The Fellowship's 30 Years

This year, Kanto Gakuin University's The Fellowship group will be thirty years old!

The Fellowship started in 1979, when American Baptist missionaries, Charles and Judith DeRolf began inviting students over to their home for Bible studies and meals together. The DeRolfs continued leading this group until they retired from work in Japan in 2005. Here are some quick historical highlights of The Fellowship:

1982: The Fellowship becomes an official club of students at the university.

1985: Eiji Osato becomes a Bible teacher at Kanto Gakuin Mutsuura Jr./Sr. High school and begins helping out at the Fellowship.

1992: Eiji Osato and his wife, Emi (whom he met at the Fellowship group) become Japan Baptist Union missionaries to Thailand, working in leadership development among the Karen tribal group

1993: Fellowship goes to the USA (Yosemite National Park and Chicago, IL)

1994: Fellowship goes to Thailand to volunteer with the Osato family

late 1990s: The Fellowship takes a number of overseas trips (to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, and to multiple places in the US)

1999: Sanae Nakajima, a Fellowship alum, founds "Free the Children, Japan"--an NGO which works to save children around the world from exploitation

(see http://www.ftcj.com/index.html )

2002: Fellowship goes to Boulder, CO, USA

2005: The DeRolf family retires from missionary work in Japan; Rev. Hogari becomes the advisor; Rev. Noh begins volunteering with the group

2006: The Fellowship begins annually welcoming two groups Korean college students for cultural exchange; Dwight begins volunteering with the group

This year, we start our 30th year of friendship-building and Christian witness. PTL!

Sigma Society Volunteer Trip to Thailand, Spring '09

This March, 17 students along with Rev. Morishima, Mr. Kanda, and myself, went on the Sigma Society volunteer and study trip to Thailand. What a great trip! For the first couple of days, we stayed in Bangkok, getting oriented to Thai culture, and learning about the plight of children living in slum areas outside the city. We volunteered at a daycare center in one of these slum areas, with the help of Japanese missionary, Rev. Matsushita and his wife.

We then headed up to Chiang Rai, where we worked with Akha Churches in Thailand to build a shelter in a remote village called Hoi Chom Pu. We stayed in the village for three days--eating delicious stuff like rice, mountain veggies and meat from a freshly killed hog (we also ate some other stuff like ant eggs and and various hog "parts"). The Akha people were lovely and were happy to share their lives and culture with us. The shelter/church building project was carried out with generous funding from Soroptimists International, Japan.

We returned to Chiang Mai after this, to visit a number of Christian ministries which offer help to hill tribes peoples: The House of Love and The House of Hope (both AIDS orphanages) and the House of Blessing (a daycare serving underpriviledged hill tribes children). We also had the chance to have a joint class with students studying Japanese at Chiang Mai University.

This two-week trip was a great chance to put KGU's motto "Serve the World" into practice, as well as a great chance to get to know one another better.

See the full pictoral report at:

http://www.davidsonjapan.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=701

A Busy School Festival

At this year's "Bunka-sai" (Culture Festival), two of the clubs related to the chaplaincy at KGU had booths. The Sigma Society, which is a volunteering club, put up an exhibition advertized in this flyer.

The flyer says, "Lots of Thai Children! Pictures! Video! We've been doing volunteer work among the minority people groups in the mountains of Thailand... Riding elephants, working out in the forests! We've seen lots of smiling faces--come take a look!"

The booth was a great success, with many students and a number of teachers getting a good introduction to the work these students have been doing in cooperation with Akha Churches in Thailand and International Soroptomists.

The Fellowship group also put up a booth in front of the chapel--a long standing tradition. This year, we made "Tonjiru" - Pork Soup, a fall time favorite in Japan.

To make this soup, students first had to prepare the "konyaku"--a strange rubbery food made from a root vegetable (like a potato) we usually don't grow or eat in America. I've always thought konyaku was a little bizarre, but the tonjiru sure tasted good when all was said and done!

Good job, everybody!

Obama & Pooh sighted in Japan...

The Fellowship group had their annual Halloween party lately and we had lots of interesting entries for "best dressed." Pooh showed up, as well as Sen. Obama--both very popular here in the land of the rising sun!

We have about four Korean students coming to the group now, and they have been helping out with the music end of things, as well as teaching Korean language at lunchtime on Fridays. These Korean volunteers have been a real blessing to us--they are all Christian young adults who are in Japan for ministry or for study purposes. I sure do appreciate their willingness to try to communicate in Japanese to build friendships and share their love of people and of Jesus.

This week, one of the young ladies in the fellowship group decided to become a Christian. This was a big decision for her, and we wish her the best in her spiritual journey!

New Friends from the USA

Kanto Gakuin has been inviting international exchange students to participate in our campus life for many, many years. One of our oldest partnerships is with Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon--another institution historically related to the American Baptist Churches, USA.

This year, we had 11 students from three different American universities (Linfield, University of Arkansas, and University of Minnesota) come to share the fall semester with us. These students study Japanese, learn about Japanese culture and religion, and get to make friends through a "buddy program."

This is a picture of this year's group, with some of their buddies. Let's pray that they have a great semester, full of new and enriching experiences.

Funny Lucky Charm

This caught my eye in a knick-knack store in Kyoto. It's the shape and size of a traditional o-mamori.

An o-mamori is a small (usually) fabric good luck amulet sold at temples and shrines in Japan. The name of the temple is usually written on one side, and the "wish" written on the other. Sometimes, o-mamori have a piece of paper in the middle for you to write a specific wish on. O-mamori are usually for safety, good luck in business, for passing a test, to ensure love in marriage, etc., and they're often attached to backpacks, cell phones or rear view mirrors.

But this caught my eye. First of all, it was not sold at a temple, but at a knick-knack store. Second it says, "Good luck in Soccer!" and, where the name of the shrine is usually written, it says, "Club Activity Shrine!"

This is obviously not a real shrine--it's just being marketed as a good luck charm by some businesspeople. A little confused by this, I asked one of my students, "Are you offended that this religious item is being copied by businesses so they can make money?" She laughed and said, "Of course not--it's just cool looking."

I thought, "Hmmm... Another good example of the difference between the Japanese notion of Shinto as a 'religion' and the western idea of Christianity as a 'religion.'" Can you imagine going to your neighborhood 7-Eleven and buying a single-serving "Holy Communion packet?" Think about that for a minute!

Beautiful Kyoto!

In early September, the Fellowship group took a three-day trip to Kyoto, the capitol of Japan back in the olden days. Look at this picture! This is the biggest group we've had at a Fellowship summer trip for about 5 years!

We tried something new this year--a suggestion from our dedicated planning team: to take an overnight bus back and forth to Kyoto. Wow--a SEVEN hour drive! Do you think anybody slept on the way down there? If your answer was "yes," you've obviously not worked with college students for a while...

We did the Kyoto thing--going around to get a taste of the rich history of this city, visiting a number of temples, shrines and gardens. But we also had a fun time doing everyday things--riding the buses, chatting in restaurants, relaxing in the public baths at the end of a long day. Lots of friendships were strengthened, a few new ones were made.

For more pictures of our trip, see http://www.davidsonjapan.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=593