Chapter 32

SHALL SPEAK WITH NEW TONGUES

(From the time I arise from the berth on the sleeper train on the morning of 14 March 1975 till I depart Guam for Japan on Thursday 2 September 1976. The majority of that time, I am studying the Japanese language in the missionary language school in Karuizawa Town, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.)

Before leaving Iwakuni, on the phone with Brother Fred, I arranged to come to his house today, Friday 14 March 1975. He asked if I could find the train connections by myself. ‘I think so. I’ll call you if I get lost.’ When my sleeper train reaches the end of its route at Tokyo Station, I transfer to Yama No Te train line to Ikebukuro Station (in Tokyo) and there take the Seibu-Ikebukuro Line out to Inariyamakooen Station near Fred’s house in Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture. I call Fred from the station phone booth and he comes in 5 minutes to take me to his house. I open my bag of many sweaters and he likes the 2 I got for him. The rest of the family like the sweaters I give to each of them.

I stay with the Hersey family till Monday morning. Attending church with them Sunday morning, Brother Fred asks me to give a testimony after his sermon. I testify of God calling me to preach Christ in Japan. God blessed it to the listeners.

Monday morning, 17 March 1975, I bid the Hersey family Farewell. Carefully following Bro. Fred’s instructions, I change trains twice to ride 3 trains to Karuizawa.

On the second train (out of Hannoo to Takasaki), a Japanese man purposely sits next to me, and starts talking. I strain to converse in Japanese. “Come to my house.” I tell him I cannot, as I have other plans. Soon he repeats that invitation a 2^nd time, and later a 3^rd time.

By then, I’m thinking I must be careful not to quench the Holy Spirit. God has put me in Japan to meet lost Japanese souls and tell them of the Saviour. ‘This must be God opening a door,’ I think to myself. So, upon his 3^rd invitation, I reply that I will go to his house for a short visit. Whereupon he drops the subject and says little more till he stands up to alight from the train about 20 minutes later. I too stand up and gather up my bulky bags.

“What are you doing,” he asks me with a surprised look.

‘I’m going with you, as you asked me to do.’

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” So I stay put and he alights from the train alone with not much of a farewell word to me.

Regularly being similarly treated by different Japanese people, I’ve come to perceive them to be puppets of the devil. At his will, Satan pulls their strings in any direction and in opposite directions to vex and weary us missionaries who are striving to see God set them free from Satan’s bonds.

Experts who have thoroughly researched and surveyed Christian missions worldwide write that missionaries in Japan wear out and burn out as quickly (or more quickly) than on any other foreign field. So, I quickly learn that if I make the Japanese people my joy (and if I do as unto them), I’d burn out on this mission field. So I do as unto the Lord and I make my Lord my joy. And thus doing so, the Joy of the Lord becomes my strength. And thus way, He sustains me all my life preaching Jesus Christ in this heathen land of idols.

Arriving at Takasaki, I change trains the 2^nd time and catch a train that goes to Karuizawa. Yokokawa Station is the last station before Karuizawa. Yokokawa is at the foot of a steep mountain range. There I sit on the train for about 5-minutes as they attach 2 extra electric engines to the rear of our train to push it thru about 14 tunnels up the steep mountain to Karuizawa at the top. As we slowly make our way in and out of tunnels, I see that the steep mountainsides between tunnels are white and the white deepens as we go up. Soon I alight from the train at Karuizawa Station in the midst of a blizzard and ever so cold in the blowing white. Certainly different from the short sleeve weather I left down south in Iwakuni 4 days ago.

I lug my bags out to the head of the line of taxis and the 1^st driver opens the rear door by remote handle from the driver’s seat. In simple Japanese I say, ‘Karuizawa Language School?’ He nods his head, affirming that he knows where it is. ‘Please.’

“Novice missionary boy, you ‘sho-nuf’ gotta study Japanese more.”

‘Absolutely.’ The taxi driver takes me there, arriving as teachers and student missionaries are eating lunch in the school’s chapel. They set a plate for me and I eat. Bill Cook isn’t there right now. After lunch, someone calls Bill, I talk briefly on the phone and he comes later. He takes me (with my bulky luggage) in his car to Bethel House where I will room for a year or so.

Bethel House is the home of Pastor and Mrs. Takahashi, and it’s a small “boarding” house (a main large building and 2 smaller buildings, each 2 stories high). They give me the 1^st floor room in one of the small buildings. On the 1^st floor are scant cooking facilities for the 2 boarders. Presently the 2^nd floor room is not occupied. They offer me 3 suppers a week, Mon., Wed., and Fri. for a price (partial boarding). I take the meals. It is a relief to put my bulky bags into this new abode and ride on to town hall with Bill for the required alien registration.

The town official who assists me sees that my last name is spelled wrong (Yerry) on my passport. Eagle eye elite pilot boy didn’t even check the spelling when they handed me my 1^st passport in Fukuoka, and I never saw that mistake till now. I will soon have to go by train to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo to get another passport issued.

To and from Town Hall, Bill points out places in town I need to know of. Returning to the language school, he hands me a set of textbooks and tells me to show up by 8 AM the next morning to start studying. As I leave, I meet Ron and Katie (a missionary couple) outside as they are leaving school after their daily classes. We make self-introductions and stand there in the cold getting briefly acquainted. The black volcanic ground is a mixture of melting snow and ice (black slush). Under one arm, I am holding (unbound and unbagged) my 2 or 3 new Japanese textbooks just issued to me today. Shaking hands with Ron and such, I manage to let all 3 books slip from my grasp and fall onto the black half frozen slush. I quickly pick them up, so saddened to blacken one side of the new books, and embarrassed in front of new friends.

“Well, you’ve christened your language study!” Ron’s words (in a friendly, light hearted manner) fit the occasion. All 3 of us laugh and soon part.

I walk to Kikusui (Chrysanthemum Water) Restaurant (that Bill had previously pointed out to me). There I eat supper for almost 3 times the price for supper on base at Iwakuni and I get about 1/3^rd the amount of food here. Welcome to expensive Japan. Walking on to Bethel House in the cold, I stop into a small grocery store and buy a few things for my breakfast.

Lunch is served each weekday at the language school, for a reasonable price. I buy it 5 days a week and the 3 weekly suppers at Bethel House. I prepare the rest of my meals in the limited kitchen next to my room. I ‘sho-nuf’ miss those nice, large cheap meals in the officers’ chow halls. Married missionaries in town are kind to occasionally invite me to their homes for meals. I rejoice over that and strive not to be a pig at their meal tables.

I enter my cold room at Bethel House and fire up the kerosene heater, per instructions I received when I left my bags here. I bundle up in my room and huddle close to the stove to save on kerosene now that I have no income. From now on, I trod thru the snow to the main building 3 evenings a week (with towel, soap and shampoo) for a bath. How blessed I be, to suffer such light afflictions to preach Christ in The Land of the Rising Sun.

Tuesday 18 March 1975: The first whole day of my residency in Karuizawa. I will reside in this town till 1 August 1978. I awaken in a room ever so cold and freely choose my attire for the day, no longer enslaved to the Marine uniform of the day. I cook and eat a simple breakfast, and soon set out walking half a mile to the language school with my blackened textbooks.

