREET