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HOKKAIDO CHRISTIAN MISSIONE r n e s t D. F a b e r4.-8 North JSi East 15Higashi ku, SAPPORO

065 JAPANApri l 24., 1995Dear F r i e nd s i n Ch r i s t ,I t has been several months since those of you on our general mailingl i s t have heard from us. So with that in mind this l e t te r is beingmailed to a l l t ha t are on our mail ing l i s t s .As most of you know we had two girls in an internship for the summerlast year. Both plan to be school teachers. One was an American fromIndiana but her friend was a native Japanese whose home is not so farfrom Sapporo .Recently we have learned through the principal of HokkaidoInternational School [HIS] that Noriko Sawaya, the Japanese, will bere turning to Hokkaido this summer and with the fa l l term o doingher teacher's training at HIS which is accredited with the WesternAssocia tion of Schools and Colleges (WASC), which serves the westernU.S. and the Pacific region. Our oldest child, Linda, and our youngestchild, Donald, graduated from HIS's Junior High. We haven't hearddirectly from Noriko but hope to see her when she returns. HIS ismoving this fa l l so she will be teaching in new faci l i t ies .Different events have come and gone since you last heard from us. Oursummer camp was held in July with the help of the interns. Christmasprograms for the children and adults were held in December.On April 16 th we had our special Easter worship services. We weredisappointed in the attendance since we were praying for and expectingmore than the number tha t at tended. Easter serv ices in Japan arenever as popular as Christmas services but we expect Christians tomake an ex t r a e f f o r t to a t t end .But we were happy to welcome Shelly Shibuya into our fellowship.Shelly is the eldest daughter of former non-instrumental missionaries.She married a Japanese and now, at the young age of 25> is the motherof four daughters. The youngest is three months old and the oldest isfive years old. Her husband owns a bakery. When he is at home onSundays, which is rare. Shelly finds i t difficult to attend. But thelas t few months she has been attending rather regularly. They l ive inSapporo but cjuite a piece from here. Shelly plans to get her driver slicense this year and with a car i t will be much easier for her toattend.

I am sure the rising and fall ing of the dollar doesn't affect you verymuch. But it does a f fec t the missionary. Perhaps more than anyoneelse. At l eas t those who are dependent on the dollar . For instance,something that costs us 1000 would have been $8.50 last year but nowtakes $12.00 to pay for i t . At today's exchange rate i t wil l cost us$1 to airmail this le t ter as printed matter. A f i r s t class le t te rcosts $1.30. A quart of low fa t milk come to $2.50. A pound ofground meat (70% beef) now costs us $5.00. As for gasoline youprobably don't even want to know. I t is $5.60 a gallon. Aren't youglad you l ive in America?

