October 2004

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,

Prayerful greetings from Nagasaki, Japan, where Kwassui Women’s College has just started classes in the second semester of our 125th year of education. The English Department actually began a class at the end of September this year, with a three-day intensive English course for first-year students. The focus was on peace and harmony. Activities included a visit to Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Museum. After various video and music activities, groups of students made poster presentations to the whole class. They participated with enthusiasm and were then ready for the new semester to begin, even though a typhoon disrupted the schedule one day. (The weather here, as elsewhere in the world, has not been so peaceful this summer.)

In early August, before Nagasaki’s peace ceremony on August 9, Kwassui held its annual English camp for about 50 high school students from throughout the southern island of Kyushu. The students mostly arrived on Thursday morning for the overnight camp, although a few from farther away came to the college residence hall the previous evening. The students were able to make friends from different high schools and to enjoy trying to communicate in English through various activities: on the computer, in music, and with games. The staff included a dozen English teachers (from Canada, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and eight Japanese college students, most of whom had spent some time in the United States or the United Kingdom. Yurika (mentioned in my April 2004 letter) had just returned from attending the PC(USA) Youth Triennium at Purdue University and was able to share with us about some of her experiences there. Six of the students have been participants in the extracurricular Bible study groups I help lead at Kwassui.

Every year we seem to become busier and busier with efforts for the college. When we can see positive results we are especially encouraged to keep working for God’s kingdom. Thank you for your continued prayers and service and gifts for God’s work in the world. Without your generous support, mission efforts would be seriously weakened. You are greatly appreciated, even when the waiting may seem long. I would like to close this letter with Paul’s words to the Philippians (4:8 TEV): “In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable.”

I know next summer seems a long way off, but I am beginning to make plans for returning to the United States for mission interpretation from mid-July to the end of August 2005. I expect to be based in northwest Wyoming, but am happy to travel (though I don’t drive much). If you are interested in hearing about the work in Japan directly, please contact me.

With prayers for the peace that passes understanding to fill all of us as we seek to obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit,

Barbara Easton

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 92