11 b

Christian
"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" Mark 16:15
VOLUME 82

JANUARY, 1983

NUMBER 1

SIMS TRIP TO KANSAI

Because the Japanese Culture Day (Nov. 3, a holiday) came on Wednesday this fall and gave us a rare day offfrom English classes at the local High School and at home that usually fill our
Wednesdays, we made various other changes and cancellations in our schedule and took several days off for an automobile trip to the "West Side"
of Honshu Island--the Osaka area. It

2. Tuesday afternoon we drove on down the main Express-way to Osaka, arriving in time for the opening session of the TANEMAKI KAI, which is the annual Fall Rally sponsored by the Osaka Bible Seminary. There was much good singing, and a very good attendance at the meeting this year. But for us the greatest joy was in seeing 2 of the people who were there. One
was Mrs. Onoi. She lived in our home

with us to the school for the Wed.

morning
so

we would not lose the

Agiin Wed.
after the

meeting at
...1 the school
we went

was an unusually good time of fellowship and renewed acquaintance with old friends, and we will tell about it in 3 parts. 1. Monday afternoon at 5:30 PM, as soon as Lois finished her last class, we started down the Central Express-way -eating Kentucky Fried Chicken box lunches in the car along the way. It was a nice full-moon night, and we enjoyed the twinkling lights of towns and cities we passed along the way. Just before 11 PM we pulled up in front of the b ome
of Mr. and Mrs. lida and their 3

Mr. and Lois Mrs. Sims, Fujiwara, Mrs.

while attending our Tokyo Bible Seminary 30 years ago. Since that time we saw her only once, and that was about 25 years ago. She was a native of the northern city of Aomori, and
returned there and married a non-

Christian

carpenter

after

her

schooling.

But she has continued

Now her

faithful as a Christian, though she has been serving mostly in churches of 2 or

3 different denominations.

back to Fujiwara's to spend the night. Thursday morning while I attended a councillor's meeting at O.B.S. Lois and Jonathan went with Mrs. Fujiwara to attend a famous crysanthemum show and to briefly view Osaka Castle. 3. Thursday afternoon we drove through nice fall scenery, with red and yellow leaves all over the mountains, to

children on the eastern side of Nagoya city. I baptized and later married Mrs. lida many years ago when we were working at Nakano church, and we have kept in touch by letter and a few
visits since then. Her husband works

husband has changed jobs and they live in a city near Osaka, and she came a 2 hour subway and train ride to see us. The other one was Mrs. Fujiwara who lived near Mejirodai and attended church here for about 6 years. Last

spring her husband was transferred by his company to the Osaka area. We
were to spend the 2 nights with her in their apartment. We found it was more
than an hour's drive from the Bible

for Toyo Rayon Co. and is a nice family man who also does all the yard and garden work with joy and care. The

Lois, Mrs. Arakawa, Shiho, Mr. Arakawa at their gate.

Jonathanin front oflida's

home.

Mrs. lida, Lois

and

they were all very friendly

Seminary, but enjoyed the opportunity of visiting the family. On the way home Tuesday night we went out of the way a little to Mrs. Onoi's home and met her husband and younger daughter who works in the telephone exchange. The older daughter married a Christian and is now living in another place. The non-Christian Mr. Fujiwara and the daughter were very kind and gracious hosts, and he went

the city of Tsu. There we spent a night with the family of Shiho Arakawa, the young Japanese girl who went to the U.S. with us last summer. It was good to renew acquaintance with them. The next morning it was raining, but we went to a temple famous forits autumn leaves and some other interesting and historic places in that part of the country for half a day before starting
back home. We arrived safely at home

late Friday night after adding 1300

kilometers to the odometer of

waiting up tor

...

our light van. -Harold Sims

us and talked until well after midnight. The next day we spent a happy half day with her after the husband and children were off to work and school, and she expressed interest in J onathan going down into her neighborhood to start a new work and offered to help as
she could. We drove around the area a

little bit to look over the situation, and are considering this as a possibility.

Osaka Sem. Tanemaki Kai attendance.

The Arakawa home and street.

was the busiest but also the most

interesting, as he began to read Japanese magazines, newspapers, etc. and really enjoy the progress. Each graduate must make a 20 minute speech in Japapese, so Jonathan chose to talk about his main hobby, which is the game of Shogi (somewhat similar
but more difficult than chess).
The Arakawa factory and store-manufacturers of school and company uniforms and coats.

The

Harold and Lois by our Christmas tree. Pictures

of our children's weddings are on the wall.

papers on the wall are charts he made

to describe the various moves and

PREACHER VISITS TO BRING ENCOURAGEMENT

Several years ago Koji Sugiura, who has been the preacher at Obihiro, Hokkaido since 1966, had a very serious operation for a brain tumor in the front part of his head. He recovered remarkably well, but lost the vision in
one eye and has become somewhat despondent, etc. Also he is at a rather

basics of the game. His teacher made some comments, and mentioned that he had not been tardy or late a single time in 1982. The underclassmen gave him several small gifts and words of encouragement. Following the ceremony all enjoyed the Christmas
party.

some meeting or activity every day. This is a good time and opportunity to present the gospel message to people who ordinarily are not among the hearers, and we rejoice in that aspect of it as well as all the other things. Other than being a long way from our children and grand-children we don't feel we miss anything by celebrating this joyous season in Japan for these
many years.

lonely place, as far as fellowship with

those of like faith is con-

cerned,

and
wrote

'I
i

'I

.;i
tfr I

I]

once

me that he
now under-

stood the feelaries

Receiving the diploma.

Stephen lijima and Koji

Sugiura and the Sugiura

about

have

being

For the occasion, Mrs. Okada (81) of

separated fix)m

family, brethren, conventions, etc.

In November Stephen lijima of the Minato church made a trip up there to take an offering from the church and give some personal encouragement, which we know accomplished the pur pose from the good Christmas letter we received. This used to be Bro. lijima's home town in his youth. We appreci ated very much hearing about this
"visit" in the fullest sense of the word.

the Mejirodai church made a nice blue kimono for him, and he made quite an impression not only on the people at school but many others who saw us as
we went to town on the electric trains

that day. Jonathan was the 70th graduate of this school, but only the third missionary from Churches of Christ to finish the complete course. We ask you to join us in prayer for him as he begins his missionary work this year.

JONATHAN SIMS GRADUATES FROM LANGUAGE SCHOOL

On Dec. 17 Jonathan graduated from the Japan Missionary Language
Institute. He studied full-time for
The Simses surrounded by JMLI teachers.

To sum up, we had Christmas meetings or parties for 3 home Bible study groups that had met faithfully through the year, 9 different groups of children or adults who study English language with us and of course the 2 Sunday School programs and 2 church programs. The main church meeting was following the special worship service on Sunday Dec. 19. 56 people stayed for a light lunch of rice balls which was paid for by the church. Then in the afternoon we had a very varied and high quality musical program by various individuals and groups, which included almost everyone who was present. The final thing was a gift exchange. The other church program was a Christmas Eve Candle-light service which was attended by 42 people, including several people who do not usually attend our worship services, and a number of couples. At the 2 Sunday School programs, attended by over 100 people, including a good number of mothers and several fathers, we gave out about 60 attendance prizes. The children mainly presented musical programs this year.

about a half year in 1979, and then again from June 1981 through all of
1982. So he finished the course in the

CHRISTMAS AT
MEJIRODAI
I will not take space to go into the details of how we spent Christmas season here, because I have done that several times in the past years and this year was not very different. Of course we began to write letters and plan to buy things about 2 months ahead, but from Dec. 16th through 25th we had
The Ito Family.

standard time of 2 years. The last term

Jonathan Sims giving graduation speech at

language school.

The Men's Quartet.

BUTTKAY NEWS
Since last writing, another baptism was reported! That makes a total of 3 campers baptized during the year 1982!
Thank God for each one of these! Their

PATTON NEWS
It could be said that missionaries, servicemen, prisoners, etc. have furloughs; other people have vacations. But during our present time of relief from our responsibilities in Japan, we are mixing furlough and vacation and are having a joyous time at both. Forget the inconveniences of living out of suitcases, having no home, transportation, etc. we can call our own, we are enjoying this short sojourn in the U.S.A. We have not allowed this present enjoyment however, sweet as it is, to
cloud or obscure our vision of future

dinner at the Brookshire home. Miss

trials and tests as a new Christian (in

Ellen Thompson of the Homeville Church served as our gracious hostess for 2 days and showed us the interesting and historical sights of the city of Pittsburgh. The Duquesne church which has

Japan) have begun. This is the time to remember the exhortation, to pray one
for another.

