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KYUSHU

KETOT
Published Regularly to Report the Work of the Kyushu Christian Mission
Vol.

MAY

No.

1952

Missionaries: Mr. and Mrs. Mark G. Maxey, 10925 Nlshihara cho, Kanoya shi,
Kagoshima ken, Kyushu, Japan

Forwarding Secretary: Mrs. Gladys Auerswald , Box 139. North Vernon. Indiana

View of Kagoshima Bay and Mt. Sakuiajlma

Beg innings

O&Uhl

KYUSHU

3APAN

mFUliKE

KMH&mA

OHE Kyushu Christian Mission

began its work in Japan Sep
tember,

0 SUMl

PENINSULA

1950 when Mr. and

MCUIV

V'\

Mrs. Mark G. Maxey returned to Japan

after a tour of duty there in the Army.

Kyushu is the farthest south of Ja
pan's four main islands. Weare located
at the southern tip of Kyushu over 1000

IWIM

liUMZU

(LaupMi

BAT

miles and about 30 hours from Tokyo.

WCIPIC.

OCSAS

While we envision churches through out

Kyushu, right now our work is confined

to the eastern peninsula of Kagoshima
prefecture known as Osumi peninsula.
We live in Kanoya at the center of this
area. There are no other missionaries
in Osumi.

Early this year my sister, Isabel

Dittemore, and mother,Mrs.Maude B.

MAP OF AREA

served by
KTUSHU CHRISTIAN MISSION

Crosses Show Churches

Bibles Show Teaching Points

Maxey arrived in Japan. It istheir plan

and education.

to settle in the western peninsula of

completely unintelligible to Japanese

Kagoshima prefecture and work there.

living farther north. This dialect has

none of the religious words needed to
properly explain the teachings ofChrist
so understanding of the simple Gospel
truths come slowly.

We are in virgin territory for the

gospel, but in comparison with the rest
of Japan it has a low standard of living

Also it has a dialect

what is Being Done?

The work is best described as rural

evangelism. Our purpose here is to pro

vide training, counsel, and encourage

ment for the Japanese Christians so dbey

can effectively win their own.
To this end, Mrs. Maxey has a
training class for Bible School teachers

each Samrday afternoon. The teachers

come from Kanoya and by bus from
three other towns. OnSiuiday they teach
in three Sunday schools in Kanoya, one
at the leper colony, and at the townsof
Takasu, Kushira, Sueyoshi, andlwagawa. Total average attendance at these
schools is 450.

Each Saturday night there is a fourhour training class for preachers con
ducted by Mr. Maxey. After supper to
gether , they have classes in homiletics,
exegesis, and assistance in sermons to

be preached on the Lord's Day. The

members of this class preach regularly
at four churches and two preaching
points.

In addition,

the missionary visits

each Bible school and church once a

month to teach and encourage. Thre

are regular meetings with the Kanoya

City Police and a special week-night
meeting for the men of the National
Police Reserve, Japan's newly formed
defense organization.

Kanoya church has 8 0 resident

members and a full program of activ
ities. Now they are enlarging their
building to have room for the Bible
school. Paul Imura and family have
gone to Osaka Bible Seminary for two
year's training. He has been Kanojwi

pastor and my co-worker. Taking his

place is Sadahiko Motoyoshi, baptized
by Arthur Paul Cook and the firstleader
of the Kanoya church.
The other churches do not have

buildings of their own but are meeting

in homes or rented halls. A building
site has already been purchased for the
Kushira church. We hope to be able to
make similar purchases for the other
churches this year. Total resident mem bership of the four churches at present
is 129 plus 13 baptized believers at the
leper colony.

Other Activities
Another missionary purpose is to
provide aids for evangelization. Five
thousand booklets entitled "Guide to

Christianity" have been published and

used by all the missionaries. Fifty
thousand smaller introductory tracts
have been published and distributed.

Communion tables, pulpits, black

boards, picture rolls, song books and
Bibles have been prepared for each
church. Communion cups are locally
made of Satsuma clay and tea trays are
made into communion trays. "Best

Seller Publicity," advertising the Bible,

has been put in the public places, fer

ries and busses of this area. Over one
thousand New Testaments have been

sold at halfprice to those interested.

Bible filmstrips have proved to be

an effective way to reach large groups

of people with the Gospel message. So
far, 20 tape recordings have been pre
pared in Japanese to accompany these
pictures. Each recording represents a
long, tedious work. Some have been

Paula and Markie in front of Mission

made two or three times to increase

their effectiveness.

