Revelation 7:9

Dear Children,

It has been sometime since I’ve contacted you in this way. Some of the reason is that it has been a difficult summer here in Hoonah. It is hard to write encouraging letters to your children when there is little to share with them in visible results. Visible fruit doesn’t always tell all that is happening, but when there is little it takes a toll. I often think of your brothers who fish for a living. If they fail to catch fish they would either move to a new location or look for another vocation.

Last spring we had an invitation to an expense-paid trip to Japan for three, paid for by some of our Japanese “boys” we had left there 33 years ago. Most of you were raised in Japan and remember the happy times of living there on the coast of the Japan Sea. We all share lots of good memories of those nine years of working and playing together. Finally, after 17 years of serving the Lord in Japan, your mother and I decided it was time to go home to the U.S. It was in the midst of a severe winter and we were sick and discouraged. At that time we were the only foreigners on the coast south of Wakkanai and had had lots of exposure from the news media, having been on television several times, and were written up in newspapers and magazines many times. We spoke in every high school and civic gathering for miles around, but we had seen little in way of spiritual results.

When the invitation came to revisit Japan after 33 years I was hesitant to accept it. Your mother was excited about it but I, at 77 years of age and having largely forgotten the language, didn’t want to undertake it. When we agreed to go, a check arrived to cover expenses for us and an extra person to help us with luggage, etc. We chose to take Vicky since Caleb and Abi were in BJU and Bea and Steve agreed to take Joanna for the month.

I was fearful, for the schedule they sent included me preaching 13 times in 22 days. After a day’s delay because of plane trouble in Juneau we arrived for our first meeting at 1AM on Sunday where I was scheduled to speak twice the same day and was informed there would be no interpreter! I limped my way through with the help of the audience. Some of you will remember Noriko who lived with us for 6 months in Rumoi. She had made the hour and half trip to the service, which she attends once a month. She had waited about 35 years to apologize to me in person for marrying an unbeliever.

We visited our old home in Reuke and were saddened to find so many had died. The Buddhist room with the pictures of the dead was back where it had been 42 years ago when we made them move it out before we moved in. One man I was looking forward to seeing had died the week before, and when we entered his home, there was the smell of incense and the picture that always accompanies Buddhist funerals.

It would take too long to relate here the rest of the trip, but we were greeted like royalty every place we went. One pastor who as a high school student had come to our services for two years before he was saved had a wonderful church and family. When his daughter heard that we had 33 grandchildren she shyly asked if she could be number 34.

Another, who has a large church (large for Japan) in Sapporo, every time he introduced us, recounted word for word his salvation experience in our home. Vicky and Marlene gave testimony many times. They have remembered the language very well. Many tears and gifts accompanied our visits.

Our last visit was near Nagoya when we visited and ministered in Mino Mission where I had spoken many times in their annual conferences. The pastor, a very dear friend, was bent over with Parkinson’s but could still whisper his Sunday sermons in an amplifier. We laughed and cried together. We visited the graveyard where our dear friend Betty Whewell, one of long-time missionaries, is buried.

There is so much more I’d like to tell but don’t have space here. We so appreciate Pastor Kamidate who headed up and orchestrated our itinerary and the sacrifice of the churches that made our trip possible. We would like to invest our many gifts of money into Japanese commentaries and books for the pastors. Two of them had only a set of C.H. McIntosh’s work on the Pentateuch. Upon inquiry I found there is much more available in Japanese. The dollar has fallen to 81.5 yen per dollar as opposed to 360 yen per dollar when we were missionaries, so these books are very expensive. If any of you would like to help in this endeavor we will see to it that these dear pastors get good books and commentaries.

One highlight for me was having John Himes, a grandson of John R. Rice, interpreting for me four times. One of the times was when I had the privilege of speaking at the annual Fundamental Baptist Conference for pastors and missionaries. I am sorry to have to leave so many names out that were a blessing. However, I’m glad that when “…a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindred’s, and people, and tongues…will cry with a loud voice, saying, "SALVATION TO OUR GOD WHICH SITTETH UPON THE THRONE AND UNTO THE LAMB," none will be left out! Only the Lord knows of all the prayers and tears that were involved in the salvation of these dear Japanese believers. “….and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes, “

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,

Dad