July 2004
Greetings from the Land of the Rising Sun! In fact, we wish the
sun wasn’t so “risen,” as it’s in the
upper 90s and humid outside! But, it is summer, and so it’s
“par for the course.” (I don’t plan on playing
golf in it, though!)
In our June newsletter, we mentioned that Juji would be undergoing
her regular plasma exchange treatment, and so she has just completed
the third in that series. Everything is going normally, and so
we expect her home from the hospital in another week or so.
Jennifer’s mission team from Biola finished their one-month
mission trip at the end of June, and so Jen can finally get a
bit of rest. As leader of the group, it was a big responsibility
for her as well as good experience. It wasn’t easy keeping
eight kids together and motivated under sometimes stressful conditions.
She has a short summer job here in Japan this month, and then
it’s back to the United States to prepare herself as a resident
dorm manager for the fall for her third year at Biola.
Perhaps the biggest bit of news to report actually won’t
start until next fall, but Tim has been asked to serve as the
representative for the “Minami (Southern) Puresubeterian
Misshon” in Japan from this fall. You won’t find those
words in you spell checker, as that is how the English words “Presbyterian
Mission” come out when put into the Japanese phonetic system
and then rendered in roman characters. Anyway, when this legal
entity was established over 100 years ago, it was to represent
the interests of the Southern Presbyterian Mission in Japan, and
it was under this “religious juridical person” (the
name for such a legal entity) that the Yodogawa Christian Hospital
(YCH) was founded. When the various North American boards that
did mission work through the United Church of Christ in Japan
formed a joint organization, they all did away with their old
“religious juridical person” status and merged into
one holding body. That is, except for this one that had been established
for the Southern Presbyterians. Not only did their continued work
with a second, much smaller denomination in Japan depend on the
maintaining of that “religious juridical person,”
but also the continued legal status of YCH itself. So this is
why it has been maintained.
Tim’s taking on this additional role also includes becoming
a regent of the hospital, which will entail frequent trips to
Osaka to attend the monthly meetings and take care of business
in the office in nearby Kobe. Door to door is about 5 hours one
way (about 350 miles). The bullet train makes the Tokyo to Osaka
part quite fast, and with the new train line opening up next year
between Tsukuba and Tokyo (45 minutes), that will cut about an
hour off the commute. YCH has a really good reputation in Japan,
and we’re finding that many of the medical personnel we
associate with perk up when we mention it. It was the first hospital
to begin a hospice program in Japan and in other ways as well
has served as an example of whole-patient treatment for the medical
community in Japan. They appear really impressed when they hear
that Tim will be a regent. That certainly wasn’t part of
the motivation for accepting this responsibility, but it does
appear that it will open some doors for us. So our prayer is that
not only will Tim’s service at YCH be a blessing there,
but that it will serve the cause of Christ in other ways as well.
We’ll share more about YCH in the future. God’s blessings
on you all.
Tim and Juji Boyle
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
92
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