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Ernest and Neva Faber

S'ifv 12tn St.

Des Moines, lA 503^5 February, 1979
Dear Christian friends,

KigaPhi ku. Sapporo

06^

JAPAN

Rishiku, a Korean school teacher, wouldn't worship^at the Shinto

While in prison Rishiku witnessed to others around her.

evening, December 23rd.

shrine as commanded by the Japanese and was imprisoned in Japan.

fore her scheduled execution WW II ended. This true story is told in the film, "But even if not" which we showed at the church on Saturday

The day be

Sixteen attended this meeting.

younger ones--K through 3rd grade--came at 1:00 p.m. The older ones came at 3iOO. There were 70 at the first session and 21 at the second session. The program consisted of carol singing, films, and a Nativity play with a cast of 2k Sunday School pupils. There are always some new faces at Christmas meetings. We pray that their attention has
been directed toward God.

On Christmas day we had two services for the children.

The

As you probably have read, Japan has a new prime minister.

a Japanese indigenous church. In January Prime Minister Ohira attended a Japanese shrine "because other Prime Minister have attended." Pray
that Mr. Ohira will make a firm stand on his Christian convictions. On December 6th the Board of Directors of Hokkaido Christian Mis-

Ohira is a Christian who belongs to a group called non-Church Movement--

vWi

sion, Inc. met at John Noe's home for the annual meeting.

At that time

t)- ^ Mrs. Margaret DeRuyscher was appointed as the new forwarding agent replacing John Noe who served faithfully in this capacity for some 19 years. Also the date of the annual meeting has been_changed from the
in 1979.

first Wednesday in December to the second Wednesday.in March effective

Des Moines, lA 50315 Remember Marg in your prayers as she assumes the responsibility of this important position. In looking over the receipts for January we have noted that there

The address of the mission has been changed to 351^ SW 12th St,

has been an increase in the amount sent by several of the churches. We are thankful that you have remembered us in this way. By the way, a
financial statement is available upon request.

Recently we received word that Linda with her husband, Gary, and
son, Kevin, will be arriving in Japan on the 19th of February for a visit. Gary will be staying a couple of weeks with Linda and Kevin
time .

staying about a month. We anticipate seeing our grandson for the firpt
A non-instumental church of Christ here in Sapporo closed its doors in November. The church, which met in the home of the minister, was located about 2 miles south of us. At this time one of the members has

begun to attend Sunday evening services here . A couple with 3 small

pray for others who as yet are not attending any church.
above all for your financial support. children indicated that they will be attending here. We continue to

Thanks for your prayers, for your greeting at Chrislmias time, and
We couldn't do without you.

In Christian love-,

fill,

/! < ,
3514 S. W. 12th St.

AA'
50315

^
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^ J7 ^ rs

Ernest and Neva Faber

North 49. East 15
Higashi ku. Sapporo 065 Japan

Oes Moines, !A

V\
May 1979

Dear Friends

in Christ,

On February 19--shortly after we put out our last letter--Linda, with husband Gary and son Kevii% visited us. This was the first time we saw our only grandchild and the first time we sav/ Gary after their marriage. We were happy to be able to share in Kevin's second birth day on February 22 and Linda's birthday on March 2nd. Gary was here for two weeks and Linda and Kevin stayed for another two v/eeks . Kevin made friends quickly in the children's class while Linda played the organ for church. The annual All Japan Church of Christ Convention met at Ckayama

March 30 to April l.__ The theme of this year's convention was " Set
Your Hearts on Things Above " based on Colossians 3:1"17. The English

convention immediately followed at the same location April 1-3- Bro ther George Alder of San Jose Bible College was special guest speaker
The theme was
ed both

" Christian Confidence" based on I

John.

Ernest attend

conventions.

The 31st convention will meet next year on Hokkaido.

This will -

be a first for the churches here.

It will be from August 1-^ for the

Japanese portion and August ^-6 for the English portion.

The Japanese

section will meet at Lake Toya some 50 miles south of Sapporo and the English portion will meet within the city of Sapporo.

If any of you have ever entertained the idea of coming to Japan to

see any of the work this would be a good time to do so. You can see Hokkaido as well as meet most of the missionaries working in Japan.

On Easter Sunday evening the church here had a fellowship dinner. " We held it in the evening so some who aren't able to attend Sunday

morning could also fellov/ship with the church.

and 8 children present.

There were 1^ adults

On April 26th an engagement service was held for Miss Koto Myoojitsu.oneof our members here, and Mr. Koji Ueyama who recently gradu
ated from Osaka Bible Seminary. We pray God's guidance on them as they prepare for a fall marriage and a ministry for the Lord.

One of the older Sunday School pupils became dissatisfied with something at Sunday School and led a number of the children away re sulting in a very low attendance lately. We are not only concerned because of the Sunday School but because of her bad influence on so

many of the others.

others when she left.

