Professional Documents
Culture Documents
E
h /
SPRING LETTER
^fferent colors and a Scotch broom, which I bought because it re^nded me of home, and now the yard is full of Shasta daisies. here will be hollyhocks and dahlias. I have a few roses but they
-p OX
TXioniv
ing area.^ ^he wisteria which I planted when the house was huilt was especially beautiful this year. I have a number of azalea of
u cherry Spring near is her the heautiful flowers. T7e have only a wild the \7ith church but we can enjoy them in the surround
feloi for^? Bible School teacher, and friend and oouaselor for all, s^oup, it was necessary to fill her place axid I have asked
Mt
Sto L on the southern point ^ of retired and gone Since to live with her dauaJiter this island. fM Se church meetings, Bible teacher and leader
irnnA
love^^ ^esp^cW
th weather bureau, ourfor deacons, Kotoj has transferred toe which Mr. he works, to abeen distant city.. hy his ^fe and four daughters have faithfully attended here for the past
tiL witho^ them. One daughter, who recently became a Chrisfo?^l School She will remain in Tokyo for a fLL%?' few months until she teacher. can be transferred by the company
for which she works to the same city where her parents live. She is now living with me but prepares her own meals. We enjoy having her here and her parents are pleased to have her where she can he in church regularly.
I wrote to missionaries in the areas where the Kotos are living and also to the opposite end of this island where Mrs. Hongo has
gone and got them in touch with churches where they are faithfully
attending.
Some of us saw the procession when the crown prince was married. Thepeople seem aa-ar^hole to-we loome- a ^sommaner sa^^tu3pe- en^^ss
but there will be those who will snub her. I overheard one woman
To me she looks
more stately than the prince. They have both had some Christian teaching. We must pray that it will bear ftuit in their lives.
speak to our women's group. (The church gives them only a gift of fruit, in appreciation of their services) She was in Japan for two
years when in High School so speaks Japanese well. She is a quiet
little woman and well liked by the Japanese. She has a beautiful singing voice. I enjoy chatting with her in English as I am usually with people who speak only Japanese.
They lost
their first when he was about a year old. When this baby was born^ she had to have two blood transfusions. Since these are very ex
I gave
have been supporting themselves Ijy their teaching in kindergarten and tutoring. They hold services in the kindergarten hut the at
tendance is small. Thou^ the kindergarten is not Christian, Mrs. Itagaki is not prevented from giving some Christian teaching.
Mrs. Mito, the wife of our former pastor, is in the hospital
again with T. B. hut has a li^t case and expects to return home soon. The H&itos are still living in the apartment at the Bihle Col
lege. He holds some services.
At the T. B. hospital where we visit we have recently talked with an old lady of ei^ty. She always appreciates our visits and spoke of her faith hut one day she included in her remarks refer ences to spirits of the ancestors and the Buddhist gods. I explain
ed that there is only one God, the heavenly Father, and gave her a copy of the gospel of Matthew. The next time I Bm her she said, "I read from the hook which you gave me every day, and I pray to the
ancestors and the gods of Buddhism hut I end the prayer in the name
of the God of Heaven". I thou^t,"0 my, what a mixture." Again I had i;o explain that she must pray only to the true and living God. It is no wonder that after eighty years of teaching ahout the innumherahle gods and the need to worship the spirits of the ancestors that she should he confused. A young woman is very discouraged since she cannot take the medicine that helps so many. She thinks
that death ends all so it would he better to die than to live on and
he a burden. She came to the hospital as a ntirse and contracted the disease. These and many others need yo\ir prayers.
The Japanese have a custom when they are praying to say, "If
some are coming make their feet come quickly".
to enter and hear the word of life.
It is quite appro
priate since Japanese axe often late to services. I ask you to pray that many of the thousands of feet passing by each day may be turned
FINANCIAL REPORT
Oregon
S300,00
65.00
(3 mo. 1 week)
Mrs, Pusako Hongo retirement 6O.OO
Affie McCauley
15-00
15.00 50.00
iTilliaia V* Barney
5O.OO
.4i*30
$653,48
3,31.66
'Xg,80
60S.. 76 T '
653.48
25.00
2627,21
Note:
Expenses^
3- -S2'6iS.|J' -
^ ojujiX
94 ^
GRACE FARNHAM
SUMMER LETTER
Tokyo, Japan
July 1959
Dear Friends:
Bessie reminded me that you would like to have a message from me when you celebrate my "birthday. I appreciate your doing this
each year.
Our summer weather has begun. It is usually in the nineties and the dampness makes it oppressive* I shall go to the mountains next week for a few days for a young people *s camp in our home
there*
Then I shall go later with the women*s group and stay for .
