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u ! I / 'f , . '-'"AR. t A 17SMolt ft C^Vi#*-.*v -^-EaiiSST^WD NEVA) FABERBOX 173 ^ Nortir"?^r-E_15.ADEL. IOWA 50003 ^ebv^uar^V 1978 Higaslii ku. Sapporo^ ^ ^ 065 Japan

Dea r Partners in Christ,Over s ix f e e t o f snov; has f a l l en in Sapporo th i s season . F ou r- lan er o ad s have decreased to two l a n e s and two- l ane ro ad s have room fo r on lyone ca r . Snow o f f the roofs f a l l s and covers the windows. Severa l people have died when they f e l l from roo f s while removing snow or snow f e l lon th e peop le a s th ey p assed below.We haven ' t wr i t t e n s ince before Chris tmas so wi l l tell you abou t ourChr is tmas s e rv i c e s . Chr is tmas s e rv i ces a re always popu l a r with the c h i ldren . Because o f the number we div ided in to two s e rv i ce s . Both meetingswere on Chr i s tmas Day. The ch i l d ren up t h rough t h i r d grade came at 1:30and the o ld er c hi ld re n came a t 3O0 . The program cons i s t ed o f c a ro l s ing

i ng , drama; and f i lm - s t r i p s t o r i e s . A Bible s t o ry book from the churchwas given to each ch i l d as wel l as a decora ted cupcake . The o lde r ch i ldren exchanged g i f t s and a te t h e i r cake a t the church. There were veryfew new faces in e i th er group. The 32 fou r t h , f i f t h , and s ix th g rade r swere nea r l y all r e g u l a r Sunday Schoo l and VES s t u d en t s . Combined t he r ewere 83 ch i ld ren , 6 he lper s , and ? mothers and fa the rs .The f i lm , SHIOKARI PASS, by Ayako Miura, about a Japanese Chr i s t i a n

who sac r i f i c ed h is l i f e to s top a t r a i n , was shown a t the church on the24th of December a t 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Twenty seven people saw thef i lm abou t t h i s courageous man.The second week o f J anua ry was ve ry busy fo r u s . We had no one to

he lp w ith our win te r Vaca t ion Bible School and no VES mat e r i a l was a v a i lab l e . We div ided the ch i l d ren in to morning and a f t e rnoon s e s s i ons wi th the younger ones coming in the m.orning and the o lde r ones coming in thea f t e rnoon . We p r i n t ed our ovvoi mate r i a l s based on the life o f David . Enro l lmen t v/as 52 with an average a t t endance o f 4? . Many o f t hese ch i l d renwe c a l l our r egu l a r VES kids s ince t hey don ' t a t t end Sunday School bu ta lways come fo r VBS. Some have a t t ended two VBSes a yea r fo r two yea r so r more. ~ "

Our only Japanese Sunday School t e a che r wi l l be l e av i ng i n March tojo in her husband v/ho v; i l l be a second yea r s t ud en t a t Osaka Bible SeminaryWe hope the lo s s w il l be temporary as we expec t her and her husband to retu rn to Hokkaido a f t e r h is g radua t ion .The Boa rd o f Di r e c t o r s o f Hokka i do Ch r i s t i a n M i s si o n , I n c . m et at th e'home o f the forwarding agen t , John Noe, on December 7th fo r the annua lboard meeting. The r es igna tion o f John Hargett.who has moved from Iowa toNew Mexico, was accep ted . Our thanks to John D. v^ho has se rved as Chairmanof the Board fo r 16 years . Mr. Elber t Newland, under whose minis t ry

Ernes t en te red Bible co l l ege , was e lec t ed to se rve on the Board . Bro the rNev/land i s with lov/a Chr i s t i a n Col l ege . Mr. Char les Eld r i dge v/as e l e c t edto serve as t h e new c h a i rm a n . M r. J o h n Noe i n f o rm ed th e b o a r d that h ewi l l r es ig n e ff ec tiv e December 31 1978. Mr. Noe and h is wife i i l i s e havebeen our very competent co -o rd i n a t o r s between the Am.erican churches andthe field. We are reluctant to lose their efficient assistance. A commi t t ee was formed by the Board of Di rec to r s to look fo r a new fo rward ingagen t fo r 1979 . A f t e r two o r th re e months o f l e s s t han ave r age incom.e, con t r i bu t i on sbegan to i n c r e a s e . We a re th ank fu l fo r your c o nt in u al s up p or t and a l s oth an kfu l fo r any who have i n c reased t h e i r suppo r t . One l ong- t ime f r iend ,of ours recen t ly wrote , " I 've increased my giving to Ijfo and am. sendingFaber ' s the 5?^ ir^-crease." The do l l a r has. taken a t e r r i b l e bea t ing th i spa s t yea r and most o f the miss iona r i e s have f e l t the im pact . In Japanthere was a 23% devalua t ion j u s t dur ing the yea r o f 1977. Along with theincreased i n f l a t i on v;e can buy only 70fo o f v;hat we did in January o f a

