OTIS ORCHARDS, Wash. (BP)–“This is very happy day,” Sachie (pronounced Sah-chee ay) announced, munching pizza after church. Her words came slowly and carefully. “Today I learn many new ideas.”
Sachie is one of 12 Japanese students who attended worship and Sunday school at Starr Road Baptist Church in February. They are part of a studies-abroad program sponsored by Mukogawa Women’s University in Nishonomiya, Japan. Nearly 200 students arrive in Spokane, Wash., each semester and 10-14-week stay at Mukogawa’s Fort Wright Institute. All English majors, they come to be immersed in the language and to experience American life.
The best way to get a taste of this American life, the university believes, is to allow students a weekend with host families.
Mark Danner, minister of music at Starr Road, began working as Mukogawa’s computer specialist three years ago. He realized the impact the church could have through the program and began encouraging members to participate. Pastor Ken Hein and his wife, Diane, were the first to volunteer. They brought their host daughters to church, told them about Jesus and continued to keep in touch even after the students returned to Japan.
Today, two and a half years later, Chinatsu and Erina still write to the Heins. More importantly, the seeds planted by the Heins and Starr Road are being watered in Japan: Chinatsu is enrolled in a Japanese Bible study group and shows interest in spiritual things.
The positive aspects of hosting the Japanese students are many. First, it’s good exposure to another culture. Diane Hein, whose own teenage children, Nate and Chandra, were born in other countries, sees this as especially beneficial. Hosting international students is a positive reminder that people are all different but precious in God’s sight, she said.
Second, it’s an occasion to present the gospel to the lost. Starr Road secures Japanese-language tracts and Japanese/English New Testaments in advance. The church also provides a special Sunday school class for the visiting students. Host families are encouraged to generate conversations at home to supplement the church experience.
Another benefit is the sheer fun of it. The Japanese are cheerful, polite and eager to fit into the lives of Starr Road’s families. Norma Hein, for example, lives in a one-bedroom apartment, but she learned Japanese girls don’t mind sleeping on a sofa. Associate pastor Lloyd Garrison is pushing 80, yet he and his wife, Marge, have hosted students several times.
Between bites of pizza, Sachie said she wanted to take her New Testament home and show her parents. “I think they can also learn these good Bible ideas. I look forward to tell them.”
Danner is a correspondent with the Northwest Baptist Witness.
