The Fellowship's 30 Years

This year, Kanto Gakuin University's The Fellowship group will be thirty years old!

The Fellowship started in 1979, when American Baptist missionaries, Charles and Judith DeRolf began inviting students over to their home for Bible studies and meals together. The DeRolfs continued leading this group until they retired from work in Japan in 2005. Here are some quick historical highlights of The Fellowship:

1982: The Fellowship becomes an official club of students at the university.

1985: Eiji Osato becomes a Bible teacher at Kanto Gakuin Mutsuura Jr./Sr. High school and begins helping out at the Fellowship.

1992: Eiji Osato and his wife, Emi (whom he met at the Fellowship group) become Japan Baptist Union missionaries to Thailand, working in leadership development among the Karen tribal group

1993: Fellowship goes to the USA (Yosemite National Park and Chicago, IL)

1994: Fellowship goes to Thailand to volunteer with the Osato family

late 1990s: The Fellowship takes a number of overseas trips (to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, and to multiple places in the US)

1999: Sanae Nakajima, a Fellowship alum, founds "Free the Children, Japan"--an NGO which works to save children around the world from exploitation

(see http://www.ftcj.com/index.html )

2002: Fellowship goes to Boulder, CO, USA

2005: The DeRolf family retires from missionary work in Japan; Rev. Hogari becomes the advisor; Rev. Noh begins volunteering with the group

2006: The Fellowship begins annually welcoming two groups Korean college students for cultural exchange; Dwight begins volunteering with the group

This year, we start our 30th year of friendship-building and Christian witness. PTL!

Sigma Society Volunteer Trip to Thailand, Spring '09

This March, 17 students along with Rev. Morishima, Mr. Kanda, and myself, went on the Sigma Society volunteer and study trip to Thailand. What a great trip! For the first couple of days, we stayed in Bangkok, getting oriented to Thai culture, and learning about the plight of children living in slum areas outside the city. We volunteered at a daycare center in one of these slum areas, with the help of Japanese missionary, Rev. Matsushita and his wife.

We then headed up to Chiang Rai, where we worked with Akha Churches in Thailand to build a shelter in a remote village called Hoi Chom Pu. We stayed in the village for three days--eating delicious stuff like rice, mountain veggies and meat from a freshly killed hog (we also ate some other stuff like ant eggs and and various hog "parts"). The Akha people were lovely and were happy to share their lives and culture with us. The shelter/church building project was carried out with generous funding from Soroptimists International, Japan.

We returned to Chiang Mai after this, to visit a number of Christian ministries which offer help to hill tribes peoples: The House of Love and The House of Hope (both AIDS orphanages) and the House of Blessing (a daycare serving underpriviledged hill tribes children). We also had the chance to have a joint class with students studying Japanese at Chiang Mai University.

This two-week trip was a great chance to put KGU's motto "Serve the World" into practice, as well as a great chance to get to know one another better.

See the full pictoral report at:

http://www.davidsonjapan.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=701