The year 1982 saw about 90 more campers attend than last year. And
that doesn't include the Christmas

supported us since 1953 gave us the evening of October 27 to report to them and express our thanks for their support. The Wayne Kasers, who
minister to the church, showed us very warm hospitality as our hosts while at
Duquesne.

camp which will be in a few weeks. Also, a number of missionaries came from greater distances to help make the camps more successful. They were a tremendous help, and I am hoping they will make plans to help in the camps in 1983. Our goal for 1983 is threefold. First, is the desire to average at least 50 campers per camp. Second, is the desire (prayer) for 100% conversion of every camper. Third, is to build the Camp Manager-Staff building and to realize the Planned Camp Improve ment Projects. For a detailed review of the above, I strongly recommend that you get out the 4th quarter issue of the 1981 Tokyo Christian and read it carefully. There is no greater goal than to open the hearts and minds of the younger generation of Japan to the
Creator God and His Love for them.

We next stopped with the Ray Carpenters of Wheeling, W. Va. They

served as our hosts more than once

service for Christ in Japan. If some

unforeseen barrier (who knows the future, save our heavenly Father?) like the loss of health, for example, does not

before and we received great pleasure from seeing them again. The Manton Fields, who visited us in Tokyo in the

impede our way, we are committed to return to Japan for another "term" in
April 1983. We finished visiting our supporters
in the middle of December. If our

past, came to the Carpenter home and we spent an evening reminiscing. We worshipped with the Warwood church in Wheeling on Sunday morning, Oct.
3l8t.

knowledge does not fail us, we missed reporting to only one of our supporting
churches and that failure was due to the fact that our travel schedule and

Won't you share this burden with us, by Praying! -Stanley Buttray

their time of meeting were irreconcilable. We regret this, but our failure to report to them in person in no way shows any lack of love, responsibility, or gratitude to them. We spent nearly 3 months on our tour to visit our supporters and drove exactly 6,800 miles, at least passing through the following states: Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia,

West Virginia, Maryland, Penn sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and

Missouri.

We want to especially thank again

TheEngiish-MusicCampStaff. Frontrow: from the left, Miss Osawa, Betty Turner, Aki

We spoke to the Belmont Ridge church, Beallsville, Ohio, that evening and spent the next few days as guests of the Phillips twins, Eileen and Arlene of Barnesville, Ohio. While we were with them, they delighted us with a tour of Alexander Campbell's old residence at Bethany, W. Va. How much we owe that great man and his family! But it is saddening to know that that property is now in the hands of those who have lost his loyalty to the Scriptures and his vision of the restoration of the primitive church on scriptural principles. We arrived at the Utica, Ohio church during their week of revival services. We spent the next few days in sweet fellowship with them, enjoying the revival and the hospitality of Nancy Hall and the Stephenson family. The
weather was cold there but the church

Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Scheurich of

Hasegawa, Mabel Buttray. Back row: Dave and Ruth Hinson, Angela Essick, Taninari San, and Carolyn Barricklow.

Joplin, MO., the parents of our son-inlaw Chris, for lending us their car for our sojourn. They loaned us the car
because they love God and because we
serve Him.

warmed and encouraged us in the

Lord.

On November 5 we arrived at Piqua,

During our stay at Virginia Beach,

Va. we again enjoyed the warm

Ohio, Betty's home town, and were welcomed both by the church and by Mrs. Irene Maxwell, a very dear friend,
who was our hostess several times

hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Al Floyd (former navy officer in the Tokyo area) and the good folk of the Aragona
Half of the Nakano Church Group that came for a two day camp October 9-Xl. Mr. Buttray took
them to the Komoro train station. The rest

until December 13, while we travelled

to other churches in the area. On Nov.

returned to Tokyo by car.

church who have supported our work for many years. The young people that Betty taught were knowledgeable about Japan as they had studied it in school. On our way to the Pittsburgh area we enjoyed the colorful trees along the way. Upon our arrival in North Huntington, Mr. and Mrs. Choby served as our hosts. Mr. Choby had visited us in Tokyo when he passed through on a business trip. On the morning of October 24 we reported to
the Norwin church and thanked them

7 we spoke to the Piqua church. We visited many friends there. Camp

Christian and the Sheepskin Community Club. Bruce Hogston and
his wife took us out to breakfast one

morning. He had visited us while he was in the military in Japan. On Nov. 14 we began our sojourn
with Louise Williams of Mt. Victory,
Ohio. She had offered us a haven of

Itagaki San (preacher of the Nakano Church)

speaking to the group in the main auditorium.

for their support. The Homeville church was our host that evening with

rest during 2 furloughs in the past at her home in Rushsylvania, Ohio. The Mt. Victory church had a carry-in dinner for us and their home-coming day after we had spoken to the church that morning. The Rushsylvania

church which has supported us since 1947 welcomed us in the evening and, after we had spoken to those gathered, served refreshments to the group.
Andrew attended an area men's

with the Carl Robeson family.

and Bill Owens.

In

Rochester, Minn, to have a check-up on

the 26th. We wiLl be the* guests of Mr.
and Mrs. Earl Grice while in the area

Kokomo we visited the Bill McGilvreys

Bill Owens was

meeting and spoke at 2 rest homes where Mrs. Williams usually teaches. Betty and Mrs. Williams spent the rest

baptized at the Yokosuka church in Japan. Bill is now enrolled as a Freshman at Ozark Bible College near
us.

of the week going to several olher

classes of Mrs. Williams, speaking about the Lord and His blessings on the work in Japan.

Our visit with the Scottsville church, Floyds Knobs, Ind. was indeed a very pleasant one. Mr. and Mrs. John Jones, dear friends of many years,
minister to the church. Mr. and Mrs.

as the college apartments are booked up for that time. Please pray that we will have a good report and be able to report back to Japan to the work in April. -Andrew and Betty
Tokyo Christian (No. 776-370)

On Nov. 17 we were dinner guests at

the Roger Beck home and from there

drove with them to the night's meeting at the Hi-Point church, Bellefontaine,
Ohio. There Andrew met Mr. and Mrs.

Forrest Wright were our gracious hosts. This church has supported us for many years and they are dear to our
hearts. After a delicious meal with some of the members after the service

Published four times a year in January, April, July and November for the missionaries of the Church of Christ,

Cunningham Mission, Tokyo, Japan by Mission Services, PO Box 2427, Knoxville, Tennessee 37901. Second Class postage
paid at Knoxville, TN 37901.

Bill Best who formerly ministered to his home church in East Point, Ga. Mr. and Mrs. Larry Ogden minister to the Hi-Point church and formerly had served the Rushsylvania church. These and others gathered that evening and Andrew spoke to them.
Our visit to the historical town of Ft.

on

Sunday,

December

12,

Betty

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to

Tokyo Christian, c/o MISSION SERVICES, PO Box 2427, Knoxville. TN
37901.

enjoyed meeting with the ladies in the

afternoon at their annual Christmas

Recovery brought back many memories to Betty. Her grandfather

Jones' funeral was held at the church

there 54 years ago. The congregation warmed our hearts and gave us new
zeal to continue in the Lord's work.

get-to-gether. The Wrights opened their home in the evening and guests came to visit us and fellowship and sing hymns of praise unto the Lord. Another rest stop at Irene Maxwell's home in Piqua, Ohio prepared us for Betty's appointment with the Ladies' Missionary groups at First Christian church at Springfield, Ohio. Mr. and
Mrs. John Wilson were our hosts. The

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Buttray, 571-1 Innaihara, Mochizuki, Kitasaku Gun, Nagano Ken, Japan 384-22. Forwarding Agent Mrs. Lois Hessler, PO Box 287,
Meadville, PA 16335.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Patton, 3-6 Kugo Cho, Yokosuka Shi, Kanagawa Ken 238,
Japan. Forwarding Agent: Mr. and Mrs.

G. Wade Fletcher, Rt. 6, Box 15, Rushville,

IN 46173.

Mr.

and

Mrs.

Harold Sims, 3-33-7

After Andrew had spoken at the morning worship service, a fellowship dinner was enjoyed by those who could
remain.

6 groups that met on December 14 were very attentive and gracious as the work in Japan was related to them in
slides.

Mejirodai, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 193 Japan. Forwarding Agent; First Church ofChrist,
Orange at Center St., Eustis, FL 32726.

Next we spent a few days with Betty's aunt and uncle. Burr and Ruth Warner, who live near Eaton, Ohio. We got a warm reception by the Barron St. church at Eaton when we worshipped with and spoke to them on Nov. 28th. At noon we enjoyed participating in the annual Thanksgiving dinner and reunion for the Warner family. Ob serving Thanksgiving in America for the first time in many years and at the same time meeting many ofBetty's
relatives at the reunion afforded us

December 15th found us again at the Warner home to load up some things that Betty's mother had saved for her through-out her lifetime. We headed for Joplin, Missouri on December 16th, arriving there on the 17th. It was good to be back with Sharon and her family and unpack our suitcases for a few
weeks. -Andrew Patton

Two year subscription Subscription and Flaming Torch

$.50 $1.00

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Patton Family
Philip, 24 and in the navy in New
York, was able to come to Missouri on December 18 and remain until January 2. Stephen, 22, also in the navy in Charleston, SC., had leave from December 30 until January 16th. Even though all 4 children were not able to be together at any one time, we did get to visit them all during the month's time. Our grandson, Zachary, from Edmond, Okla. came and stayed with us for 8 days. We celebrated Noel's 26th birthday and Stephen's 22nd birthday during that time. Sharon, Chris and Sandy have been our gracious hosts during this time and we appreciate it very much. We are presently worshipping with our family at Iron Gates church in Joplin. It's refreshing to hear the Gospel preached in English and share
in the work of the church. Charles Curran is the minister at the church.