There is a conference for missionaries the first
about a month*
ten days of August. As we have a new cottage for the Pleenors and myself, two families of Church of Christ Missionaries, the Buttrays and the Likens, will use the larger house during the conference*
The remainder of the time during July and August, there will be
Japanese camps one after the other* We shall appreciate the new cottage during these camps. Sometimes there was no place for us to
sit with the house full of campebrs and rice three times a day was hard to take The Aokis are a ^eat help in these catnips* Mr. Aoki will lead the young people's group and Mrs. Aoki will be the main speaker for the women's camp* We are expecting women from
three churches for this camp*
The people are leeurning to pray and serve* Pour young women have recently accepted Christ. One was the young womsui from the T. B* hospital who has been living with me for a year. She was badly spoiled as a child and then after years of feeling sorry for her self in her lonely years in the hospital^ she is apt to think first
of herself*
Christ*
Three young women had heen led to Christ by Mr. Aoki in his
classes at the Christian Student Center*
assist in the Bible School*
I had suggested last spring that we have a young people's group meeting once a month. Japanese are not freindly to strangers and I hoped that a time of Christian fellowship would make the new people feel more at home and give them an opportunity to make friends. However, it has turned out to be another sermon after the long morning service with a prayer meeting following. I appreciate their
earnestness but I believe that a time of fellowship is also impor
tant .
\
The young couple living in the church for the past two years has moved to an apartment at a distance. Vto miss them and they can
not attend all the services as before. They were not Christians when they came but have become faithful Christians and workers in the church. They hope to have a Bible School in the apartment house. There are scores of apartment houses in the same area*
l^en one of our Christisai femilies moved to a distant city in
April, their dau^ter remained with me since she had a position here. We enjoyed having her here. She played the organ for sever al of the meetings and tau^t Bible School. ITow she has been trans
ferred to the city v/here her parents are. School in the new place. She hopes to teach Bible
Since several people have moved and started new work in the
place where they have gone, I am reminded of Acts 8:45 "They there
fore that were scattered abroad v/ent about preaching the word." llrs. Sato and her dau^ter conduct a Bible School each Sunday after noon in a building near their home. Mrs. Matsuzaki, in whose home a women's meeting and also a children's meeting is held once a month, says that she is like Abraham. She did not want to move so
far from the church but God called her to do evangelistic work
there.
She calls frequently and more and more women are becoming
Mrs. Aoki has been bringing the message
Jlfebashi churck-Tecenl^]^ Jaip^ea^ have the idea from what they read in the newspapers that the negroes in America are badly treated. I was glad for them to hear Tibbs story of what they are doing for n^egro preachers. Hark 2taey and Isabell Dittemore, brother and sister of Tibbs', missionaries in Kyushu, Japan, were
with him when he visited in Tokyo. Vivian Lemmon of Tanabe was
is only a short bus ride from ny home and I always received a royal welcome with shouts of ;Joy from the small children, I miss
I am still enjoying the corn and walnuts sent by the Coiirt
Street church. It talces so much work to prepare these things, es
Recei,pts
Oregon Living Link Salary(3 mo.) 300*00 Salem, Court Street $800.24 Court Street,Salem, Ore. " " " Jr. 41*39 Mrs. Furuta (3 Mb.) '^^00
Crabtree, CI7.P. 30.00 Santa Clara,Ladies Miss.10.00 Coquille 50.00
Kansas
Total Expenses
Cash received
Loan received
$333*00
1042.63
25*00
Sublette
California
30.00
2616.9"^
Marysville
Georgia
38.50
$3684.56
^^'^.00 $3351*56
Total
Received on Aoki Loan
$1042.63
25*00
The eighteenth and nineteenth typhoon of the season came in October. However, Tokyo experienced only heavy rains. You have he^d many
reports of the typhoon that struck the city of Nagoya, bringing in the sea, and destroying a great part of the- city and killing than five thousand people. The U. S. service men were a great help in rescuing people. At one time, they were using forty helicoptors
to take the stranded from roof tops, trees, and places where
were barely out of the water. There were cases where Japanese made heroic efforts to save people. A policeman and his wife borrowed a
ets. The Japanese have made house to house canvasses for money and
one section. A taxi iriver saved many people. People of all coun tries have sent relief supplies of money, food, clothing, and blamc-
truck and carried all the children and old people to safety^rom
Nagoya were in America but Howard 2)avis flew back to help in this
The two missionary families of the Church of Christ, \vorking in One church was
A typhoon struck the place in the mountains where we were in August. After a night of pouring rain, the trees bepn to fall. Two tall firs just outside our bedroom windows fell into the neigh bor's yard* If they had fallen the opposite direction, they would
have crashed right across the house. A number of houses were struck.
