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They met at a missionary summer resort called Nojiri in the summer
of 1951 and shortly thereafter decided to get married. This coming
summer we four brothers and our families will bring them out to
Nojiri to celebrate their 50 years together. And, of course, we’re
planning a photo-op on the pier where they first kissed.
My wife Judy was born in Nigeria to Sudan Interior Mission missionaries
Jerry and Dorothy Swank. She has four brothers and sisters. Both
her parents went to be with the Lord within the past three years.
We met at Fuller Seminary, spent our first three years in Japan
teaching English, then returned to finish seminary. We quickly
found we had to sort between Nigerian, Japanese, American, and
"mish-kid" cultures. Her M.A. in cross-cultural studies
has helped us build our truly cross-cultural marriage for the
last 24 years.
We have four children, Naomi, 20, who is attending Berea College
in Kentucky, Nathanael (Nat) 10, Joseph (Joey) 7, and Sarah, 5.
Almost more important to us than their birth dates are their re-birth-dates:
Naomi at age 7, Nat at age 6, and Joey at age 5. Joey has a deep,
praying faith. He prayed daily for a kindergarten bully. At the
end of the year, the bully had changed and even prayed for Joey.
Nat has missionary zeal. He once told Sarah, "You’d
better become a Christian, or else!" I had to lovingly caution
him against that approach. Nat is able now to trust that Sarah’s
faith will grow with a gentler approach.
In 1984, after finishing seminary, I began an eight year stretch
of pastoring in the States. Our first few years were with a church
in Los Angeles and our last few years were with two yoked churches
in southwest Colorado. It was in this second pastorate that I
found how much I loved working with youth. Our youth group doubled
every one of the four years we were there.
Having always planned to serve in Japan someday, we finally made
the move in 1993. I started out with an job teaching English,
with big dreams of planting a church on the side. However, full-time
English teaching left precious little time for ministry.
After a year here in Japan, I moved to Kwansei Gakuin, a Christian
high school where I became a missionary associate with the primary
job of teaching English. It was there at the high school that
I learned how to work with Japanese youth. For most of my seven
years there, Mr. Nobuo Ojiro and Mr. Takahiro Tsu took me under
their wings in the Religious (= Christian) Club. These two fellow
teachers showed me how to lead a group of Japanese teens, how
to plan meetings with them, and how to plan and conduct summer
trips with them. After four years, when they went on to other
clubs, I had great hands-on experience leading the club myself.
After a year of language study, my next job will be to work with
Japanese youth in and out of the Japanese churches in the Chubu
Presbytery (Nagoya area). As it looks now, from conversations
I have had with various pastors there, I will probably spend my
first year there making the rounds of all the churches. Whether
I will preach, play the guitar, or whatever, will be up to the
pastor of each church. That will be a time of relationship-building.
At the same time, Judy and I will be inviting youth and youth
workers to our home. I envision some of the youth to be from the
churches. But others I am hoping will be non-churched youth who
are looking for answers to life. We are planning to host special
events, camps, and other outings for youth. Forming these new
small "groupings" gives youth a new environment to do
their group-thinking in—and the only real vehicle for presenting
the gospel in Japan.
Prayer requests
Even though I have spent 26 years in Japan and can talk easily
on a street level, I need serious work on vocabulary and on the
Chinese script they use in their writing. Right now I am staring
2000 of these Chinese characters in the face. I have one year
to master them. I am looking forward to this chance-of-a-lifetime
to finally master the language. Please pray for Judy and me as
we work on the language. This is such an important part of the
ministry here. Without the language, deeper communication bogs
down immediately. Judy’s frustration over the past eight
years here is that her full-time mom responsibilities (and home
schooling) have kept her from learning the language in any deep
way. My frustration is that I have been a full-time English teacher,
along with all the administration and grading which that entails.
Now that our assignment has changed, we are so thankful for this
chance to study Japanese full time.
Also, Please pray for our kids to get the language. We are trying
to find someone to teach our kids Japanese in the afternoons.
Pray that our kids will be receptive and that this situation will
work out. Please add a prayer for someone who can help them with
their home schooling, as well.
I cannot tell you how much we appreciate your support in both
finances and prayer. As breakfast winds down we read a couple
chapters of the Bible and pray as a family. Please send us your
requests for prayer. Write to us by air mail or by e-mail your
prayer needs and anything else you would like to write about.
Sincerely for the fellowship of our joint service to Jesus our
King,
Andy and Judy Carrick
The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 184
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