Across the Pacific, and Asia, with Love

May 2006 was a special time for my wife June and me. We made our first visit back to Japan, where we had lived from 1966 to 2004. One of the many special events that month was the release of a new book planned and published by Japanese friends in our honor. It was a wonderful tribute.

Across the Pacific with Love

Kimura Koichi was a former seminary student of mine and my successor as pastor of Fukuoka International Church. After our retirement as missionaries in Japan for 38 years, it was his idea to produce a sort of bilingual Festschrift for me. It was financed largely by a very beneficent church member.

Fourteen Japanese colleagues, former students, friends, and scholarly acquaintances wrote essays for the book. One was by Murasaka Masatoshi (Japanese names are written with the family name first), my long-time friend and colleague at Seinan Gakuin.

Murasaka-sensei’s essay was titled “A Man Who Crossed the Pacific Ocean with Love.” The title of the book, Across the Pacific with Love, was adapted from the title of that essay.

In addition to Kimura-sensei, two of my good friends served as co-editors: Yamanaka Sakiyo, a professor at Seinan Gakuin University with whom I had worked closely in the Department of Religious Activities, and Kanamaru Eiko, one of my outstanding former students.

The book was completely bilingual. The Japanese part, printed from right to left, was 201 pages long and the English part was 182 pages. The essays were all written in Japanese. Several Japanese friends translated them into English, which was polished up by some ex-pat American friends.

The first two essays in the book were by the last two people on my chronological list of “top ten” influential personal acquaintances: Kaneko Sumio, our former pastor and friend since 1968, and Otsuka Kumiko, also our friend since 1968 and for several years my Japanese teacher and translator, office assistant, and advisor.

There are also essays by Hoshuyama Teruto, a university student of mine in 1974 who became a leader of the Toishikai, a discussion group I had started a couple of years earlier, and by Fukuoka Kikuko, who in 1985 was the first person I baptized as pastor of Fukuoka International Church.

I wish I could tell you more about these friends and the others who kindly wrote essays for Across the Pacific with Love.

Across Asia with Love

In May 2016, June and I made our last trip to Japan. That visit was one anticipated for decades. Long before retiring from Seinan Gakuin, I had said several times that if at all possible, I would come back for the centennial celebration in 2016. I was delighted we were able to do that.

Here is a picture of former Toishikai members that June and I had a delightful time with during our visit in Fukuoka. Next to me on the right is Hoshuyama-san, whom I mentioned above. 

During that time in Japan, I posted a blog article about Seinan Gakuin’s centennial Founder’s Day ceremonies on May 14. It was largely about Nakamura Tetsu, the featured speaker at that festive occasion.

Nakamura-sensei was a 1962 Seinan Gakuin Junior High School graduate, who years later after finishing medical school spent decades as a doctor and humanitarian aid worker in and around Peshawar, Pakistan, and then mostly across the border in Afghanistan.

As June and I had gone across the Pacific with love for the people of Japan, Nakamura-sensei flew across Asia with love for the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Tragically, Nakamura-sensei was killed by terrorists in December 2019. Earlier this year, Afghanistan issued a postage stamp honoring him. (Click here to see a short video clip about that.)

Nakamura-sensei became a Christian largely because prior to June and me, other missionaries had also gone across the Pacific with love, taught at Seinan Gakuin and witnessed to Christ’s love there.

Please join me in prayer for Seinan Gakuin as on this Saturday it celebrates its 105th Founder’s Day.