June 9, 2005

Dear Friends,

I’d like to tell you a story of God’s grace unfolding in a miraculous way. It started a couple of years ago with a phone call from my friend Kaori, who I have known since I was 9. (When my family lived in Japan in the early 1980s, Kaori and I walked hand in hand to the local Japanese elementary school.) She sounded distraught and finally blurted out, “I just found out that Kanaru is deaf.” Kanaru is her 3-year-old, first-born son. I was eight months pregnant at the time with our daughter Anna and was absolutely floored by her news. I wanted to help but also felt somewhat protective of the baby inside me as I listened to my friend pour out her anguish. I calmed my fears and told her about a school for children with hearing impairments named Rowa Gakko (Japan Oral School for the Deaf). She said there were very few resources in her area, where school officials wanted to put Kanaru in a class for children with mental disabilities.

A few days later, I sent Kaori information I had gathered about Rowa Gakko. I told her Rowa was a Christian institution committed to helping children with hearing disabilities assimilate into public schools. Later, I discovered she had actually visited Rowa but decided she couldn’t do the two-hour commute while caring for her younger daughter.

Although there are over 100 public schools for children with hearing impairments in Japan, Rowa Gakko is the only private Christian institution. It was founded in 1920 by Presbyterian missionaries Dr. A.K. and Helen Reischauer after they learned their daughter Felicia had a hearing problem. Their second son, Edwin, was U.S. ambassador to Japn from 1961 to 1966. Mr. Shigeru Kawada, the principal of Rowa Gakko, says, “Although there are many Christian schools for children with this difficulty, as far as I know, this is the only one founded on a parent’s tears.”

A unique characteristic of Rowa Gakko is that it does not teach sign language. Believing that students have only hearing difficulties rather than an inability to hear, Rowa Gakko builds on the residual sense of hearing in each student. Due to this creative approach, on average 54 percent of the students are able to progress to regular public high schools after three years in Rowa’s junior high. Compare this to the mere 3 percent of graduates of Japanese public schools for children with hearing difficulties.

A few weeks later, Kaori and her family came over for dinner. She had many questions about Christianity and mentioned several times how much she enjoyed the daily chapel service with the teachers. Kaori’s mother helped me 23 years ago when I was the first foreigner to attend a Japanese elementary school in Hayama.

Her mother had spoken to the teachers on my mother’s behalf, persuading them to let me enter the school. It is remarkable how two decades later, I have been able to return to Japan as a mission co-worker and assist my childhood friend Kaori through the ministry of Rowa Gakko founded by Presbyterian missionaries in 1920.

Rowa Gakko is truly a sacred place not just because of their creative approach to children with hearing disabilities but more importantly the atmosphere of the school is joyful. At the festival, Principal Kawada tried to lead me to a reserved table for “distinguished” guests, but every time he moved forward, he was stopped by crowds of children who surrounded him, laughing, tugging at his hands and climbing up his legs. He eventually asked one of the teachers to escort me since he had no hope of making it through the crowd of children.

I give thanks for Rowa Gakko and the way it has ministered to my dear friend Kaori and her son Kanaru along with hundreds of other Japanese families. As his hearing improves at Rowa, I pray that someday Kanaru will hear the voice of Christ saying, “Come follow me.” Thanks to people like Kawada Sensei, who slips away from “distinguished” guests to laugh and play children, Kanaru and his classmates may have heard this voice already.

Faithfully yours,

Kay Zebley

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 251