A ROCKY FOUNDATION

  In 1901 Charles Cowman and his wife Lettie moved to Japan as missionaries. One evening they climbed up a mountain near a large Japanese city. They sat quietly on a bench. In every direction, they could see villages and towns. In their hearts, they knew that there was no Christian witness in any of these. Then suddenly it seemed to Charles that Christ himself was standing beside him. He heard him say, “I gave my life for these villages, too. Won’t you go and tell them for me that I want to be their Savior?” Charles immediately answered, “Yes, Lord. I will go.” From that time Charles’ vision was to see the Gospel shared with every person in Japan. In 1912 he proposed sending trained evangelists to visit every household and leave information about Christianity. This became known as The Great Village Campaign. Japanese evangelists who had graduated from Tokyo’s Bible Training Institute walked through the provinces, bags on their shoulders stuffed with tracts. They carrie...

                   Charles and Lettie Cowman left America on February 1, 1901, to serve as missionaries in Japan. They were received by Juji   Nakada and together they pursued their dream of starting a Bible training institute. According to Charles “the aim of the institute would not be to produce classical scholars, but young men and women who could handle their mother tongue with effect, who were steeped in the Bible and who could so proclaim it as to arrest and influence all classes of people” Within a few months of being in Japan, that dream became a reality. They were able to open a mission hall where Nakada could preach the Gospel and train leaders. The hall held Bible classes in the daytime and was the venue for evangelistic services in the evening. This was the beginning of the Oriental Missionary Society. In 1902, Ernest Kilbourne joined Cowman and Nakada to assist in the growing ministry. A small monthly periodical c...

   A small village in 1881 Indiana held a revival service one weekend. The visiting preacher gave an “altar call,” numerous times, urging people to come forward and give their lives to Christ. Over the entire weekend, only a thirteen -year-old boy knelt at the altar seeking to follow God. Church members deemed the meetings a failure, because only one boy went forward. But how little they realized what the conversion of that lad of thirteen would mean to thousands of heathen. How little did any in the community dream that he would someday become a missionary and the founder of one of the greatest evangelizing force on earth. Charles Cowman was born on March 13, 1868, in Toulon, Illinois, to David and Mary Cowman. At age 15, he was offered and accepted a summer job as a telegraph operator at a local railway station. Excelling at this new job, he chose not to return to school the following fall and continued with his new profession. Cowman practiced hard, and became known as ...