I had no motor vehicle at Iwakuni. I will not obtain a car until 1983. Being ever so frugal with my savings, I do not even buy a bicycle at this time. Locally, I walk everywhere, up to 2 or 3 miles. I take buses and trains when I rarely travel long distances. Reader friend, I found great (and natural) freedom in setting out walking each morning, instead of starting an engine. Our Creator ordained that we walk, and He set that example while on earth as a man. It is a wonderful life (experience speaking).

I was highly motivated to study hard in junior high and high school in order to make the highest grades possible, wanting to break out of life on a prison farm. I was highly motivated to study hard at Auburn University (just to make passing grades) in order to gain a university degree. Upon becoming a Marine Corps officer, I was highly motivated at Quantico to rank high in my class to be chosen for jet pilot training. Then in pilot training, not washing out highly motivated me. After pinning elite Navy pilot wings of gold onto my chest, each time I leaped into the air with a fast jet warplane strapped onto me, I was ever so highly motivated to strive to be the best pilot in the air, in order to land alive and safe.

But my present motivation far exceeds all recorded in the previous paragraph. 1. I want to intensely study the Japanese language in order to proficiently preach to the whole nation of Japan in their tongue. 2. I want to daily soak my soul in the Holy Bible to learn every Spiritual Truth I possibly can. 3. I want to intercede in prayer day and night without ceasing, pleading with My Lord and God to bestow great mercies on multitudes of lost, perishing precious Japanese souls to save them from eternal doom. How glorious that these three endeavors know no limits. I can pursue them to the utmost for all my days on earth, making each day brighter than the previous day. But I will never ever exhaust their bountiful Riches no matter how many days I live on earth to pursue them. Truly, that all makes me the most blessed creature on the face of this earth! Thank Thee, my Sweet Lord.

I praise my Creator God for filling my heart with the motivation recorded in the previous paragraph. There will be days that I will exert myself to the fullest mentally and physically. But thru it all, my Master’s yoke is always easy and His burden ever so light. In the previous chapter, I wrote of the bondage I was under in my earthly father’s house, next as a university student, and then finally as a military warrior. Now, for the first time in my life, I feel totally free of human bondage. My Master will never flunk me out of any of the 3 endeavors listed above. That makes for an ever so easy yoke and light burden.

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36) Lord Jesus Christ, My Creator God, please make me free indeed. By Thy Holy Ghost Power, please totally eradicate my self-will. From this moment on, may I live to do Thy Will, and Thy Will alone. Thus wise, I will be free indeed.

The language school’s present semester ends in a week and a new one starts in 2 weeks. Bill Cook agrees to allow me to start classes today. I like the flexibility and informal (family) atmosphere of this small language school. About 5 couples and 4 or 5 single missionaries are presently enrolled. I opt to study alone (as opposed to a group of 2 to 4). Tuition is higher for private lessons, but I want to go at my own pace. Today, I have three 50-minute classes with 3 different Japanese Christians teaching me, and then a 50-minute lab session listening to tapes and repeating aloud each sentence. I concentrate so hard that I end the day with a migraine headache.

Monday thru Thursday, I study common, daily use language. On Fridays, I study religious (Christian) language. Each Friday, we have chapel in Japanese at 11 AM. Each week, one of us students leads in singing a hymn, one prays, one reads Scripture, and one delivers a message. This schedule is made up a few weeks in advance, giving us time to prepare. One teacher is assigned to critique each participant at the end of chapel.

Pastor Takahashi (Bethel House owner) pastors Karuizawa Gospel Church on the main street in “Old Karuizawa”. So each Sunday morning, I attend his church. They do not have a night service. But a 6 PM English service is held in the language school chapel. I attend it, and am assigned to preach the sermon at times. Also, missionaries have Wednesday night prayer meeting at 7 PM in English at the language school, usually in a small room easy to heat. At the same time in the chapel, Bill Cook teaches Bible (in Japanese) to our language teachers and any other Japanese who will attend. Karuizawa Gospel Church has prayer meeting each Thursday night. I attend it most weeks.

Brother Sekiguchi is the school’s head teacher and supervisor. About a week after I start studying, he says to me, “Do you want an English class (teaching English to a Japanese man)?”

‘Why not.’ So Mr. Hasegawa comes weekly to the language school for a tutoring session of Southern accent English, paying me for tutoring. His class begins my “tent making” in Japan. I have seldom been without English students since then (March 1975). I thank God for enabling me to lead several English students to Christ.

I thought the warm weather I enjoyed at Iwakuni would arrive here any day. But Karuizawa is like another planet, high in elevation with long cold winters. Snow falls regularly. I tread thru it to school and to my 3 boarding meals and bath next door. This sure isn’t the comfortable living that has spoiled us Americans. This is the coldest place I have ever lived, colder than Quantico. This year, a deep snow falls at the end of April.

I am the newest student at the language school. So I keep my eyes and ears open to catch wisdom. “There’s a used furniture store down the mountain in the edge of Takasaki, very cheap.” I need a few items, so I go there on Saturday 5 April. I choose a large wooden desk and a nice swivel chair, a drab metal chest of drawers, and a large wood-frame mirror, each so cheap. I ask the man if he will deliver them, at his convenience to my room over 20 miles away for an additional 1000-yen (about $3.35). He reluctantly agrees. So I make the deal, pay him in full, return home alone and wait for him to bring them later today. I put my office things into the many desk drawers and my clothes into the chest of drawers and thus feel much better settled into this new abode.

After several years, the chair fell apart. I still use the other 3 items in my house now (2016). He told me the desk came out of the U.S. Embassy. It is wooden, large, and 3 pieces (top and 2 sides, each piece with drawers), so convenient to lift the top off the 2 sides of drawers and easily lift and move each piece separately.

Along about the last morning in March, I’m sitting in the language school lounge with my open textbook on my lap, waiting for the time of my 1^st class of the day. Bill Cook comes into the lounge from his office and solemnly announces to me, “Well, it’s over.”

‘What’s over?’

“South Viet Nam surrendered.”

Most of our nation’s populace was plenty shocked that the end came so quickly. I thank God for saving me from the bloody nightmare (and death) many military men my age experienced in that mess of a war in Viet Nam. To date, I talk to Nam vets my age as some weep when speaking of its haunting memories.

The fall of South Viet Nam to communist North Viet Nam at the end of March 1975 was a powerful boost to the communist parties in most free Asian countries, even in Japan. They began vigorous rallies and efforts to turn each free nation into a “communist paradise”. A North Korean envoy sped to China on a jet to ask what support North Korea could get from Red China to launch an attack on South Korea. Dark, gloomy war clouds hung over us here in the Asian Pacific.

Tuesday 8 April 1975, by now I am receiving mail here, mail directly from the U.S. and mail forwarded from Iwakuni. Today, I receive my grade from University of Maryland at Iwakuni for my 4^th and last semester of Japanese. I rejoice to see that I got an “A”. Today, a letter arrives from Brother Beau and Sister Ruth at Pleasant Acres Church back in New Bern, N. C. They write that they will start supporting me financially. And they have faithfully done so ever since. Also, today a letter came from another Christian friend expressing a desire to send an offering. “O ye of little faith.” That’s me. And I’m most thankful to God for you souls who care about me and thus assure me that God will take care of me.

In the language school building is a one-room elementary school where Ginny schools 8 or so missionary kids in English. Ginny speaks almost no Japanese, but is a zealous soul winner. She occasionally has Saturday night “house parties” for Japanese university students. She collars every missionary she can, to assist with these “soul winning” sessions.

