rVTAOI^ BiBIE CoilEGE I-IBRARY

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Christian Home For Boys John & Deana Kacholmyer

House No. 2001

Sayanaehl S&ltaaa-ken
JiPAN

W ri:-^
Prayer Letter #;
First Quarter 19<

Front:

Nakamura, Deana holding Gene-Tieve, John, Maruyaraa

and Hattori.
Back!

Sudo, Makoto, Namiki, Nakazaki, Shigeru, Dear Friends in Christ,

Praise be to tiieprecious Name of Jesus, for at that Name, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord over everything and
everyone!

Our baby Genevieve had her first birthday on Dec. 7'th and we thank the Lord for keeping her safe through the year. She is so very healthy and has had only the most minor of Illnesses. If everything goes ac cording to schedule, our second baby will be bom in June. We are all happy about it and pray that this next one will be as healthy and welladjusted as Genevieve.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving and Christmas here. Some Air Force friends gave us a turkey. Most of our boys had never eaten turkey. Af ter the meal we had each boy te]J. what he was thankful for. Our Chris

tian boys all said that they were most thankful for Christ because the change in their lives had been so great through Him. At Christmas,
thanks to extra funds received, we were able to give the boys presents.
Also two Stateside churches sent presents and one Japanese church. On

Christmas day I took "ti boys to Karuiaawa in the mountains for two days

skating and through the kindness of the Fleenors were able to use their can?) building. The boys thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps you remember the boy named Hattori who came to us last May.

His Christian father died ^en he was quite young, and his mother died
of cancer in May. She asked us to take her boy and see that he got a good education and upbringing; and promise her that so she could die in peace. As you recall, he accepted -foe Lord and was baptized not too long after coming to our Home. The boy's mother had signed a paper giving guardianship of him to us but last summer we received a notice from the family court that a man named Hiratomi, who had been a friend of the father and had helped the mother in various ways since the father died, had instigated a court action against us contesting our right to have the boy. It seems Mr. Hiratomi thought he should be guardian, but he is not a Christian, has a tainted reputation, and had no intention of putting Hattori-san through high school. He is a contractor and wanted
to use him in his business. Since the case was brought to a court, the

matter would have to be pursued fully end someone be appointed the boy's
legal guardian. We vjere doubly alarmed when a lawyer told us that a

foreigner (that's us) could not be guardian of a Japanese national.

contention was that our objectives as Christians and having this Chris tian boy were at complete odds with the other man who cared nothing for our Lord and did not even care if the boy got an education. Besides, theboy himself wanted to live here and have us as his guardian; but our chances did not look good. We prayed about it and left it all in the Lord's hands. The first hearing of the case came up in November. It was a private hearing with only Ihe judge, Hattori, a young student law yer that I hired, and myself. I expected the student lawyer to do his best for us but strangely, at the last minute, he turned against us say ing that Mr. Hiratomi was probably a nice man, and what difference did it make who was the guardian. It was sort of strange since he was hired to work on our side and is a Christian. As it was the last minute now, I knew that I would have to muster up my best Japanese and do the talk
ing inyself. The judge was very kind and allowed me to speak first. I stated the whole case as I saw it and the reasons why I thought we should be guardians of Hattori. The judge asked Hattori to state clear ly whom he wanted to be his guardianHiratomi, some distant relatives or Kachelinyer-san. Hattori stated clearly that he wanted us to be his

guardian. Finally the judge said that although it was irregular, if I would submit a number of papers such as birth certificates, college rec ords, personal recommendations, etc., that he would seriously consider the case. After much time I received notice to report to the court again on January 23rd. We were shown into a room and a clerk brought a paper. It was a court judgment of the case instigated by Mr. HiratoBii for guardianship of Hattori. The court's judgment was that the Kachel-

myers should be appointed the legal guardians of Hattori until he rea

ches the age of 20. We praised the Lord for His giving the victory and Hattori was very pleased, Vflien it came time to submit the papers for application to enter high school this coming term, we saw -why it was such an inqjortant case and why Satan had sought to prevent us fl'om being

guardians. Due to a new law in this prefecture (state), a student hav

ing parents or a guardian living in a different prefecture is rot eligi

ble for admittance to a hi^ school in this prefecture. It would have meant that the boy would not have been able to enter high school and would then have had to go back and work for Hiratomi since we would have

no legal control over him. If something is important enough to be worth fighting for and is right before the Lord, when all looks hopeless, lean
on the Lord! "lou shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judg

ment is Gk>d*s; and ihe case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it." (Deut. 1:1?) Hattori will take his entrance
exams on March 1st and school begins here April 10th, the school year

being much different than in the States,

hard for his exams.

