2014 May PL

The Ofunato Update
Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society
Chikako and Fred Whitwer
News
• Welcome to the new Ofunato Update
• Chikako and Fred have been accepted as
missionaries with JEMS. This is an exciting new
direction for us.
• We visited our children in San Jose California in
March. Our older one is now engaged to be
married and we wish blessings on their marriage.
• Chikako’s travelers document paperwork went
smoothly.
• The photo at the right was taken before winter
came to Iwate. The location is Lake Tazawa on
the border between Iwate and Akita.
May 2014
Day trip to Lake
Tazawa. Wonderful!
Prayer Requests
Praises
• The extension of the base house lease
• Helga Theis (German missionary) and Tsunoda-san (Japanese
until May of 2015. The owner seems
violinist) served in April.
willing to extend.
• A prayer team from Newsong church in Irvine CA blessed the
• Continued attendance of the Daigo,
base through prayer and encouraged temp housing residents.
Ayaka and Sachi at Kids Club. These
• Short term missionaries (STM’s) Samantha and Charmaine from
are new kids that are just starting to
Singapore will stay from mid-May to mid-June.
hear the Bible stories.
• In April a 7 passenger van was donated to the church network
• Shida-san has been given a bi-lingual
for use in Ofunato.
Bible. She is an English student Fred’s.
• Stephen, a missionary from So Cal is a licensed Taichi instructor.
Pray that the words of Scripture speak
Prior to his Christian conversion he used martial arts to
to her heart.
intimidate people. Now he is using his ability to teach temp
• Emi-san has become a believer. Her
housing residents how to stay healthy. He and his wife and kids
life almost ended in the tsunami.
moved to Ofunato last year.
Please pray that her boyfriend would
• The Japanese Wives Bible Study (JWBS) located at the American
no longer interfere with her new faith.
naval base in Yokusuka continues to send items for distribution.
At Easter time they sent chocolates and other goodies that were
enjoyed by the residents.
Close Up
Morita-san (pictured at left with son Go-kun) survived the
tsunami. He used to go abroad on a fishing boat. He was a
cook on this large boat. Over the years while at sea he almost
lost his life three different times. His boat was off Indonesia in
2004 when the Banda Aceh tsunami occurred. He survived. So
when the 1960 tsunami here in Ofunato is included he has
survived 3 tsunamis. He is retired now and raising 4 children.
He has a keen sense of life and death and is now reading the
New Testament. Every time when we pray for him the Holy
Spirit moves to touch him. Please pray that he will understand
Biblical truth more and more.
Page 2
Tsunami Zone Information
• Public housing is starting to be built. There are
not enough apartments for all survivors so
selection is done by lottery. Needless to say,
the ones not selected wonder when if ever
they will move out of temp housing.
• At Yamagishi temp housing area one-third of
the units are empty. By year’s end everyone
will either move to public housing or (for those
who can afford it) their own newly built homes.
Compared to pre-tsunami prices the cost of
land has doubled.
Donation
Information
Make checks
payable to JEMS
948 East 2nd
Street, Los
Angeles CA 90012
(leave memo line
blank)
Patchwork class at OBBC
Updates
Spring has arrived and with it cherry blossoms. sakura-fubuki or “cherry blossom
blizzard” is a term heard in late April. The falling blossoms remind you of winter without the
cold temperatures.
Our trip to San Jose CA was very relaxing. During our stay we reconnected with church
friends. The farthest day trips we took were to Oakland and Monterey. We of course spent time
with our children Ken and Sara. Sara entered nursing school at the end of April. Kenneth
announced his engagement with the wedding planned later this year.
In April a missionary originally from Germany came to help. Helga Theis has lived in
Japan for more than 40 years and is now in her 70’s. She brought with her a Japanese violinist.
We visited a number of temp housing areas. The folks there enjoyed the classical music concert.
They were surprised to learn that even though Tsunoda-san is unable to see she travels the
world playing the violin. Her Christian testimony is powerful. Helga also has a stencil craft that is
very popular.
The patchwork ladies met for their first meeting in the second week of May. There is
now a teacher that comes from one of the inland churches. The teacher, an assistant and the
pastor all came to Ofunato Bible Baptist Church (OBBC) for the day. At the end of the lesson we
sang hymns and heard a short message from the pastor. Of the 8 attendees four had never been
in a church before. Lord willing, this will be a monthly get together. See photo at top of page.
Pastor Waters came to serve at the end of May. He is an ex-missionary to Iwate and now
pastors a Japanese church in Oceanside. He came by himself. God used him mightily at every
temp housing area. He bravely presented the message “Our citizenship is in heaven”. He
challenged them saying “raise your hand if you want to go to heaven”. Everyone did. He
continued by saying that we cannot pay our way to heaven and only Jesus’ work on the cross
can pay for it. The message was simple and straightforward but because he communicated with
Jesus’ love they liked it. They all asked Pastor Waters to come back again.
Email: cfwhitwer@sbcglobal.net
Websites:
www.jems.org
311.ichurch.jp
Church Contact Information
Santa Clara Valley Japanese Christian Church, 40 Union Avenue, Campbell, CA 95008 USA
Morioka Seisho Baptist Kyoukai, 3-6-36 Ueda, Morioka-shi, 020-0066 Japan