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and and Ne.va 7aAe.n.4-8 NonJih 49, Ccut 15HigcUitu, ku, SAPPORO

i toch 1991Eveiy yea r s in ce 1938 th e Niigata missionaries have been sponsoring a ski t r ip to Hokkaido.They began with six in 1988 ^ in February of 1990 there were 29 of them. The mup thistime incl-uded missionaries from Osaka and Tokyo. Since our camp site is close & severalfamous ski slopes they always use our camp site. Therefore we become involved with the group.We usually go down and open up t he bu il di ng , turn on t he h ea t, check the water, and thenwelcome them. They joined us on Sunday night for a service at the church here.In March one of the Christian youth graduated from high school and moved to Tokyo. In thesummer, a couple who were members here, also moved to Tokyo. Two elderly Christians are inpoor health and two of the women members have few Sundays free due to their jobs in hospitalcare and retarded children's supervision. So the church has b^n struggling but never theless able to meet i t s operating expenses since Ernest sei*ves as th e minister.This past year they were able to replace the rotting smw slide prevention poles on the roofof the church with iron rods and donated lumber, inese keep the snow from cradling ontothe nei^bors. Buildings are built close to each other here.Early in June our d augh te r Linda's tv/o boys, Kevin and Jason, arr ived on the i r own a tSapporo's International kxrport, Linda joined them for two weeks in August.The boys joined th e Japanese youth for a three-day camp which we held a t the camp si te fromAugust 25 to 27. There were 39 in attendance. Neva taught them English lessons and Mr.Kimura from Tomal^omai taught them what is commonly called "The Lord's Prayer." Part of theclasses consisted of games lead by Neva and Ernest vdth th e boys helping. Animated videos onthe Old Testament \iere shown in the evening.The l a s t of November we had an overnight stay a t the church a t the insistence of theelementary children. The theme of this program was the Sermon on the Mount. In Japan manypassa^s from the sermon are used in secular wri tings but usually with the wrong meaning.Overnight stays a t the church entail a lo t of work because of cooking, teaching, bed making aswell as discipline. But they mind us welL 21 attended. They will attend these specialservices better than Sunday School.Ihe last special program of the year occurred a t Christmas. I t is alA^rays d if fi cu lt to decidewhether to have i t on Christmas Eve, Christmas ley, or Sunday evening before Christmas. Thereare pro and con aspects for any of these, Havii^ i t on GbrLstmas Eve sometimes interfereswith family celeb ra tions, yet we decided it would be best to have it on Christmas Eve. Therewere 30 in at tendance.We continue to have several English classes for elementary, Jr. High, High School, and adultson Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Eleven ^ults enrolled in the program arestudying Mark's_gospel during the Bible_pqrtion of their class. These are' primarilynei^borhood women and throi^h short writing assi^ments are beginning to share their burdens.In April Ernest began teaching one class at a Christian High School in a nearby town which isworking with h i^ school dropouts from all over Japan.Ernest will be 65 this year and will be eligible for Social Security but we have no plans toretire. The mission is currently operating a t a deficit and we hope the salary replaced bySocial Security will allow us to avoid cutx-ing salary supplements to preachers who are facingextra educational and medical expenses.In April, 1990, Mr. Kimura started coming to Sapporo to hold math classes. He is able tosup^ement his income while assisting the church here in maintaining Ehglish contacts andmalQiig new contacts fo r c hild evangelism outreach.We continue to pray for someone to help in the v/ork here. The mission is set tin{| up an internprogram so le t us know i f you are acquainted with ajiyone interested in Jatanese" mission work,pie mission has an endowment fund and the interest is to be used t o par ti al ly support anyoneinterested. V/e covet your prayers for God's provision of a native pr^cher as wefLIn His se rv i ce .

7/27/2019 Faber Ernest Neva 1991 Japan

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7/27/2019 Faber Ernest Neva 1991 Japan

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HOKKAIDO CHRISTIAN MISSIONEmest D . F a b e r

4 -8 Nor t h 49 , Ea s t 15Higashi ku, SAPPORO

06 5 JAPAN1991

IDS

Fr iends in Chr i s t ,

knew it had been a while since I had writ ten to you but didn't real ize it has been th isFinancially, we have been in rather poor shape the last few months. As of today weour July salary and we are await ing word from the forwarding agent as to thesalary. We real ly don't have the funds to put out th is le t te r so we wil l bo rrow themn order to do so since we can't put i t off much longer.supporters are aging so their support is dwindling. Coupled to that is the low exchangewhich puts us in this bind which we are in. I have applied for Social Security but Ireceived it yet. When I do, we will probably be able to maintain our current

took a few days off in August dnd with personal funds went to Iowa to visi t my agingother. At that time, our four children and 8 of the 9 grandchildren met together in Iowa.t was the f i r s t t ime in 10 years tha t a ll of them have been able to ge t toge the r. Nevai n Japan.hile I was in Iowa the Hokkaido Christian Mission board met informally to talk aboutnding a replacement for us. I will make the initial contacts. We welcome suggestions.services tend to be very poorly attended. Most of the members seem to have to workn Sundays which doesn't encourage the attendance of newcomers. We are a t a loss as to what

o d o about i t .member who was baptized when in high school 10 years ago, then married and moved away, wasservices Sunday. She brought her 6-year-old daughter with her which Neva taught duringe sermon. The subway makes i t possible for her to come from across the city.

classes s t i l l remain strong with about 60 students including three adult classes.students range from kindergarten to adults. All classes have some emphasis on the Biblethe adult classes spending some t ime reading the Bible in English.English classes form the basis for our summer camp program. This year we divided intoo camps. One for chidren in the lower grades and the other one for the upper grades. Thecamp was for one day with 37 present and the second camp was for two days with 27These figures include the adults. The theme of both camps was "Jesus, the LivingThis was developed by Mr. Kimura, preacher of Tomakomai, in Japanese. Neva'sclasses centered on that theme, and Ernest had devotions using object lessons withtheme in mind. Bible video's were shown in the evening. The camp, as usual, was heldt our own camp grounds on Lake Toya, 50 miles south of Sapporo. An American, with somerecen tly said of our camp s i te , "You couldn't find a pret t ier place in theThe Moiwa Church of Christ , also in Sapporo, used the camp site twice so i t got at of use this summer. Altogether over a 150 people were reached through the camp thisBesides this th ree o th er groups use the camp s i te .the past two summers we have had grandkids in our camp programs. But because none ofsummer, we contacted an American family in town. Two of thei r youngerattended the f irst camp and two older ones attended the second camp so we were ablehave native English speakers among t he chil dr en that attended.Sunday in July Mr. Kimura called from Tomakomai asking if they could use our baptistry.Mr. Kimura had a bad cold he asked me to baptize the young man. As you know, we st i l lsupport the Tomakomai work where we previously l ived, as well as the Obihiropray for Mr. Sugiura [Obihiro preacher] and family. His health is not goodhis wife an.d son are in the hospital for eye surgery. His 82 year old mother lives with

Him,