HERRING PALACE PART 2-AN ANGRY LANDLORD AND A MOVE TO RUMOI

My diary entries explain the next step of God’s intervention and undertaking in guiding our family to our next place of ministry.

JULY 7, 1968

Our neighbors in Sapporo gave us a going away party—Genghis Khan meal on a vacant lot in the neighborhood. Aoki San our neighbor and dear friend gave a speech about us and our new home in Rumoi. We had prayer and the kids sang “Hide Thou Me.”

"Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my life in vain. 

I'm tempted then to murmur and of my life complain; 

 But when I think of Jesus and all he's done for me, 

Then I cry, O Rock of Ages, hide thou me." 

Most of these neighbors attended our English Bible study and also evangelistic services with Pastor Ishiguro from the Mino Mission. Some attended church services with us hearing the Gospel in their own language.

JULY 12, 1968

Ray Ruetz (fellow missionary) and I went to Rumoi to finalize our agreement on the house with Seki San (the owner of the house). We even brought a load of books to leave at the house. We found Seki San angrily clutching a tract from Mino Mission which I had given him and saying he had changed his mind and we couldn't move into the house. It quoted from I Corinthians 8 and equated idolatry with demonism. We discussed this for hours. I told him about our going away party and showed him the tie I was wearing that they'd given me as a gift. His son, who was listening to us and had been to Tokyo, urged him to let us move in. He understood our predicament and that Saito San hadn’t told us about the problem. (Saito San was supposed to have called to tell us the deal was off but hadn't, probably on purpose.) His father relented, we signed a contract and gave him the first month's rent of 20,000 yen—about $60. The Lord helped us!

JULY 19, 1968
 
We finished packing and loading a truck we rented for $50 with the help of three fellow missionaries, Ray Ruetz, Larry Burgett, and Gerald Smith. At 1:30 p.m. we headed for Rumoi. We arrived at 6:30. We unpacked and were starved having gone all day without eating. Then we found a large bowl of raw squid the landlord had left as a welcoming gift. They have a large squid boat. We had never eaten squid but we were hungry so we cautiously dipped some in the sauce provided. The more we ate the more we liked it, and in a few moments we had "licked the platter clean!” We all went to bed tired and happy. The next morning I walked along the beach while thanking the Lord for His goodness. The Rumoi Times had an article and pictures of us and young people began to visit us. Our efforts to reach Rumoi and the Japan Seacoast had begun!

Note from Mom: We later learned that the Seki’s squid boat had taken in an especially good catch that day and they had taken that as a stamp of approval for renting to us. Can you just imagine with what trepidation they had done so? It was so very unusual for a large American family to want to settle in such a place. Japanese on the island of Honshu considered Hokkaido to be a tough, backward, out-of-the way place to live, and the local Rumoi people couldn’t believe that we would want to live there during the severe winter. However, in the article in the Rumoi Times that Saito San had written, he had given the reason for our being there: Dendo (evangelism). Yes, he got that right! 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Seki looking at all the activity out the window or our new front room 

Making new friends

This newspaper article appeared December 24th in Rumoi Times. Following years they would feature our family in their New Year’s edition. The Japanese pronunciation of our name sounded like “Brown” to them. The year was Showa 43 (43rd year of Emperor Hirohito’s reign).