Long time since my last post but I actually have another story Milton wrote. It’s from the very early years when June and Milton lived in Beppu. Both Mom and Dad chronicled it in their autobiographies, so I know it was significant to them. But interestingly, Dad made this story a whole separate chapter. The … More The Story of a Coat
Continuing the story of the move to Tokyo. For a little timeline context, the move from Kobe took place late in the summer of 1968. Last post Milton went into great humorous detail about the house we moved into. In contrast to Kobe, it was a tiny box with three feet of backyard. A big … More A new chapter in Tokyo
The last post about June and Milton’s story ended with Dad driving us to our new school in Tokyo and we all arrived late. At that point, we were renting a house right next to a railway line that shook every time a train went by. Soon after, they bought a house in Tanashi a … More Our Tanashi – Tokyo House
Mary: The events in this post take place around August of 1968. It didn’t dawn on me until recently that 1968 marked twenty years since June and Milton first arrived in Japan. Tokyo at that time had practically been leveled by the bombs of World War 2. They arrive with baby Stan barely a year … More From Kobe to Tokyo (where it all began)
Milton: I had been introduced to churches in the USA by Dr. Chuck Corwin. As the division chaplain at the army base years ago back in Kokura had urged me, I was given to opportunity to go to the US and share our story. Pastors kindly asked me to return for Spiritual Emphasis week conferences. … More Exceedingly abundantly
Mary: For the first story, I didn’t do a deep dive into the history of arranged marriages in Japan (called “Omiai”). But, I believe that now in 2022, arranged marriages are much more of a rarity than they were 50 years ago. With that said, the story June tells isn’t quite an arranged marriage in … More Two unrelated short stories
Mary: The story Milton describes about the interesting set of events that took place in getting our first car probably dates mid- 1962. He mentions the work with youth camps highlighted the need for a car. In the very first camp he borrowed another missionary’s truck after quickly renewing his license. The next summer camp was … More Coincidences, camp and a car
Milton and June first arrived in Japan in December of 1948. Their first furlough back to Australia was in December of 1953 with their two (at the time) children and they stayed until February 1955. This was chronicled briefly by both June and Milton, especially because it was on that furlough that Dave was born … More The last family furlough
Mary: In Kobe, Milton and June got their high school rallies off the ground with that first rally that attracted 153 high school students. (blog post “Kobe Adventures”) The time frame is late 1958 to early 1959. The last post flashed back to Milton’s beginnings of organizing camps in Australia which ties right in to … More The Driving Test
Mary: This post flashes back to the mid-1940s when Milton became involved in running camps for high school kids in the Sydney area. In one of the very first blog posts, the story was told about how Milton and June met while she volunteered at a youth camp that he was running. This is the … More Flashback to 1940’s
Milton: The only way we could think of to get the new Youth ministry off the ground was to organize a rally. So I rented a hall at the YMCA that was designed to hold 70 people. I figured if we could get that many kids gathered without any padding from church members, we would … More Kobe Adventures and Awkward Moments
Mary: To refresh your memory (or if you missed reading the previous post), June and Milton were in Kobe with the JEB mission, mainly conducting services in the Mission Hall in Shinkaichi – a busy entertainment street. They felt a tug to work with young people and had gotten permission from their mission to branch … More Lost and found
In the last post, June and Milton bought a broken-down house to renovate in Kobe. The price was good because there had been a story going around that the house was supposedly haunted. June: With the help of a Christian Japanese man, we went around the district with a loudspeaker announcing a children’s meetings in … More The un-haunted Kobe house
Mary: Last post about June and Milton was about their first furlough in Australia in 1954. Probably around March of 1955 they returned to Japan and headed for the city of Kobe, where their new mission, the Japan Evangelistic Band (JEB) was based. The city of Kobe holds lots of warm childhood memories for me, … More Kobe days – the beginning
The story continues and the year is 1953. A church has been built, an addition to the family (Margot) has arrived and even more changes are on the horizon. Milton:We were living at the end of the rainbow and were helping people into the Kingdom of God, but we felt lonely. Here we were, claiming … More Sayonara to Beppu
From the Land Down Under to the Rising Sun 