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HOKKAIDO CHRISTIAN MISSION

Ernest D. Faber

4.-8 North JSi East 15 Higashi ku, SAPPORO


065 JAPAN

April 24., 1995


Dear Friends in Christ,

It has been several months since those of you on our general mailing list have heard from us. So with that in mind this letter is being
mailed to all that are on our mailing lists.

As most of you know we had two girls in an internship for the summer last year. Both plan to be school teachers. One was an American from
Indiana but her friend was a native Japanese whose home is not so far
from Sapporo.

Recently we have learned through the principal of Hokkaido

International School [HIS] that Noriko Sawaya, the Japanese, will be returning to Hokkaido this summer and with the fall term o doing her teacher's training at HIS which is accredited with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), which serves the western U.S. and the Pacific region. Our oldest child, Linda, and our youngest

child, Donald, graduated from HIS's Junior High. We haven't heard directly from Noriko but hope to see her when she returns. HIS is moving this fall so she will be teaching in new facilities.
Different events have come and gone since you last heard from us.

summer camp was held in July with the help of the interns. Christmas programs for the children and adults were held in December.
more than the number that attended.
make an extra effort to attend.

Our

On April 16 th we had our special Easter worship services. We were disappointed in the attendance since we were praying for and expecting

never as popular as Christmas services but we expect Christians to


Shelly is the eldest daughter of former non-instrumental missionaries.
But we were happy to welcome Shelly Shibuya into our fellowship.

Easter services in Japan are

Sapporo but cjuite a piece from here. Shelly plans to get her driver s license this year and with a car it will be much easier for her to
attend.

last few months she has been attending rather regularly.

She married a Japanese and now, at the young age of 25> is the mother of four daughters. The youngest is three months old and the oldest is five years old. Her husband owns a bakery. When he is at home on Sundays, which is rare. Shelly finds it difficult to attend. But the
They live in

much. else.

I am sure the rising and falling of the dollar doesn't affect you very
But it does affect the missionary. Perhaps more than anyone At least those who are dependent on the dollar. For instance,

something that costs us 1000 would have been $8.50 last year but now takes $12.00 to pay for it. At today's exchange rate it will cost us $1 to airmail this letter as printed matter. A first class letter costs $1.30. A quart of low fat milk come to $2.50. A pound of ground meat (70% beef) now costs us $5.00. As for gasoline you

probably don't even want to know.


glad you live in America?

It is $5.60 a gallon.

Aren't you

We are blessed since we were able to take advantage of a Japanese

government retirement program which both of us draw from as well as getting American Social Security. This has enabled us to remain in Japan with a limited amount of salary from the mission.
Occasionally we mention pur family. Most of you haven't seen them for many years. We don't see them very often ourselves. Linda has two boys and live at Grover Beach in California. Linda's oldest boy and our oldest grandchild graduates from high school this spring. He
preached his first sermon in February. Linda is a nurse working as a

quality control administrator in a local retirement center. Charles has a girl and a boy and they live in Boise [Idaho] where Charles is the Academic Dean at Boise Bible College. During the North American Christian Convention you can probably find Charles at the Boise Bible

College booth.

Allan was recently transferred to Dallas [Texas] and

is already at work there although his family still remains in Kentucky. Allan recently told us that they have purchased a house in Allen, which is north of Dallas, and have just sold their present house. Allan is a supervisor for Ohio Casualty Insurance Company. They have a boy and three girls. Donald lives in Cincinnati where he works for IRS. They have three boys and a girl.
Several have expressed concern about our safety because of the recent earthquakes. Some have been close enough for us to feel the shock but the big one in Kobe didn't affect us. But there are churches of Christ in the Kobe area with preachers, missionaries, and members that were affected by the quake. Thankfully there were no death or injuries

to preachers and/or missionaries and no structual damage to any of our


church buildings. If you are concerned about us and want to know about our safety you can contact our forwarding agent. She may be able to tell you what you want to know. If not right away then a few days later. If we realize that the event was such that you might be concerned we fax a board member who then calls Marg to let her know.

You can reach Marg at 515-288-1756.


The Aum cult has caused quite a stir in Japan. First with the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway and more recently with a similar, but less severe, attack at the Yokohama train station and at a nearby department store. In Sapporo they have an office, some businesses, and apartments which were raided on Friday the day before they said a large conflagration would hit Japan. I suppose no one is really safe from them or other terrorist as evidenced by the explosion at Oklahoma City but we don't run scared because we know the one who holds the
future. The future is not in the hands of the terrorist. At the

beginning of Sunday's service I just happened to read from Psalms 4-6.


It's appropriate reading in the above context.