He is veiy happy and studying

It was over four years ago that the Lord laid it on ity heart and showed me that, in addition to the needs of the fatherless here, there is also a need to help the delinquent, runaway and otherwise troubled young people, I have had this on my heart also all these years. In early November I heard of a new work being started in the Shinjuku area
idiich is the "amusement" center of Tokyo, Most of the drifters, hippies

and others looking for a "good time" hang out there. The work was startl

ed by a woman missionary, Bernie Marsh, i^felt led to come up to Tokyo

from Yokohama on Sunday afternoons to pass out tracts to the young peo ple wandering about Shinjuku, One day she and her Japanese co-worker
fell into conversation with a sandid.ch-board man and in the course of the conversation learned that it would be possible to find one of the numerous coffee houses in the area which would rent an upper floor for

Christian meetings.

These coffee houses are just what the name says:

they serve mainly coffee, tea and coke with a very limit^ menu of one type of sandwich and plain ice cream. Various types of music are played depending on the establishment. No one knows vihy th^ are so popular here, but th^ are and there are hundreds of these places in Tokyo, Anyhow, Sis, Marsh found a place named "The New Gold" >^ich would let
them use the second floor every other Tuesday,
Wo found out later that the New Gold

provided everyone

who

cane to the meeting bought something and she paid about $25 each time.
had once been the hangout head

quarters for most of the Tokyo gangsters. With many invitations being passed out on the streets and much personal work, the meetings have be come quite well attended* There are usually between 60 and 80 present,
with about a third to half of them being young men off the streets. The

rest are Bible school students "vdio have come to do personal work and other Christians who have come to gawk. We try to make the meeting .in

formal; more of a fellowship hour The first time I went with Bro Geyer, a new missionary vho was staying in our home for aiAiile. We saw a hippie sitting in a booth alone, so Bro. Geyer invited him over to
our table.

years old and supposed to be attending a trade school.

the following Sunday.

I talked to him most of the evening and found out he was 18 We warned our boys

We invited him
in the

out to the Home for

meantime not to look shocked when he came and to be nice to him and show him Christian love. Besides the lon^ hair, he wore a yellow shirt with black and white polka dots, a purple hat, and black and white checked coat and high boots, among other things. He seemed very much touched by the kindness of our boys who went out of their way to act as if he were just an ordinary boy. We had to finally ask him, though, to take his purple hat off when we sat down to eat. He came back again the fol lowing Sunday and also seemed moved by our evening service. He told us
the reason he hung around Shinjuku was that he was trying to find a friend. We hoped we could keep contact with him, but he stopped coming.
Just before Christmas I missed a meeting because I was sick, and that

night a l6-year-old hippie named Hayashi came into the meeting. His
hair came down and curled around under his chin.
heard of Jesus Christ for the first time

He was

wearing blue

jeans three sizes too small and a denim jacket. He had just come to Tokyo the day before from Osaka looking for adventure. That night he
and the message of salvation.

He accepted at once.

One of the very fine Christian young men took him

back to Yokohama with him that night and taught him more of the Word of

God. A few days later Sis. Marsh called and asked if we would take the boy in. I arranged for them to come out, but remembering the other hippie, I was not too open to taking him. However, idien they arrived, I saw right away that this was a fine boy. His hair was cut, although a little long in front yet, and he liad such a friendly, outgoing per sonality. We took him in on trial and all the boys liked him at once.
He fit right in. This was just before Christmas and the next night we had our Christmas party. He was soj surprised to find that he was in cluded in the gifts and we also got; him some decent clothes. I went over more ground with Him in the Bible and showed him the many Scrip tures concerning baptism. Although not overly brilliant, he quickly grasped anything spiritual and said that he wanted to be baptized right away, so 1 baptized him that night. He did not want to go to high school but hoped to find a job. As it was the New Year holiday season though, he had to wait to start looking and in the meantime asked if he could go back to Osaka for three days to visit his family again. I was
a little reluctant about it, but he assured us that his family wouldn't care that he had become a Christian and he would be back in three days.

He left some of his

personal belong

ings here

and

borrowed a

few extra A let

clothes from the boys. We were con cerned when he did not return, but had

peace about it from the Lord,

ter has just come from Hayashi, He says his mother and older brother

(his

father

died four

years

ago)
has

wouldn't let him come back,

but that

they did

see what

Christianity

done for him and agree that he should

continue as a Christian, He has a job

and returned the money I lent him to go home on. He says he could never thank us all enough for what we did
for him. His brother also enclosed a

Hattori and Hayashi*

note saying how much his new life meant to them. Pray that his whole family will accept the Lord and that he will lead mar^ others, too.

