In Part 1 of Homegrown Sister Warriors, through excerpts from an MCC Oral History Project, we were able to envision the setting in which Julia Motoyama, Tamie Kawashima and Mildred Kiyuna came to their personal decisions to devote their lives in service to the Lord they loved. In Part 2, we get a glimpse of what those lives of sacrificial service were really like.
JULIA MOTOYAMA
Julia Motoyama was born on April 6, 1910, in Honolulu. In her early years she attended Makiki’s branch Sunday School at Kuhio School and accepted the Lord at age 14. On November 13, 1932, the day Makiki’s castle tower was dedicated, she was one of 143 new members baptized by Rev. Takie Okumura. In 1933, at a youth camp, she dedicated her life to Christian service.
The memorial program, “Celebrating the Life of Julia Motoyama”, painted this early portrait of her: “Following her studies at Moody Bible Institute, Julia, as Makiki’s first ‘home-grown’ missionary, went to Japan in 1937 and served for 3 years under Mino Missions in Gifu-ken. World War II compelled her to return to Hawaii between 1940 and 1946, during which time she served as Makiki’s ‘Bible Woman.=’. But as soon as she was able to return to Japan, she did, and resumed her work of evangelism, planting churches, and supporting the ministry of Fukuin Koyu Kai (Japan Gospel Fellowship). Over the next 50 plus years, she played a vital part in the formation of more than a dozen churches in Japan.
A tiny but energetic spirit, Julia raised up exceptional leaders wherever she ministered, whether in the life of Makiki Christian Church, or in the mission field in Japan. Both Pastor Saku Kuroda and Pastor Yoshitaka Fujinami were influenced and shaped by Julia’s ministry, and were led, in time, to serve at Makiki Christian Church”.
“Our young people are on fire for the Lord. Without being asked, they have been going out to hold street meetings, inviting people to come to the evangelistic services.” Thanking our church for a generous gift, she said, “It came at a time when we needed it badly. There are 16 people living in this house. Termites have destroyed a large part of the house, and it is dangerous in case of an earthquake, and the rain pours in.” But Julia’s words and works were always directed to glorifying the Lord. She implored, “Join us in praise, for He hath done abundantly above all that we could ask or think … Already the Lord has given us six souls since we moved to this new place. Every soul won to Him is to His glory.”
MCC’s Missions Committee received a letter from Julia in 1965, thanking MCC for supporting her and describing the scope of her work:
“The Lord has met my needs and I am grateful for your kind efforts in presenting the need for missions to the members of the church. With Tamie leaving us there are only four of us missionaries to carry on the big programs of our mission. Weatherman says we are in for a cold winter, so we expect to put out more for fuel this year than we have done in previous years.”
A 1967 letter to Sarah Sato enlightens us to Julia’s personal sacrifice and dogged determination to fulfill her commitment to God:
“How happy I was to hear from you! Thank you so much for the good letter of Nov. 16. So grateful to you for your kind interest you have in us and in the work. I didn’t hear from you for a long while, but I knew you were faithful in praying and that means everything to me. Although I do get hungry for letters from home and do appreciate very much. So you see, your letter was a real tonic to my spiritual being.”
“Please forgive me for doing this on the typewriter. It is much faster and I can get more in for over half the amount I would have to pay for if I were to send it the other way. It is easier to read, too, I am sure.”
“. . . Mr. Morita is not saved yet. He needs the Lord so much, but doesn’t realize it. Takada-san loves the world too much and feels that the cost is too great to follow the Lord. We are praying that he will feel and realize the foolishness of loving the world more than the Lord. Yoshida san, we cannot understand him. He lives quite a distance away from the church and because his mother comes from the Buddhist temple, there is so much involved that I am afraid he is muddled up.”
“Christmas is just two weeks away. I expect to do more intensive work among the women. At present I feel led to remain here in Hamadera. We have over 150 mothers in our kindergarten and the head teacher as well as Esther are anxious for their salvation, and so am I.”
In 1987, when Julia was 77 years old and back in Hawaii for a short respite, MCC held a reception for her celebrating her 50 years of Christian service. But even at that age, she felt she still had much to do. Despite some ongoing medical issues, she returned to Hamadera to continue serving.
In a 1997, at 87, in a neat and steady cursive letter to MCC, she wrote to her Makiki church family,
“Hot summer has settled in Hamadera, but today we are enjoying a lovely breeze. Thank you so much for your faithful support through prayers and gifts. The Lord has kept me well enough so I could be involved in some activities.