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great pleasure. Wade and Marge Fletcher of Rushville, Ind. have served as our

forwarding agents since 1965. They

attended the National Missionary

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Convention at Lexington in September to represent us. We appreciate their

services and contributions to our work.

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We paid our first visit to the Fletchers after our return from Japan during December. We worshipped with

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and spoke both morning and evening

to the Rushville church on December 5.

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Many of the members enjoyed trying to use chopsticks as we ate an oriental

meal at noon. The Sexton church to whom Andrew ministered a few

OS

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months in 1953 joined us in the evening worship and slide presentation that evening. We enjoyed meeting Joyce and Bob Warrick again who used to be co-laborers with us in Japan.
While in the Rushville area we

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journeyed to Camden, Ind. and visited

On January 24 we will travel to

/I ^

Tokyo m Christian
"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" Mark 16:15
VOLUME 82

APRIL, 1983

NUMBER 2

PATTONS' NEWS
PATTONS RETURN TO JAPAN
It hardly seems possible that 6 months could have passed so quickly

On the following Wednesday we

departed by plane for Fontana, Cali

fornia to visit Betty's aunt, Gladys Stackhouse, and her many cousins there. That visit was a thoroughly enjoyable one and, as is usual with the Stackhouses, Perezes, Bitontis, etc.,

but they have. Our furlough is now history and we are now back in Tokyo preparing for the next phase of our
work in Japan. Our furlough now ended was one of

made known among our friends and supporters as well as among the brethren in Japan. Now we would like to spell out the nature ofour work at the
camp.

our most enjoyable ones. In pre ceding ones we had to spend a lot of
time in travels in the interests of our

they entertained us royally until they

drove us to the Los Angeles airport

work. In contrast most of the past 3 and a half months was spent with rela tives and as a real furlough. A trip to Mayo Clinic in January for medical ex aminations and Andrew's trip to Charleston, S.C. to see son Stephen
and to Atlanta to see his father and

early on April 10 so that we could board our plane for Tokyo. At Narita Airport we were met by Harold Sims, Mabel Buttray and
Satoru Taninari. On Sunday April 17

we plan to worship with the Yokosuka

church. Some time during the following week we intend to depart for Shinshu Bible Camp to help in the work of a camp which is scheduled to be held at the end of April. Thus will

We will be working in close cooperation with Brother Satoru Taninari, the Japanese manager ofthe camp. It will be his and our responsibility to maintain the camp grounds which consist of about seven acres of land, (above 8000 "tsubo"), a missionary home and camp building, oversee the purchasing and preparation of food for each camp,
conduct the financial and business

other relatives were necessary ex ceptions to the rule.

affairs of the camp, and do any thing else necessary to enhance the
vital ministry of the camp for Christ.

Our general health condition, con sidering our age, was pronounced good by Mayo and we got their blessing on our plans to return to Japan. Andrew's medicine was changed and the side effects resulting from his former medi cine have disappeared. We are very grateful for that good report and on its basis, we were able to return to our work in Japan without being nagged by fear that our health would not bear
the stress of another term on the field.

begin our labors in that new phase of

our work for Christ in Japan.

We hope to work out a close relationship between the camp leaders and the Japanese ministers, churches
and the missionaries served by the camp. We hope to include the repre
sentatives from each of them in

Words are inadequate to adequately express our joy and gratitude over our furlough which has just ended. We
were treated so very kindly and be

friended by so many people time and space are inadequate to mention them
here. We were able to meet and enjoy the fellowship of many Christian

Our last few weeks in Joplin were spent in purchasing and mailing the supplies we will need in Japan. The boxes we mailed perhaps will not all reach us until June, but surprisingly enough, Mr. Buttray reported that 3 have already arrived. On April 1 we leaded our baggage in to the car and with the Scheurichs, Chris, Sharon and Sandy, drove to Edmond, OK to visit our son Noel and

people during our sojourn in the

U.S.A., a truly unforgettable ex perience. We were able to rest, to
learn more concerning the condition of our health, and to visit relatives we had
not seen in several years.
Now we look forward to a fruitful and

planning the program and affairs of the camp. We believe that they can offer many excellent ideas for conducting the camp affairs and their inclusion in the camp planning will encourage their interest, support, and participation. We expect through this and other means to keep the churches using the camp informed of the
financial condition and needs of the

camp. The more they are informed of the good work of the camp and its
needs and the more wholesome contact

happy ministry in Nagano Prefecture

with Shinshu Bible camp as its base.
-Andrew Patton

grandson Zachary for four days. We found both of them well and Noel busy in his work from which he was given a
short vacation to be with us. We found

PATTONS' FUTURE PLANS

The fact that Stan and Mabel

they have with the camp the more their interest, support, and participation in the camp will be, we believe. To accomplish these objectives is our main reason for our acceptance of the heavy responsibilities involved in

managing the camp affairs and for

moving to the camp ground. We will occupy the home on the camp ground provided for the missionary overseer of the camp. Though we wish it were otherwise, the camp season each year is mostly
confined to spring, summer, and early autumn. This is due mostly to the fact that work, school, or other personal responsibilities will not permit people

Zachary a very grown-up and wellbehaved four year old. The short visit with them was very enjoyable, but that joy was mingled with the sadness of knowing that perhaps we would not meet again for many, many months. The Scheurichs had to return to Joplin on Sunday evening and saying fare
well to them was a sad event too.

Buttray will retire from Mission work in Japan and return to the U.S.A. permanently around June of this year has already been publicized. Also our plans to replace the Buttrays as the responsible missionaries in the work of
the Shinshu Bible Camp has been

to attend camp in other seasons. We do have, however, a year-end camp around Christmas time because people are free to come then. Ofcourse, during
"slack" times also the maintenance of

BUTTRAY NEWS

^^"Shuten", the sign on the super

highways in Japan which indicates the end of the road is fast approaching, illustrates vividly where we are today as missionaries in Japan! April 27th will be the SHUTEN marking the end of 33 years of serving our Lord in Japan. AndMay31stwillendourterm of service of working together with the late Mrs. W.D. Cunningham, Harold and Lois Sims, and Andrew and Betty Patton. During this time we had only six furloughs, and two of these were only short visits. It all began when with our eight year
old son Paul we arrived at Atlanta

the camp grounds must be continued. That is the responsibility of Bro.

Taninari and us.

We also have plans of cooperating with Bro. Taninari in establishing churches and evangelizing in the towns, cities, and villages of the area where the camp is located. After moving to the camp, we intend to
confer with Mr. Taninari and if he

today haven't changed. Their ethics, morals, religions; family, village, town, city, and National traditions have not changed! Christ, and Eternal Salvation through Him still remain FOREIGN and 99% rejected! Thus in our judgment, 33 years have made little change or progress, except in the area of affluency, economics, and World
Power!

concurs in cooperating in that work we plan to launch out in it at the earliest possible time. We will keep you informed on the progress of those evangelistic endeavors as it occurs. Mr. Taninari's becoming affiliated with us in the work of the camp and in church and evangelistic work will necessitate our paying his salary (to be negotiated) for his services out of
our mission service funds. He has no

Those first five years were busier than the average new missionary. The
reason was, we followed in the footsteps of the Samuel Saunders family who because of sickness had

suddenly left Japan about ten days be

fore our arrival. So our immediate re

Christian College in the Fall of 1945 to study for the ministry. In doing so, we became the first of a great number
of recruits to leave the First Christian

other means of support. And, should he get married, it will be necessary to increase his support at that time. We would appreciate your keeping this in mind when sending support for our
work hereafter.

Church of our hometown Meadville, Pennsylvania. There is no doubt that the accept ance of us as students at A.C.C. by President George Bondurant was the turning point in our lives, and the

sponsibilities included preaching at the Yochomachi Church and teaching in the Bible College. Also, in that first year at the insistence of the Ogden Robbins family (Navy) we went to
Yokosuka and started a new church.

