The Oriental Missionary Society in Japan
Excerpt from https://www.michelleule.com
Juji Nakada (“The DL Moody of Japan“: Wheaton College Special Collections)
At the head of the list is Juji Nakada-san, a Japanese Christian missionary now returning from his second trip around the world.
He is one of the brightest, jolliest, cleverest, most cultured men that I have ever known. A master of jiu-jitsu, some of his early conversions were accomplished by sitting on the neophyte’s head and talking to him of the glories to come.
The ship’s passengers and crew first caught sight of Japan on July 26, 1907, at 6:30 in the morning. They landed at Yokohama later that day.
Oriental Missionary Society founders Charles Cowman and Ernest Kilbourne met the boat when it arrived in Japan.
The enthusiastic Chambers described the visit:
We took a train and what a reception we had at the station on arrival.
All the Bible School students were there, and they escorted us to the premises and we had a welcome meeting. . . God was mightily present.
I spoke through an interpreter. It was splendid but restraining.”
Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God by David McCasland
Chambers quickly recognized the value of the Oriental Missionary Society in proclaiming the Gospel.
I cannot hope to state the impressions and sensations of the place. It is unbearably pathetic to see the temples with their god of healing. The idol is worn quite smooth with the hands of the people.
Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God
Chambers and Nakada both spoke at the YMCA and he thought everything interesting.
As he wrote in his diary, the eagerness of the people to hear what the missionaries said, “is simply wonderful, one sees nothing like it in the homeland.”
He appreciated the OMS ministry. “I never expected such an elaborate, splendidly organized work as it is.”
…
They even visited a Japanese Sunday School.
“I wish you could have seen the children at Sunday school. They sang “bringing in the Sheaves,” in the purest Japanese, and carried the tune much better than our children do.”
The next day he and his friends took an “electric car,” to Nakada’s house–where Chambers was staying as well.
“We rode for about an hour and then alighted at the prettiest little doll village of a suburb you can imagine.”
Nakada gave them a tour around his home and the neighborhood.
“It means a good deal to us strangers to have such dear friends as Nakada and Chambers have grown to be, and it is a great concession for them to give up so much time.”
Chambers probably enjoyed the visit of Stark and his friends since Nakada took the time to explain the nearby temple of Kwannon in Asakusa Park.
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