Saturday 12 April: I help Ginny (for my first time) with her house party tonight. Several lost souls come. We have a nice supper. Brother Sekiguchi, the language school supervisor, gives his testimony. Then I am paired up with a young man about 20 years old. As I tell him of salvation in Christ, he freely shares his heart, saying he cannot see the necessity of receiving Christ and he doesn’t want to hurt his parents by changing to another religion. This enslaved attitude toward Christ abounds worldwide and often tragically persists till the soul is cast into eternal Hellfire where they’ll never grow cold.

Abba Father, by Thy Almighty Power, set many such souls free worldwide. Set many such precious Japanese souls free. Christian friend, cry out in intercession along with me. Lost friend, cry out to your Creator to set you free from all powers that are destroying you and sending you to eternal Hell fire.

Friday 18 April: Walking back to Bethel House from school, a car stops and the driver offers me a ride. I hop in with Lavern, a U.S. Marine WWII vet and retired U.S. Embassy employee (interpreter and translator) now living in Karuizawa with his Japanese wife. This is my 1^st time to meet him. After one of us mentions that he is a Marine, so does the other. We chat for 3 minutes till I get out at Bethel House. “Pray for me,” was his parting words. We become friends. He associates with many missionaries in Karuizawa, telling us exciting war stories of Pacific island battles. Many of us speak to him of salvation in Christ. He never made a clear decision to trust in Jesus before his death in early 1988.

Sunday 18 May 1975: My first time to preach in the Sunday night English service in the language school chapel.

Wednesday 18 June 1975: I ride the trains to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, praying that I can get a new passport today (my name is misspelled on my present passport). Consulting with them by phone and such, they told me it would be complicated to straighten out this problem. Praise God for miracles. I get a new passport with no fanfare at all and return to Karuizawa today.

The regular school year ends. A 3-week summer session starts on 7 July 1975. I attend it. One evening at Bethel House supper table, Mrs. Takahashi calmly says to me. “I don’t suppose you want to stay here during the summer.”

I intend to keep renting my room and staying in it. Also, I have no other place to go. Their custom is to kick out their regular boarders for 5 weeks (from late July thru August) to make way for a full house of daily boarders (paying a higher daily rate) who visit cool Karuizawa for summer missionary and preaching conferences. When I moved into Bethel House, the Takahashis should have told me that I would have to live elsewhere in the late summer. Then I could have started making arrangements. Now, when the time has come for me to scat, she uses the polite (?) oriental method of suggesting that I do not want to stay here during that time. (I will endure such “oriental politeness” till I enter Heaven.) They reluctantly agree to let me move upstairs (over my present room) into one of the 2 tiny rooms on 2^nd floor. I ascend to the Upper Room on 12 July.

Monday 14 July: Brother Russell Stellwagon and family come to Karuizawa for 2 weeks or so. Today I meet them in person for the first time. They invite me to supper on 2 occasions.

Friday 18 July: Desirous to be like my Lord, I go out into a mountain tonight and pray all night (my first of several times).

Sunday 20 July: I ride with Brother Russell to rural Nozawa Church where he preaches and I give a short testimony.

Many missionaries, Japanese Christians and conference speakers and preachers flock to cool Karuizawa the last half of summer. Fred Hersey drives up with son Samuel and we fellowship 2 half days as they spend 1 night at Bethel House.

Dr. Jim Cook (tall and muscular) arrives from Hawaii to board at Bethel House while preaching a week’s Conference at the Union Church (language school is next door). Neither Pastor nor Mrs. Takahashi drive. They borrow a tiny car for me to drive them and Dr. Cook to their respective churches on Sunday 27 July. As we 4 walk out of Bethel House, humble Dr. Cook squeezes his large frame into the tiny rear seat. ‘I intended that you sit up front with me. It’s more roomy.’ He stays put.

That night, I attend at Union Church when he preaches. He comments on life in Japan. “This morning, I squeezed into the backseat of a toy car. A kind man invited me to sit in the larger front seat. But I was too jammed in to change seats.”

Monday 28 July: At Bethel House supper, I recognize Yoneko Tahara, her husband and 2 daughters, my first time to see them in person. Shortly after coming to Karuizawa, I saw the film of her life story, stepping in front of a train as a high school teen to end her sad life, surviving with both legs severed just above the knees, left arm severed below shoulder and last 2 fingers on right hand severed. Christians come witness to her bitter soul in the hospital. After a while, she lets Christ in. Young Mr. Tahara who mainly led her to Christ proposed to her. And here I am supping with their family of four. You can read more details of Yoneko in Chapter 5 of my book Safety, Rest, and Quiet, on my web site (and hopefully on paper someday). A “Yoneko Tahara” “search” would likely turn up video with English narrative.

From veteran missionaries (some in Japan and some in Mainland China before World War II), I hear exciting stories of those “old days”. Bethel House is full of such summer guests. Once as I walk the sidewalk with one of them, when another (Joe with thick glasses) meets us walking, Joe brushes silently by us. (I know nothing of Joe.) My walking friend speaks: “That’s Joe, missionary kid in Korea in the early 1900s. His family had such scant food to eat in Korea when Joe was growing up that the lack of nourishment left him with extremely poor eyesight. He didn’t see us. That’s why he didn’t greet us.” Talk about sacrifice! Likely Joe was legally blind, but serving his Lord to the utmost on this foreign field of Japan. Made me feel so small.

Discussing my short, 6-month student visa with Bill Cook, he tells me of a missionary who sponsors independent missionaries to obtain a missionary visa. I must leave Japan to change my visa status. I start making plans to fly to Guam to apply for a missionary visa at the Japanese Consulate there.

“You can stay with the Hoshino couple (Bill’s Japanese Christian friends from Karuizawa) while on Guam,” Bill tells me. But after arriving on Guam, I learn that the Hoshino couple cannot host me (due to husband’s poor health).

I don’t yet know how to make plane reservations in Japan. So I just plan to pack a bag, go by train to Haneda Airport with plenty of cash, purchase a plane ticket for that day, fly on to Guam and call the Hoshinos from the Guam airport and plead, ‘Come for me, please.’ I know there are 5 or so daily flights to Guam. ‘So no problem getting a seat,’ I muse to my ignorant self.

“Who can have compassion on the ignorant.” (Hebrews 5:3)

Not only is that true of the high priest spoken of in that Scripture, but it’s also most True of my Great High Priest, Jesus. Listen to how my Lord had compassion on my ignorance related in the 2 paragraphs before that Scripture.

Wednesday night 30 July 1975 at Union Church: “The Millers are here from Guam. Let me introduce you to them,” Bro. Sekiguchi says to me (knowing I plan to fly to Guam). I meet the Miller couple and Bro. Sekiguchi asks me to drive them in his car to their lodging at Christian Center tonight. “You can stay with us when you come to Guam.” The Millers’ sincere invitation was instant. Ignorant me didn’t think I needed it.

I had no idea that the many daily summer flights to Guam are all booked full, weeks (even months) in advance. Had I gone to Haneda Airport expecting to flop down cash and get on a plane, I would have been greatly disappointed.

Thursday 31 July (the very next day): “The cram school in Ueda City is taking a group of students to Guam. One person canceled out. They have 1 empty plane seat and hotel bed available.” Just 1 day after my Lord tells me of sure lodging on Guam, today Bro. Bill and then Bro. Sekiguchi pass on this word to me. Bro. Sekiguchi has a Christian lady teacher at the cram school (Eiken) call me today to invite me to take the empty seat and hotel space and stay with them for their 3 exciting days of fun on Guam (me paying, of course). ‘Thank you ever so much! Put me down for it, please.’