It was nice to have my niece, Isabel Sakuma, visit a while and to get caught up with news from Makiki. I am sorry for being slow in getting things done. It is good that Mildred Kiyuna is here to get things done on time. I cannot do as much as I used to do, but the Lord has kept me here, for there are some things I need to get involved in yet.”
Her health failing further, Julia persevered for another three years until at age 89, the Lord gratefully let our dear sister Julia rest from her heroic labors. This excerpt is from the “Celebrating the Life of Julia Motoyama” program: “Julia was lifted up from glory to greatest glory on Christmas Eve 1999, while she was with her beloved church family in Osaka.”
TAMIE KAWASHIMA
Tamie Kawashima was born on July 31, 1924 in Honolulu, the second of three children, into a closely- knit Christian family. She was baptized when she was four at the old Makiki Christian Church at Pensacola and Kinau Streets. During the time she was working in the dispensary at McKinley High School she heard God’s call, but it wasn’t until a year later that she yielded her life to His call.
The date October 6, 1951, when Tamie was 27 years old, was both exhilarating and extremely sorrowful for her. The day Tamie reached Osaka to begin the Lord’s service overseas was the day her younger brother, William, was killed in the Korean conflict. From the 1979 MCC Oral History Project, Tamie recalled:
“I first went to Japan in 1951 and so for our support we had to have canned goods and rice and sugar so we would not take food away from the nationals in Japan. The people in Japan were hungry not only physically, but they were spiritually hungry and so from the very beginning, while I couldn’t speak Japanese too well, I started with meetings.”
“I think the Lord has really worked in a marvelous way because when Julia first went out, there weren’t any mission funds or anything like that. In fact, I remember sending out my gift personally to the mission organization for Julia’s support and when I came back, I didn’t have any support committee that wrote to me saying that they were going to start to help me financially and when I think of that, it’s really marvelous that Makiki Christian Church members have grown to be missionary-minded and today (1979) we are giving more than $48,000 toward mission and I thank and praise the Lord for the wonderful work that people here at Makiki are doing in supporting missionaries.”
Tamie’s mission duties started in Osaka in 1951, and for the next 14 years included “teaching kindergarten and Bible classes and giving out the Word of Life to orphanages, old people’s homes, churches, hospitals, girls’ homes and blind institutions.”
“I am on the S.S. California of the States Steamship Company. We are about to enter port in Yokohama. We were anchored outside the harbor all day yesterday because of the typhoon. I felt like Noah in the Ark, and sang songs of praise amidst the wind, rain, and lightning. The rainbow this morning was just gorgeous, and I was once more reminded of the promise in Genesis. Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for the work here and for your servants in Christ.”
Tamie’s description of her day-to-day tasks resembled our hectic life here.
“Thank you for praying for Mr. Sakaue. Although his case was diagnosed as incurable, he is regaining health and is faithfully witnessing in the hospital. New school year throughout Japan begins tomorrow, April 8. Our kindergarten begins on Monday with ‘Nyu on shiki.’ With about 100 new tots scattering here and there, some clinging to their mothers yelling their heads off, and some escaping from their classrooms to chase their mothers or to play outside, we will be kept on our toes, comforting and chasing these wandering lambs.”
Tamie’s quiet, low key, yet deeply passionate nature was noticed and admired by many; here, as well as abroad. While on a return trip to Hawaii in October 1979, Tamie received a ‘thank you’ letter from Harold Gallagher, minister at Kaimuki Christian Church after she participated in a memorial service for Mrs. Helen Teshima. It read, in part, “As you gave the eulogy, there was so much of our Lord Jesus Christ radiating from your face and in your spoken words! As I watched and listened while you spoke, my heart was filled with joy and praise for God’s presence in you, and I said to myself, ‘This is a real saint of God!’”
After serving for over 30 years in Japan, Tamie returned to Hawaii, and, among other things, taught at MCC’s Preschool and was also the bookkeeper at Makiki for a while.
Eventually, though, in 1988, the mission field and God’s calling prompted Tamie to again pack her bags and head overseas. But this time, rather than heading west to the orient she trekked far to the southeast to the city of Manaus in Brazil to resume her missionary work. Two years in Manaus were followed by serving 2 years in Sao Paulo, 4 years in Belo Horizonte, and 2 years in Londrina. A bio sketch on her stated, “She retired as a JEMS (Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society) missionary on December 31, 1998, at age 74, but remained in Brazil as an independent cooperative missionary to work with Brazilian churches with her personal retirement funds for another 5 years (until 2003), doing missionary work among the Japanese speaking families living in the remote areas.”