We appreciate your prayers, letters, cards, gifts, and financial support. Many of you have been faithful over the past 4-0 years that we have been in Japan.
Let me close with a quote from Phillip's translation of the Bible. This was a portion of Sunday's text. "Let us not grow tired of doing good, for, unless we throw in our hand, the ultimate harvest is assured." Gal 6:9
Yours in His service.

HOKKAIDO CHRISTIAN MISSION Ernest D. Faber 4-8 North 49, East 15

Higashi ku, SAPPORO


065 JAPAN

December

4,

1995 in Christ,

Dear Friends

Since it is just one month before Christmas and soon after it will be the new year it is appropriate to wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We pray that all goes well with
you in this new year.

It will be new for Ernest since he will reach that 70th


milestone in 1996.

birthday

We have enclosed with this letter a little reminder of us and a means to thank you not only for your prayers but also for your financial support, and/or letters of encouragement. We are

especially grateful to all of you who have stayed with _us for these past-41 years. The picture on the bookmark should remind you of Japan, the scripture verse of God's word, the calendar of
the days of harvest, and our address of us.

Some of you are aware of the fact that Ernest and Neva made a rather short trip to the States this past summer. We left

Sapporo June 17th right after Sunday a.m. services and returned July 8th in time for Sunday services on July 9th. An elderly
Christian kept the church door open in our absence. The trip was personal and the purpose was to join our four children, their

spouses, and 11 grandchildren. We were together three nights and four days. A great time was had eating Japanese food with the family and playing different games with the grandkids. This is
the first time in twelve years that all our immediate family have

been able to get together. It isn't easy with us in Japan, Linda in California, Charles in Idaho, Allan in Texas, and Donald in
Ohio.

We returned home just two or three days before a student from Osaka Bible College, Mr.Irisa, was to arrive. We had tried to get a student to be here when we were gone but none were available for that time. Mr. Irisa wanted to come to help us and since we wanted to get acquainted with Japanese future leaders we i.nvited him. -Mr.- Irisa preached three times and had a class at camp as well as working at other things at camp. But we soon realized that he wasn't available to come to Hokkaido as a replacement for us since he wants to return to his home area on
another island after two years of study abroad.

We

know several of you have been quite concerned and have prayed

continuously for our replacement. We have been in contact with three couples interested in coming to Hokkaido but nothing has been determined at this time. We hope all of them will be able to come to this isolated area and find strength in the fellowship. There are many unchurched areas on this island.

In September, Bill Belew of Niigata, called and said they had an opportunity to buy an English school in Asahikawa. Asahikawa is

about 100 miles north of us.

Subsequently they bought the school

and

sent

two men up who are operating it with some

local

help

that stayed on.

In the process of coming up to look it over and

getting

settled different ones associated with the Belew's

work

have stayed here for a day or two on different occasions. They wanted to repaint five large rooms of the school during their one
week vacation in October so Ernest and Neva went up a couple of times to help them out. The first time we just dropped in on them unannounced and surprised them. One of the men working at the school is an American. They hope to use contacts at the school and community to get a work started there. They have

worshipped with us a
Sunday.

few times and Mr.

Ikeda preached this

last

We keep thinking about retiring but some of you misunderstand and think we are retiring immediately. Even if we find someone to come, and especially if it is an American missionary, we will need to stay around for a year or two. But that time is coming so we have begun to think about what we will take back to
America. Our children have shown some interest in things in the attic that were tucked back during through their childhood years. We made up a l i s t of things and sent them to our children for them to choose what they want. Some of this was tentatively

decided at our family reunion when our grown children and Mom and
Dad sat down and went over a l i s t that Neva had hurriedly made

up. also

They brought up things we hadn't thought about. We have been going through things that need to be sorted or thrown
We are

out such as mission records that are no longer relevant. also trying to sort many pictures.

In August we had our usual children's camp and an overnighter at the church for the Jr. High. Neither was very well attended but

it was an opportunity to teach in a different setting. Our Sunday


services are weak but we are encouraged to see two Christian mothers come with their seven children. Neva teaches these children in one of the side rooms during the sermon. They range

in age from a two-year-old to a 14-year-old student in Jr. High. The Jr. High girl is in a Christian Doctrine workbook which Neva
checks later. Not ideal but they don't seem to mind.

[Ernest] have found a new/used IBM Japanese computer which I am

planning to use to get on the Internet. hope to get the modem in a few days.
American
E-mail

I have the computer and I will probably use


call. A
us

On Line since they have a

local number I can

missionary friend of mine is using that service.


address and want to know what ours

If you have an

is you can contact

directly or through Marg.


mail addresses.

At least two of our children have

E-

It seems to be the wave of the future.

Again thanks,

Merry Christmas,

and Happy New Year.

May you be

richly blessed in the coming year.

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