Thank Thee, my Precious Lord Jesus for bestowing such great compassion upon ignorant me with these 2 perfectly timely miracles wrought by Thy Hand.

Monday 4 August 1975: At Karuizawa Station I board a standing room only, tightly packed express train (summer crunch), standing with no room to wriggle, watching nearby parents trying to keep their small children from being traumatized by the heat and the crush on the train. The Eiken group boarded this train at Ueda (several stops before Karuizawa), but I can’t catch sight of them till we all alight at the end of the line (Ueno Station in Tokyo). When all crowded souls erupt from the train onto the platform at Ueno, I join up with the Eiken group, follow them to the charter bus waiting for us in front of the large, crowded station, take the microphone handed to me soon after the bus gets rolling and introduce myself to everyone.

Arriving at Haneda Airport, it is a crowded madhouse with Northwest Airlines on strike. We board, take off before midnight, arrive on Guam at 3 AM local time and it’s 5 AM when we reach our beach hotel by bus. We bed down only 4 hours, all souls eager for fun in the tropics. This is the 1^st of almost 50 trips I will make from Japan to Guam. I thank God for many blessed days on this tropical island. You can read of my evangelism on Guam in Chapter 6 of my book, Safety, Rest, and Quiet.

Tuesday 5 August: I take a walk on the lovely beach nearby, sit in as the teachers brief the group of children and eat lunch with them. Then I head out walking to Mrs. Hoshino’s workplace nearby. I introduce myself. (Formerly she taught missionaries at the Karuizawa language school.) She is glad to meet someone from her town in Japan. But (fortunately before I mention lodging with them a few days) she mentions that due to her husband’s health problems they can’t consider hosting me. Thank Thee, Lord, for bringing me in touch with Mr. and Mrs. Miller.

I go on to the Japan Consulate and inquire about applying for a missionary visa. The lady receptionist replies that it will likely be approved and issued promptly.

Friday 8 August: Till now, I go sightseeing and such with Eiken group till they leave the hotel about 3 AM this morn. I go back to sleep till 8 AM and soon check out of the hotel. Later, I call the Millers. They come and take me to their house.

At this time, a religious cult in India is sending troublesome “missionaries” to several nations. Japan soon bans all from that cult and start carefully screening missionary visa applications. Thus it is months before my visa is approved. The Millers graciously let me stay on with them. I attend all services and functions at their church (Bay View Baptist), which also has a Christian Serviceman’s Center. I attend the weekly night service at it, and am soon called on to give my testimony.

Many refugees who fled South Viet Nam back in March are now here on Guam. Bay View ministers to them. A Vietnamese pastor has Sunday services for Vietnamese in the Serviceman’s Center. The Millers and others teach the refugees English in the Center 1 night a week. I join in all such activity I can, earnestly praying for my missionary visa to be approved (meanwhile enjoying tropical life to the fullest).

I teach English in the refugee camp (a closed hotel on the beach), eat their “government aid” supper, and watch a nightly movie outdoors on the beach (weather permitting). One movie was produced in Taiwan in spoken Chinese, with English in captions. “Shall we fight them here or elsewhere place?” I was constantly laughing at such English captions.

I teach in 2 Vietnamese homes. Mr. Be’s daughter (about 14) cracked up from the trama of war and fleeing her native land. The family asks me to teach her English in their house. Sometimes she talks a little, but sits stone silent at times. Heartbreaking. And I listen to many heartbreaking stories from these refugees.

Guam families are typically large. Arriving Guam, I’m amused to regularly see “family vehicles” (typically small Japanese trucks) chugging along roads with 2 or 3 souls in the cab and up to 5 (or more) in the open bed of the truck, even in pouring rain. It’s never cold on Guam, so getting wet is not such a problem. Now at times, I find myself riding in the open bed of a pickup truck with Vietnamese as rain pours on us. “Welcome to Guam life, Richard.” All activity is a rich experience.

Friends in the States and in Karuizawa pray for my missionary visa to be issued. But the process drags on. In late October, I apply for a 90-day tourist visa to Japan. It is granted immediately.

Thursday 23 October 1975: I thank the Millers for much patience and hospitality toward me, bid Farewell to them and a host of precious new friends and fly back to Tokyo. I catch a 12:22 AM (24 Oct.) train out of Ueno Station in Tokyo for Karuizawa, arriving there just before 4 AM. Thank Thee, Lord, for bringing me back to the Land where Thou hast put my heart.

It was a joyful relief to lug my heavy bag from the station to my room at Bethel House and bed down for less than 4 hours. I wanted to rest longer. But after I called Mrs. Takahashi from a pay phone in Tokyo, I now see the kind note she left me, inviting me to join them for 8 AM breakfast. So I do. Later I walk to the language school just before 11 AM chapel starts and receive a royal welcome from all souls there who had been earnestly praying for me to be able to return here. After chapel, I eat lunch with them and start my language classes this day with vigor.

I greatly enjoy my first autumn in Karuizawa, the vivid colors of the leaves when they turn red, orange and yellow. On 30 November, the 1^st snow of the season turns the world lovely white. But because I am not fond of shivering, the new snow causes the Millers’ kind invitation to warm me thru and thru. “We plan to go to the States for Christmas. Please come back to Guam then and house sit for us.” They spoke that to me at their meal table on Guam back in October. Burglary and vandalism are plenty rampant on Guam. So residents get friends to “housesit” when they go off island.

When language school lets out for Christmas holidays, I fly to Guam on Saturday 20 December 1975, just before my tourist’s visa 60-day period of stay expires. Stepping off the airplane, the tropical warmth and smell are embracing. It’s a rich blessing to have the Millers’ house and car available for my personal use. I feel like a king in his own castle.

I set about driving around to my Vietnamese friends’ houses and this reunion is a great joy to both them and me. Just before I left in October, they closed down the refugee camp on the beach, having gotten all the refugees into houses. I already knew where Mr. and Mrs. Le’s house is. So I go there and they tell me where other Vietnamese that I know are now living.

The next day, Sunday, I attend church at Bay View. It is good to again see my American friends in that church.

When the services end I walk over to the Vietnamese church in the Servicemen’s Center and greet those friends, mutual joy overflowing. “Let me treat you to lunch,” Nhiep says to me. So that Vietnamese man gets into the Millers’ car with me and we go to a restaurant for lunch together. I met him back in September. He fled Viet Nam, leaving his wife and 7 children behind. His English ability is very limited, but he groans when he speaks to me of how much he misses his dear wife and children.

Monday, December 22: “Captain Anh had a heart attack and is in the hospital.” Mr. and Mrs. Le give me that sad news today when I visit them. I had gotten to know Captain Anh quite well back in October. I soon drive on to the hospital. “He was dismissed earlier today.” So I drive to his house and visit with him and his family. He was a captain in the South Viet Nam Navy and then moved up to a higher civilian position in government.

As South Viet Nam crumbled under communist aggression, he sent his wife and 2 sons out on a commercial airliner. But he stayed behind a few more days, trying to get permission to destroy important government documents to keep them out of the hands of the Reds. In the chaos, he never got that permission. That delay almost prevented his escape. He finally went down to the port with a small bag, hoping to flee on a ship. But it was mass chaos there, with many souls frantically trying to board ships and boats to escape. “Guess I’m doomed,” he pondered with sinking heart. “The Reds will likely kill me, being a high government official.”