Besides some she had invited she took out even

Such an unhappy frustrated child desperately

needs Jesus.

The parents are all non-Christian and therefore don't

encourage attendance.

On the otherhand we have seen some new adult faces in the morning

and evening worship services.

Three are from another church of Christ

and already Christians. One is the daughter-in-law of a former English student, and another housewife who recently moved back to this area after being away for over 2 years. We have been encouraged to see
the four women also at Neva's women's Bible class.

Charles has a slide program available on our work as seen

through the eyes of a missionary's son. Drive, Erlanger, KY 41018.

SW 12th St., Des Mo-"nes, lA
address .

Write to him at 3^28 Ridgewood

Please remember that our mission address has changed to 35^^

50315* Please do not use the old Adel

With this letter we send our thanks for your prayers ,-letters , and support of the work.
In the Master's service,

7 ^

Ernest and Neva Faber

OES MOINES, IOWA 50SIS

Dear Christian Friends,

3514 SW, imi STREET

/'Q

September. 1979

Hfgashi ku. Sapporo

North 49. Kast IS

Today the announced that the first snow of the season had fal len somewhere on Hokkaido. By the end of September we will have our
first frost. Winter will soon oe upon us. 'However, we v/ant to turn
your attention h: ck to the summer.

we began VBS.

The day following the close of school for the summer (July 26th)
We tried something different this year. Since it is

difficult for the children to come for five consecutive days, we invi ted them to stay overnight and had both afternoon and morning sessions f.or the two days. There were 3^ children from first through sixth
The various

grade whom we divided into teams with names of fruit.

teams were given specific tasks to do so that all the cooking, dish washing, housekeeping;, and room preparations were done by the chil

blem to have all of us down at the park for the community morning exer

dren with Neva's help. lirnest supervised games with the groups who were free. The children's co-operation was excellent. It was no pro

cises at 6:30 a.m., breakfast prepared, clean up finished, bedding

Enthusiasm in the classes
two days of work, play, and study of Jonah.

matched that exhibited in the chores so that it was a happy profitable

bummer camp this year met over the. weekend of August 11-13 in
order that the Christians could attend. For the first time we rented

packed, and vbs in session before 9^00.

facilities instead of using tents. The camp site is located on a hill overlooking the Japan Sea and includes a dining hall, kitchen,
and cabins furnished with mattresses.

seas Missionary Fellowship for lending us the use of their camp site
for the three days. One of the Christian women, Mrs. Munakata, led in the menu'planning and cooking. Her husband was able to attend Sun

We are grateful to the Over

day and brought the vesper, message and supervised the swimming. An other young lady led singing and games at the campfire and one of the
morning devotions, i^rnest and Neva conducted classes based on a little booklet written by Mr. Sato. The theme was "Introduction to the Church."

Although the majority of the group. of ^1 campers had__never attended ~i^urch services the communion service was one of the quietest we have ever conducted. Registration began with fourth graders but four younger children were allowed to come with adults. Most of the youth were
Sunday School or VBS contacts but there were a few new faces from the English classes.

There was time for a three-day trip before English classes resumned. We were able to visit briefly with a young American at the Coast Guard station, the preacher and his wife in Obihiro, some friends in

southern Hokkaido, and to .stop by to see the kindergarten building that

the Kimuras have built in Tomakomai and visit
mura.

a while with Mrs.

Ki-

Back home it was time to start preparations for the evangelistic meeting that was held September 7-9. Announcements were printed, sound equipment checked out, sign prepared for the building, and 3000 tracts
passed out to homes around the church. Three of the Christians assisted

in passing the tracts on the rainy Sunday afternoon prior to the meet ing. There are now 3000 homes in less than a two-square mile area around us and new homes are going up all the time. Five years ago we
could reach most of this area with less than 2000 tracts . luhen we

moved onto this block five years ago v/e were the fourth house, today
there are 30 households and still three empty lots.
The evangelist for the meeting was Mr. Toshihiko Shimada of Sendai .

On bunday evening,the last night of the meeting, Mrs. Fuse, a 39-yearold housewife with tv;o children, confessed Jesus as her saviour and

was immediately baptized. Mrs. Fuse lives just a few blocks from the church. Following zne baptism all the Christians joined v/ith her in the partaking of the Lord's supper. At least 9 adults from the area who are not members of any church attended the three-day meeting.The Moiwashita church in southern Sapporo had members in attendence each

available.

evening, also. Neva conducted children's meetings for the 12 young children who ac^companied their parents. Charles wrote that he would like people to use the slides he has

It may be possible_that he could personally show them.

3^28 Ridgewood Drive, Erlanger, KY ij-lOlS.
God bless yo.i .
'ice,

Virite him at:

Many th?mks