June 18, 2001

Dear Friends,

Greetings to you as we celebrate the power and comfort of Pentecost. This year I was in Austin, Texas, on Pentecost, but the Sunday before that I was still in Nakatsu, Japan, on the island of Kyushu, where the local congregation had the annual Pentecost bazaar.

Although I have included a Texas address, today I am in Virginia Beach at my brother’s house after preaching yesterday at one of my supporting churches. I have been in the U.S. since June 1 and will stay until August 30 to share my ministry experiences in Japan with various churches. My schedule is fairly full already, so unless you are located near Austin it is unlikely that I will be able to include a visit to your church on my itinerary. The telephone number at my place in Austin is (512) 472-1452, but as I will be out of town frequently and there is no answering machine, it may be difficult to locate me. I would like to hear from you if it is possible.

This will be a special interpretation assignment for me as it will probably be the last one before I retire at age 65. I go back and forth between thinking I should retire in the U.S. and thinking I should retire in Japan. I plan to talk with staff people at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, about a date for retirement, and I also will talk to people in central Texas about a post-retirement position as part-time pastor or stated supply. This was my dream for a long time before I started thinking of the possibility of retiring in Japan. I would appreciate your prayers as I try to make the right decision about this.

Since I moved to the island of Kyushu in southwest Japan in 1982, I have been appointed to the boards of several Christian schools. As the school year begins here in April, all of the boards meet in May to approve the books for the preceding year and to report on their activities. At present I am on four boards. The week before I left Japan for this interpretation assignment three of the schools where I serve on the board had their May meetings, and the board at Izumi No Sono also had a board meeting that week.

The Izumi No Sono board is part of the Kyushu Christian Social Work League board, which includes, besides Izumi No Sono, three church-related nursery schools. These organizations have many plans and dreams that we heard about during these meetings. The first meeting I attended was at Baiko Gakuin, which is about an hour and a half from Nakatsu by local train. This school celebrates its 130th anniversary this year and was planning for their big anniversary event last week. Because the school-age population in Japan is decreasing, there is great competition among the private colleges (and also kindergartens and other levels) to recruit new students. Baiko is trying to meet this challenge by changing the university level of the school from a women’s school to a co-educational school. They will also be phasing out their junior college in the next few years. At the board meeting we heard how the presence of male students at the university level has changed the landscape there.

Thursday, May 24, I attended the board meeting at Chinzei Gakuin in Isahaya. Isahaya is the first town I visited in Kyushu (in 1970) and the first place that I lived in Kyushu (starting in 1982) so it is always good to go back there. Chinzei, like Baiko, has a kindergarten, high school and junior college, but Chinzei is now working very hard to add a senior college level to their curriculum to replace the junior college. There are still many challenges to meet before the new college is approved by the national ministry of education. Hopefully the new senior college will open next April. Chinzei was originally a men’s school but following World War II, it became co-educational.

The third board meeting I attended was at my workplace, Izumi No Sono, for the Kyushu Christian Social Work League. Izumi No Sono is planning to buy the adjacent property to build a group home for emotionally challenged adults. At the board meeting we looked at the plans for this home and for the small clinic which will go up next to it. Also we looked at plans for new buildings that two of the nursery schools are planning. There is much hope, growth and activity around which is encouraging to see.

At Izumi No Sono we have three chapel services a week, each for a different group. The last week I was there I preached for all of those services, and I asked the staff and residents who attended to keep me in their prayers and I promised to pray for them also. While I am away from Izumi No Sono this summer, the general director will be doing much of the preaching. The former director is a retired pastor, and he will quite possibly be doing some of the preaching as well.

I would appreciate your prayers for me as I travel and speak in several states this summer. May God bless you all with a summer that is refreshing and uplifting. I hope to see you or talk to you during the time I am here but if it is not possible, I will be thinking of you.

In Christ’s love,

Priscilla Abbott

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 185