On a more somber note, we finally had to ask Nakamura to leave our home. He was a problem ever since he came and we mentioned this from time to time. He began to openly speak against Christianity in the Home and also preach communism and insurrection. This kept the house in a constant turmoil, so we felt it better for all that he leave. He got a job that will allow him to live in and continue in school. The Chapmans left us in October, Mrs, Chapman felt that she would rather have money in hand than have us pay their rent and provide their food and clothing as we had been doing. We offered her a salary, there fore, which was standard for household work, but she said she was worth twice that, so she left us and got work elsewhere,* Since what we of fered her was standard, she could not get more and since her work was poor, she was fired at other places and we understand is not getting along well at present. Suffice it to say that the decisions we made were not hasty, but much, much prayer went into them. Most newsletters con tain only the bright news, but we feel that these troubles are part of any work, be it in the States or on the foreign field, and as we are using this letter to report on our work, we feel that every aspect of it is of vital importance in eliciting your prayers. Our mixed blood boy, Namiki, also left us in January. He just couldn't get himself in gear to study and go back to school and since his idleness was causing problems here, he left and got a job in Totyo, As far as we know, he is doing OK in his work. He calls us quite often from Tokyo to chat and

get advice. He is a bundle of complexes and problems and needs your prayers much. The slightly retarded boy, Sudo, also left the end of January. He got along well with us but couldn't with the boys. He be came terribly homesick for the orphanage where he was brought up and asked if he could go back there. We conferred with the orphanage people and they agreed to let him come back. Since those causing problems have left, there is an atmosphere of real peace and joy in the house. There is a renewed interest in spiri tual things and a good spirit of cooperation in the Home. The contrast shows how much influence even one contrary person can have. We don't know how soon some needy person will come to us to fill our two vacant spots, but we are always ready to help those who need help.
JOHN'S JOTTINGS.

Our Home is four years old in March.\ie had a wonderful 8<-inch snow

fall in February,

the most in 1? years.

It usually snows only once a

year in Tokyo, although only I50 miles away on the western coast, bliz zards rage all winter.^We still plan to leave for furlough Sept. 2nd, but still are looking for someone to take over for us for the four

months we will be gone.Through the kindness of a lump sum gift of $600 from one of our faithful churches, we were able to buy a *65 Toyopet
station wagon just before our old panel truck fell apart. Thanks be to GodSThere was some misunderstanding about iny Billy Graham statement in the last letter. Note, I said we were praying that the Lord would bring in souls, not Billy Graham, Billy Graham can't save anyone. Fif

teen thousand came forward during the crusade. We still pray that many of them will truly find Christ,Aid a sincere thank you fbryour Christ
mas cards, bringing us a touch of "back home,**More about the coffee house ministry next time and other victories being won there.^We need your daily prayers,God bless you all.

Sincerely in Christ,
Forwarding Agent:

M/M Clarence Cord

Catlin, Illinois

61817

''V

Hifstory of the Christian Home for Boys in Japan

The Christian IIom'3 for Boys in Japan began in fact on March 2Dth, 19^^^
extend "back over many years.

"the p3Ans
He was raised

Bro. John M. Kachelmyer was born in Mankato, Minnesota, October 1, 1932.

as a strict Ror?an Catholic and religiously followed the laws and regulations of the Roman church. Desiring to become a priest, he spent a year in a seminary but gave up the idea after disillusionment set in froa not having found peace with God and finding the lives of
the other students lacking in Christian attributes.

He joinad the Air Force in 1951 and after training in electronics was sent to Japan in

the suii::ner of 1952. the sumr^cr of 195^

He was fascinated by the country and the people, made many friends and
lie returned to the States during

picked up a working knowl20.ge of the Japanese language,

For years, John hp.d tried to find peace with God but could not find it in Catholicism.
For awhile he toyed with the idea of atheism because it seemed that if God could not be

found, ilG did not erist. However, strange as againct God o.r.rl eicpected freedom brought only effort to disprove the Christian religion, he to rec.d it, 3.cok:.ng for errors in its pages.

it seemed to him at the time, his rebellion an increased sense of sin. In an absurd obtained a copy of the New Testament and be^n It was like using a math book to disprove

mathcni^ticG. God^s Word stands and speaks for itself. soon found hinEalf fascinc-ted by the gospel narrative.
curpriGs for it

