Jim & Edythe Currie
We returned to Canada last December with the need to spend half-a-year here, to meet the demands of Government Health Care requirements. We are thankful for the care being extended to us. I have had further consultation with the cardiologist and a change of medicine is called for, which, if not helpful, will lead to a pacemaker being implanted and, with that in mind, a return to Japan for a short visit this year seems a possibility.
I commend to you for your prayers and fellowship our brother Kanji Kitajima who has taken over the management for the Evangelical Publishers, in my place. He is almost entirely unknown outside of Japan but is a capable speaker in ministry and an elder in Fuchu assembly. His will be a heavy burden trying to maintain this work. It is a work of faith and we have proven, over a period of sixty-four years, that God is able to sustain us in our needs.
The city of Fukushima, lying three hours north of Tokyo, has become well known as the result of the nuclear spillage from the reactor plant, after the earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The city has a very small assembly issuing from forty years of zealous Gospel activity by an English brother, Charles Lawrence. Sadly, our brother was suddenly called home last year, leaving the little meeting somewhat bereft. A few years ago a middle-aged sister from this meeting volunteered for the Japanese equivalent of the American Peace Corp. She was assigned to work in Nepal for two years, much to the consternation of the brethren in the Fuchu assembly. Our sister had one daughter who, for four years, attended the International Christian University which is located a very short distance from Fuchu Hall. During her university years, and for three thereafter, while working for NYK, Japan's largest overseas shipping company, our young sister was in fellowship in the Fuchu assembly. She was a typical modern young business lady but, at the same time, had a measure of exercise concerning assembly things.
Naturally, a visit to her mother in Nepal soon became her desire. The anxiety of the Fuchu responsible brethren stemmed from the fact that we knew nothing of spiritual conditions in that country nor any assembly work in Nepal.
While her mother had written, reassuring us of happy conditions in the country, her daughter's proposal did not alleviate our fears in any way. Imagine how we felt when, in a very short while, we had news of her impending wedding to a young Nepali. The young man turned out to be a commended worker, known to some of our brethren from Scotland and Northern Ireland.
A happy outcome of this development has been, first, to enlighten our ignorance and enable us to support, with a measure of appreciation, the work in this exotic country. The saints in Fuchu have been helped in their exercise by the couple's recent visit. Now expecting their first child, it is only right and proper, in keeping with Japanese custom, that the young 'mother to be' be attended by her mother, now back in Fukushima. The Fuchu assembly enjoyed their visit immensely and her husband gave a most profitable word after the Breaking of Bread and as clear a gospel message as any one could have hoped for. His command of English made it easy for the brother interpreting. Nepal is a small country lying between India, Tibet and China, with a population of nearly thirty-million. It is the country of the Himalaya range where the two highest mountains in the world, Everest and Annapurna, are located. The fabled city of Kathmandu, the capital, for the past ten years has been a Republic. Before that, it was a constitutional monarchy, somewhat like Britain. The main religions are Buddhism and Hinduism, existing side by side with little conflict between them. Religious freedom is the general rule and our brethren and sisters take advantage of this in gospel activity, especially in the distribution of literature.
There are twelve assemblies in the country, two or three of which are found in Kathmandu and the rest stretching to the east, as far as Darjeeling, just across the border in Bengal, an Indian state. The city, known for its famous tea, has a large Nepalese population who speak the Nepali language. This affords our brother, Vikram Nigleku, and the other six commended workers, many opportunities for work in the Gospel. Nepal, in keeping with the whole vast area, is a very poor country and warrants our earnest prayers as the 'Word of Life' reaches the people 'who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.'