Our Visit With the Meltons

Written Wednesday, 10-11-06
12:40 pm

We stayed last night with Phil and Deb Melton. The Meltons live and work in Seki, which is in Gifu Prefecture. Phil grew up in Japan. He is a second generation missionary serving with Evangelical Baptist Mission (EBM), having grown up in an area about 30 minutes from Seki, which is where his parents are still serving. Deb grew up in Waynesboro, PA. Within a few minutes of our arrival, we all realized that we had met one another almost 20 years ago at a camp ministry in which we participated together. The pastor and wife of Deb’s home church are long time friends of ours. In fact, the pastor’s wife is the sister of Dale’s home pastor from Towanda, PA.

The Meltons have a total of six children. The oldest two (both girls) are in the States. The oldest will be finishing college soon and then getting married in early January. The third-born, also a girl, will be finishing high school this fall and then heading off to college for the winter term. Next is Nathan, who is almost 16, Natalie, a 15 year-old girl, and then Andrew, who is 14. Natalie and Andrew are Japanese nationals, whom the Meltons adopted when they were toddlers. Elliott and Andrew spent a lot of time playing together.

Seki is located in the western part of Honshu island, about one-third of the way from Tokyo to the western most edge. It is more of a country setting and the terrain is mountainous. The Meltons operate a camp ministry about 20 minutes or so from where they live. While Deb prepared dinner, Phil took Dale and I to see the camp. It is roughly a one acre site situated in an even more remote area. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of houses around. There is even a lighted baseball field nearby. Evidently there also are monkeys living nearby. We didn’t see any while we were there; but, then again, we’re weren’t really looking for them. Deb told us, nevertheless, the monkeys knew we were there and that we could bet that they were watching us!

The camp features several buildings, including a boy’s dorm (capable of sleeping 60), girl’s dorm (also capable of sleeping 60), a future large playhouse for children, a building they call the hub that contains the kitchen, dining area/indoor meeting room/indoor recreation room, and a chapel under roof with walls in front and back, but open on the sides. At the front of the chapel, there also are two rooms—one is a guest room, the other is used for storage. Most of the buildings have been built by Phil and his brother with the help now and then of a work team from the States. In the middle of the camp property, there is a large concrete pad about ¾ the size of a basketball court, which is also used for various activities (including basketball and soccer).

Phil told us that about 40% of the children who attend camp are already Christians. He said the camp ministry is where they see most of the decisions that are made to receive Christ.

Phil also shared how important it is to build trust with Japanese people in order to facilitate witnessing to them. This insight fits well with something Melody Yoshida shared as a possible approach to the outreach we have in mind. Melody suggested that each of the students we send be assigned to one or two Japanese for the entire length of the time in country. The students could be available for practicing conversational English with the person(s) assigned to them. In this fashion, they could build a relationship with Japanese people in hopes of being able to carry on a witness to them even after the students return home.

We enjoyed our time with the Meltons, though it was very, very brief. We had to get back on the train in Seki at 8:08 a.m. to begin the leg of the journey we are on now.