July 2009

To our Friends and Supporters:

Warm greetings from your missionaries in Japan! We had a good home assignment period from late January to late May, and we were able to visit many of you along the way, traveling through 24 states and flying over a few more. The most important thing we have to report to you now is our upcoming change in assignment.

Beginning in September, Tim will be a full professor at the mission-related school known in English as “Kwansei Gakuin University.” “Kangaku,” as it is often referred to in shortened form, is a well-known university only about three miles from where we live. They have a nice Web site in English.

Beginning in September, Tim will be a full professor at the mission-related school known in English as “Kwansei Gakuin University.”

As this is quite a change, some explanation is in order. For the last few years, the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church has been lowering the priority level of sending missionaries to Japan, especially given the high cost of maintaining missionaries here. It is pretty much the same with our other sending board, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and with the severe downturn in the U.S. economy since last year, both boards are under a great deal of financial strain. Both have been forced to cut staff, and it is distressing to see colleagues we love and admire being let go.

No doubt, all of you know someone who has lost their job in recent months, and so we can all relate to the pain and uncertainty they are enduring now. It is an unfortunate fact of life that our mission boards have fewer resources to work with than before. Thus, significant reductions in expenses are an unavoidable result. We feel so fortunate that we had the option that we did.

While the PC(USA) had authorized our full three-year renewal term, the UMC board was only able to agree to a one-year term, as it was simply not in a position to guarantee anything beyond that. Thus, in order to both reduce the budget strain on our sending boards as well as to secure our financial future for the remaining years of our missionary career before retirement (which is only four or five years away), we decided to accept an offer by the university to fill an open position, beginning in September.

As this is the middle of the school year (which begins in April in Japan), Tim’s schedule will be a bit different from what it would be in a normal year. He will begin by teaching three English courses, but will also be doing at least two chapel talks each week (about 50 different chapel services  take place each week on campus!), as well as other forms of outreach. Next year, he’ll also teach “Introduction to Christianity” and perhaps an ethics class as well. The chaplain will be on a year-long sabbatical next year, and so much of those responsibilities will fall on Tim. The English classes will not just be “conversational English,” but “English with a purpose,” namely, to teach English while at the same time touching on subjects such as human rights. The course is designed to encourage students to think about their values and purpose in life. The motto of Kwansei Gakuin is “Mastery for service,” and so that will be the goal of Tim's ministry there.

Even though Tim will be leaving the Buraku Liberation Center in the formal sense, he will continue to help with translation needs and the editing of the English newsletter, Crowned With Thorns. He will also endeavor to encourage students to fulfill the motto of the university by, for instance, getting them involved with BLC activities.

Juji will continue her present position under board salary until her one-year term expires next June, upon which she will take early retirement. Her ministry with the Shin'ai Home, where she is a medical counselor (kind of a social worker), will continue, although there will be what we hope to be a brief break in that, as she will soon be hospitalized for her regular treatment. This time, they will have to put in a new shunt in her arm in order to do the plasma exchange treatment she has been doing for more than 15 years. The old one lasted beyond its expected lifetime, but the blood flow has become too restricted to serve as a viable site for further treatment. Your prayers in her behalf will be most appreciated.

There is still much about our situation that is not settled yet, primarily our housing situation. Other missionaries serving at the university have been living in large residences built in the early days for that purpose, but recently the university decided to phase those out. So we will simply be given a housing allowance and will find our own housing.  We can remain where we are for the time being, but we will need to find other housing in the near future. While we don’t look forward to moving, we hope to be able to find a good situation nearby.

We continue to ask for your prayers while we remember you all in prayers. We give thanks to God for your faithfulness in supporting the Lord’s ministry through us in Japan.

Blessings,

Tim and Juji Boyle

The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 123