On May 22, the Yamagata Reformed Church, a fruit of fifty years of OPC Japan
Mission work, became a particular congregation of the OPC’s sister church, the
Presbyterian Church in Japan. In some ways, the story begins well over a century ago.
In 1906, James Erskine Moore was born to missionary parents in Osaka, Japan
(southwest Honshu). A 1933 graduate of Westminster Seminary, Moore was ordained
into the PCUS a year later. He pastored southern California churches as an OPC
minister from 1951 to 1961. Though he himself remained in America, his oldest child,
David McIlwaine Moore left for college zealous for missionary service in Japan,
ultimately serving as a missionary-evangelist of the OPC. Moore’s second daughter,
Katie Moore Yaegashi also returned as an adult to her father’s childhood home. Katie
and Ruthann Graybill were two of the first missionary associates (MAs) to teach
English and help in the church plant.
Like his father, David was ordained in the PCUS but, upon call to missionary
service in Japan by the OPC’s Committee on Foreign Missions, he transferred to the
OPC and left for the field in 1968. After two years in language school David and Arnold
Kress, who had been sent by the OPC two years earlier, began a new mission work in
the city of Yamagata, the prefectural capital, which lies about half way between the
Pacific and the Sea of Japan. Moore explains the choice: “for basic considerations of
ease of transportation, the decision was made to settle on Yamagata.” The city of
247,000 lies relatively near the larger cities of Sendai and Fukushima (also prefectural
capitals), where senior missionaries George Uomoto and Heber McIlwaine were living.
From the start of the work in Yamagata (1971), following the biblical model of
sending missionaries out in twos, Moore and Kress labored together. They began
Lord’s Day services in 1972 and continued together until the Kresses left Yamagata in
1974 (ultimately transferring to the Christian Reformed Japan Mission). Soon thereafter,
Katie married Kaz Yaegashi who, in 1977, was called by the OPC Japan Mission to
serve as an associate missionary-evangelist from the PCA’s Mississippi Valley
Presbytery, which call he [will have] served until his retirement this August.
Yamagata outreach took many forms. David, alongside Arnold, drove a
Volkswagen bus as a bookmobile around town – both selling books and distributing
tracts. He was often asked to teach English, which classes he passed on to the MAs
whenever feasible. At one community center English club, David organized an annual
“homestay” program with the Garden Grove OPC congregation in California (now
Westminster OPC); they took young people to experience life in Christian
families. Through this, one student, Takako Sugawara, was converted and baptized.
David likewise encouraged his English students to join Katie’s English Bible class. At
Katie’s class, Miss Otah says that she loved Jesus from the first time she heard about
him and was baptized soon thereafter. A student named Shio Yashima believed in Jesus,
and later her mother (amazingly Kaz’s preschool classmate) was baptized as well.
Today, her husband and son are also part of the church.
Through community participation, each bridge into people’s lives provided
opportunities to speak about Jesus. David was often asked to give lectures for the Junior
Chamber of Commerce. At one such lecture, he told them that he was not an expert in
education per se, but went on to speak about Christian education. David also taught
a unique English class for translating picture books, which Katie continues to this day.
Over the many years, Katie has taught cooking to women in the area. Grace Moore
taught at a girls high school, and invited her students to Christmas worship; through
this, some began attending Sunday school. The model of their ministry has been,
“Whatever gives me contact with people gives me opportunity to talk about the
hope we have in Christ.”
Other unusual strategies included Kaz’s teaching at the nominally Christian
Yamagata Gakuin High School as Bible and English teacher (1977 -2008) as a means of
self-support and for ministry to hundreds of young people. He baptized two students and
at least five students became Christians. Many gospel seeds were planted. At a
“wedding chapel,” David officiated marriages of non-Christians, presenting the gospel
and Christian view of marriage in premarital counseling. When David went on furlough,
Kaz agreed to substitute for him though he was hesitant at the beginning. Kaz explains
his discovery, “I had a wonderful opportunity each time I met with the couple before
their wedding, sharing the gospel and Christ’s love for family. Some of those married
came to church for worship, and I still have contact with several couples.” Further, Kaz
said that together the two brothers-in-law organized a “men’s dinner fellowship a few
times a year, inviting businessmen in Yamagata City. David developed a far and wide
affiliation with many influential men in the Yamagata business world, upon whose
minds he left a gospel-based view of world and life.”
Sunday school has always been an avenue for reaching children in the area. At
one point, Yamagata Chapel had the biggest group in all of the Tohoku churches.
David organized Christian summer camps for youth as well. Their VBS program has
also been active for years with several members helping to lead in various ways.
David and Kaz’s involvement with other Yamagata churches continued to
strengthen and encourage the Christian witness throughout the entire city. In the early
years, Arnold helped with the deaf church in town. The chapel has also jointly
sponsored a number of evangelistic Christian concerts. Each December, they hold a
large, city-wide women’s Christmas luncheon at an elegant hotel. There, women from
different churches bring their friends to hear an evangelistic message. Typically, half of
those attending are unbelievers. Katie has also held an important weekly Bible study
for pastors’ wives. Building these bridges continues to be part of building the Kingdom
of Christ.
Over the years, David, who served in Japan until 2000, and Kaz discipled and
baptized 42 people into the Yamagata congregation. Of those, 33 were adults.
Consonant with the general population decline of the city, many one-time members
have left Yamagata and enriched churches elsewhere, leaving a total of 19 resident
members comprising the newly particularized congregation.
During the service of reception of the Yamagata Church into the Presbyterian
Church in Japan, Messrs. Shinichi Inoue and Shinji Sasaki were ordained as ruling
elders and our missionary, Rev. Yaegashi, was installed as a cooperating pastor by the
Musashi Presbytery of the PCJ. OPCJM missionaries, Murray Uomoto from Presbytery
of Dakotas (Sendai Megumi Chapel) and Stewart Lauer from Presbytery of Ohio
(Yamamoto Nozomi Chapel) represented the mission, praising God and encouraging the
congregation. We thank God for the OPC’s full participation in this ministry through
the prayers and generous offerings of its churches, and
for sending faithful servants to build His Kingdom in Yamagata and pray he will
continue to build faithful churches through our Japan Mission.
Yamagata PCJ joins East Sendai RCJ as the second particular church begun by
the post-war OPC Japan Mission, along with six mission works.
Afterword: On a sad note, Mr. Moore, a member of Lake Sherwood OPC, went
to be with his Lord on January 28, 2022, shortly before Yamagata
became a particular congregation of the PCJ.