But a Vietnamese sailor who had served under Captain Anh notices him and approaches him. “Come with me.” That sailor likely saved the “captain’s” life this day by getting him onto a ship that sailed to the Philippines. From there, he soon came to Guam and his wife and children flew from stateside to join him on Guam. Likely the much stress he endured in Viet Nam brought on this heart attack.

I find him at his house laid back in an easy chair looking most weak and weary (the toll of war). His wife looks plenty worried. I endeavor to be a comfort. “Spend the night with us. Stay as much as you like.” So I spend the night sleeping on their living room floor. I stay 2 or 3 nights (not in a row) and visit with them and their 2 sons parts of several days.

Wednesday 24 December, Christmas Eve: The Vietnamese Church has a supper tonight at the Christian Serviceman’s Center. They invite me. I accept. Captain Anh is able to come with family. After it, I drive to Mr. Le’s house. He urges me to accompany him to Catholic mass. (Many of these Vietnamese are Catholics.) I reluctantly do as he insists, and it breaks my heart to watch them practice religion. But it broke my heart more to then go with him to a big party at the house of a poor Vietnamese family where most all souls were funneling beer down their gullets, even giving beer to little children to drink. Righteous indignation flared up within me. Mercy on them all, Lord, to save each soul. I drive back to the Miller house with a heavy heart and get into bed at 3:30 AM.

Christmas Day 1975: My first “hot” Christmas in the tropics. I definitely prefer the sunburn to snow. Brother Bradley, the director of the Serviceman’s Center kindly invited to his family’s Christmas Dinner today, starting in early afternoon, eating and chatting for more than 2 hours with the Bradleys and another Christian couple whom they invited.

The New Year 1976 arrives on schedule on Thursday. I attend a watch night service at a friend’s church that ends after 1 AM on New Years Day. I drive to the Miller house for a few hours sleep, write letters and such in the morning, and then drive to Captain Anh’s house for a big feast they have spread for New Years. People are so prone to make a god of their bellies. I speak to Captain Anh of Christ. He assures me that he is trusting in Jesus Christ. I spend New Years night at their house.

Daily, I am most blessed to spend much time with various friends as I bask in the tropical warmth. After 2 AM on Monday 5 January, I drive to the airport to meet the 3 Millers flying back from the States. Their plane is late. Mr. Miller cannot find his wallet and is quite sure it has been stolen. So it takes plenty of time for him to report that. I ride home with them and we 4 get into bed about 5:30 AM.

I spoke of my efforts to teach English to Mr. and Mrs. Be’s war traumatized teenage daughter back in October. Angie, their older married daughter (in her 20s), also fled Viet Nam with her parents and little sister. But Angie is in misery because her husband stayed in Viet Nam. Both Angie and her dad are plenty fluent in English and each now have a good job in separate locations. On this trip to Guam, I frequently see Angie and talk to her much about Jesus Christ.

Saturday 10 January: As I eat out with Angie at lunchtime, I speak of God and eternal matters. “I don’t think God loves me because He allows me to be separated from my husband against my will.” How great the human race be, so quick to blame and fault our loving, gracious God for anything about which they are unhappy or displeased. I speak Truth to Angie. (She frequently loans me her car for 2 or 3 hours while she is at work, which is a tremendous help.)

Sunday 11 January 1976: Yesterday and today, I visit with as many dear friends as possible, biding them Farewell. A Bay View couple invites the Millers and me to their house for lunch after church. Upon Bob (U.S. Navy) and wife Sachiko (Japanese) meeting me when I first came to Bay View last August, they have talked much to me most every time they see me at Bay View. They are happy that I’m in Japan preaching Christ. Bob plans to retire from the Navy about 6 years from now and thinks God might then lead his family to live in Japan to serve Christ there.

Mon 12 January: I prayed much that my missionary visa to Japan would be approved by now, but such approval has not come to the Japanese Consulate here on Guam. Bidding several loved ones Farewell today, I board an almost empty 747 Jumbo Jet this afternoon for Tokyo after most enjoyable winter holidays on a tropical island. From Tokyo, I ride the Monorail and 3 trains to Karuizawa and walk in the cold to Bethel House, arriving just before midnight. I rejoice to see a stack of mail from friends in the States waiting for me (Christmas cards and such).

I vigorously leap back into Japanese language study and turn 30 years old. “Over the hill now.” As I type this at 70 years of age, I chuckle at those words I wrote in my diary on my 30^th birthday. Writing this autobiography in the year 2016 is my first time to start reading my diary straight thru from the beginning. (I have glanced at portions at times.) Anyway, reading my ancient history of 40 years ago is most interesting J. If you start a diary today, likely you will be most glad that you did so.

Wednesday 21 January: “I don’t feel so well. Please substitute for me, teaching my English classes at Eiken.” I comply with missionary wife Millie’s request. (Eiken is the cram school in Ueda City. I first went to Guam with them.) Deep snow cancelled several trains, delaying me. I reach the classroom at 7 PM and teach for 2 hours (2 classes). Tonight is the start of me soon teaching regularly (one night a week) at Eiken. The pay is a tremendous help as my savings are playing out now. Plus, it’s fun teaching the Japanese boys, girls, and young adults.

Saturday 28 February 1976: I go by train to Nagano City. An English cram school there has invited me as a guest teacher to their afternoon classes today. Their English teachers are 2 Japanese ladies. So they have a native speaker come occasionally and make it a fun day when the foreigner comes. I have fun with the kids in their classes, afterward enjoy a nice restaurant meal with most of the staff and they put me on an early night train with a nice pay envelope, thank God. Today is the start of me coming to this cram school occasionally. I thank God for opening this door.

I do my best in language study and regularly take my turn leading its chapel or preaching the short sermon on Fridays. I preach in the Sunday evening English church service when assigned to do so. I jog regularly for exercise in the lovely nature around me. I go out on a mountainside and pray, sometimes all night. I am the most blessed soul on earth, thank God.

Wednesday 3 March 1974: I receive a letter from Mrs. Kenney on Guam, the Japanese Christian lady who works in the Japan Consulate on Guam. The Consulate has received (from Tokyo) approval for my missionary visa. Thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for this miracle. Japan government will not make this change of visa status inside Japan (a visa being a permit to enter a nation). I want to wait till language school lets out for the summer to go to Guam to get that missionary visa. So…

Friday 12 March: I ride the trains to the Shinagawa Immigration Office in the port area of Tokyo. My 60-day period of stay on my tourist is up today. (It started when I returned from Guam.) They readily renew it, but tell me I must do my alien registration this day, as I must do it within 60 days after “becoming a resident.” I tell the kind man I will comply, thank him and leave.

I am to register with city hall in the town where I reside. But I plan to spend the weekend with the Fred Hersey family near Tokyo. I call Brother Fred from a pay phone and tell him of my dilemma. “Come on out here. I’ll take you to my local city office and you can register as a resident at my address. Then after you return to Karuizawa, you can go to city hall there and change your address. So I do thus wise and enjoy a blessed weekend with his family and his church congregation on Sunday.

Saturday 27 March: I ride the trains to Tokyo to do a little shopping and in the afternoon, go on to Haneda Airport as Brother Hersey and I had planned. He will come there to meet The Directory of Free Will Baptist Foreign Missions (Brother Rolla Smith) and one board member (Brother Eugene Waddell) who came from Nashville, Tennessee a few days ago to Sapporo, and today are arriving to visit the Free Will Baptist churches in the Tokyo area.