During the next four years there were four major events. (1) Paul returned to the States in 1953 to finish high
school and enter Penn State

We are entering this new phase of our work for Christ with joyous anticipation. Having been engaged in mission work in Japan for over 35 years, we have learned that there are some things which one must anticipate-hardship, indifference, misunderstanding, opposition, suffering, to mention a few-and that, though a healthy optimism is essential, we can expect the way to be sprinkled liberally with thorns, pricks, backsets, and discouragements. We have our eyes open for these things and pray for wisdom and courage to deal with each difficulty as it occurs. Your prayers for us and the work of both the Shinshu Bible Camp and our evangelistic work in the area of the camp are appreciated.

means of opening the door to God's purpose of being witnesses for Him in Japan! Though we began preaching midway of our first year, we had not yet been committed to a full-time church ministry as we came to the last year of schooling. And just as God directed our lives to A.C.C., He again stepped in during our last year, to lead us to Japan. It was early December
that President Orval Crowder came to

University. (2) Mrs. Cunningham died

Christmas 1953 and went to be with

her Lord. (3) The responsibility of the Mission fell squarely upon the shoulders of the remaining young mis sionaries. (4) And David our youngest son was born December 20, 1954.
The conviction that we should have

our own Christian Camp was quite strong even while Mrs. Cunningham
was living. But it was not to be for many years. During our second term of
service we continued a belated

challenge us to accept an invitation to work with the Cunningham Mission in Tokyo, Japan. Through previous con
tacts with missionaries a definite in

terest in missions had arisen, but the Call to mission work in Japan came as a complete surprise! However, the result of a number of weeks of prayer
confirmed the invitation was God's Will!

"language study", preached for eleven months at the Oji Army Chapel, started a Sunday school and Bible class in our home, which resulted in the
construction of the Kamiochiai Church

building beside our house.

The next two terms of service were spent assisting the new Kamiochiai

Please note our change of address: Andrew & Betty Patton

571-1 Innaihara Mochizuki Shi Kitasaku Gun

Nagano Ken 384-22 Japan Our phone number is 02675-3-3749

So upon graduation in June 1949 Mabel and I travelled eight months visiting churches. But because we were urgently needed in Japan, we made plans to leave even though we lacked $50.00 of our goal of $200.00 monthly support. While enroute to San
Francisco and embarkation on the S.S. Wilson we learned the Fairmount

and the camp number is 02675-3-5447.

-Andrew Patton

Church in Richmond, Virginia had just pledged the $50.00 needed! It was on April 27th, 1950 with Paul now 13 years old, that we came to Yokohama and was met by Mrs. Cunningham, Harold Sims, and Andrew Patton. Our first impression of the Japanese was that everyone looked exactly alike and came from one
mold. In a very short time we knew differently. But from another view point they are exactly alike, and even

Stanley and Mabel Buttray

Church next door, and the Yokosuka Church which were both experiencing difficult preacher problems. Morimoto San, the young preacher we left in charge ofthe new Kamiochiai Church when we went on furlough in 1961, was in the preparation stage of going to Thailand as missionary when we returned in 1962. It is now 21 years since they left Japan. Then, among the
original members of the Kamiochiai

Chaplain Hendly brought a group from the Yokota Air Base during the early days to help clear the land for a Softball field. Also, from the Air Base these last two years Cliff and Darlene Bassham have come many times and been a big help. One time they brought Dale Thayer and worked on drain ditches and the road. Also, each year during the July work camp a number of
missionaries and teenagers have been

SIMS' NEWS
SPRING CAMP IN SHINSHU
Early in April the cherry trees blossom and the new school year begins. For 2 weeks preceding this all students enjoy a vacation, which
makes it an ideal time for the first

Church was a young man named

Mizoguchi. He later entered the ministry. Also, the preaching at Camp Oji resulted in one young man becoming a chaplain, another an assistant chaplain, and another on returning to the States entered a Bible College. Also, of two Japanese that were baptized from the Oji Chapel experience, one remains faithful today.
It was about the time we returned

from our third furlough in 1968 that a strong urge to have a Camp returned

and wouldn't go away. It was during this time that we were helping the Julius Fleenors in their small camp in Karuizawa and cooperating in Summer Festival Evangelism. This
resulted in a new church established in

the Tokyo area. And then our son David graduated from the Christian Academy in June 1972 and we returned home for his entering Milligan College.
But it wasn't until 1974 that 6V2acres

a great help. Much yet remains to be done! And unfilled plans must remain just that! May 1983 will mark the 30th anniversary of our son Paul leaving Japan. He has never returned during all these years, but is planning to come before we leave Japan. He will be accompanied by his wife. Faith, and her mother, Mrs. Alma Sellers, who will be visiting Japan for the first time. This will be a very special occasion for us, and will climax our time of service for the Lord in Japan. We are leaving the work of the Camp in the hands of Andrew and Betty Patton, and Taninari San. Our prayers for them and the progress of Camps in the future will be for 100% success...increasing the number of campers and multiplying those who
will be saved.

camp of the season up in Shinshu. Al though in mountainous Nagano prefecture the wind is still cold and
there is snow on the mountains and in

shady places, the camp building has heat, ping-pong tables and the other necessary facilities. This year there were only 13 Middle and High School campers, but we had a good program; including lively action songs, ice-skating at a large rink in the area, a talent show, Bible dramas, cross-country hiking as well as interesting classes and evening
messages.

Penny Boggs, who led the singing and helped in the kitchen, and 3 boys who are members of our Mejlrodai Middle School Class, and Jonathan and I made the 5 hour trip in our light van. We had brought our lunches with
us, but when noon came we were crossing a mountain where it was cold and there was no good place to stop. We kept looking for a suitable place,

of mountain land in Nagano

Prefecture were realized. And it wasn't

until two years later that money

became available from the sale of

We wish to acknowledge and thank God for all the cooperating missionaries, preachers, and workers that helped us in any way, directly or indirectly in the success of the Camp
these 3'/2 years.

but passed tbifough a city and many

miles with no picnicking spots visible.
Finally we stopped to get gasoline at a

Mission property to begin construction of a home for us to live in, and begin planning the Camp Building Project. It was during this time that Matsutaka San, an architect and owner of the Cowboy House Restaurant in nearby Karuizawa came to our rescue. His designing and finding a suitable construction company was invaluable help to us. Even so, the Camp building was not completed until December 20, 1979.
From the dedication celebration on

We must apologize for not being able in this short space to recognize everyone to whom we are eternally grateful! So we just simply but sincerely say THANK YOU to all Churches, Individuals, and Readers of the Tokyo Christian for your faithful fellowship and support in preaching the Gospel in Japan through the years! If possible, we would like to visit one
more time the Churches that have

place out in the country and noticed a

few large trees on a hillock across the road. We got our lunch bags and thermoses out of the car, and as we started walking up the lane we passed a "factory" where a man and his wife were making concrete blocks, pipes, etc., and asked them if it would be all right to eat lunch up there. It was OK with them, of course, but they must have thought it a little unusual since it turned out to be an old cemetery. A few minutes later we were quite surprised to see the "cement lady" coming toward us with a Japanese woven straw mat to spread on the ground, a large pot of hot-water and EHceen-tea leaves in a teapot and tea cups for all of us plus rice balls wrapped In sea-weed, which were made of rice grown in their paddy and was for their own lunch, no doubt. It was certainly an expression of true, warm hearted hospitality which brightened our whole trip.
-Harold Sims

supported us through the years. For

our feelings, prayers, and support for the Camp will not end because we are returning home. Since we have no home (property) in the States, and because of other cir cumstances, we don't know when we will have a permanent address. So for
some time to come we will continue to

January 15th, 1980 until now April

1983 the first camp was the most thrilling! This was the Jr. Hi. and High school Spring Camp of 1980. Threefourths of the 56 campers heard the Gospel for the first time. Including the Staff and helpers the total reached 76 persons which is about maximum capacity.
Just when we needed someone to

use:
16335.

P.O. Box 287, Meadville, PA

help in the Summer camps, Taninari San's name was mentioned. Upon our invitation, he accepted and arrived in July. That first summer was a trial period for him and us. But his ability in cooking was a real help, and he liked what he saw and experienced, and decided to stay. It has been decided
that Taninari San will become the

Now the Toll Gate and Off Ramp is in view, so it is time to say Sayonara! -Stanley and Mabel Buttray

E. P. R.
All through the winter months we struggled to keep our Sunday AM worship attendance above 20. Some were absent almost every week with

Camp Manager as we leave June 6,

1983.

flu. At one time 3 of our regulars were caring for their seriously ill mothers.
We needed a revival.

people distributed it to every house in

the neighborhood. The printer caused us some embarrassment by misprint ing the title of the handbill as ERP, so we had to cut that part off of 3000 copies. On Easter Sunday we broke our previous record of 59 adults at a wor ship service with 63, including 9 new

people. As this is being written we are not yet to the middle of the campaign, but already have had 14 new people in
our services. So it is already a revival, and we are most happy and thankful. Thanks all of you for remembering to pray for us. This is an answer.
-Harold Sims

One day I got a phone call asking if we could have Steve Fox speak on Easter Sunday morning, as he was already scheduled to speak in another church in western Tokyo that
afternoon. Steve Fox is well-known

among Japanese young people as the bass guitarist and singer with a popular musical group called "Godaigo." He was born in Japan to a U.S. soldier and a Japanese mother, and is bilingual, bicultural and a zealous Christian. He quit the abovementioned group at the peak of their popularity several years ago to go to the U.S. and study in preparation for a lifetime as a missionary in Japan. He was in Japan on a short trip over the Easter holidays.
I talked the idea over with our small

Tokyo Christian
(No. 776-370}

Published four times a year in January, April, July and November for the missionaries of the Church of Christ, Cunningham Mission, Tokyo, Japan by Mission Services, 7525 Hodges Ferry Road, Knoxville, TN 37920. Second Class postage paid at Knoxville, TN 37901.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes

to

Tokyo

Christian, c/o MISSION

SERVICES, PC Box 2427, Knoxville. TN

37901.