IS you can

Do

1. when you haveameeiing, write

Mission Manor, Willernie, Minnesota or

Mrs. Gladys Auerswald, North Vernon,

Indiana well in advance for 100 colored

slides entitled "AYear with the Kyushu

Christian Mission." Script or tape re

Pauline and Gregory Allen

cording available.
2. Collect and send extra children's

picture papers, teacher's quarterlies,

and used clothing.
3. When you send an offering, write
a letter of encouragement togowithit.
When you write for information, re
member it will take at least two months

to get a reply if you send it by regular

mail. Half that time by airmail. When
you write the missionary, airmail is a
good investment.
4. Pray for the physical strength and
spiritual power of the missionaries and
for the speedy evangelization of Japan.
Used clothing sent by the churches

off to first Christian Service Camp

has been used to clothe all the preach

ers and students, plus two dozen needy
families in and out of the church, and

helped keep 80 orphans warm.

Besides the many other activities at
mission house, Mrs. Maxey keeps busy
teaching Paula and Markie their school
lessons each morning. The whole fam
ily is enjoying our new baby. Gregory
Allen, who arrived last December 30.

Jeep loaded for preaching trip

Present Needs - Future Hopes

Working with the young people pro house, on a good road with water and
vides our greatest hope for the ftiture. electricity available, can now be pur
30 of them attended the first Christian

chased. The cost will be approximately

service camp in this part of Japan last $1500. This is an excellent opportunity
summer. There will be camps for both but we must act quickly.
Juniors and Seniors this year.
This summation of the activities

At present there are five young men and progress of the past year is a fairly
and three young women from Kanoya easy matter. To write of the failures,
studying in the Tokyo and Osaka Sem the heartaches, the disappointments and
inaries. It handicaps us now to be send the tears is a more difficult task and a
ing our best workers for trainingbutthe much longer stofy. It is not often that

harvest will be greater whenthey return. a missionary v>rrites about these things,
but remember them when you pray.
In view of the rural nature of this

work and the special dialect spoken

here, it is our definite plan to establish
a Bible college here in Kanoya. The

first door has already opened. Three

acres of land adjoining the mission

FIFTH

National Missionary Convention

First Christian Church

Dodge City, Kansas

24-28 September 1952

News of the World Mission of Christ will be found in AMONG OURSELVES, the current

independent missions story, published monthly at Mission Manor, Willernie, Minnesota.

LIKKLETTER NO, 39

30 November 1952

Kyushu Christian Mission

MR# & MRS. HARK G, MAXBY

Kanoya, Kagoshima, Japan

Dear Christian friends.

nnt-B

weather still persists taci; of course,' we don't mind a bit. Every

woods L
in Ite
the snow. IVlTe .r
almost neverOYSrwhd.inins
have snow onnostalgia
the ground
in this
part through
of Japan,the
wooL
to take
a tramp
evangelism in November, we planned to go to the island of Tan-

.f I

?r -fb,^ th

aptivr-v Mr Mn^

o""

It was late as usual. At

5"^""tes to spare. Mr. Motoyoshi went

v," o^"e^ h-"StSed

to the
the ship
ship.would
In the
of thiswiththe
the baggage
word that
not midst
sail today

bnJiil'jr
Since it was a national holiday. Mr. Motoyoshi returned
ocm-'n^
Isabel's. Tuesday morning it was the same story - typhoon
sula Vfe SDen+^th" H
decided to drive around the Bouthem tip of Satsuma peninnews late ifth
ohurohless area waiting to hear the good
^ hadthe
and village
factory by
of inventing
an aged Japanese
rtisan who
madeafternoon,
his fame we
andvisited
fortune the
in ahome
remote
and manu-

werexn^^tT

Ale^a^drites and sapphires. Tuesday night the typhoon

we dr^r
momentarily. Pauline wanted to be home in case there was any trouble so
wai^ eHo^t^ M I r
mitoighb . ITe put up the shutters and
rad^'^for+he P? T''^"ed while keeping our ear glued to the
the'davtime Lf
Set any of the Armed Forces stations in

in For^

ir,

- TJoTJrT:

we were able to pick up station Kilroy near the front lines

|*ting their information from Tokyo who were in turn listenine

^1-^r-rPauline dld^+r w

It got
0^ tf^thta
to withon one
one

-d hafvotel
^ winner. I

mile of Okinawa and suddenly veered off to sea.

typhoon

ohurorto 0"

su^'pL together.

did not come.

profitabie fellow-

Saturday, we invited leaders from

^special meeting. Guy spoke to them and after that we had

c=.llin!^at''thi?.w^^ churches continues regularly. This month. I have also been

tJse

two wlh

-M

getting acquainted with the teachers and principals. In

T 4.?