I accompany those 2 preachers and Brother Fred on a busy schedule as they visit 3 churches in the Tokyo area on Sunday and do some sightseeing on Monday. They discuss the possibility of me becoming an associate foreign missionary under The Free Will Baptists. I spend a most blessed 2 days with them all, bidding them Farewell late Monday night, 29 March, to return to Karuizawa. I pray about what we discussed and my Lord never led me to apply to be one of their associate missionaries.

Friday morning 9 April 1976: I am getting ready to leave my Bethel House room to walk to the language school when Mrs. Takahashi comes over and announces to me that they have decided to move me out of this room and into the 2^nd floor room of the other small building. She kindly asks me if I can make that move today, tho I am now leaving to be at school most of the day. I moved into this room more than a year ago. Why cannot this kind Christian lady give me at least a 1 or 2-week notice?

Striving to keep my fleshly temper under control I politely ask her if I can make the move tomorrow on Saturday when there is no school. She consents to my request. Off I go to school and have trouble consecrating on my studies for some reason. After morning classes, I don’t even go to my afternoon classes. I walk to Brother Sekiguchi’s house and borrow a rope I will need in moving tomorrow.

Saturday 10 April: I leap single-handed into the big move, carrying lighter things I can carry alone. When Pastor Takahashi sees me “moving”, he brings a young Japanese man with him out of the main building and they start moving their personal effects out of the room I am moving into. Tho they abruptly asked me yesterday to move then, they do not clear out the room for me till I start moving into it this morn. It doesn’t work well at all, them carrying things down the narrow stairway as I take my things up the same narrow way. Thank Thee, Heavenly Father, for giving us the fruit of the Spirit, long-suffering, gentleness, and most of all, LOVE, ever so needful.

Yesterday at school, I asked Ron if he would come help me move my heavy items. “Sure.” But he doesn’t show up today. Two young Japanese Christian men I know arrive separately to visit at Bethel House (sent by God to help me). They gladly help me tie Brother Sekiguchi’s rope to 3 large items (one at a time) and pull them up thru the large window (those items being too large for the narrow stairway). By God’s Grace, we complete the move by 11:30 AM and I take the rest of Saturday off. I quickly settle into this cozy bright Upper Room and like it better than the 1^st floor room I vacated on short notice.

15 April: With my wallet getting ever so thin, I ask around, ‘Is there a hospital or such place that will pay me to donate blood?’ Japanese friends inquired for me, but nothing ever came of it. So I keep all my poor blood circulating near my poor wallet.

22 April: My friend Charles (back home in Vernon) kept my Thunderbird for me, stored nicely inside a building. At the beginning of this year, I wrote Charles and asked him to put it up for sale. He did. Last month, I wrote Daddy, asking him to also try to sell it. Today, I get a letter from Daddy saying he sold it for $1,000. I write him, thanking him. ‘Please give Charles $100 for keeping it in good care and trying to sell it. You take some for your help too.’ Daddy paid Charles, refused to take any himself, and deposited $900 in my account in The Bank of Vernon. My T-Bird (of many fond memories) is now gone and my poor blood is richer. “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” Amen and Amen!

28 April: I rent P.O. Box 8 at the Karuizawa Post Office for 1200 yen ($4) a year. Cheap! The mailman delivers mail to Bethel House on a motor scooter, where he opens the large door to our foyer and lays all the mail (for several people) on the “raised floor” inside. When I am present at delivery time, I walk right over there when I hear his motor scooter, checking to see if I have any mail (before Mary puts it away and forgets it). At times, more than two weeks after I return to Bethel House after being away a few days, embarrassed Mary comes to me, handing me a few letters and apologizing because she put them away in my absence and forgot to give them to me upon my return. Often that “forgotten” mail contains love offerings to me (that my poor blood needs).

I am most happy today to opt for the safety and security of a P.O. Box and have continued to use one to date (2016). Local Japanese Post Office workers aren’t that apt at reading Japanese words written in our alphabet (as opposed to their Kanji and kana). Plus, many Americans do “hen scratching” as opposed to plainly printing the address. So, if the numbers of the zip code and of my P.O. Box are legible, that usually assures that my much-wanted mail will be put into my box.

While on Guam last October and also when I returned there for Christmas and New Years, Captain Anh’s wife repeatedly talked to me of Rose. “She is so nice and beautiful, and she is a Christian. I want you to meet her.”

When Mrs. Anh and her small son, Charlie, fled South Viet Nam on a commercial airliner, her emotions were so torn with fear, sadness, worries, and such. “Rose was my flight attendant and she took much time to kindly talk to me at length, telling me that she would pray for me and assuring me that all will be well with my family. She gave me her address and we correspond. You take her address and write to her. Rose flies to Tokyo in her work and I want you to go meet her when she does.”

I write to Rose, which begins correspondence back and forth. “I’ll call you when in Tokyo.”

1 May 1976: Rose calls from Tokyo. “I am to be based here for a month. I would like to see you.” The feeling was extremely mutual.

Saturday 8 May: I ride the trains to Fred Hersey’s house and take plenty of ribbing from their family about Rose, Bro. Fred being the most proficient “ribber”. I take trains on to Shinjuku in Tokyo, go to the large plush hotel Rose’s employer provides for its aircrew, have the clerk call Rose’s room and she comes to the lobby, everything Mrs. Anh said that she was. We walk out to a park and sit and talk a couple hours.

‘The Herseys would like you to come spend the night and be with us in church tomorrow.’ Rose agrees and accompanies me to their house.

Sunday 9 May: Rose is so blessed and touched, observing the small church packed full of Japanese children at the Sunday School hour. She is a big hit with them and then with the Japanese adults who come. After the morning service, the church has a picnic lunch in a nearby park, blessed with good weather. Later, Rose gives her testimony at Brother Fred’s afternoon English class and then I escort her on the trains back to her hotel and return to the Herseys’ house late to spend the night.

“Missionary boy, did you enjoy this weekend?”

‘What can I say?’

“You could say that a diary entry reads ‘One of the most wonderful weekends of my life’.”

‘Yep, reckon I could say that, couldn’t I?’

Monday 10 May: Brother Fred gives me a ride to the immigration office near Yokota AF Base. I ask the officer if he will again renew my tourist visa. His face clouds up. The policy is to not renew tourist visas numerous times. He says he will send my application to the head office in Shinagawa to see what they do with it, and he stamps “Applied For” in my passport. That allows me to stay till they decide. So I can (and do) cancel my airline reservation to fly to Guam tomorrow (the day my period of stay expires).

Saturday 22 May: Super Typhoon Pamela hits Guam wrecking much havoc. Had I flown to Guam on the 11^th, as I had tentatively planned to do, likely I would have still been there this day and suffered with all souls on Guam. Thank Thee, Lord, for keeping me away from the fierce storm.

Friday 28 May: To this date, off and on I spend 4 more memorial days with Rose, bringing her to the Hersey home for much good fellowship that all souls enjoy. Rose would work long hours 4 or 5 days straight as a flight attendant on long international flights. Then, returning to her base in Tokyo, she would be off for 4 days or so. We all enjoyed her long breaks from work. Tonight, Rose bids the Hersey family a tearful Farewell in their house. I then accompany Rose to her hotel in Tokyo, bid her Goodnight and go wait out front for Brother Fred and son Steven who come for me in 15 minutes in their van, full of suitcases.

