Back to the Beginnings...

We often get the chance to host visitors to Kanto Gakuin, but recently, we had a rather special opportunity. Three guests from the US were able to join Tokyo-based colleague, Roberta Stephens and me on a tour focusing on the history of Baptist missionary work in Japan. Much of that history is centered right here in Yokohama.

Rev. Ebistubo (the stately looking fella' in front) is a Baptist history guru, and (among many other places) he led us to this hard to find monument in Yokohama--it was the original site of the Yokohama Baptist Seminary. The seminary, founded in 1884 by American Baptist missionary, A.A. Bennett, would eventually become Kanto Gakuin, a school system which now serves over 16,000 students annually.

Missionaries have had a long and rich history here in Yokohama. To find out more about Baptist work in Yokohama, take a quick look at my gallery at:

http://www.davidsonjapan.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=389

ABC/IM East Asia Area Director, Stan Murray is standing here with Rev. Oya of Yokohama First Baptist Church, the oldest Baptist church in Japan (est. 1876). Rev. Nathan Brown, the first pastor of this church, is a famous man! He completed the first translation of the New Testament into common Japanese with the help of a Japanese partner, T. Kawakatsu, back in the 1880s. A very rich legacy!

Read more about Nathan Brown at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Brown_(missionary)

"Strike!"

The Fellowship student group at Kanto Gakuin University has gotten off to a good start this year. Having begun the year with just a little over 10 students coming regularly, we now have nearly 20 coming to each meeting.

We decided to begin the year with a party to welcome new students--a bowling party. Wow, I had forgotten how bad I was at bowling. Bowled a 141 in my first game, but a whoppin' 69 in the second. How's that for consistency!?!

A big blessing is that many of the incoming students are women. For almost 4 years now, the Fellowship has been composed of 90% men! So it was good to balance things out a bit with this incoming group of students.

Each meeting, students lead a discussion based on a topic they've chosen. In each session, we've done a short devotion using Henri Nouwen's book "Bread for the Journey," in Japanese translation. We've got a few musicians who've entered the group this year, so maybe we can convince some of them to do the music for our opening praise time as the year goes on...

We're looking forward to a fun and fruitful year!

A Homecoming

Dr. Raymond Jennings served as a chaplain and missionary teacher here at Kanto Gakuin from 1948 to 1960. He and his wife, Irene, came to Japan with two children, and another was born here--she's standing on the left in this photo.

A memorial service was held in Dr. Jennings' honor at Kanto Gakuin Church on April 6, 2008. We had the opportunity to remember a wonderful family who contributed much to KGU and to the wider Christian church in Japan.

While Dr. Jennings was in Japan, he worked both at the University and at the fledgling Baptist seminary--at that time located right here at Kanto Gakuin. Though he was surely no stranger to debate, he seemed to have been loved by a great number of folks here, as his memorial service was atttended by well over 100. He was a broad-minded Baptist, and left a legacy of building bridges.

For more information on Dr. Jennings' life and work, see:

http://www.rayjennings.com/index.html

I was very interested to talk with two of his children who were able to attend the ceremony (along with their mother, Irene). They were raised right here on Kanto Gakuin's Mutsuura campus, and it appears that things were different back then! Yanagicho--a housing development near us--was a swamp; the large, busy road in front of the campus was unpaved; and Americans were getting 350 yen to the US dollar (over 3 times the current rate!). Ah, the good old days!