John had never read the Bible and But the Book of Acts vas the real evident at the first reading that there was no connection between the

Church deTcritrd in the Ksv Testanent and the Roman Catholic Church,

A fev d:'yG later he was invited to a revival by a fellow airman and decided to go. This was a d'^noairr.tional cliurch tut the gospel message of salvation was presented clearly. The message t>r-t night wrs on the reality of Christ. This was a new concept and received with wonder. Ljo. John roturnoi to the revival the second night and accepted Christ as Savio\jr. He made a full dedication of his life ri^t then and received the call to return to Japan. The many years of preparation began.
After being (^ischarG3d from the Air Force in 1955 he entered a dencsnination Bible College

but continued reading of the Scriptures left him unsatisfied as to his position. less.

As a

Catholic, Bro. John hr.d n'^ver liked the term Protestant and now he found he liked it even

The Chiarch in the New Testament kept coming back to him and he decided he only wanted

to be a Chi-istl-n.

It was in Bibl-^ Collcse that the nature of the missionary call became more specific and

Bro. John felt that he \7as to do orphanage work. He quit the Bible College and transferred to Gordon C_-?J-e;3, an interdenominational liberal arts college near Boston, so he could better pi-ep^re l.inc3lf for orphanage -work. As time went by, Bro. John became more convinced that dcnonin2Lticnn..lir,m was not basic New Testament Christianity and determined that hence forth, when asked of :rhat dencr^ination he was a member, would reply only that he was
a Christian.

Upon grad'iation from collej^e Bro. John secured a position in an orphanage in New Jersey, again to prepare hlr.self for mission field. However, actually getting to Japan did not seem to be in the rjear future. Mission boards did not react favorably to his views and if not cent by a mission boo.rd, hc.r else could one get on the field? Another problem was that a-Il inquiries concerning uoins orphanage work in Japan brought a negative response. It was said that the Japanese government had plenty of orphanages so the orphans were being cared

for.

Ero. John could never undsrstand how this did anything for their souls.

It had never

occurred to hin that j.t would be up to him to start an orphanage himself. It while i.crhing at the orphanage in New Jersey that Bro. John first heard of the

Christian Acadcr.y in Japan. It is a school on the outskirts of Tokyo serving the children of Anieriean niccionaries in Japan. After a month or two of correspondence Bro, John was hired as a high school science teacher, and in August I96I arrived again in Japan. It soon beccne evident that if Bro, John were going to do orphanage work he would have to start one hir^elf but denc"ninational missionaries continually discouraged him. "Your whole idea is ir.prc.etical," they said, "You can*t do anything like that by yourself. You need some povsr behind you--a big mission board; but seeing as how your ^enomlTiftt.i opftl stand is not clear and yeu have no home church in the States we don't think you're going to make it."

^
A.

V
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It seemed God's call had been so clear. But this is what God wants.

"Teach only two years at the Academy and then

begin the orphanage," the Lord had said. But Bro. John vas already well into his second year of teaching by now and the orphanage seemed awfully remote, in fact an impossibility.
We must re^li^.e that we can do nothing in our own strengths,

that even the very work God calls us to is possible only through Him.

of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy."(Rom. 9:Id-)

"So then it is not

Then the Lord began to take over. In late November Bro. John met the Fleeiiars whose son Steven was in his chemistry class. Sister Fleer.jr invited him to spend Thanksgiving with them and during that time Bro. John mentioned his desire to start an orphanage. Bro. and Sister Fleenor immediately became interested. They too had seen the necessity of orphanage

work and had been praying that God would send someone with that desire. One of Bro. John's first questions, of cource, was what denomination are you. They explained that they did not belong to a denomination but were only Christians after the pattern in the New Testamentt
This surprised him, but he was even more surprised to find that he and they believed exactly alike and agreed on everything. After a few more talks and plans for the future,
Bro. Kachelmyer was ordained by Bro. Fleennr.

The Fleenors, of course, hcid their own work ard ministry so it was not their intention to engage in the orphanage work themselves. They would furnish a recomxcndation to the
brotherhood and come Stateside contacts.
funds for tho Christian Home for Boys.

The rest would be up to Bro. John.

Thus, in

June of 1963 Bro. John arrived in Los Angeles and beg^n the task of raising support and

In talking over the nature of the orphanage and after visiting many orphanages, it was
decided that one of the ."..'eatest needs lay in t'^.king care of older children. It was

learned that orphan children were given only a junior high rchool education, ^^any of them, talented, were denied a higher education. Considering the aims too, that the purpose of the orphanage vas to train young people for useful lives as Christians and especiaj.ly as Christian workers in this heathen land, it was decided that the orphanage would be founded
for boys who had graduated from junior high school c.nd wished to make something of them
selves in l i f e .