I hop in with them and ride to Haneda Airport where we put their much luggage (for the family trip to the States tomorrow) into coin lockers. Fred has a little trouble staying awake as he drives home, arriving after 1 AM, and we try to get a little sleep. Now, they are set to all go to the airport by train tomorrow, not hampered with all that luggage.

The following day, Saturday 29 May, I accompany the Hersey family on trains and the Monorail to the airport. Several of their church members come separately and we all assemble in their departure area. “I will be departing on my flight about the same time. If I can squeeze it in, I’ll drop by briefly to see you all.” Rose told us that yesterday. And she squeezed it in. ‘There she is.’ She comes over, looking ever so stunning in her flight attendant uniform (1^st time for us to see that). After 5 minutes of hurried greetings, I walk Rose to her “flight crew only” entry, return, soon bid the Herseys Farewell with Japanese Christian friends, and travel to my Bethel House room late at night.

Monday night 31 May: Rose calls and we talk an hour. She worked round trip to Guam and back today and describes the severe damage from Typhoon Pamela (much power outage, water shortages and such).

Sunday 20 June 1976: I preach the morning sermon in the Iriso church that Brother Fred pastors. Japanese pastors fill in while he is away, but they called on me today. This is my 1^st time to preach in Japanese in a Sunday morning church service. I am honored and strive to do my best. The Herseys’ oldest son is an adult and is now house sitting for them. I lodge in their house with him.

Tuesday 29 June: Rose was scheduled to be based in Tokyo for the month of May. When she asked for a month extension, it was approved. We spend more time together in June than we did in May. Cherished memories. Tonight, she and I enjoy supper in a Chinese restaurant in Shinjuku, as we bid each other a final Farewell. She will fly out of my life, on to a different “base of operations” in a day or two. Her world and my world are quite far apart. We two correspond for a short time after and then live happily ever after in our separate worlds.

Saturday 10 July 1976: Final period of stay on my tourist visa expires today. Last night, I came to the Herseys’ house and spent the night with their son. This morning I get up at 5:30, quietly dress and leave (trying not to disturb his sleep). God gives me a safe 3 and half hour flight to Guam. It’s a joy to see both Mr. and Mrs. Miller at the airport, waiting for me. We talk much as they take me to their house and we soon have supper by candlelight. Electricity has not yet been restored to their house since the typhoon. There is no hot bath water due to power outage. Cold showers are bearable on hot Guam.

Sunday 11 July: Going to Bay View Church with the Millers today is a happy reunion, seeing many dear friends.

Monday 12 July: I ride with Steve Miller when he goes to work and then walk around looking up Vietnamese friends, rejoicing to see them again. Today’s news says a typhoon stronger than Pamela is headed here. Mercy, Lord, we plead.

Tuesday 13 July: I help Mr. Miller board up windows with ply board as the island (still licking its wounds from Pamela damage) busily prepares for the storm due to hit tomorrow. This house is still without electricity. Long after I bed down a little early in the dark, I hear Steve almost shout with joy. He is listening to frequent typhoon news on a battery-powered radio. “The typhoon has turned! It will miss Guam completely!”

Wednesday 14 July: I happily help take down storm shutters. Bay View’s church service tonight is full of joyful testimonies of relief, giving God the glory for turning the typhoon away from us, still severely “handicapped” from Pamela’s damage on 22 May.

Sadly, this potential storm caused one death on Guam. A young Navy sailor was standing on a wet surface using a skill saw to cut ply board to fit as storm shutters and accidentally cut thru the saw’s electrical cord. The wet surface made the forthcoming electric shock strong enough to kill him. His wife heard him yell, ran out to him, and he was barely able to gasp, “I love you,” before he died.

Thursday 15 July 1976: I catch a ride with Steve when he goes to work and walk on to the Japanese Consulate. Mrs. Kenney is at work. We are happy to see each other and I overflow with joy and thanksgiving to God (and to every nice living creature) as she takes my passport and officially stamps my missionary visa into it. I spend the day walking around to several places in Tumon, thanking God for this long awaited visa. I walk to Steve’s office just in time to ride home with him. Walking into the Miller house, we are elated to see the electric lights shining brightly (power restored about 2 hours ago). Back to warm showers and plenty of light. Thank Thee, Lord, for abundant Grace and Help this day.

Arriving on Guam this time, I quickly find the Vietnamese Tung family of six (4 sons) living in Villa Verde apartments in Dededo. “Come live with us and teach English to our boys and to several other Vietnamese living in Villa Verde.” I thank Mr. Tung for that kind hospitality and tell him I will lodge with them off and on. They live 2 miles or more from the Millers in Yigo.

Wednesday 21 July: Today, I pack a small bag and come spend the night with the Tungs. From now on, I interact with the Tung family and 5 other families living in Villa Verde apts. Two of those families are Vietnamese. Three families are American men married to Vietnamese wives. I quickly make friends with all their children and have a ball playing with them, teaching them English and telling them of Jesus. Upon calling me to be a missionary, my Lord instilled within me a burning desire to tell the whole world about Jesus Christ. But my limited Japanese language ability has “handicapped” my efforts in Japan, much to my frustration and vexation. So, on Guam it is sheer joy to freely spread the Gospel to everyone in my native tongue.

The following day, I start teaching English conversation to the Tung’s 3 older sons and to 3 Vietnamese wives, each living in a Villa Verde apartment with her family. It is a joy to daily walk to a nearby apartment, teach English at their kitchen table and then eat the healthy delicious Chinese and Vietnamese cooking they put before me. Each family has children. I play outside with the children, buy a Bible storybook and read to them. One by one, several say they want to receive Jesus Christ and then readily follow me as I lead each in prayer. That is a great joy! Mr. and Mrs. Tung are Catholics (somewhat devout). He remarks to me that he wants his 4 sons to be Catholic priests. Shortly after his eldest son prayed to Christ for salvation, he told his dad in my presence that he didn’t want to be a Catholic priest. “I don’t like that religion,” he bluntly told his dad.

Monday 26 July: Vacation Bible School starts today at Bay View with Mrs. Miller most active in it. I haul 2 children there in one of the Millers’ cars. I invite the Tung boys. The 2 older boys want to go and do so most every day from Tuesday on. VBS ends on Friday. We got many children to attend, thank God.

Sunday 1 August 1976: Tonight at Bay View church, we bring as many VBS children as we can round up and they “perform”. Mr. Tung allows his 2 older sons to come. The group of children sings and quotes Bible verses and such. After hauling them and working with them a half day each day, I rejoice to see them glorifying God tonight. At the beginning and at the end of their “performance” they sing the song, “Sing it out, Jesus Loves You”. I fell in love with that “kid’s” song’s glorious message and have sung it hundreds of times during the 40 years since then.

I have increasing contact with Mrs. Kenney’s family (the Japanese Christian lady working at the Japan Consulate). She is married to an American Christian (an active Gideon) with 4 children, the eldest child now a young adult and no longer living in their house. “My insurance paid me to have all the exterior walls of my house painted after the typhoon damage. If you want the job, I will contract you to paint it.” I accept Mr. Kenney’s gracious offer to feed my starving wallet.

Sunday 8 August 1976: Tonight, a much beloved military chaplain soon to depart Guam preaches to a full house at Bay View. The Kenney family comes to this special service. After it, I ride home with them.

