|
Tom has dusted off his office book shelves and is relieved that
he can still lecture in Japanese (just a slight attack of nerves
before his first class). He's using every spare moment away from
his duties at TUTS to work on his dissertation for Princeton and
the pages are gradually adding up. It is not an easy task to write
a dissertation while working full-time! Also, we are thrilled
to report that the Japanese translation of the PC (USA)'s First
Catechism continues to be used enthusiastically by many churches.
The first edition has already sold out, and the Japanese publisher
(Ichibakusha) is currently printing a joint edition of the First
Catechism and the Study Catechism, hopefully in time
for Christmas. The tiny profit from these catechisms has been
designated for a fund to rebuild our seminary's dormitory, which
is in desperate condition.
Carol has resumed her work at our church, West Tokyo Union Church,
as Christian education director and teacher. Although it is a
small church, she was delighted to have 26 children at our Sunday
school's opening session. It is an interesting mix of Lutheran,
Methodist, RCA and Presbyterian missionary kids; Japanese children
who have lived overseas and speak English; American expatriate
children; and children of other nationalities (Taiwanese, Polish,
Korean). She has also been quite involved with our church's business
office in downtown Tokyo. Her favorite time of the week though,
is her English class with six Japanese women and one Korean woman.
Their English is quite good, so they are able to discuss all kinds
of topics. Today we were talking about family get-togethers and
some of us had joyfully shared about our times with family. When
it was Mrs. Soh's turn, she shocked all of us with her family's
story.
Mrs. Soh is from South Korea but her mother and father had escaped
from North Korea just before she was born over 50 years ago. She
told us how her father had been married before and had been forced
to leave his 5-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son with his parents.
Just two months ago, Mrs. Soh's elderly father was finally granted
permission to go back to North Korea and visit his daughter. This
was 51 years later! All that time, he had never had any communication
from them and was not able to send them any news. He was allowed
only two days with his daughter. Their meeting was arranged by
the North Korean government, and they met in a hotel where each
relative was assigned a number so they would know who belonged
to whom. Nevertheless, upon meeting, his daughter immediately
recognized her father, and they had a poignant reunion. Although
they were allowed to talk together alone, all the rooms were equipped
with surveillance cameras and microphones and the North Korean
relatives knew that they had to be very careful about what they
told their southern family members. Mrs. Soh told us of her father's
profound depression when he returned to South Korea. This personal
story brought the issue of North and South Korea alive for all
of us in the class in a new way. The struggle there is more than
a political one. Thousands of families are split apart. Please
pray for our close neighbors, the northern and southern Koreans.
In light of this story, I realized how much we tend to take for
granted the blessing of family. In this season of Thanksgiving
and Advent, when we give thanks to God for the love and closeness
of our families, we pray that the Spirit of the crucified and
risen Lord Jesus Christ would fall afresh upon the Church and
make us all more attentive to those in our midst whose thanksgiving
has been muted or silenced by the pain of separation or loss.
In these days of increasingly perilous global threats and uncertainties,
we are deeply grateful for your faithful support and your continued
prayers for the Japanese people and the faithful witness of the
churches and our seminary.
With Thanks and Blessings,
Carol and Tom Hastings
The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 185
|