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/ EKWECT (AUI- NrVA. fAASkAMI, IOWA MNHO P^ay 1978 ^^19 "'SjO\--

Dea r Christian F r i e n d s ,Spring ra ins , which add to the lus te r of blossoms and greenery,remind'us of the "tim es of refreshing"which God in his loving kindness bestows upon His followers. Sometimes we grow discouraged withthe slowness of growth in God's kingdom in th is land. Yet we rejoicein th e evidence of seeds t ak ing roo t and t r u s t the Lord to order the

seasons of p lan t ing , nu r tu r ing , and harves t .One of the members, who v;orks in a home fo r r e t a r t ed ch i ld ren , i snow granted only one free Sunday morning a month so we have begun evening services . On May l6th a women's meeting was also s tar ted. Anannouncement was s e n t on r a t h e r sho r t no t i ce to mothers o f Sunday Schoos tuden t s ( a l l of whom a re no t Chr i s t i ans ) , the l ad i e s o f the Women'sisnglish class , and women who at tend church. At this f i r s t meeting wehad th ree l ad i e s present -one each from these th ree groups. The twomar r i e d l a d i e s who a re members o f th e church were unab le to a t t e nd .One was working and the other l ives in a seaside town and doesn^t :;driveOne o f the l ad i e s who came used to a t t end worsh ip s e r v i c e s r egul a r l y but her non-Chr is t ian husband i s pressur ing her to s tay home on

h is day off . The lady who attends English class attended a Chris t ianhigh school but has never a cc ep te d Chris t . The th i rd lady, a beauty.par lor operator , has sen t her daug hter to Sunday School for threeyear s . Las t year she found her g i r l pray ing to Jesus when she was verys i ck . This lady overheard ch i ld ren a t play reminding others o f Je su s 'teaching and not iced a di f fe rence in conduct of Sunday School pupi l s .On th e day o f the woman's meet ing th e daugh ter to ld he r mother ,"Mother ,you have the day of f . You should go." This mother requested t ha t v/ein clu de te ac hin g on chi ld - rea r ing and asked if she might i nv i t e o the r s .We decided to put a not ice on the bul le t in board t ha t is in f ron t ofth e church and to s e t de f i n i t e da t e s fo r fu tu r e meet i ng s . This wast h e i r reques t . We plan to focus on Proverbs 31 in coming months andto inc lude ac t i v i t i e s to a t t r a c t women o f th e community.

Engl i sh c lasses continue to give t eaching oppor tun i t i e s . Las tweek a fou r th grader upon see ing the memory verse t h a t was pos ted onth e wa l l asked , "What does t h a t mean? 'Ask, and it s h a l l be g iven you;seek , and ye sha l l f ind; knock, and it sha l l be opened-unto you;" 'Discuss ion , fol lowing explana t ion of the verse , revealed t ha t one of themothers appears to be f e r t i l e so i l and wi l l be contacted for the womenmeetings. Recently two former Sunday School students enrolled in Engl i s h . We were happy to renew contac t with a ninth grader . One-halfhou r each week i s devo ted to B ib le l e s sons wr i t t e n i n c a r e f u l l y cont ro l led vocabulary and grammer so that the student is able to read andunders tand fo r himsel f . We t ry to do qua l i t y t eaching as wel l as evangel ize . I t has been good advertisement for the church. In April v/een ro l l ed 55 new s tuden t s wi thou t adve r t i s i ng .

Moving, hosp i t a l i za t ion , and jobs which requi re Sunday work c rt ake fo lk ou t o f town have r educed th e number who a re ab l e to a t t e ndSunday morning services . Ernest has been print ing a mini version ofth e sermon on th e back o f th e bu l l e t i n fo r th e fo llo w in g Sunday . Thesebu l l e t i n s a re placed in spec ia l drawers fo r members when they are absenThis i s not an easy task though the messages are shor t . Expressingthoughts in writ ten Japanese i s made more d i f f icu l t by the poss ib i l i tyo f typing er ror s which change whole words ins tead of one l e t t e r .

