June 2000

Dear Friends,

Now that the year 2000 is almost half over, I am realizing how many important milestones I have participated in during the last few months. The most recent personal milestone was May 23, which was the 40th anniversary of my graduation from Austin College in Sherman, Texas. I am very grateful for the influence of Austin College in my life and especially for God’s goodness in leading me there. And Austin College has recently celebrated an important milestone of its own—its 150th anniversary.

May 21 was the 50th anniversary of my baptism in Brownsville, Texas, at First Presbyterian Church. It was the influence of older members of First Presbyterian Church, Brownsville, that led me to Austin College.

I am not the only Austin College graduate to come to Japan as a missionary either. A little over 50 years ago, the Rev. Lardner W. Moore, an Austin College graduate, was one of the founders of Shikoku Christian College (now Shikoku Gakuin University), where I taught from 1968 to 1981.

In the fall of 1999 I went to Shikoku Gakuin University to take part in their 50th anniversary celebration.

A small but very important milestone for me came on May 20, which was the first anniversary of my arrival in Nakatsu, a town of about 60,000 population on the northeast coast of Kyushu, the most westerly of the four main islands of Japan. I came to Nakatsu to be chaplain at Izumi No Sono, a retirement center sponsored by Kyushu Presbytery. Izumi No Sono has been in operation since 1978 and has 100 residents in the full-care center. One section of Izumi No Sono, the Seiai home assisted-living apartments, which has 50 residents, celebrates its 5th anniversary this year.

In February of this year, five of my colleagues from Izumi No Sono/Seiai Home joined me in Brownsville for the 150th anniversary of First Presbyterian Church. One of the pioneers in founding that church was also one of the founders of Austin College. All four of us Abbott siblings were there for the celebration, and the high point for me was singing in the choir with the other three and also many other present and past choir members on Sunday, February 20th.

From Brownsville we traveled to Sun City, Arizona, a retirement community celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. In two days there the six of us from Japan visited as many facilities as we could and came home with many new ideas for care of older persons.

Before I came to Nakatsu, for almost 17 years I lived in Nagasaki Prefecture on the west side of Kyushu Island. From 1989 to 1999 I was pastor of a small congregation in the town of Tarami, Nagasaki, and when the congregation celebrated their 10th anniversary in July 1999, just two months after I left, I was invited to be the preacher for that occasion. Since I am a board member of two schools in the Nagasaki area, I travel in that direction (about four hours, one-way) several times a year, and I have been able to attend services at Tarami about five times since I left. I am happy to report that after having a temporary stated-supply pastor for the past year, the congregation, with some support from the presbytery, called a full-time pastor this spring.

At Izumi No Sono we have three chapel services a week, and except for the first and second Saturdays, I am the preacher for these services. At today’s service, which is for the residents of the full-care center, the preacher, an 84-year-old retired pastor and the first director of Izumi No Sono, asked at the beginning, "Does anyone know what June 10th is?" Well, I didn’t know, and only one person out of about 60 there raised his hand. It seems that June 10 is Time Memorial Day—a day to think about the importance of time. At a crossroads like the year 2000, and, having reflected on the many celebrations I have been able to participate in during the last few months, I am thankful to time’s eternal creator for giving us the gift of time. I pray that all of us may receive time as a gift each day and use it for God’s glory.

Live in Blessing,

Priscilla Abbott

The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 172