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We a re b le s s e d s in c e we were ab l e to ta k e advan t age o f a J apanes egove rnment r e t i r emen t p ro gram whic h both o f us draw from as wel l asge t t i n g American Soc i a l Secu r i t y . This has enab led us to remain inJapan with a l im i t ed amount of sa la ry from th e mission.Occas iona l ly we mention pur fami ly . Most of you haven ' t seen them fo rmany yea r s . We don ' t see them very of t en ou r s e l ve s . Linda has twoboys and l i v e a t Grove r Beach in Ca l i f o rn i a . Linda ' s o l d e s t boy andour o l d e s t grandch i l d gradua t e s from h igh schoo l t h i s sp r i ng . Hepreached h is first sermon in Februa ry . Linda i s a nu rse working a s aqual i ty cont ro l admin i s t r a to r in a l oca l re t i r ement center . Char leshas a g i r l and a boy and t hey l i ve in Boise [ Idaho] where Char le s i sthe Academic Dean a t Boise B ib le C ollege . During th e North AmericanChr i s t i an Convention you can probably f ind Charles a t the Boise BibleCollege booth. Allan was r ec en tl y t ran sf er red to Dallas [Texas] andi s a l r e ady a t work t h e r e a l t hough h is f ami ly still r ema in s i nKentucky. Allan recent ly t o ld us t h a t they have purchased a house inAl l en , which i s no r t h o f Da l l a s , and have j u s t s o l d t h e i r p r e s e n thouse . Al lan i s a s up e r v i s o r fo r Ohio Ca su al ty In su ra nc e Company.They have a boy and th ree g i r l s . Donald l i ves in Cinc inna t i where heworks fo r IRS. They have t h r e e boys and a g i r l .Seve ra l have expressed concern abou t our sa fe t y because of the r ecen tea r thquakes . Some have been c lose enough fo r us to f e e l th e shock bu tth e b ig one i n Kobe d i dn ' t a f f e c t us . But t h e r e a r e chu rche s o fCh r i s t in th e Kobe area w ith p re ac he rs , miss ionar ies , and members t h a twere a f f ec t ed by th e quake. Thankfu l ly t h e r e were no dea th o r i n j u r i e sto p re ache rs and /o r miss ionar ies and no s t ruc tua l damage to any of ourchurch bu i l d i ng s . If you a re conce rned abou t us and wan t to knowa bou t ou r s a f e t y you can c o n t a c t ou r fo rw a rd in g a ge nt . She may beab l e to tell you wha t you wan t to know. If no t r i g h t away t h en a fewdays later. If we r e a l i z e t h a t th e e v e n t was such t h a t you migh t beconce rned we f a x a boa rd member who t h en calls Marg t o let h e r know.You can reach Marg a t 515-288-1756.The Aum c u l t has caused qu i t e a stir i n Japan . First wi t h th e s a r i ngas a t ta ck in th e Tokyo subway and more r ecen t l y with a s im i l a r , bu tl e s s s eve r e , a t t a c k a t th e Yokohama t r a i n s t a t i o n and a t a nearbydepa r tmen t s t o r e . In Sappo ro t h ey have an o f f i c e , some bu s i n e s s e s ,and apa r tments which were ra ided on Fr iday the day b efo re th ey sa id al a rge con f l ag r a t i on would h i t Japan. I suppose no one i s r e a l l y sa fefrom them o r o the r t e r r o r i s t as evidenced by th e exp los ion a t OklahomaCi ty bu t we don ' t run s c a r ed because we know th e one who ho l d s th efuture. The future is not in the h a n d s o f the terrorist. A t thebeginning of Sunday's service I j u s t happened to read from Psalms 4-6.It's app rop r i a t e r ead ing in th e above con tex t .We app r e c i a t e you r p r a y e r s , letters, c a r d s , g i f t s , and f i n a n c i a ls uppo r t . Many o f you have been faithful ove r th e p a s t 4-0 y e a r s t h a twe have been in Japan .Le t me c l o s e wi t h a quo t e f rom Phillip's t r a n s l a t i o n o f th e B ib l e .Th i s was a po r t i o n o f Sunday ' s t e x t . "Le t us no t grow t i r e d o f do inggood , f o r , un l e s s we t h r ow i n ou r hand , th e u l t im a t e h a r v e s t isas su red . " Gal 6:9Yours in His s e rv i c e .

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HOKKAIDO CHRISTIAN MISSIONErnest D . F a b e r

4 -8 N or th 4 9 , E a s t 15Higash i ku , SAPPORO

065 JAPANDecembe r 4 , 1995Dea r F r i e n d s i n Christ,Since it i s j u s t one month befo re Chris tmas and soon a f t e r itwi l l be th e new yea r it i s app rop r i a t e to wish you MerryChris tmas and a Happy New Year. We pray t h a t a l l goes well withyou in this new y e a r .I t wi l l be new fo r E rnes t s i nce he wi l l reach t h a t 70th b i r thdaymilestone in 1 9 9 6 .We have enc lo sed wi th t h i s l e t t e r a little r eminder o f us and ameans to thank you no t on ly fo r your praye r s bu t a l so fo r you rf i nanc i a l suppo r t , and /o r l e t t e r s o f encouragement . We a reespec i a l l y g r a t e fu l to a l l of you who have s tayed with _us forthese past-41 yea rs . The p ic tu re on the bookmark should remindyou of Japan, the sc r ip tu re verse of God's word, the calendar ofth e days o f ha r v e s t , and ou r ad d re s s o f u s .Some of you a re aware of the fa c t th a t Ernest and Neva made ara th e r sh o r t t r i p to th e Sta t e s th i s pas t summer. We l e f tSapporo June 17th r igh t af te r Sunday a.m. services and returnedJu ly 8th in t ime fo r Sunday se rv ices on Ju ly 9 th . An e lder lyChr i s t i an kept the church door open in our absence . The t r i p waspersona l and the purpose was to jo in our four ch i ld ren , t he i rspouses , and 11 grandchi ldren. We were together three nights andfour days. A grea t t ime was had eat ing Japanese food with thefamily and playing di f fe ren t games with the grandkids. This isth e first t ime in twelve yea r s t h a t a l l ou r immediate fami ly havebeen able to get toge ther . I t i s n ' t easy with us in Japan, Lindain Cal i f o rn i a , Charles in Idaho, Allan in Texas , and Donald inO h i o .We re turned home j u s t two or th ree days before a s t uden t fromOsaka B ib le Colle ge , Mr.I r i sa , was to a r r i v e . We had t r i ed toget a s tudent to be here when we were gone but none wereava i lab le for t ha t t ime. Mr. I r i sa wanted to come to help us ands i nce we wanted to ge t acquain ted w ith Ja pa ne se fu ture l eade r s wei .nv i ted him. -Mr. - I r i s a preached t h r e e t imes and had a c l a s s a tcamp as well as working a t other th ings a t camp. But we soonr ea l i zed t ha t he wasn ' t ava i l ab l e to come to Hokkaido as areplacement for us s ince he wants to re tu rn to h is home area onano the r i s l and a f t e r two yea r s o f s tu dy ab road .We know severa l of you have been qu i t e concerned and have prayedcontinuously for our replacement. We have been in contact withthree couples in teres ted in coming to Hokkaido but nothing hasbeen determined a t th i s t ime. We hope a l l of them wil l be ableto come to th i s i so la ted area and f ind s t rength in thefel lowship. There are many unchurched areas on th i s i s land.In September, Bill Belew of Niigata, called and said they had anopportunity to buy an English school in Asahikawa. Asahikawa is