On May 5th, Allan graduated from the Cincinnat i B ib le Colle ge .We have no t seen him s ince the day he left f o r co l l e ge , a few days before we l e f t for Japan in 1974. We re jo ice to know t ha t he has appl iedh im s el f w e ll . He was chosen one o f I3 from CBC to be l i s t ed in Who'sWho Among American Unive r s i t v and Col l eges . 1977~1978 ed i t i on . Dona ldour youngest, recent ly acted the pa rt o f the nervous Mr. Maine in the

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HAU ^ ERNEST (AND NEVA) FABER/ no Eas< 15A&El, IOWA 96003 Sep tembe r 1978 ; Higashi ku. Sapporo065 JapanDea r C h r i s t i a n F r i e n d s ,

We wa tched t h e DCS f rom t h e t im e it t o ok off and f o l l owed itscourse as it made a wide c i r c l e . Within seconds the plane was out o fs i g h t . Donald , ou r youngest , had j u s t left fo r America and h is firstyea r o f co l l ege . It v/as Ju l y 15 th . We d id no t know it would be 18days befo r e we hea rd any th ing from him. The letter he wrote a f t e r h isa r r i v a l was delayed by the slow-down s t r ike a t the l oca l pos t of f ice .

Linda and Gary met Donald a t the Denver a i rpo r t . He s tayed withthem un t i l th^y l e f t on S aturday the 19th for Iowa where Char les , Pa t t iand Allan met them a t Grandmother Faber^s. All th ree boys a re now a tC incinnati B ible Seminary. Charles i s in. h is second year , Allan h isf i r s t yea r o f gradua te work and Donald i s in h is f i r s t year o f co l l ege .Sometime l a te in Ju ly our n eig hbor lady came by and said theywere moving. This was a shock to us. We assumned they were permanentres iden ts . The oldes t son, a f i f t h grader , has been in the Sundayschool from i t s beginning. Both he and h is brother were in our Engl ishclasses . The move was caused by the break-up of the marriage. We praythe Lord wi l l -he lp t h i s family in the t ry ing days ahead.On Saturday, Ju ly 1s t , we had our second movie showing. "What i sLife?" i s a movie based on the t rue l i f e s tory o f a woman who l o s t herl eg s and one arm when she t r i e d to commit su i c ide by jumping in f r on t o fa t r a i n . She l a t e r found Chr i s t and i s now se rv ing wi th h er husband inChris t ian work. Forty people atte nd ed th e se rv i ce .V a ca tio n B ib le School t h i s yea r was held a week l a t e r than usua l -from July 31s t to August ^ th . The delay was caused by one of the loca lschoo l s en te r ing vaca t i on a week l a t e r t han th e o the r s . To ta l en r o l lment was 32 with an average at tendance of 26 plus 3 t eachers .Mr. Kimura, the preacher . f rom Tomakomai, came over to help fo r theweek thus making it possib le to have a l l . t he c lasses in the morning.

JVBS was c lose ly fol lowed by 2__days_afcamp Th^ca f f l pwasanjone in four th grade or o lder . There were I5 boys and gi r l s enro l ledand f iv e ad u l t t eacher -he lpe r s a t the camp r egu la r ly . Two o f the Christ i ans also helped. One Chr i s t i an , Mr. Munakata, was a t the camp s i t ewhen we arr ived Sunday evening pr io r to the camp's opening on Monday tohelp unload the gear and s e t up the tents . He also came and stayed overn igh t one night and was a t the camp s i t e to help take down the t en ts andpack the car . Another Chr i s t i an , Miss Fu j i i , h elp ed w ith the noon andevening meal the second day. In c lasses , devotions, and evening messagesa survey o f the l i f e a f Chr i s t was presented. Most o f the campers do noa t t end Sunday School and some had never been to any church ac t i v i t i e s .Worship services have been poorly at tended recent ly bu t SundaySchool con t inues to ave rage around I5 . If all were to come a t once t he r e

would be over twenty in Sunday School. Neva and Ernes t are still havingto teach Sunday School without Japanese help .Charles has indica ted t ha t he wil l represent the mission in any wayhe can be o f s erv ic e. He and Pa t t i , as you remember, spen t the summer-months o f last yea r with us so know o f th e work and have l o t s o f s l i d e so f Japan . They re pr es en te d th e miss ion in two Vacat ion Bib le Schoolst h i s summer. You can con tac t them by te lephone o r by wri t i ng to 3^05Lehman Road, Cin c i n n a t i , OH 45205The Yen s i t ua t i on has pu t us in a pinch bu t your r egu l a r suppor thas helped us to meet our obl iga t ions . We are gra t e fu l fo r your prayersand f i n anc i a l help .

In /Qtqri^^a^ Love/y