Camps were held in our summervhome from July 13 until the end of August. I helped with some of them but they were led by the Fleenors. One young man who was baptized at the Mabashi church when
he was in Primary school, decided that he wants to become a preacr-
the Mabashi Church but they have moved to another city. They attend a church there and the young man, now in college, is active in the Bible School. Other young people were inspired to more faithful
crippled by polio when he was three. When he heard his first sermon,
One of the camp speakers was a Japanese preacher who had been
as a young man, he felt that if God cared for sparrows he would care for one as helpless as he. Ho married a Christian young woman. She
carries him to a trailer hitched to a bicycle and they go out for evangelistic meetings. He has a good voice and a face that shows
his Christian character.
the camp sessions. One was a family of negroes whom the Fleenors had met in Tokyo. He is in the service and they are earnest Chris
tians.
V/hile they were there, Julia Fleenor and one of their girls
Julia is very fair so there was a great contrast in
were baptized.
tiie tv/o little girls as they obeyed Christ in baptism. V/e remarked, t-ough, at the beauty in the faces of this family, even though they,
were very black.
I made a trip along the sea coast of the western side of Japan to the city of Fiigata to visit the Koto family v/ho moved there from our church in April. They had made special preparation for my visit a i^retty new fluffy comfort for my bed on the matting and also a kirr;:ia for me to wear at night. They had also bought a supply of fruit
..t their family of four daughters v/ere all in church with their
P?-..-ents. \7e saw beautiful firev/orks one evening over the river and a festival parade. The parade with all its symbols of the Shinto
n iber of geisha girls, (some of them tiny ones just beginning their t". lining), gave one a sad feeling for these who do not knov/ the true
a i living God.
We had the usual helpful and inspiring missionary conferences di.jing the summer and enjoyed seeing friends, whom we meet only once a year. The invigorating mountain air gives you pep for the winter's
work.
At Mabashi, even though we have lost a number of the faithful members by removal, the attendance is about the s^ie. A preacher who works with Mr. Aoki in his student work comes sometimes to speak at Mabashi. He was baptized in the Church of Christ when he was a stu dent but has been in interdenominational work. He gives a good mes sage - only rather long. He spoke for an hour and a half. He will
We expected a drop in the attendance at the regular Wednesda^^ Women*s meeting when tlrs. Hongo left but there is no change. Mrs. Puruta, who took her place, is one with earnest faith and they ap preciate her messages, I also take my turn at speaking and Mrs.
Aoki comes once a month.
The Mahashi Bihlo School is growing and some of the new Chris
tian young women are assisting with the teaching. I have usually taught in the Bible School. Now, since there are enough teachers,
I am the substitute - taking any class if the teacher is absent.
to assist more there in the future because Miss Sato, who has car ried on that Bible School so faithfully for more than a year, is
been celebrated in Japan this autumn. There have been a number of evangelistic meetings drawing large crowds. V/e felt that they were
all too short. Hundreds went forward, some, I am afraid, not under
standing completely but it shov/ed a desire for There v/as one meeting where they honored those tians for fifty years or more. Our ninety-one Miaki, was one of those honored. She >ia3^ been
faith in Chi'ist. who had been Chris year old member, ilrs.
a.,Chrngtian for
attend church now as it is difficult for her to walk from her home and no one has a car to go after her.
Julius Fleenor has been taking lirs. Furuta and myself in his car for our visits to the T. B. hospital. This makes it much eas ier for us. 'kVhen the weatlier~i~s not mind the walk from
the station but sometimes it is so cold that our feet feel like
pieces of ice, especially after spending two, hours v/alking through the unheated hospital. Then there are days thajt are very hot. It
takes more than an hour for the trip and on the re.turn, we have to stand the most of the \\Q,y on the trains, \7hen Julius-pan go, he visits the men's wards. Recently, we have been giving out tracts
and children's Sunday School cards so our expenses are less but we hope to give them some spccial treat for Christmas. When I said^ to one old lady, "We do not have anything special for you", she an swered, "But you are brjnr'in/r us salvation, that is most important."
W
(
CD\4
H- O <0 \J\
p-
I appreciate your continued support in of ferings and prayers, We can do nothing without God's care and guidance. Sometimes it seems al most impossible to make an impression on these
hearts filled with sin and superstition and
have met
Grace Parnhara
4-500 Llabashi
- September 30
S3351.56
Oregon Mrs* L. E. Allumbaugh Salem, Court Street Salem, Court Street Jr. Stayton Church of Christ
$ 30.00
231.09
41.15 37.00
Crabtree, C. 17. P.