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Buttray, 571-1 Innaihara, Mochizuki, Kitasaku Gun,

group of young people, who were more excited about it than I had anticipated, and also our deacons readily agreed, saying "Sometimes we need to do something different." So things began to fall into place for what we are calling Easter to Pentecost Revival. We are planning something a little special for each of the Sundays, and have set goals of 250 total attendance, 25 new people in church and 5 baptisms. We also printed a handbill and the young

The audience at the City-wide special Easter meeting on the roof of the Daimaru Department Store in Hachioji at 2:30 PM April 3, 1983.

Agent;

Nagano Ken, Japan 384-22. Forwarding Mrs. Lois Hessler, PO Box 287,

Meadville, PA 16335.

H*>t I
*

\ ' ^

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Patton, 571-1 Innaihara. Mochizuki Shi, Kitasaku Gun. Nagano Ken, Japan 384-22. Forwarding Agent: Mr. and Mrs. G. Wade Fletcher, Rt. 6, Box 15, Rushville, IN 46173. Mr. and Mrs. Harold Sims. 3-33-7

Mejirodai, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 193 Japan.

Forwarding Agent: First Church of Christ, Orange at Centr St., Eustis, FL 32726. Two year subscription Subscription and Flaming Torch $.50 $1.00

I.xjis Sims and her Ladies Chorus at her birthday

party.

Campers at Middle-High School Week. March

28-31.
u 1o
00

Two

of the

Ito children

playing

their

z
lA >-*

instruments for us as we visited in their home to

jointly celebrate our wedding anniversaries-our

36th, their 12th, on March 21.

fO

a: < LU s .
Q.

<

D
QC

UJ H
0^ CC

wm
Group that ate lunch together at a Chinese
Restauranton Easter Sunday. Steve Foxis next
to Harold Sims. Two girls behind Lois Sims were

a
_j

a
3
1<

o
00

^ a.

a. ^

O
sO

r-t o

_J ^

in church that day for thefirst time in their lives. They are fans of Steve, and a cousin in Mejirodai who received our hand-bill about his coming
notified them. The cousin hasn't been to church yet.

The wedding of Suzuki Keiichi, pastor of the Arakawa Church of Christ on March 27, 1983.

07} f

114-

Christian
"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" Mark 16:15
VOLUME 82

JULY, 1983

NUMBER 3

EPR AT

ADULT CAMP

comes to Tokyo for various business or meetings. -Harold Sims

MEJIRODAI CONCLUDES
In the last issue we mentioned our Easter to Pentecost Revival. We set 3

KUBOTA

FEATURED IN
NATIONALLY

goals-a total of 250 people attending the 8 morning worship meetings (averaging over 31 per Sunday, which
was 10 above the average for Jan. Mar.), 25 among these to be "new people" (who had never attended this church previously) and 5 baptisms. 1. We went over the attendance goal,
with a total of 307. This was an

CIRCULATED
MAGAZINE AND
April 28-30 Camp

ON TV
One of the members of Mejirodai church is a popular song writer. She prefers to keep her professional life and her Christian faith separateespecially not wishing to use either to
benefit the other. But one of the staff

average of 38+. 2. We exactly met the new visitor goal on the final Sunday. 3. We had no baptisms. Most of our 33 member congregation got into the spirit of the campaign after a couple of weeks and worked hard and happily.
We celebrated with a barbecue in the

April 28-30 (April 29th is the Emperor's Birthday) a total of 36 people (counting Mrs. Buttray and Mr. and Mrs. Patton who helped a lot in the kitchen) from 9 different churches gathered at the Shinshu Camp for a
series of messages and discussions on

members of the Japanese version of "PTL Program" picked up the

information about her from one of our

church yard on Pentecost afternoon,

and most of the folks said "Let's do this

again next year" when they left.

-Harold Sims

EVANGELISTIC MEETING IN
KYUSHU
May 27-301 flew down to Kagoshima to preach a short evangelistic meeting
for the Yoshino Church where Walter

the theme: Looking Toward Church Growth. The 4 messages were Growth Expected, Growth Encouraged, Growth Experienced 1 & 2. Two men from Minato Church gave the 2 on Growth Experienced, and told of their personal experiences in seeing their families come to Christ one by one and other things. All who attended were given opportunity to express their thoughts in a final informal fellowship time that was mutually edifying. As always we wish more could have
attended. -Harold Sims

preachers when they happened to meet

on the street. The staff-member is a former member of one of our churches

here in the city. So he got in touch with her and arranged to have her as the special guest on one of their half-hour TV shows. That was quite a scoop for
them.

and Mary Maxey are the missionaries. Nightly attendance averaged 15 to 20, and on Sunday night 2 people made the good confession-the husband of one of the members (middle-aged and working for the City Office) and a neighborhood housewife who had been attending regularly for some time. These decisions had been prayed and hoped for, and there were tears of joy and thanksgiving. -Harold Sims

The next week a reporter and photographer from the most widely circulated Christian Monthly in Japan "The Gospel for the Millions"came out here to interview her. And in the May issue there was a 6 page feature article, including 3 pages of pictures showing our church and the Sims family with her in our living room, about her
conversion and her Christian faith as related to her work.

Her stage name is Kubota Saki, and her most popular song, written before
she became a Christian and listed that

year among the top ten records in Japan for the year was entitled "The
Left to right; Stanley, Paul, Faith Buttray, Lois Sims, Mabel Buttray, Paul Pratt, at missionary
farewell meeting.

Gentile." Her father and mother are not Christians. He is an executive of

ANNIVERSARIES
On October 18 1883, Mr. and Mrs. C.
E. Garst and Mr. and Mrs. Smith

JONATHAN SIMS BECOMES MINISTER AT

YOKOSUKA

the Sony Corp. But they say she has changed for the better in her personality and attitude since becoming a Christian. She is an only child, and went to Sunday School as a small girl.
She first came to our church one

arrived

in Japan

as

the first

missionaries to set foot on this land

CHURCH
On April 22 Jonathan Sims moved from a room in his parents' home to the second floor parsonage of the small
church in Yokosuka. This is a town

night in June 1981 when the Kentucky Singers were here for a special program, and we had a good crowd of young people present.
-Harold Sims

from our brotherhood. They were among the earliest to go out under the old Foriegn Christian Missionary Society, the first to India going in 1882. Harold Sims attended a special
lecture on Garst's contributions to

NAKANO

Japan by Dr. Kudo, a Professor of

Economics at the Meji Gakuin

made famous by the large American Naval Base located there, but there are

PREACHER'S WIFE HAS OPERATION

On April 8 Mrs. Itagaki, wife of the minister at Nakano, had a tumor twice the size of a grapefruit removed from her womb. It was benign, and the Doctor brought it out and showed it to Bro. Itagaki, and even cut it in two to
show the inside. We are all thankful for

University, on June 19 at the former Disciples (now United Church of Christ) church at Takinogawa in Tokyo. There will be other celebrations to mark ICQ years this fall. On July 3 the Wakaba-cho Church of Christ (next door to Mrs. Cunning ham's former house, and always called First Church by her) will celebrate their 80th anniversary. This is the oldest of "our" churches in Japan now.

thousands of people living there who are not connected with the U.S. Navy in any way. It is about 40 miles south of Tokyo. There are only a few members. Andrew and Betty Patton had worked there before their furlough, but having now moved to Nagano prefecture to take over as directors of the Camp someone was needed to serve
the church there. Jonathan seems to be

enjoying the work and life and getting some valuable experience, and we get
to see him twice a month or so when he

her rapid and complete recovery after 10 days in the hospital and a couple of
weeks of rest at home.

