7/27/2019 Faber Ernest Neva 1992 Japan

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HOKKAIDO CHRISTIAN MISSION \Emest D . F a b e r

4 -8 Nor t h 49 , Ea s t 15Higashi ku, SAPPORO0 6 5 J A P l ^

August , 1992Dea r F r i e n d s i n Ch r i s t ,With the close of August we also bring to a close our summer activities and begin againthe regular schedule of English classes and services.We want to bring to your attention some of the activities of the past few months.The Japanese school systems close in March. At that time we invited the sixth gradersto a graduation dinner. Agood time was had by all . I t was the last time several oft he s tude nts were able to be together. Although they attended the same elementaryschool for six years they attend different junior high schools in the area. Seven ofthe students continue to s tudy English here. Among them are two who made the two topgrades in achievement tes ts a t the i r school.On May 31st we had a combined worship service with the Sapporo [a cappella] church ofChrist. The worship service was followed by a fellowship dinner. After dinner weenjoyed an informal time of sing ing. Then each person told about themselves and al i t t l e about t he i r fai th. The service closed with a prayer ci rc le .Summer is always busy. This is especially true since we st i l l serve as custodians forthe camp site. We usually make 3 or 4 overnight trips to the camp site in order to mowthe grass, do needed repairs, and get the buildings clean and ready for summer use.In June a Christian, who attends here, knew of a company that was giving away concreteblocks. He made arrangements for the camp to receive the blocks. John, the Americanlay leader of the local a cappella church helped Ernest haul the blocks to the campsi te. We put off taking them because of a snow storm in the pass we have to gothrough. The day we went was the most beautiful day I have ever seen in that area.Both of us were sorry we didn' t have our cameras with us. Late r th e two of us wentdown together. At that time John built a barbecue pit and Ernest laid some of theblocks in f ron t of th e b u il di ng s to serve as a walkway.The camp site was well used during Hokkaido's short vacation time. Several churchesborrow our fac i l i t ies every year but the number of campers for each group keepsdwindling. Higashi church of Christ used the site three times, Moiwa Church of Christand s ix other groups e ach used the camp once.We originally scheduled our camps to begin on Monday, July 27th, but upon learning thatmany of the kids couldn't attend then, we changed the opening date to July 23rd. Theupper elementary children camp was for three days beginning July 23rd. The close ofschool was a t noon so the ch ild ren hu rr ied home and then came to the church a t 2 p.m.to leave for camp. There were 12 children and 3 adults for this camp.We wanted to have the J r Hi students a t camp a t the same t ime as the upper elementarykids but they weren't out of classes at that time. Their camp started on the same dayas the lower elementary kids. The f i rs t to third graders had a one night camp and thejunior high students stayed another day for a camp of their own. There were 17elementary, 10 Junior high, 5 adults, and 1 preschooler a t these camps.The activities for a ll camps were about the same. Neva taught English classes whichcentered on sentence s t ructure with English games included. B ible lessons on thetheme, "God's Love and the Cross", were taught by Tomakomai's preacher, Mr. Kimura..Ernest had morning devotions and showed the Bible film s t r ips and videos. Sports,camp fire, safe fireworks, outdoor cooking, a t r ip to the town's hot spring bath, andcrafts we r e also o n the s c h e d u l e .For transportation we rented the microbus from Hokkaido Christian Center with Ernestdoing t he d riving . You have to have a special driver 's l icense to drive a microbus.Besides driving the bus he saw that things were in o rd er fo r eating outdoors, tha teverything was ready for the camp fire, and helped with sports including swimming in

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the local lake, Neva served as camp cook. Two ladies helped during th e combined camp.Planning and purchasing for the different camps was done by Neva earlier. Ernestpicked up s p e c i a l food o r d e r s between camps.On th e 29th we barely had time t o r et ur n the bus before we had to leave to meet Allanand family who arrived that evening. Allan, Debbie, Mary, Margaret, Phylis, and Jaredcame for a two-week stay in Japan. They arrived at the new Chitose A^^port that hadopened on July 1st. It was also our first visit to the new airport which is about anhour a n d a h a l f d r i v e o n th e expressway .This was Allan's f i r st v i s i t to Japan since leaving in June of 1973 some 19 years ago.DurLrthis time Allan was able to eat some Japanese food he hadn-t eaten for severalyears. We visited Tomakomai where Allan spent his youth. We stopped by our formerhoLe and the church. We visited an authentic Ainu village, an active volcano,Hokkaido H i s t o r i c a l V i l l a g e (where we sa w many t h i n g searlier years on Hokkaido), an aquarium and a glass making studio. Also there was timet o r i d e Sapporo's famous subway and shop.When we weren't on the road Allan was busy sorting out personal things he had leftT-ona-ir-ina the s t a i r s to th e a t t i c in th e church building, repairing equipment,fnd'Suildtng a"s\elf in'the garage". He also enjoyed driving on the left hand side ofth e road. Dad was glad to turn th e wheel over to him.While Allan and family were here we had a church ret reat a t th eoverniQht retreat from August 8 to August 9. There were 19 present for this retreat.we were sorry that many who wanted to attend could not do so because ofsickness But several attended who do not attend church, Hokkaido InternationalSchool, Dan McClain, administrator, l e t us use t h e i r new 26Saturday night we showed a video called "Shiokari Pass", This video is ^ased on a bookwritten by a woman from Hokkaido concerning a Christian who sacrificed himself to saveoassenqers on a runaway train. On Sunday morning we had regular worship services withErnest preaching on the theme "Seeing God through His creation". During the sermonNeva taught the young children. They were very patient as she alternated betweenspeaking a few sentences in Japanese and translating them for the grandchildren.Recently we bought a small car TV. Ernest plans to show Russian language videos fromthe van at the port in Otaru. Hopefully the videos will attract Russian sailors andvisitors who are interested in Christianity, We have Russian tracts and Bibles whichwe can give out. The expenses for this have come from personal funds since missionfunds are not s u f f i c i e n t to even cover the s a l a r i e s we must pay each month. We w i l lkeep you posted on this. We will use our Sapporo address until we have an address inRussia w h i c h we c a n u s e fo r f o l low-up .Uppermost in our minds is the concern for a replacement for the work here. With Ernestbecoming 66 years old this month this need becomes more evident. We have been incontact with 2 or 3 people but none of these have worked out for one reason or another.So we are st i l l searching and hopefully you can also help. I f you know of anyone thatmight be willing to come to Japan, le t us know and le t them know of the need.We appreciate churches who have increased their support. We also appreciate you whohave f a i t h f u l l y supported us. With decreasing support this has become increasinglyimportant. We also are thankful fo r cards and l et t ers which we have received.You r s in H is service.