The story of raising funds in the States is another tale in itself so that will be
passed over here. In February 196'i- Bro. John arrived back in Japan with much rejoicing. The following month the Christian Home for Boys in Japan began in a eiiiall rented hoi^^e

with one boy, Sato Shuji.

(The Japanese school year begins in March.) From the beginning

He also had a stubborn,
However, in

Sato-san sho'jcd great promise and had a great interest in the Lord.

selfish and rebellious nature which unfortunately is a problem of many peop3.e.

June of 196^+- Sato a-eeptsd Christ, was baptized and showed great zeal for the Lord's work by dedicating himself to enter the ministry. There vas indeed a great change in his personality. Then eatan began to work. How mar^ Christians have lost out with the Lord because they took their eyes from Him and began to look back to "Egypt"?
Sato became more and moie rebellious as his temptations grew. Finally he not only com

pletely rebelled against the Hone, but also against the Lord. With a new boy ready to enter the Home, Sato'c attiti.i.de could not be allor/ed to remain .nd corrupt so with a heavy

heart, for Sato was as a son, Bro. John discharged him from the Home.

(He has continued

in school by working and living with a merchant. Recent contacts with him have given encouragement to his possible return.) In March of I965, Ilak^^^aki Kasaharu came to stay. He was recommended by a missionary and the boy's brother was a minister. Kakazaki was a very shy boy. He vas not as open or as eo.sy to talk to as Sato but he was somewhat better behaved, although like most teenagers,
the seeds of rebellion were there too. Ilalcasoki ho.s shown excellent spiritual progress,

has been baptized and dedicated him."elf to the ministry.

The problems that Sato

encountered are not expected in his case.

Nakacaki reads the Bible and prays by himself

daily. He also understands himself and his problems so is better able to face them. In June of 3.965 Bro. John returned briefly to the States to marry Miss Deana Home of

Crane, Texas. Deana is a graduate of Dallas Christian College and had been working at the
Indiana Children's Christian Home in Ladoga, Indiana. They returned together to Japan in August 1965. They are expecting an addition to their family, this time their own, in
December I966.

-3-

In March I966 four new boys applied for admittance to the Home but two of them failed
the hig^i school entrance exams. The two who passed and are now living in the Home are
Nakamura and Ichikawa. Nakamura graduated from junior high school two years ago and had been working in a factory, attending high school at night. But night high schools give very poor education in Japan and so Nakamura wanted to start all over again in a regular school if the Kachelmyers would take him in. Such an attitude was thought worthy of all

the help possible so Nakamura was accepted.

out as a 10th grader.

Although he is I8 years old he is starting

Ichikawa-san has graduated from nigiht high school and because of his character and potential is being sent to electronics school. Both boys have an interest in the Bible and it is hoped that they will soon accept the Lord.

The house that presently is the permanent building for the Home was purchased in

August of 196^1-.

In August I965 the house next door was put up for sale and the

Kachelmyers decided to go into debt again and buy it to insure ample facilities for all future contingencies. They plr.n to eventually have 10 boys in all in the Home. Their doGire was also to start a church go the extra rocn ;.'as needed. As of May 1966 there is still a debt of $^000 owed r.^ainst the Home.

After many months of planning, the KachelmyerG were finally able to start a church in

their homa on Surxday April I7, I966. With the help of Christian young people from other New Testament churches, at the first service there were 20 in attendance. They were
naturally concerned as to what the attendance might be at the second service on the

2^th seeing as how there would be no outside help at that service.

this church.

There was therefore

much cau.^e for praise and thanksgiving when there were 21 in attendance, 1^ of them students. As the start of the orphanage was in the Lord's hands, so also the starting of

Their prayer is that "Th3 Lord v/ill add to the church daily such as should

be saved." (Acts

The n?jLa of the church is Saysma Christian Youth Church (Sayama

The purpose of the church is to specifically reach high

Seincn Klricuchiyan Kyokai).

school and college students.

The Kachelmyers do not have a specific living link church but are supported by the generosity of churches and individuals who contribute as they are moved by the Lord. Their address in Japan is: Mr, & Mrs. John M. Kachelmyer, House No. 2001, Sayama-shi,

Saitana-ken, Japan.

Their forwarding agent is Mr. Clarence Cord, Catlin, Illinois, 61817.

CHRISTIi.N HOi^a FOR BOYS liM JaFaN

IP-. I
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