Dear Children, Grandchildren, and Friends,
Here is another chapter from the book I am writing.
TWO NEW YORK COLLEGE
PROFESSORS VISIT US IN REUKE
From my diary July
26-28, 1975
We had a call from a
town official that there were two tourists in town who wanted to meet us. We
picked them up and brought them home and had a very interesting time with them.
Mom wrote to her
parents about them and their visit:
"Ellis and
Mary Blade are very unusual, intelligent people in their 60s. They live in the
center of New York City in a 17th-floor apartment during the week
where their work is close at hand. She, a university mechanical drawing and
engineering professor, he a mathematician presently in the field of making up
computer programs in connection with the air pollution problem. She is one of
only two or three women in this same field in the United States. They have no
children and so their lives are wrapped up in their careers and varied
interests—music, art, etc., and traveling. They flee to the country on weekends
where they rent a home beyond the sidewalks. They are the type of people that
make you feel that you've known them all their lives. We were laughing and
chattering away before they were barely in the house. We feel that their hearts
were touched and moved because of some of the last comments they made. He told
Ron that his sermon was the highlight of his visit and said that 4,000 people
should have been here to hear it. She told me that she was very thankful for our
help, especially spiritually. We witnessed to them straight and of course they
also got it in our family devotions, church, and just being here with us."
The Blades spend their
summers traveling to various countries around the world. They hike, climb mountains,
and engage in outdoor activities. They told us that a week ago they were
climbing a mountain on the Shiretoko Peninsula on the eastern side of Hokkaido
when they came to a sign in English that told them the mountain was closed! Our
dear friend Kamidate-san who lives over there met them at an inn where he picks
up and delivers laundry. He speaks little English but was able to get across to
them that the Hokkaido bears, which closely resemble our grizzlies, are coming
out of hibernation and are a danger to mountain climbers.
Kamidate-san was also
able to get across to them that he had a church in town and invited them to his
services the next day. Dr. Blade described to us their reaction to the
invitation. "I said to my wife, 'We haven't been to church in years and
here a heathen Japanese boy invites us to his church. We should give it a
try.'"
They made arrangements
to be picked up the next morning at the train station. When it was Kamidate-san
the pastor himself who came for them, they were surprised thinking that he
would surely have someone else do the job. (Kamidate-san was just beginning a
ministry there in his home city and didn't yet have a faithful group of
believers.)
They then told us that
when they went inside Kamidate's "home church" they waited for the
congregation to arrive. After a few moments Dr. Blade said to his wife,
"The church must be us." Kamidate San put a tape on the cassette
player and they heard a sermon by Pastor David Yearick on the "Exceeding
Sinfulness of Sin."
You see, Hampton Park
Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, had been sending us monthly
financial support and tapes of the pastor's weekly sermon. I had passed them on
to Kamidate-san to listen to as a help in learning English.
Kamidate-san had
called us, tried to explain about the Blades, and let us know that he had
recommended that they meet us, thus precipitating their visiting us. He
was anxious for them to hear the Gospel clearly from us.
They were a unique
couple to say the least. They slept in one of our tatami-floor rooms. They were
amusing. We got a kick out of how they told the above story. On Sunday they
attended our services which we held in our home. I preached in both Japanese
and English for their benefit. After our family evening service he surprised us
by telling us that he knew the hymn we sang— "Yesterday, Today, Forever"—and
he quoted the reference to the Bible verse for that hymn. Then he told us that
his parents had been missionaries to the Mormons in Utah.
The next day when I
took them to the train station where they were going to tour an island from
which Russian islands could be seen (one which we had evangelized with Bibles
and tracts), they told me that the
best part of their trip that summer was the time they spent in our home. We
prayed that God's Word would continue to work in their hearts. For a few years
we kept in touch at Christmas time.
Note: Here is the link
to some information we found about Mary Blade on the internet today:
No comments:
Post a Comment