SIMS SUMMER PLANS

On July 20 Robert and Helen Sims
will arrive for a visit of almost 4 weeks

Patton said he would first like to try to revive the work for a year or so, and it has continued and has produced more

preachers than many churches that have a larger average attendance. I told this to the people at the Rally.
After I had finished, Mrs. Ishii, who

This was called "The Friendship Circle." Lilah and Mrs Lewis (40ish and 60ish at the time) always went and kept it going through the years with a

word of advice, rebuke or encourage

ment when needed and just
"presence"most of the time.

in Japan. It has been 10 years since Bobby left Japan a few days after graduation from High School at Christian Academy. It will be the first time for his wife. They have been planning and saving for this trip since their marriage 4 years ago. We will attend the All Japan Conventions of our Japanese brethren
and then of the missionaries in Kobe

has helped to put him through school by teaching organ lessons in addition to his part-time work, came up and said she vividly remembered the talk of selling that church building. One day a missionary had called at their home
and asked if her father would be

Looking back, those pre-WWII days

were "golden". And Lilah and Mrs.

Lewis never forgot any of those young people. They kept in touch with them as they scattered over the world, and letters to us were always full of news
about various others we had almost forgotten.

interested in buying it. (That was H.

Sims.) At this time she was in

July 22-26. Following that they will sightsee and also participate in some of
the work.

elementary school and attended Sunday School every week. The front door of their house was right across a
narrow street from the front door ofthe
church. How thankful I am that the

They lived in a little house out on Atwater Avenue, with a screened front porch. Many hours of my youth were spent there playing their favorite game

After Camp and Vacation Bible

School are over both Bob and Helen

and Harold and Lois will enplane for

the United States on August 12. Daniel, who still has 1 year remaining in his study program in Industrial Design at the University of Cincinnati is going to marry Jeanne Elnan, daughter of a Professor of Aerodynamics at the Univerisity, on August 27 at White Oak Christian
Church in Cincinnati. We will be

building was not sold! wonderfully God works!

How

-Harold Sims

LILAH
Lilah Spooner, our forwarding agent
for almost 20 years, was taken to her heavenly reward on Sunday Nov. 21,
1982. One week earlier she had

of "Sorry" and other fun games that the TV, Pac-man, Invader generation doesn't know. They always had a white Spitz dog named Sugar I, II, III etc. who barked at all visitors, but adjusted when they said it was OK. Lilah became our forwarding agent when she was already retired firom her life-long job at the gas company and her mother was in her final years-she
died in her mid-nineties. She never

went to a Convention or any kind of

Seminar for

missionary

work or

absent from Japan a total of only 3 weeks, and will be paying the expenses of the trip ourselves. We have never seen one of our children graduate from College, but we haven't missed a wedding yet. -Harold Sims

celebrated her 85th birthday. I want you to know a little bit about her personality, her work and her final days. When my father took the ministry of the Church of Christ in Eustis, Florida
back in October 1937 some of the first

forwarding agents. But she faithfully wrote us every month, usually including some jokes, clippings from the local and church papers, etc. She
also wrote to those who sent in

offerings, saw that the bookkeeping

and banking were done, that the

newsletter was mimeographed and mailed out and that requests for
display material were taken care of.
She was a real booster of our work both

ISHI STARTS
NEW WORK IN KOTESASHI
At the Fifth-Sunday Rally in Sayama Church on January 30, Mr.
and Mrs. Bill Turner announced that

people we met were "Mrs. Lewis and Lilah"-mother and daughter. They had come to Florida from Michigan
many years ago, and sometimes mention was made of Lilah's brief, unhappy marriage by others but such

to her church people and to us.

Several years ago she began

suffering a very painful deterioration
_^hw backbone. She once wrote that

"personal" matter? rareljT":ame into

their conversation. Mrs. Lewis was the recorder of all births and deaths in that

only the Lord knew what pain she had endured. We were surprised to see how
she had shrunken in size and weakened when we saw her in 1979.

small town, and they knew everybody and vice versa. They always came to
church services in an ancient

Mr. Akira Ishii, who graduated in March from Tokyo Christian College (interdenominational) would be going to work with them as they are trying to
establish a church in one of the

Chevrolet, and Lilah sang alto in the

front row of the choir-not only through thousands of musical scores but

growing "new towns" on the Seibu Railway Line in the edge of Saitama Prefecture adjoining Tokyo. People were asked to support the new effort in prayer, finances and by giving names
and addresses of friends and relatives

through scores of years, cantatas, and directors. They were always on the
side of "our minister", whoever it

After that she had to giveup all her beloved things-house, dog, car, etc., but she took all in a good, thankful, truly Christian spirit and was constantly praising the good people of the local church for the good care they were taking of her. It was her only
family, but a good big one.
The last word we had from her was a Christmas Card which she had on her

happened to be through the changing

years.

living in that area. Mr. Ishii is the third young man to go into the ministry firom the small
Arakawa church. married in March. One is now the The other is now

They were co-leaders of our youth group, and got us to go to an oldpeople's home in the next town to sing one Sunday afternoon every month as well as encouraging us to attend area
rallies and the Christian Service

table preparing to send to us the day

she died. A mutual friend went ahead

and sent it. The old expression has new and deeper meaning now-bless her
heart.

-Harold Sims
Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Buttray. Forwarding Agent: Mrs. Lois Hessler, PO
Box 287, Meadville, PA 16335.
Mr and Mrs Andrew Patton, 571-1

minister at Arakawa, and was just

preaching in Shikoku. Some 16 or 17 years ago we gave serious thought to closing the Arakawa work and selling the land and deteriorating building Andrew

Camps just beginning in Florida then. Every Sunday evening after church 20 or 30 young people from the town's churches-Methodist, Baptist, Sal. Army, but mainly ours-would gather
in someone's home for an hour of

Innaihara, Mochizuki Shi, Kitasaku Gun,

singing and a closing circle of prayer.

"Nagano Ken, JapaiT383^rTorwaraing

Agent: Mr. and Mrs. G. Wade Fletcher, Rt. 6, Box 15, Rushville, IN 46173. Mr. and Mrs. Harold Sims, 3-33-7

Form 3579 Requested, PO Box 2427, Knoxville, Tennessee 37901.

Mejirodai, Hachioju-shi, Tokyo 193 Japan. Forwarding Agent: First Church of Christ, Orange at Center St., Eustis, FL 32726 Two year subscribtion $.51) Subscription and Flaming Torch $1.00

Tokyo Christian
(No. 776-370)

64801L0R0

380TC

loro*s reapers 1111 NORTH MAIN

JOPLIN

Published four times a year in January, April, July, and November for the missionaries of the Church of Christ, Cunningham Mission, Tokyo, Japan by Mission Services, 7525 Hodges Ferry Road, Knoxville, TN 37920. Second Class postage paid at Knoxville, TN 37901. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Tokyo Christian, c/o MISSION SERVICES, PO BOX 2427, Knoxville, TN
37901.

MO 64801

11^

Christian
"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" Mark 16:15
VOLUME 82 NOVEMBER 1983
NUMBER 4

PATTONS' NEWS
PATTON CAMP NEWS
Living in the mountains among God's glories, nature has revealed to us many things. Firstofall, one mustand
can take time to observe that which he

hexagon pavilion near the ball field

has been built. This will serve as another classroom. Plans were

has taken for granted during his life time. Then there is a feeling of preserving and beautifying what is at
hand. This task can become

stupendous especially here at Shinshu Bible camp's seven acres of wooded

land and mountainous terrain. Since June Andrew has been

working 10-14 hours a day, 6 days a week here at the camp. His first project
was to cut excess trees and haul them

to the back of the camp building to build a "natural" retaining wall to preserve the soil and building. All huge rocks were loosened and taken out as some had fallen into the camp building damaging it last year. During the April camp we observed many areas needing repairs inside the building. Also the need for some new conveniences, especially if we have 3060 campers at a time. To help dish washers' backs, the kitchen double sink was raised 10 cm., making necessary the raising of the faucets as well. Toovercomebathproblemswhen a full camp is in session, 2 more
showers in each bath area have been

already drawn up and the estimated cost received before the Buttrays left for the U.S.A. Also a small retaining wall near the house-garage area and the finishing of a vegetable-fruit cellar has been completed with the fund left here for that purpose. A new alarm system for propane lines at the camp was made compulsory by the government. Now the government says the camp can use "EXIT" lights that can be turned out when camp is not in session. Before, we were required to use the type that they had prescribed that could not be unplugged or turned off and had to be lit the year round. These special projects were undertaken this year as funds were
available for most of the construction work. Water lines to the ball field and

motorcycle to camp to work all week on his leave. Stephen Fleenor brought Vernon Hund, a carpenter from Oregon and Mr. Ishii, minister of the Kotesashi church to help for 2 days. On Friday morning during the rain, the helpers all left the camp at 7 a.m. to go to schools in the area and hand out tracts, camp literature and questionnaire cards so they can be contacted by workers in the area. Hopefully a good response will come from this effort and follow-up work begun to bring them to the knowledge
of Jesus Christ and His salvation.

