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100 Years Old and Going Strong
Yesterday (May 14) was a big day for Seinan Gakuin,
the school complex that was founded in 1916. Following the on-campus Founders
Day ceremonies on Friday, there were elaborate centennial activities at large
downtown facilities on Saturday afternoon and evening.
It was a joy to be back in Japan and to
participate in Seinan Gakuin’s centennial celebration—just as twenty years, and
longer, ago I had told people here several times that I would.
After my last two visits here (in 2013 and
2010) I posted blog articles about Seinan Gakuin, so for background information
please see here and here.
The first part of the centennial celebration
yesterday included a public lecture by Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, a 1962 graduate of
Seinan Gakuin Junior High School.
Dr. Nakamura, who will celebrate his 70th
birthday in September of this year, has lived and worked in Pakistan and
Afghanistan since 1984.
He is a quiet, unassuming man whom I have met
and talked with several times through the years. It was a pleasure to hear him
speak again—along with about 1,500 other people who gathered in the
International Congress Center of Fukuoka for the occasion.
Dr. Nakamura became a Christian partly
because of the influence of Baptist missionary Charlie Fenner, one of his Jr.
High teachers. Although he does not say a lot about being a Christian, Dr.
Nakamura’s life and indefatigable work in Pakistan and Afghanistan have been a
very positive Christian testimony.
For
years much of his work in Pakistan was largely with patients suffering from
Hansen’s disease (formerly called leprosy). He
has also devoted
much time and effort working with refugees in the Afghanistan/Pakistan borderlands.
In 2003 Dr. Nakamura was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay
Award for Peace and International
Understanding.
The Magsaysay Awards are often called the Asian Nobel Prizes. As the
recipient of such a high honor, Dr. Nakamura is perhaps the most prominent
among the nearly 147,000 students who have graduated from one (or more) of the
Seinan Gakuin schools.
Dr.
Nakamura was also awarded the Grand Prize at the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize
ceremony in 2013. (See here
for a good English summary of his life and work that was read then.)
For
the past 15 years, Dr. Nakamura has worked extensively supervising the digging
of wells and in land reclamation. He said he realized it was more important to
make food and clean water available to people, keeping them from starving or
getting sick, than in helping cure those who were ill.
Dr.
Nakamura closed his talk with a brief reference to his current slogan:
Reconciliation and Grace.
Baptist
missionary C. K. Dozier was the primary founder of Seinan Gakuin, and just
before he died in 1933 (at the very young age of 54) he said to his wife, “Tell
Seinan, be true to Christ.” For many decades, and still, that has been Seinan
Gakuin’s motto.
On
April 1 the Trustees of Seinan Gakuin issued a peace declaration, partly confessing
that in cooperating with the Japan’s war activities in the 1930s and early
1940s the school had not been true to Christ. It was a fine statement of
repentance for past mistakes and a re-commitment to the teachings of Jesus.
The
evening celebration yesterday was from 6 p.m. until well after the planned
ending time of 8:30. Most of the 4,000 people who attended that gala event were
SG graduates, and I hope most of them gave serious thought again to the meaning
and significance of the motto of Seinan Gakuin, now 100 years old and still going
strong.
It took me a couple seconds to ponder the meaning of the phrase, "Thanks and Next!" that was in the graphic illustration within your message. Then it occurred to me that it must mean "Thanks to God for the past 100 years, and may He bless us through the next 100 years" -- an abbreviated haiku.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on being a part of a wonderful celebration of a millstone in the life of the school that was a significant part of your life and career.
Thanks, Clif, for reading and responding to this morning's blog posting.
DeleteYou explained the English slogan very well, and I hope those who are not as perceptive as you will read your comments.
Glad you had the opportunity to serve and lead at Seinan, and the opportunity to go back and encourage them in their fidelity to the motto.
ReplyDeleteI could picture the school because, as you know, I visited the campus when in Japan 4 years ago. Did I ever mention that We met a couple of young, American, Mormon missionaries also wandering around on the campus? You have a right to feel some pride for your good leadership of the school all those years. I'm pleased you were able, too, to keep your promise to attend the celebration.
ReplyDeleteSo wonderful that you and Mom were able to be there for this!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the report of your Fukuoka visit. I am sure you are happy and thankful to God for such a privilege to plant the gospel of Jesus Christ deeply in the minds of Japanese leaders today. Blessings!
ReplyDeleteSo pleased you both could be there. Sounds as if you had a wonderful time. Blessings on your return home.
ReplyDelete