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” Then she wrote, “. . . when the Lord called me to serve Him as a missionary, I was very timid and shy, so was afraid and hesitant to follow Him. I felt that I was unfit to serve the Lord. However, the Lord gave me the above promise and for 57 years He faithfully helped me and led me.” Also in the letter, she recounted, “One day, on our way to a visitation, I noticed many blind and crippled beggars on the wayside, so I asked Rev. Nakada, ‘Sensei, was there a war in Manaus?’ ‘No, why?’ was the reply. ‘Because there are so many blind and crippled people.’ ‘Oh, they’re lepers.’ This was another shock to me, for I thought leprous beggars were found only in Africa and India, but they’re also in Brazil.”
“Nevertheless, I love Brazil. The Brazilians are very friendly and kind. Brazil still retains the beautiful qualities which are rare in America and Japan.”
Late in her missionary life, Tamie wrote to her friends, “Please pray that the Lord’s will be done and wherever the place may be, each one will willingly and joyfully serve the Lord. I would like to give my best and serve the Lord wholeheartedly during my last years of my life.
Tamie returned to Hawaii in November 2003, and spent the next 11 years worshipping, helping and faithfully participating in the Wednesday Parlor Prayer Group at Makiki. On August 22, 2015, at the age of 91, Tamie went home to be with the Lord she loved and served so well.
MILDRED KIYUNA
Mildred Kiyuna was born on April 4, 1928 in Honolulu. She graduated from Kuakini Hospital School of Nursing, and in 1951, at age 23, was working as a nurse. It was in that year that a memorable event took place in her life. She recalled,
“It was when Rev. Takie Okumura was in Queen’s Hospital for the last time in his life that I met him. It was a great honor to be able to attend to and take care of him during his last month. I was with him at his deathbed. I still remember the solemness and peace when he passed away.”
Mildred went on to attend Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina, and graduated in 1956 with a degree in Bible Education.
Sometime in the 1960’s Mildred, being inspired by Julia Motoyama and hearing the Lord’s call to serve, first worked with the Evangelical Alliance Mission group in Okinawa. In a 1965 letter, Mildred cites Julia’s inspiration this way:
“It is largely through her (Julia’s) ministry and other faithful servants of Christ at Makiki that I found the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior and am out here today as a missionary.”
With passion and commitment, Mildred spent the next 25 years in Okinawa, where she helped to plant 5 churches.
Like Tamie Kawashima, Mildred’s travels and service were not only confined to Japan. At one point she did missionary work in Israel while also studying at the Institute of Holy Land Studies and Hebrew University. In late 1986 she returned from Israel to Honolulu to care for her aging mother, and while here served at Makiki for 8 years as Director of Elderly Ministries (Nozomi no Kai).
Between 1986 and 1995, she found the time and the means to visit missions and underground churches in Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong; brought a Makiki-sponsored EKG machine and used her nursing training during a summer spent in Hungary and Romania.
After her mother’s passing, Mildred returned to Osaka to resume her missionary work, dividing her time between helping Julia’s group in Osaka and her mission home base in Okinawa. She was a big help in Osaka when Julia began experiencing failing health a few years later.
Mildred had a keen, life-long passion for studying and learning more about the God she had staked her whole adult life on.
“I am now in Osaka during the winter break. There were several who asked about my dissertation which was completed before going to Japan a year and a half ago. Yes, it was finally approved and I received a Doctor of Ministry degree last Spring (at age 68). It is all given back to God, because He made it possible for me to obtain it… but in this education-conscious Japan, it makes it easier to teach, train and share with Seminary students. There are seven students who are preparing for ministry in my class.”
Mildred “retired” in 2000, but, like Tamie, continued to be active in her missionary activities, despite no longer being supported by a church. Fukuin Koyu Kai, the agency under which she was serving together with Julia Motoyama, did not want her to be cut off from them completely as their missionary, so she continued visiting and assisting them once or twice a year for several more years.
Mildred eventually returned to Hawaii and to her Makiki church family, and now resides in a local care home.
Three homegrown MCC Wahine Warriors for our Lord! On fire and passionate to do the Lord’s work, yet all soft-spoken, humble and admirably sacrificial in their personal lives. They are among the best that have emerged from Makiki’s long and illustrious history. “Well done good and faithful servants!” You continue to serve as inspiration and role models for those of us who follow you!