The weather the first 4 days was beautiful. On the fifth day rain prevented working outside, so for half a day inside work was continued. Most were glad to have less strenuous work on the last day. Much of the underbrush was cut out of the areas,
trees were thinned out and wood cut and stacked for furture use. A ditch

sports' areas have been another needed addition. All campers will rejoice when quenching their thirst at the nearby
area.

At present we are in the middle of the camp Work-Week. Kensei Yokomizo, a

member of the Yokosuka church and a

was dug by six of the workers and completed in one day. Road repairs were made and the tennis court taped off. We were very thankful for the crew
who volunteered their services with

installed. To help keep the building cleaner, a shoe and foot washing area outside of the first floor entrance way has been installed. Also the steps to
that entrance have been repaired as someone was injured before this time.
We have desired more classroom

space for a long time. So the dirt under the front of the camp building has been
removed. Now this will become a

large classroom and storage area for camp maintenance tools. Also to help decrease the dampness
on the walls outside and inside of the

3rd year student at Osaka Bible Seminary, loaned a helping hand before returning to his home for the summer. Mr. T. Sato, a university student from Osaka stopped by on his way home and worked with the crew. Bill Turner, father of Steve (junior at Christian Academy) and Tim (Atlanta Christian College) all came to help along with Bruce Norton of Orland Christian College. Nishiyama san from Isehara church came for 2 days also. Bob Tison, Yokota Air Base, who worships with the Turners, rode his

meals furnished each day and laundry done at the end of the day. Only one accident occurred during the week. Bruce Norton stepped on a nail just as he was about to finish his wood cutting

job. We pray for a fast healing of the

wound.

Camps start July 17 and will end September 25th. Please pray for the camps, campers and leaders as they proclaim the gospel to the many who
come and know not Christ as their
Savior.

CAMP NEWS
UPDATE
Since July 18th the Shinshu Bible Camp has hosted 14 camps and is looking forward to the annual Christmas camp December the 24th. Some camps were designed for high school groups, some for a special time of Bible study and fellowship by a church or churches, some to teach English and music combined with

building, rain gutters were put on the rear of the building. A sturdy roof was
made over the second floor veranda to

preserve it and the one on the first floor. This will stop the water from

running into the first floor dining room

area.

Another great asset was built with funds left by Stanley Buttray-a large

Beginning of the pavilion with funds from

Stanley Buttray

Bible study, and some for family

groups. One group of 6 university girls

plans

and

changes

are

being

devoted their time to punching 100

pages of braille from Japanese text
books to be donated to blind students at

contemplated. This year we were definitely novices in some areas of the camp work. But we are learning-

Christianson family at a nearby public' hall on Sunday mornings. We greatly miss the fellowship of the Japanese
congregation. Hopefully in the Fall we

sometimes the hard way. Please pray

for us and the work so that God will be

their university for study. On July 28 a camp program was

conducted for university students from schools where Paul Pratt, Stephen
Fleenor and Bill Turner teach. Of the

glorified and that salvation will be brought to many and that Christians

will be strengthened as they meet here to study His Word.

Andrew's health remains excellent and he is able to do the outside work 10-

can establish a new work among the people in this area. Please pray for us concerning this. All of our telephone calls are long distance and at a high rate. So we try to wait until after 8 p.m.
to do any business that can be

30 campers less than 5 had had any contact with Christianity or a church. Video programs were used and cell
group discussions followed. No one left

accomplished at that hour of the day.

Our mealtime in the evening has be come very late as all work while it is daylight. Our bedtime comes earlier in the evening as Andrew arises about 4:30 a.m. Banking facilities here have much to be disired-only one name on an account; also if we want dollars changed into yen it is about 3 weeks faster to do it by mail with a bank in Tokyo than here. The charge is about $6 at present for the service. The constant check on propane tanks and
kerosene tanks is a must here in the

without pondering about the one, true, living God, ruler of the universe and giver of salvation.

14 hours a day. On October 4 he was 66. (His father was 101 on September 26th). Betty and Mr. Taninari will be busy "closing up" camp-cleaning the inside of the building and airing the Japanese style bedding the rest of October. The camp's straw mat floors were taken up due to the excess moisture this summer. They must be aired in bright, warm sunlight daily for awhile in order to get the odor out of
them. Each one is 3' x 6' and there are 39 of them!

The University Camp July 28-31

The annual family camp August 1517 was extended one day due to a typhoon that closed us off from Tokyo by rail and car for 2 days. Wewereglad to have 7 from Osaka at this camp along with the groups in the Tokyo area. Again we were able to fellowship with the Yokosuka people where we formerly worked--Miss Ichinose, John Sims, Kensei Yokomizo and 2 Sunday
school students.

Besides our regularly planned Church of Christ camps, about 200 denominational people used the camp at other times during August and September. We are thinking about establishing a camp next year for students to come, relax and get their "daily summer vacation homework"
done in the cool of the mountains. We

Visitors from the U.S.A. to the camp were numerous this year. We were grateful for each one who came and participated in the various phases of the work. Just now we are enjoying the Juve family's fellowship and their contribution to the camp work at different times. They live 45 minutes from us and are studying the Japanese language . For each dean, leader, and each camper this year, we give the Lord thanks. Many campers have left camp this year saying "I'll be back" or "we are looking forward to next year". We thank each one of you that has contributed to the camp work and to us personally.
"Andrew Patton

mountain area. Each day a check on the land and the drainage lines is needed to prevent further land erosion. There are many other new "duties" that we must perform to keep the area in good shape. We are thankful that God has given us good health and strength to be able to work in this capacity for the Lord. We thank you one and all for your
prayers for Andrew's health and for our return to Japan to work for Him. Andrew will be teaching in some of the camps this summer.

FAREWELL
A farewell was held for Stanley and Mabel Buttray at the Kamiochia church in T.ikyo on May 15th. The
Kamiochia church members hosted the

CHANGES
Not only has the face of the camp outside been changed in various ways, but the life style of the Pattons has too. We have moved, or are moving by degrees as time permits, into the house at the camp. It seems to be very large after living 3 years in the small apartment at the Yokosuka church building. Also we have spent little time in it as we have been busy readying the camp building and grounds for the camp season. We have had to adjustto buying essential everyday needs as it
takes us 15 minutes to go down the mountain to the city of Komoro to the

would select competent teachers for math, science, and English to supervise the study time. Chapel time, devotions and a Bible study along with recreation would complete the program. Many students remain at home each year because they must get
their homework done and therefore

meeting with the help of Lois Sims and Betty Patton. Seventy friends came in the afternoon to wish the Buttrays well on their retirement. The preachers of the Tokyo churches met at the same time to say Good-bye to their coworkers. Sons, Paul and David Buttray from the States were also able to meet many old friends of theirs and their parents at the same time. It was a sad occasion for them to leaye these
loved
forever!

miss camp. This could be an answer to their problems and would increase the number using our camp each year. Rains plagued us this summer at camp. Two typhoons washed out different parts of the hillside areas. The narrow strip of land in front of the camp building which is used for a road

ones

behind.

But

these

friendships in Christ Jesus will be

gave away again. Andrew had battled

with it for 5 months but failed to make

it a safe area. So October 10 a company

will come and reinforce the embank ment with a concrete wall and make it a safe area for all.

supermarket and post office. So we must carefully plan for shopping trips and business trips. Our gasoline bills are tremendous compared to living in the city and walking or taking a local train to most places. Also our electric
and water bills are enormous here as

FAMILY
Our family has been scattered since 1972. At present Sharon and her family are located at Carl Junction, Mo. Noel is now located at Edmond, Okla. and working for a food wholesale outlet. Phillip has graduated from

we are considered a summer pleasure

Nuclear Power School and is going to

Radar, Satellite schools until September 22. Then he will join the crew on board the USS America, an

We hope to have a better camp season next year as already new

resort organization instead of a religious-non-profit organization. Our Sunday worship is with the

aircraft carrier. He is now at Norfolk, Va. in school. Stephen now has shore duty but is still on the USS Blakely

stationed at Charleston, S.C. His ship

is in reserve now. Phillip and Steve were together for about 3 days at New
Year's time when we were in Mo. on

laughing and eating we had. One meal was a Japanese one, including raw fish right there in the mid-west. On the way to Cincinnati we stopped
for brief visits with the church in

EVANGELISTIC MEETING AT
MEJIRODAI
This is being written just the day before we are to begin a 3 day series of special meetings October 8-10. October 10 is a Japanese holiday, so the week end is free of work for most people. We
have distributed 3000 handbills to the

Napa, California, Sylvia and family in Des Moines, and Hope and family in
Kendallville. We were in Cininnati 2

furlough. They got to spend the Fourth of July together in Norfolk this month. Hopefully they can get stationed aboard the same ship someday. Steve is in radio-communications also. They both have served 3 years in the U.S. Navy and have 3 more years to serve. Their hope is to head toward Japan on their last day of service in the Navy in 1986. We pray that they will be able to
come then and visit their "home" land. "Andrew Patton

Sundays, and Harold spoke in the Forest Dale, White Oak, Hamersville
and Western Hills churches. Some of

the family were with us at the Convocation Ceremony in the new multipurpose building at CBS on August 24. On the way back we stopped overnight in Los Angeles to visit Mr. and Mrs. Nakata. She is the grand daughter of Mrs. Lee atMikawashima, one of the first people we met when we came to Japan 36 years ago. She has been gone about 30 years, but her
children continue in the faith. We also

surrounding area, and have 6 posters up in various places. The evangelist will be Shigeru Akada who is a Timothy of the Nakano church when
we were there and now ministers with the Onta Church of Christ in another

part of the city of Tokyo.

