Time really flies. Some Ten months have passed since I came to Saniku Gakuin College (SGC, President: Katsumi Higashide) from the Northern Asia-Pacific Division. When I came to SGC in March 2013, I was exposed to freezing cold weather. Strangely, staying outside of the house was better, and warmer than inside the house. Simply because, generally speaking, the houses at SGC have thin walls with many windows, and not a very good heating system.
But Spring has totally changed my first impression. The whole campus was beautifully colored, and covered with cherry blossoms. I would say that SGC is “a heaven of wild followers.” The campus is surrounded by beautiful scenery, and an abundance of nature, with small brooks along the boundary line of the school. The school is located in the remote countryside of Chiba prefecture. It’s a very calm and quiet place with less than 300 students, nursing students being the majority of them.
At present, SGC is comprised of a four-year course in the Nursing Department, as well as three other departments with two-year or three-year courses: Theology Department, English Communication Department, and Education Department. The SGC has special plans in the future for the Theology Department. The Japan Union Conference (JUC) and SGC have a plan to upgrade the department from a three-year course to a four-year course plus one Master’s degree program, tentatively Master of Arts in Ministry, in affiliation with Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS). It is believed that the master’s program will mainly contribute to reeducating and upgrading the local pastors in the field as well as theology students’ upgrading.
During my stay at SGC for these ten months, I have been much impressed with some activities going on in the school. First of all, all students, and even faculty, are involved in manual labor. Every Tuesday and Friday afternoon, a group of the students are assigned to different areas of the school for cleaning, gardening, and other types of work. Consequently, the school is very clean and neat because of the voluntary activities of the students. The students are replacing the flowers quickly, and skillfully with new kinds of flowers. Thus, we enjoy looking at colorful flowers from time to time. They greet us with smiling faces along with their God-given fragrance. It’s a real blessing.
The second thing that I was impressed with was that there was a group of the students studying the Sabbath School Quarterly voluntarily. This may seem strange to say, but although SGC is an Adventist educational institute, quite a good number of the students are non-Adventist. Therefore, this gathering could be a green light for the spiritual growth in the school. During the school year, we have worship three times a week: Wednesday evenings for Prayer Meeting, then Vespers on Friday, and Sabbath morning worship. One Wednesday evening I was attending the worship in spite of heavy rain. I thought we would have a handful of students in attendance. When I got to the church, I found it was true, there were only a few students present. But my calculation betrayed me in a moment. Just before the meeting, the students began packing the seats, dressed in their wet clothes. Every Wednesday evening it is our pleasure to see these precious students coming for worship. As long as we have those faithful students attending the worship, our future is hopeful and bright, even though it may be a small beginning.
Japan is a country of great potential. But church growth, in general, seems to be slow, and retarded regardless of the efforts and strategies poured out. Nevertheless, the JUC has a firm assurance that once SGC is spiritually reformed and revived, its impact will be great on the whole of the JUC as well. So, the JUC and SGC are doing their best to revive the school and the church. Please pray for us. God will do His work in this great mission field.
Article by Dr. HongPal Ha, Dean of Theology Department