Total Receipts
Grand Total Cash Disbursements;
IS.00
3705.80
300.00 33.00
20.00
10.00
Mrs. Puruta (3 mo.) Bible School Rm. Rental(6 mo.) HQspital Visitation (6 mo.) _
To'tal Di,siursements
ance/of ^ash^oSeptember 30
$3342.80
GRACE
Dear Friends:
FaRNHAM
Usually the cold
(about three inches which is a big snow for Tokyo) then some cold
freezing nights.
est is about 20.
but this year I have had no colds to speak of. I have been taking vitamin C frequently and had a gift of an electric blanket from my
family which has, no doubt, helped.
do not fully understand but only want to become Christian. One young high school girl says that she is not reacly to be baptized.
This is sometimes due to opposition at home.
One young man immediately gave up the use of tobacco; another is trying to quit. We are glad that they take that attitude. They have a good example in three church officers who do not use to bacco. Two yoiing women have expressed their desire to become Bible
School teachers. We are glad to have their help. Three Bible Schools held their Christmas programs here at
Mabashi together.
small gifts and cakes and Christmas cards. Since we had a supply of old cards, we gave each child five cards. A gift that delighted
them was an American pencil sent by the Junior Department of Court Street Christian Church in Salem, Oregon, and members of my family.
You can send us more cards but please send only the pretty ones.
We especially like the ones which show the Christmas story. Do not cut them but you can paste another picture cut from those not so pretty over the writing, or mail them as they are.
We have recently heard of another Bible School held by one of
our former members, a quiet little woman, who is now living with her
brother in a village far north of Tokj'-o. She has a small group in her home. V7e are sending her material and Bihles. Another Mahashi
member has some children in her home on Saturday* Mabashi services on Sunday. She attends the
by Aoki san giving the message of the Sa-'/iour. After the baptismal services, we had a chvirch lunch. You would not have enjoyed the greasy looking rolls of rice with a covering of something made out of beans but the Japanese like them and I can eat a few of them with
relish.
I frequently call on our tv/o oldest members - one is 90 years of age and one ninety one. Very fev< Japanese live to this age. iJrs. Miake is gradually going blind but her hearing is excellent. She came to church in the fall but she pushed a small baby buggy to
steady herself as she walked. Since she cannot see to read the
Bible now^, friends have written scripture verses in large charac ters which she has hung on the wall. She spends much time in pray
er and her strong faith is an inspiration to all.
Mrs. Kato had one leg amputated about twenty years ago.
She
lies in bed the most of the time but as she has good eyesight, she
spends much time in leading her Bible.
ment as she i s often alone.
vision set and placed it in her room which gives her some entertain
They are both delighted when I call to see them. Vie sing hymns and have prayer together and I tell them news of interest about the church people. They have rather lonely lives but they have their faith which is a great comfort to them.
still so many things that are different in Japan. The nearest shop is where the rice is rationed. It is stacked in big rice straw bags.
There are
Mrs. Kongo and Miss Watanabe also get a ration. As we have Japan
ese food with rice once a day, we use about that amount. The Japan
ese sometimes have rice more often but once a day is enough for me. I lauded to see the tiny boxes of rice in the American homes.
A paste is
ened beans.
In one shop are the funeral decorations of large wreaths of art ificial flowers and what looks like pictures in small frames. These are for the names of the dead and are placed on the god shelves. The
flowers used to be only black and white but lately they are using
all colors and some fresh flowers also.
about three feet deep and have a compartment containing a fire box that heats the whole bath. They squat in the tub^of very hot water up to their neck which warms them up aftex sitting in their cold houses. However, they bathe very- frequently in the summer also.
many others such as the tea shop, those selling only kimona cloth, etc. but space does not permit telling of these now. Perhaps, we
can do so in another letter.
There are
FIHANCIAL HEPORT
Oregon
II
II
35493.18 28.59
30.00
10.00 10.00
60.00
10.00
(Christmas Gift)
Kansas
5.00 15.00
Sublette
Georgia
lies. Chas. J Greene
15-00
H2o7oo
S692.27
50.00
2^04.94
(f5rs. Hongo)
Ohio
30.00
12.50
Illinois
3047-21
420.00
(Christmas Gift)
Colorado
13.00
Expenses
(Christmas Gift)
Total
55692.27 ^ 50.00
The people of the church paid for the painting of the building. I gave only SI5 towards the amount..
As i t had been nine years since
Your Missionary,
Grace Parnham Grace Parnham
U.5v<ypOSTACE 34
"V