ROBERT AND HELEN SIMS VISIT JAPAN

Robert and Helen Sims arrived at

SIMS' NEWS
SIMS' TRIP TO U.S. FOR WEDDING
Harold and Lois Sims went to the

United States for 3 weeks in August, at their own expense, to participate in the wedding of their youngest son Daniel
and Jeanne Elnan. Yonako

spent an enjoyable 2 nights in Hawaii visiting with old co-workers Eleanor Still Sprankles and Ruth Still Powell. Harold brought a short message at the opening chapel service of the 31st school year of Sunset Beach Christian School there. The Hawaii stop helped a lot with jet-lag problems. We returned to Tokyo via Korean Airlines flight 001 just the day after flight 007 had been shot down, and plunged immediately into a full
schedule of church activities and

English Classes.
-Harold Sims

Nakagawa, a young lady from the Medirodai Church (in her second year of Jr. College) went with them, paying her own way, to fulfill a long-time wish to see America. If you ask us, she saw
the real and best of it.

Narita Airport for a 3 week visit on Wed. afternoon July 20. It had been 10 years-almost to the day-since Bobby had left Japan after graduating at the Christian Academy High School. Four years ago he maried Helen and got a good job with Cincinnati Millicron in computer-related research and de velopment. The have both been working hard and saving money looking forward to this big trip. Of
course it was Helen's first time to see

Japan.

Jeanne has already graduated from the University of Cincinnati, and is presently employed there in a program for training nursery school teachers
and attendants. She is a zealous

member of Christ's Church there, and

that is how she met Daniel and Bob and Helen. Her father is a Professor at

2^1

After one day to get acclimated and see a few local sights we left early Friday morning in our light van to drive 8 hours to Kobe. The Japanese Convention began that night in the nice Portopia Hotel in Kobe. We were very busy and happy enjoying the wonderful fellowship of 500-plus brethren gathered there and the messages, singing and other parts of the program until noon Sunday. Just
after lunch we left in a 9 car caravan

the University in Aerodynamics and related things. They originally came from Norway, and 2 aunts came from there for the wedding. The ceremony was performed by Harold on Saturday evening August 27 in the 150 year old White Oak
Christian Church. Mrs. Elnan and

for about a 50 mile trip over to Nara, the ancient capital of Japan, where about 40 adults and 12 children stayed
in a Youth Hostel for the annual

missionary convention. Mr. and Mrs.

Sherman Nichols from Colorado

some others had worked and planned hard and well for a nice reception in the church basement. About 200 people attended, including some of Daniel's classmates and professors and most of our family and many friends. All of our children except Jonathan, who stayed in Japan, and grand
children were there. In addition Lois' 2

Springs were the main speakers, but almost everyone else participated in some way in the full progam. We also
Harold Sims stands by the tombstone of Charles E. Garst, who was (he first of our missionaries to Japan, and died here in 1899. Mr. and Mrs. C.E. Garst and Mr. and Mrs. G.T. Smith, sent by the Foreign Christian Missionary society, arrived in Japan on October 19,1883; so the work in Japan is noir 100 years old. The bottom line on the stone
says. "Faith is the Victory".

were able to take a little time off one

sisters, one of my brothers and 4 of

Daniel's cousins were there. Most of

these arrived a couple of days prior to the wedding, and what talking,

Specail meetinns commemorating the 100th anniversary are beinn planned for November 6, 7 when Leroy Garrett will he coming through Japan. More about this will he reported in the next

afternoon to visit the nearby park where deer roam freely and where some of the largest and oldest wooden buildings (temples) in the world are located and take a roll of pictures. After the missionary convention ended at noon Tuesday, Bob and Helen, using a Japanese National Railways Pass, went south to Hiroshima, Kyushu and back to Osaka before returning to

t.

'j i

Mejirodai V.B.S. at I.akv Saiko

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Bultray Forwarding Agent: Mr.s. Lois Hcssler, PO l^ox 287, Meadville. PA Ifi.'t.'i"), Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Patton, fiTl-l Innailiara, Mochizuki Shi, Kitasaku Gun. Nagano Ken, Japan Forwarding Agent: Mr. and Mr.s. G. Wade Flt'Lcher. Rt.
(>. Piox If), Rushville, IN -IKl?.'!,

Mr. and Mrs. Dwain and Becky Anderson and

Mr.

and Mrs. Harold Sims.

;{-33-7

vhildrcn Mark and Sara frtmi Honn Kong and Robert and Helen Sims in front of Osaka Bible
Svniinary.

Mejirodai, Hachiuji-shi, Tokyo UKlJapan. I'orsvarding Agent; First Church ol'Christ,

Orange at Center St.. Kustis. i'L ;{2726.
Two year subscription $.50 $1.00

After returning to Tokyo they went down to spend one night with
Jonathan at Yokosuka and then went

Harold Sims playing the role of Potiphar's wife

during Bible Drama night at V.B.S.

Subscription and
Flaming Torch

up to High School Camp with us, spending 1 night at the camp and the rest of the week sightseeing at Nikko
and other places.

Tokyo Christian (No. 776-;i7())

Published four times a year in January,

On Sunday July 31 they attended the

DAVID COLE

April. July, and November for the missionaries of the Church of Christ.

Nakano church where Bobby grew up and was baptized, and on Sunday Aug. 7 they were here at Mejirodai to get acquainted with these peoplo. Bobby also spent some time with Mr. Saito,
one of the members here, on a special tour of the Toshiba Electric plant
where he works. He also visited an

GRADUATES FROM LANGUAGE

SCHOOL
On July 20 David Cole, the youngest son of veteran Japan missionaries Harold and Leone Cole, graduated

Cunningham Mission, Tokyo, Japan by MissionServices,7r)2rj HodgesI'erry Road. KnoxvilieTN 37920. Second Classpostage MASTER:
:f79()l.

paid at^ Knoxville, TN ;}79()I. POST

Send address changes to

Tokyo Christian, c/o MISSION

SERVICES, PO Box 2427, Knoxville, TN

advanced research laboratory outside

of Tokyo to which he had a letter of introduction. And he was able to
contact several of the 9 members of his

High School class of 1973 who are presently living in Japan. So it was a very interesting and profitable as well
as nostalgic trip for him.

On Monday Aug. 8 we all left the church here by chartered bus for our Vacation Bible School at Lake Saiko.

On the way we drove up the toll-road to the fifth station-about halfway up Mt. Fuji, and ate lunch up there in the
natural air-conditioning. After lunch ail of us went up on the mountain for a little bit of exercise. Suddenly a strong earthquake occurred. For the first time

from Japan Missionary Language Institute. It is extremely expensive to study language full-time for 2 yearsabout 5,800 to 6,000 dollars at current rates of exchange-lthis is about 3 dollars per hour in class). And it is also generally admitted that the study of Japanese is very hard on anyone's mental, physical and emotional strength. But we feel it is a worthwhile investment of time, energy and money
for all who are committed to a life-time of service as missionaries of Christ to

this culture. We are very glad to see more and more of our younger set starting out in language school and staying the course, and also to feel that

u ho 00
OO

z a: < UJ s
0.

I actually saw the earth moving-in

waves like on the sea. Helen had been

the supporting churches are showing

an understanding of this necessity. We are glad that we were able to rent
the house where the Pattons lived for
O
QC

<t I

hoping to experience one, and got her wish fulfilled memorably. After the VBS we had just one day to pack suitcases for our trip to the U.S.
on August 12.
It was a short but wonderful vist.

UJ H
a:

many years to David and Rika and

o
z

their 3 children (two born during

language study period) at a modest price during this time. They are now preparing to move to a place in
o
cc

o
DC.

_J CL

The Japanese are still talking about what a nice "oyome" (daughter-in-law)
we have. "Harold Sims

<4sO

o
->

Nagano Prefecture in the central part

of the main island where there are few

churches of any kind to begin a new evangelistic work. David has already preached in Japanese a number of
times, in the church next door to their

house, at Camp and other places.