Jesus Never Fails

The Story of Roger and Margaret Fox, Missionaries to Japan

Margaret Fox Shaiebly

• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781098077204
• eBook ISBN: 9781098077211
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

1

In 1951, Roger and Margaret Fox packed up two small children and a few meager possessions and set off to Japan to serve as missionaries. They found a country still recovering from the devastation of war. They started language studies to be able to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people who a few years earlier were the "enemy."

They learned new ways to live. They experienced new customs and ways of thinking. They spent three terms of Christian service over fifteen years before they worked themselves out of a job by building a national church with a national pastor in charge of the still-growing congregation of believers. This is their story.

Chapter 21

Boarding School? Not My Daughter

Do not let your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.

—John 14:1

Living in a different area of the world brought many challenges to which we adapted and learned to enjoy. Our third summer in Japan in 1953 brought more challenges. Linda had been attending kindergarten at the airbase and was thrilled with it. Her teacher arrived at my door one Saturday to see if I had any college education. “Several years but had not graduated,” I told her.

“Meg,” she said, “I need help. Would you be willing to teach Linda’s class? I found that I am pregnant, and my doctor here says I must go back to America so I must find a teacher, and I thought about you.”

Roger and I sat and talked about it. The cost associated with Linda’s schooling would be cared for, and that was a nice plus. I’d love the teaching experience. Roger suggested that I go for it.

Linda’s teacher told me she would work with me for a couple of weeks and show me how to lay out lesson plans. I was so excited. I had a Japanese ambassador’s daughter in my class who was Linda’s age. Working through kindergarten material was great, and Linda was home with us every day.

I enjoyed teaching Linda’s kindergarten class. The Japanese ambassador’s daughter was slow in learning English, and Linda was delighted to help her. Graduation day came. Sunflowers made of paper were placed around the faces of each child.

The ambassador’s daughter came to me after our program said, “Mrs. Fox, thank you very much for teaching me English,” and hugged me.

Tears filled my eyes. I had given her a start, and the first-grade teacher moved her along to learning more. It also was wonderful to see her in Sunday school from time to time.

It didn’t end there. The principal of the base school asked me to continue teaching the class for another year. Linda could go to first grade, and they would pay for it. It took thirty minutes for Linda and me to walk to the train. That was twice each day.

I was going to teach kindergarten again when Linda was going to start second grade, and Roger had taken the responsibility to take her on the train and picking her up again. We were going through some very trying times in making decisions.

The Japan Bible Institute had closed for lack of students, but instead, a group of missions decided a K–12 school was necessary to teach their children. FEGC offered the Higashikurume property, and the Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) was born. One day, the headmaster at CAJ came for a visit.

Virgil and Jeanette Newbrander were dear friends, and we were thrilled that they had taken the time to come visit. We had a great time catching up on things they were doing and things we were doing. Virgil asked the question, “When are you going to send Linda to boarding school at CAJ?”

I couldn’t answer that question. “Boarding school?” I said. “No, Virgil.”

She was our responsibility to teach. It was an awful day. We had lunch, and they went their way and said they would be praying for the decisions we faced. It was the worst day for me since we had been in Japan. However, God was in control.

Several days later, Roger had been to Yokohama on business and said he had signed us up to go to Lake Yamanaka for our first vacation in Japan. At the base of Mount Fuji, Japan’s tallest mountain, there are five lakes. Yamanaka-ko, or Lake Yamanaka, is one of those five lakes. The mission had purchased the property with seven rustic cabins as a conference center or missionary retreat location when it became available in 1949.

We had a cabin with six other FEGC families for several weeks, but I had told Roger that I didn’t want to go. What would we do about our Japanese classes? Sunday school? Teaching at the base? Who would stay in our home? We had to have a watchman.

But God!

I wrestled all summer about boarding school. I was miserable. Roger prayed with me and for me. We talked and talked, and one day he said, “Honey, why are we in Japan?”

I thought about that for a minute and said, “To reach the Japanese people in Hachioji for Jesus.”

“Well, are we doing that?”

“Well, we have Japanese coming each night for Bible study.”

Tahara san, Reto san, Muraoka san, Sato san, Koji san, Cheko san, Sakura san, Micheko san had all come to Jesus in those early years. Lots of kids had come to Jesus. At Tachikawa Air Base, young fellows had accepted Jesus.

“All good, but why are we here?”

“To start a church that will be a lighthouse for Jesus in this city,” I said.

I started to cry. Language study had taken a back seat. I thought of all the things we were not doing to start a church. College young people and high school scholars were plentiful, and few parents cared. Most were steeped in Buddhism. They didn’t care about God. It was an awful time in my life. It was the reason Linda wasn’t going to boarding school. I wasn’t even willing to find out if she would like it. We just never talked about it. I spent a lot of time on my knees in prayer that summer at Lake Yamanaka. Linda was having a wonderful time with Bonnie Newbrander and Cherry and Leroy Seibert.

I finally said, “Honey, I’m wrong. Just like God took care of Linda when she had virus X in South Carolina and took care of her in surgery to remove the walnut-sized tumor in her leg and took care of her when she had pneumonia, I know He will take care of her at CAJ.”

As we snuggled in bed that night, Roger prayed, and peace filled my heart. I fell asleep with joy determined to see Virgil the next morning.

Dawn was beautiful. I looked out the cabin window and saw Virgil fanning the charcoal in the hibachi across the way. I got dressed and went out while it was still quiet and went to talk to Virgil. He greeted me cheerfully. He knew I had been hurting when they saw me last. “You have peace,” he said. “What are you going to do?”

I rehearsed the events the night before and j...

Table of contents

• A Happy Childhood
• The Lord Brings Us Together
• A Year at Wheaton College
• Off to Japan, the First Time
• Christian Service: Hitting the Streets
• God Was at Work, Even in War
• Wedding Bells
• Columbia Bible College
• Our Family Grew
• Christian Service: Finding a Church
• Answering God’s Call
• Getting Ready to Go
• Hard to Say Goodbye
• Ship Ahoy
• Getting Settled in Our New Homeland
• Hachioji: Our First Assignment
• Meg’s Japanese
• Adjusting to Change
• Akitoshi and Yoneko Tahara’s Story
• Working for Christ
• Boarding School? Not My Daughter
• Trusting God for…Well, Everything
• Send Missionaries—Bibles Are What They Need
• Higashikurume
• The Danchi Church Grows
• The Tazaki Family
• The Nakajima Family
• The Asazaki Family
• Shimoyoshi San
• The Kitahara Family
• Suga San
• Miyazaki San and Fukuda San
• Fighting the Old Ways
• Watanabe San
• Yui San
• Yoda San
• The Okada Family
• More Victories for Christ
• The Church Building the Church a Building
• Nishibori Fukuin Kyokai Flourishes
• Church Planting
• Japan Still Needs Missionaries