Monday 9 August: “Handy man” missionary starts repairing bicycles, cutting grass and doing other such work for the busy Kenney family. In a couple of days, Brother Kenney finally buys the paint and I start painting the exterior concrete walls. (Most buildings on Guam are concrete to withstand typhoons.) I watch their 3 sons a couple of days this week when the babysitter does not come. Brother Kenny takes me back to the Miller house Saturday night.

Sunday 15 August: As on a few other Sundays, this morning I teach Mrs. Miller’s teenage Sunday School class at Bay View. I’m most thankful for this opportunity and for being asked to speak of Christ at the servicemen’s center occasionally.

“Please house sit for us while we go off island for a short vacation.” Mrs. Sparks (of Bay View) occasionally comes to the Miller house where she and Mrs. Miller sit at the kitchen table getting their fix of caffeine and exercising their chatting ability. On such a recent occasion, Mrs. Sparks spoke those most inviting words to me. Tonight, from the Millers’ house, I take a bag to church with me and ride home with the Sparks family.

Monday 16 August: The Sparks family of five (3 sons) and I are up early to a light and hurried breakfast. They load the suitcases into the car and Mr. Sparks drives all 6 of us toward the airport (only 2 miles away). We are almost there when the following highly emotional matrimonial conversation materializes out of thick and tense air.

“You’ve got the plane tickets, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t! I thought you were going to bring them!”

“I thought you would handle them!”

Bachelor missionary is plenty intrigued by this marital dialogue that causes the car to make a sudden U turn. Back to the nearby house we go for the necessary plane tickets and they still check in on time. Tiny Guam Island results in everyone living close to the airport, a “lifesaver” at times like this.

The Sparks live in Barrigada Heights, a fairly new and fancy subdivision on the hillside in Barrigada, making for a fantastic beach and ocean view from their large windows and patio. By God’s Great Grace, I have their nice house (including all the food in the kitchen), nice view, and car all to myself for 5 days. “Gracious is the Lord.” All day every day, it would be ever so pleasant to sit on their patio, eating and drinking while drinking in the lovely view. But I regularly bounce to the Miller house to pick up my mail from the States, to Villa Verde to teach English, eat their good food and play with kids while speaking and singing of Jesus, and to the Kenneys’ to paint drab concrete walls. Truly, I am the most blessed soul on earth! Thank Thee, Sweet Jesus!

Friday 20 August: Shortly before 9 PM, Mr. Sparks calls me from the airport, having just deplaned from their vacation on nearby Saipan. I drive there, Mr. Sparks takes the driver’s seat and everyone is full of excited talk. I think it best to break my bad news quickly. ‘Your cat and kittens disappeared. I looked everywhere for them.’ Their softhearted youngest son weeps. We go buy pizza, bring it home, eat it, and go to bed about midnight.

Saturday 21 August: The 3 Sparks boys talk my ears off all morning. Their eldest son wants to be a jet fighter pilot. He has much to ask me about such flying. After 1 PM, Mr. and Mrs. Sparks take me to the Millers’ house for me to drop off and pick up personal items. I soon leave with Mr. and Mrs. Sparks for the Tungs’ apt. In the car Mrs. Sparks speaks up. “Next summer, our family plans to spend about a month in the States.” Please come house sit for us then.” Heavenly music to my ears! My Gracious Lord, I am most thankful and most undeserving. They drop me off at the Tungs. I resume my life with the Millers, Vietnamese, and the Kenneys.

Sunday 29 August: A Korean man that Mr. Miller recently met on Hawaii flies thru Guam and is the Millers’ guest today. I accompany Mr. Miller and son Steve as they take this Korean man to a Korean church service this afternoon. I enjoy listening to the singing and preaching in the Korean language, tho I can’t understand it. I think of Pastor Chung in Korea.

That Korean service at Faith Presbyterian Church was half a mile from Bay View. After it, I part from the others, walk up to Bay View and inquire around as to where a certain Vietnamese family lives (nearby). I get vague directions from one friend after another and finally find the house, walking to it. Last October, their 3 children (Judy, Peter and Jimmy) were in the children’s English class I taught a few times at the servicemen’s center. When I find their house today, only Peter and Jimmy are home. I talk of Jesus. Both listen well and ask good questions. Soon I ask if they want to pray to Jesus for forgiveness of sins and to ask Him to save them. Both want to pray and follow me as I lead. I joyfully talk to them more of Life in Christ and soon walk on air to Bay View for the evening service.

(A side note) Back about June, the U.S. Navy transferred Bob and Sachiko (of Bay View Church) from Guam to Yokota AF Base in Japan at Bob’s request. (Yes, some Navy guys get stationed on an AF base.) Bob has a burning desire to be in Japan, thank God. After I come to Guam, Sachiko goes from Yokota to Karuizawa by train, finds her way to Bethel House and regrets to find out that I am presently on Guam, not in Karuizawa.

Wednesday 1 September 1976: Time is drawing nigh for me to fly to Japan. Mr. Kenney asks me to do a little more painting on his house today. I consent, tho I had rather be spending the time with Vietnamese friends. When I finish the painting in late afternoon, I want Mr. Kenney to take me to the Tungs’ house to sup with that family. But he insists on his family feasting me at a café before I part from them. It’s a big meal and I’m stuffed full when I bid Farewell to his family and he drives me to the Tungs’ apartment and leaves me.

The Tungs were expecting me for supper (a past event). (They have no phone.) “You must be hungry,” Mrs. Tung says to me as I walk in. Then she sets much food before me and commands me to eat. Not wanting to hurt her feelings, I torture my full stomach. It is almost 9 PM when I walk to a nearby apartment to bid Farewell to Lynn’s mother (Vietnamese). She gives me a nice pen set for my kindness to her family.

Nine PM is not mealtime, but she sets a large bowl of dog bone soup before me and commands me to eat. For over a month now, these hospitable ladies have often fed me this delicious, healthy meat and vegetable soup they make from scratch. Because some of the tender hunks of meat in it are on the bone, I named it “Dog Bone Soup”. That amused them. “Here’s your dog bone soup”, they delighted to announce to me. After eating 2 large suppers tonight, I sure didn’t want to face a large bowl of it this late at night. But out of respect to their kindness, I ate the whole thing, my 3^rd supper tonight. Thought I would die. I long for Japan and my oft days of fasting there.

Thursday 2 September 1976: Lord, please help me to get all my business done this morning. Please give me a safe flight to Japan this afternoon. Mr. Tung loans me his car to run many errands (to the bank and such). Back to their house for the big lunch they put before all us. Then go outside onto the apartment grounds as children return from school in the afternoon and gather around me. I speak emotional parting words to their sad faces. I had made friends with just about all the kids at Villa Verde. They are Islanders and Asians. Mr. Tung takes pictures of the children clinging around me and later sends me copies. ‘Such lovely but sad faces,’ I say as I look longingly on the pictures.

All 6 Tungs take me to the airport. Lynn’s mother brings her from Villa Verde. Mrs. Sparks comes. Soon Mrs. Kenney arrives. All children are so sad. All souls are emotional. Much is said. More is left unsaid. I wait till the last minute to board and fly out of Guam’s skies, ending 55 most blessed days on this tropical paradise island. Praise God for the few precious little friends who doubtlessly entered into Eternal Life during this time on Guam as we all were traveling to our eternal abode.

On to Chapter 33

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