Date: Wed, 9 Jul 1997 08:19:51 -0400 (EDT)

Subject: Report from Masa
 
Dear Christian Friends, 
        Hope you are doing well.  I always appreciate your prayers and support. 
About a year has passed since I began to work with Yokota church of Christ.
 Initially my responsibilities were to preach a couple of times a month
while the Yokota congregation supports us financially.  My main
responsibility has been to reach out to Japanese people.  However, as I
started listening to the members of the congregation, I felt that I needed
to preach and to teach a class more often.  The unique nature of military
congregations is very present in the Yokota congregation.  Members know
they will stay in Yokota about three years.  For this reason they tend not
to make a lasting commitment to the congregation.  Men often go out of town
for TDY (temporary duty) from one week to three months.  As a result, women
(wives) are often frustrated with the lack of male leadership in the
congregation.  They also feel lonely apart from their husbands.  This leads
them to be moody at times.  Not only that, they are feeling like that they
are living in an island.  Although the base is a fully American community,
this looks to me isolated from the rest of Japanese communities.  
        The members are coming from different parts of the U.S. and having
different expectations and ways of doing church business.  These factors
often result in personal conflicts.  As I began to work with them, I felt
compelled to work with them and to mediate between people.  An individual's
negligence or negative behavior which can be no big deal in a larger
congregation can be magnified in a small congregation like ours.  For those
various reasons, a clear line of communication is often cut off, and people
have not gotten along with each other.  This year has been very difficult
and challenging to me, but God has taught me many things about people and
church.  I have tried to preach and teach the message of the Cross, the
crucified Jesus.  This congregation needs to hear it more than anything
else.  Meantime, I have been studying the Bible with Japanese and making as
many friends as possible in the communities in this area.  Since the Yokota
congregation becomes the basis of my work, I need to have the congregation
to own a good church building and facilities.  The plan goes like this: the
American congregation rents the church building out to the Japanese
congregation so that the American congregation can be financially more
stable.  As you might guess, the number of the Yokota members fluctuate
according to the number of people who come into the Yokota base. 
        Yet, the building of the Yokota congregation has been very much
deteriorating.  The building was built nearly forty years ago.  According
to the constructor which looked into the building, it is supposed to last
from three to four more years if a major earthquake or typhoon does not hit
this area.  In the American standard, this looks like a ghost house.  All
new members are disappointed at the look of the building and its
facilities.  In Summer, it is extremely hot inside of the building although
air conditioners (very old) are on.  Sometimes it is warmer inside than
outside.   It is very cold in Winter.   This factor also results in the
members' frustration with and disappointment at the Yokota congregation. 
Eventually they quarrel against one another.  My goal is to help the
congregation build a church building by the termination of the support
which the Park Ave congregation, various congregations, and individuals are
giving us.
        The congregation has been discussing how we can build a new building. 
Three plans have been discussed.  (1) To build it by selling the part of
the current property, (2) by taking out a loan and (or without) raising
support from American congregations,  (3) by selling the current property
and moving to a different location which has less value.  I understand that
my recent work with the Yokota congregation is something you have not
expected me to do.  Although the work with the Yokota congregation has
recently increased, I have maintained my intensity for working with
Japanese and maintained the number of people with whom I study the Bible. 
Yet, I felt it necessary for me to give you a full report about my work
with the Yokota congregation as well about my work with Japanese. 
 
        On the other day, I met the very interesting individual who lives near 
my
apartment.  He is 65 years old.  He used to work as a house boy in Yokosuka
American Navy Base right after World War II.  He is somewhat familiar with
American way of doing things.  While he was on the Base, he got acquainted
with an American country singer.  The American man made a country group
with him and other Japanese men and toured around American Bases in Japan. 
He made this Japanese man a vocalist. 
        A few weeks ago, he expressed to me his desire to study English.  He 
told
me that he was interested in the teaching of the Bible.  I would like to
trust in his words.  Indeed, he is very eager to study English and the
Bible.  We study twice a week.  One day I taught him "Amazing Grace."  He
said, "I know this song and love it."  We sang it together.  Guess what? 
He sounded like a country singer.  Every song he sang sounded like a
country song.  He told me he was not singing that way consciously.  It
seems good to me that I have increased the number of local people who I
have gotten acquainted with.  In this way, church can be truly involved in
the Japanese communities.  
        I am still studying with the Japanese businessman who I had introduced 
to
you long ago.  It has been taking a long time for him to change his way of
thinking.  Please pray for me and him that God will work in our Bible
studies.  
      
In His service, 
Masa