Dear Friends,
      I’m getting this journal out a day later than I intended.  One hundred forty years ago today, American Baptists began their ministry in Japan with the arrival of two men.  Jonathan Goble had come to Japan as a sailor on Perry’s black ship and then returned later as a missionary with a “sometimes” support system under a different Baptist group.  Now, thirteen years later, he joined veteran Assam missionary, Nathan Brown under our Baptist board, arriving on February 7, 1873.  
      In this same year, by edict of the Japanese government, signs declaring Christianity illegal began coming down.  In this friendly/not-so-friendly atmosphere, sixty-five year old Nathan Brown, did what he could do best, translate the Bible into a language that he had not yet learned.  He reluctantly joined a translation committee made up of several other denominations but soon left it to continue on his own with a language helper.  He was often at odds with the committee who was attempting to translate the scriptures from the King James Bible.  It took him seven years to translate the New Testament directly from the Greek language.  Recently his Bible was reprinted.  It is completely written in the phonetic characters called hiragana without any kanji characters.  A number of our pastors occasionally use it to clarify a passage they are studying because it is a direct translation from Greek into Japanese, and avoids the weak niceties of modern Japanese language.
      Even before Brown’s Bible was published, American Baptist missionaries began arriving one by one and two by two, continuing for 140 years thereafter. During that time, over 340 American Baptist missionaries have brought the gospel to Japan, with five of us remaining.  We pray that God will again raise others to carry the banner.
      Yesterday I was reminded that Japanese Baptists will never forget their spiritual roots.  The first Sunday in February is called Baptist Day with many churches listening to messages about “the why of Baptists?”  I spoke at one church on Baptist Day and will speak at another church this coming Sunday on the subject.  On Tuesday of next week, I’ll be speaking at Kanto Gakuin Jr. High chapel about Baptist history.  
      This week on Thursday the 7th, a number of people gathered together in Yokohama at “the post” that marks the location of the first residence of the first missionaries (the actual location is straight up the steep hill above the marker). The marker has Nathan Brown’s name on it and the date of landing.  Jonathan Goble’s name is conspicuously missing.  We definitely stopped traffic, as people couldn’t figure out why we were all gathered in front of a post, praying, singing a hymn, and listening to a very short message by Rev. Yamamoto and myself.  We made our way up the hill to another marker which points to that location of the place where Soshin Gakuin began (by the efforts of Charlotte Ashmore Brown) and the origin of the Baptist Seminary (A. A. Bennett) that later merged with Kanto Gakuin.  For me, this was enough of a climb but I continued on since half of our group was nearly twenty years older than me.  The group entered the Foreign Cemetery, stopping at the gravesites of Nathan & Charlotte Ashmore Brown, A. A. Bennett, E. W. Clement, and lastly, Jonathan Goble’s wife, Eliza and daughter, Dorinda.  At each grave, someone prepared a bio, we sang a hymn and another prayed, thanking God for the witness of this person.
      These people are serious about remembering.  How serious are you about remembering those of your leaders and ancestors in the faith?
      In Hebrews  13:7-8 it says, “Remember the leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their ways of life and imitate their faith.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (NIV)

* Pray for my preparations for Sunday's message and chapel talk on Baptist history

* Pray for my spiritual readiness to meet mothers of children at Kanto Gakuin

* Pray for preparations being made for volunteers

In Christ, Roberta Stephens

roberta@robertastephens.com