At Camp Adatara

Friday – June 6

We are staying now at Camp Adatara, which is near Koriyama. It’s the camp where our Chi Alpha students ministered last summer.

We arrived last night around 10 p.m. after a very long day of travel and transition away from Tokyo. Yesterday was the only day for Rachel to get to see any of downtown Tokyo, so we did some extra running around before leaving for Koriyama and the camp. We actually got to Koriyama itself around 6 p.m. Beverly Tajima, a BMM missionary, picked us up at the train station and then took us to dinner. After dinner, we participated in an English class taught by Pastor Nobby Tajima, which was being held next door to the restaurant where we ate. Both the class and the restaurant are part of a multi-story shopping center about 15 minutes away from the Koriyama train station. Six “students” were in attendance for the class: Tom, Mac, Jack, Kato, Jim, and Yumi. With the exceptions of Kato and Yumi, each one has taken an English nickname as part of their course of learning. Yumi was the only female in the class. She is an office worker in her twenties. The others were men in their 50’s and 60’s, ranging in occupations from a civil engineer to a machine operator. Our prayer, of course, is that God will use Nobby’s English teaching to bring these souls to Christ.

At the train station near the hotel yesterday, Dale engaged a young man named Masayuki in conversation about Christianity. Masayuki learned English as part of his doing graduate studies in Sweden. He told Dale that he had read some parts of the Bible and also a book on Christianity written by Jimmy Carter. I soon joined the conversation, sharing with Masayuki that God had appointed Jesus to be the judge of every person at the end of time. Masayuki asked, “What is he going to judge?” We told him that Jesus would judge our sin, but that there is a window open now to receive his forgiveness.

Our conversation ended when it came time for us to get on the train. Prior to saying goodbye we exchanged business cards, telling Masayuki that we would be happy to hear from him via email to answer any questions he might have about Christianity. Dale and I want to ask those who are reading the blog to join us in praying for Masayuki to come to a saving knowledge of the Lord.

Tomorrow I will write about our trip in view of Isaiah 55, which is a Scripture passage we have chosen as a theme for this summer’s installment of the Nippon Initiative.