The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-06-26

DEat appeals Tor e3,OOO Tor new Ehurch there. Rev. Mir. Roberts . Adds that comments on the poli- f1cal situation are risky.
 .ssy His letter in part follows:
 = @As for the building at Biwaj ajima Fam sorry to report that we haven't even begun the building. I was a hit too optimistic, as one is apt to be just after returning from Amer Sea where things move fast and ~Ml1ere (believe 1t or not) we get the impression that things were on the up-sWing. We have acquired land, have had 1t filled in dt was 7 rice fields) and good concrete retaining wall buildt around it. The plans are drawn and we are ready 10 let the contract. We have every- thing but the money. AS I indi- Gated in the last broadcast, we @2aeed 5000 and made appeals for such funds. Unfortunately, every major request was turned down and it was on them that had depended. Happily, a few small gifts came in unexpectedly and we were heartencd by that. By my teaching l have earned several hundred yen. From both sources have almost &l,000, a0r one-third of what we need. Over "a period of several years l could earn all we'll need--if keep my Jobs and my health--but by that lime our opportunities would be lost, together with the confidence sUf the people of the community, prices would have scared, and in the meantime, we would have to stop even what we are doing. l must confess that 1t is discourag- 1ng but we have not yet lost faith. @e Handle 45 Children
 = Our Biwajima activities are bursting all bounds. Tn the same small quarters in which we started five years ago we are attempting to have kindergarten for 45 chil-
 dren. Thirty should be the limit. but mothers of graduates have i'm
 plored us to take younger brothers and sisters. They say to us, "its only a few months anyway, until the new building is built! (that | hurts, because l know how uncer- tain that is). And besides, It's cur Kindergarten and we ought to have some say in the matter. Where else can we send the children?" Sc we have finally drawn the line al 45. but could easily enroll 60. If we had room. We have taken on two new kindergarten teachers since l wrote last, and our second teacher has married and moved away. one of the new teachers IS recent graduate of the Training School here in Nagoya, fine pianist-al- though we have only small reed organ. The other teacher has ; never had kindergarten training put Lis a graduate of one of the mission schools, majoring in domestic sci- ] ence. So her main responsibility will be for the training of mothers and supervision of the childrena lunches. She is a widow with a fiye-year old daughter who IS in OUT Kindergarten. She is an earn est Christian, and comes from the home of an energetic Christian doc tor.
 =, But the most important addition to our staff has been the coming of Rev. and Mrs. HiroShi Koide and their tWo-year old son. He Is a graduate Of our Doshisha Theologl- cal Seminary, has had several years pastoral experience, and has also been on the staff of a community center in Osaga. He has also had enough experience with foreigners to understand and make allowances for their varied Whinis and strange, foreign ideas" His wife is tiny person, charming personality good musician and a req! inSpira ton. I think she is so-calied thlfd- generation Christian. What genera 2 ton Christian arc you? And what difference docs 1t make? MT. Koide is to be my "other self. He lives at Biwajima, supervises the activi- ties and has full charge of CEe eyangelistic work. Under his lead- ership our Sunday school is grow ing and an increasing number of people in the community are ask ing for Christian training, We try to act as one person, although we do not always think as one. In addition to these, a young man la helping me every afternoon secre- tarily. He Is now helping with these letters.
 .'ss Tn connection with our Biwajima ssbuilding project. must tell you of wthe interest which the Social Service s.Departmet of the city office is talk wing in it. and of both amusing and ssembarragsing episode in connection ssWith that interest. On our build- ssing committee is the director of Sthe city's sanitation bureau. One ssof his good friends is the director yof the social service bureau. Both ~are Christians and the latter a mgraduate of the University of Wis ssconsin. When he heard Of our aplans he asked me to come to the sss.city hall at once. After explain sing my plans and hopes, together ~swith the amount hoped to collect, she took me to the mayor to enlist ~~.his aid and support. It was readily sand heartily given. But az we left sthe august presence of Ills Honor, ga newspaper reporter curious to esknoW why foreigner had called sson the mayor was told just enough spto cause him to rush out to have ..publlshed that I had given Y-10,0O0 ~to the city for social service. The -story was syndicated all over Ja- .span, broadcast even to Manchu- .kuo and the Tokio English news .1paper reported that was going to build "reformatoryi" We were @flooded with congratulations from s.Japanese strangers, and thanks for sour "generasity". But we were also scallcd on for explanations by our safriends. who knew there must be a ssJnistakc: that we didn't have any aguch sum to give, and probably ssWouldn't if we could. We have ac- scepted thanks, tried to explain. On -the whole I think no great harm a4aaa heen donc maybe Sofne good