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a bou t 100 mi l e s n o r th o f u s . S u b se qu en t ly t h ey bough t t h e s c h o o land s e n t two men up who a re op e r a t i n g it wi th some l o c a l he lpthat s t a y e d on . In t h e p r o c e s s o f com ing up t o l ook it o v e r andge t t i ng s e t t l e d d i f f e r e n t ones a s soc i a t ed with th e Belew's workhave s t a y e d h e r e f o r a day o r two on different o c c a s i o n s . Theywan t ed t o r e p a i n t f i v e l a r g e rooms o f t h e s c h o o l du r i n g their on eweek v a c a t i o n i n Oc t o b e r s o E r n e s t and Neva wen t up a c o u p l e o ft im e s t o h e l p t hem o u t . The first t ime we just d r opp ed in ont h em un announ c ed and surprised t h em . One o f t h e men wo r k i n g atthe s c h o o l is an Am er ic a n . They hop e to u s e contacts at t h es c hoo l and commun i t y to g e t a work started t h e r e . They havewor sh ipped wi t h us a few t ime s and Mr. I k eda p r e a ch ed this lastSunday .We keep t h i n k i n g abou t retiring bu t some o f you misunde r s t a nd andt h i n k we a r e retiring immed i a t e l y . Even if we f i nd someone t ocome , and e s p e c i a l l y if it i s an Amer i can mi s s i o n a r y , we w i l lneed t o s t a y a r ound f o r a ye a r o r tw o . Bu t t h a t t ime i s comings o we h av e begun to th in k a bou t wha t we w i l l t a k e back t oAme r i c a . Our children h av e shown some interest i n t h i n g s in t h eattic that we r e t u c k e d b a ck d u r i n g t h r o u g h their c h i l d h o o d y e a r s .We made up a list o f t h i n g s and s e n t them t o o u r c h i l d r e n f o rthem to c hoo s e wha t t h ey wan t . Some o f this w as tentativelyde c i d ed a t ou r f a m ily re un io n when ou r grown ch i l d r en and Mom andDad sat down and wen t o v e r a list that Neva h ad hurriedly madeup . They b r ough t up t h i ng s we h adn ' t th ou gh t a bo ut . We havea l s o been go ing t h r ough t h i n g s t h a t need to be s o r t e d o r th rowno u t s uch a s mi s s i o n r e c o r d s that a r e no l o n g e r r e l e v a n t . We a r ea l s o t r y i n g t o sort many pictures.In Augus t we had ou r u s ua l c h i l d r e n ' s camp and an ov e r n i g h t e r a tth e chu r ch f o r th e Jr. High . Ne i t h e r was v e r y we l l a t t e nded b u tit was an oppo r t un i t y to t e a ch in a d i f f e r e n t s e t t i n g . Our Sundays e r v i c e s a r e weak bu t we a r e encou r aged t o s e e two Ch r i s t i a nmo th e r s come wi t h their s ev en c h i l d r e n . Neva t e a c h e s t h e s ec h i l d r e n i n on e o f t h e side r ooms d u r i n g t h e s e rmon . They r a n g ein age from a two -y ea r -o l d to a 14 -yea r -o ld s t ud e n t in J r . High .The J r . High g i r l i s in a Chr i s t i a n Doc t r i n e workbook which Nevac h e c k s later. Not i d e a l b u t t h ey d o n ' t seem t o mind .I [E rn e s t ] have found a new/u s ed IBM J apane s e compu te r which I amp lann ing to use to ge t on th e I n t e r n e t . I have th e computer andhope to g e t th e modem in a few days . I wi l l probab ly useAmer ican On Line s i n c e t hey have a l o c a l number I can call. Amiss iona ry f r i end o f mine i s us ing t h a t s e rv ic e . I f you have anE -ma i l a d d r e s s and w an t to know wha t ou r s is you c a n c o n t a c t usd i r e c t l y o r th rough Marg. At l e a s t two o f our ch i ld r en have E-ma i l a dd r e s s e s . It s eems t o be th e wave o f th e f u t u r e .Again t hanks , Merry Chr i s tmas , and Happy New Year. May you ber i c h l y b l e s s e d in th e coming y e a r .