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May 1999
Greetings From The Land Of The Rising Sun!
In our last letter, we described the heart-warming story of Yuki
Namekawa and the mixture we experienced of sadness from her untimely
death and joy from her baptism, along with that of her parents.
As her father was at that time overseeing the building of the
new $60-million capitol building that was nearing completion,
he was under great strain even without the tragedy of losing his
only daughter. The funeral process in Japan is more elaborate
and involved than in the United States, and this has the unfortunate
side effect of putting the bereaved under more stress than is
necessary. Thus, knowing what he would be getting into at this
critical time in his work, he requested that the funeral be a
private, family affair, which we gladly cooperated with. The death
wasn’t announced until the end of March, and so it was at
that point that the public funeral was held. On April 3, the day
before Easter, we gathered at the public hall in the funeral/crematorium
building for a formal funeral, and over 500 people were in attendance.
Tim again gave the sermon, while Rev. Wakatsuki lead the service.
As this was a great opportunity to present the gospel to an audience
with little Christian exposure, Tim uplifted the strongly held
Confucian ethic known in English by the enigmatic term "filial
piety" (which simply means devotion to one’s parents),
and then applied that to God. Everyone had been impressed with
Yuki’s devotion to her own parents, and so Tim added that
she had also shown her true devotion to her "heavenly parent,"
her Creator and God. While our "filial piety" towards
our earthly parents is important (in fact, it’s the fourth
of the Ten Commandments!), it is our "filial piety"
towards our true "Parent," namely, the One who gave
us the very gift of life and who will judge every human being,
that is of primary importance.
Since Yuki’s death in February, her parents have been very
faithful in attending church, even though it means a 45-minute
drive from their home in Mito, the prefectural (state) capital.
It has continued to be a difficult time for them, but we’ve
seen God move mightily in their lives. Through their witness,
many have been exposed to the gospel in a way we firmly believe
will bear much fruit. Please continue to pray for them.
Much of Tim’s work during the last couple of months has
focused on getting ready for astronomer Hugh Ross’s visit
at the end of this month. We will be having a major evangelistic
campaign in Tokyo as well as in a small city in northern Japan
called Yonezawa. We will start there on May 28 and then drive
down to Tokyo University for the main attraction on May 29 and
30. We’ve prepared a series of 14 flyers dealing with such
topics as how the incredible design of the universe for the existence
of life points to a "Designer," who we call the "Grand
Omni Designer" (G.O.D.). Each flyer begins with a provocative
question such as "What Was Before the Big Bang?" and
"If God Created the Universe, Then Who Created God?"
Each flyer includes the details of the schedule, of course, but
also a synopsis of the answer for each to the topics addressed
in the flyer. There are 14 in the series and they will be handed
out in order, one at a time, so that each person is getting a
different flyer until the cycle starts again. It’s kind of
an experiment, as it is a new idea that hasn’t been tried
before as far as we know. Those who aren’t interested may
throw their flyer away, but there will probably be many who want
to get copies of different flyers who will pick them up—or
so the theory goes. Hopefully, this tactic will generate a lot
of interest.
Lisa is just finishing up a successful first year at Calvin College
in Michigan and will soon be coming home for the summer. She plans
to go to medical school after graduation and then on to the mission
field as a missionary doctor. She’s also studying Chinese
and hopes to become fluent in that language as well. Knowing how
to read and write Japanese, of course, makes it much easier for
her to learn that language. She, in fact, spent the January inter-term
with a group from the college in China itself, studying the language
and interacting with the people there.
Our other daughter, Jennifer (15), is also going to have an exciting
summer as she prepares to go off to Europe as part of a team with
an evangelistic mission called "Royal Servants" (a division
of Reign Ministries). She had heard her friends describe the great
experiences they had in previous years, and so she decided on
her own that this is how she wanted to spend her summer. She’ll
fly over to St. Louis in June for a couple of weeks of preparation
and training, and then the group will travel to Scotland first
and then on down through England and over to the continent. She
and one other high school girl from Japan will be included in
the mostly American and Canadian group. Being the daughter of
missionaries in Japan obviously puts her in a somewhat different
category from the other youth. Part of the program is for the
youth to seek prayer and financial support for their local church
and other churches in their area. Not only do such efforts help
defray the expenses the parents have to pay, but it is good training
for the kids. Likewise, the kids report back to their churches
as to how they have grown spiritually. While Jennifer won’t
be able to visit churches in the United States to raise support,
she certainly does request your prayer support (and financial
gifts, of course, would also be welcomed). She’ll want to
report on her summer in our next newsletter.
Juji’s physical condition isn’t much changed, and she
will probably need to go back into the hospital for another plasma
exchange treatment sometime this summer. The shunt doctors put
in her arm seems to be doing well, and this will facilitate her
treatments in the future. Please continue to remember her in your
prayers. We wish to thank you all for your continued prayers in
our behalf and your financial support through either the United
Methodist Church or the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that allows
us the privilege of serving the cause of Christ in Japan.
Tim, Yuko (Juji), Lisa and Jennifer Boyle
The 1999 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page
167
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