'=m

talk to the students. This month I talked to

school. I do not attempt asbriotly religious sermon

young people in America, second some-

of theItimportance
personal
i as .n 4-Z
the teachings of JJesus Christ.
has provedofanbuilding
effective
witnessandto national
many
n.xnciieds of yoxmg people we have not reached.

a,nn-,J^

f the month. Pauline and I took Paula-to Fukuoka for a physical ex.

buTn!t
Loh She mil continue They
improvement
in herwecondition
bat
not much.
mthreported
her dailya little
exoeroises.
Monday nigirt
stayed
V, Baptist
had been
struck with
both
oerebral
p^lsy missionary
since they whose
came tolittle
Japan.daughter
So we knew
intimately
some of
mo-e

I^e^day. Chaplain Mayfield was

t4n =.n^r ^
t
meeting us with a car. taking us to the hospital, giving us
hrar wlth"th Christian
Ch Airairmen
Base mess.
That evening
were guests
fellowship
at the chapel
annex. wePauline
talkedattoa them
and we all
r,o-.v 1,

oack t K

together, including the final half hour at the

hamburgers. Guy saw us off on the 11 p.m. express

-2"

Pauline made special preparation for Thanksgivins.

V,'e had raised several ducks

so decided they v/ould "be the

_dG rssistancq On Monday I went down to a local
reetaurint and anked the cook li' he would bake the ducks. He agreed and said to bring
thera. iire Thursday moming at 8 '-Che ducks were there at the agreed time. At 9.30

the phcne rang* '^ii^e forgot to tell youj" the voice was saying, "we can only prepare
the ducks for bakings but we cannot bake them." vTith a sinking feeling, I asked when
they v/ou'Jd be ready for baking# "At 12," v/as the reply. Since dinner was to be at 1830
ODylously the ducks v.'ould have to be served rare with that timetable.

I went do'vi'n

rtood by the cook until he had thean ready and rushed them home for Pauline to put
1" tno oven at 10o4p. Then it was time to go meet the ferry bringing Isabel, Mother
Tflnet L^igh. It had began to pour down rain. He got within a half mile of home
Ihe jeep quit. It vre.s obvious it wasnH going to run again for awhile so we
o ; t h e rest of the way home in the rain. Pfc. Fisher came over with a Jeep and
oulX'jd the car down to the garage. Dinner was served at 2 p.m. including th6 duck
v/.'.iwas both done and tasty. A couple of chickens had been killed and fried just
j.A co.se the duck didn't make it. There were six men from the Army advisory group plus
ffaniilies - 14 in all for a real Thanksgiving dinner, American style. Afterward,
played caroms and dominos till dark.

Friday at nocn after a morning of car doctoring Mr. Motoyoshi and ^ went to
^ueyoshi for a talk at the high school. Leaving the school, I hurned to Miyakonojo
Arrived there on the minute to meet Ray Mings who had come from '^saka to speak

at: the ^sumi rally. \7e stopped at Sueyoshi to buy some sweet potatoes and rice from

n^.e of the Christians there. Then on through the night to the leper colony where Ray
cpoko briefly to the Christians there. Finally we were home for supper at 8 o'clock.

Saturday was Paula's birthday - nine years old and a mighty fine girl we think.
Tn the morning she opened the presents which many of you had been so good to send her*
In the afternoon, she had seven ^Japanese boys and girls for a birthday party. They
p happy time together playing and eating the birthday cake.

Paula has formed a

'rqusre Club" (fehikaku' in Japanese) based on Luke 2^2 - .Jesus grew in wisdom and
stature and in favor with G-od and men. There are four members Miyako, Michiko, Yoshiko
ind Paula. They meet each day after school. The club rules as paula has written them

ai'eJ ''Do not fight.

Play fair.

You must always be on time for the meeting.

Do unto

^uhers as you would have them do unto you." Good rules for little girls to learn and
.:?!ep I believe. Two of these girls have already become Christians under Paula's in
fluence. Both the children speak Japanese fluently and we believe they are real
missionaries in their own right.
Sunday the 30th was the regular ^th Sunday rally at Matsuyama church.

The Christ

ians arrived by bus and train for sessions that began at 10 a.m. and lasted till 4.30

pam.

73 attended this rally from the churches at Kanoya, Kusbira, Eoyama, Matsuyama,

iYragawa and Sueyoshi in Osumi peninsula and from Sendai, l^agoshima and Kajiki in Sat:jv.ma peninsula v/here Isabel is v/orking. These had a long journey indeed to attend
this meeting. Ray Mings brought messages morning ^.d afternoon showing how Christ
was God Incarnate revealing God to men and each of us as Christians have the respon
sibility of reavealing Christ to others. Fitting and appropriate messages. Then
there were reports from the churches, special music, pictures of summer camp and the
.lusineos session.

As we go from church to church, sometimes the groups seems small and the results
very discouraging, but when they all meet together it provides new hope and strength
:'or us allo

In His service,

Mark G. ^axey and family