The Big Umbrella Ruth Spear

There was a big black umbrella way back in the closet under the stairway. I was told it was used in China when my parents were there and it might be needed sometime. But we were at Cache Creek Indian Mission near Apache, Okla.

My parents, Rich and Belle Adams, were missionaries in China from 1917-1924 where Roy, Lois, and Marion were born before the door closed. My dad pastored a church in Stafford, Kan., where Bruce was born, but he was soon called to go to our Indian Mission.

Many RPs had gone there years before and built a school, church and hospital to help local Indians learn reading, writing and arithmetic as well as farming, dairy, broom-making, baking, sewing, nursing, and more. Then the government made schools and hospitals for Indians, so the mission had become just a church. The native stone buildings and tall water tower were amazing. When there was a big thunderstorm Mama often took me to a window and we’d watch the lightning. God was preparing me to trust Him in future storms.

We had two-week vacation Bible schools. One summer we made a tabernacle. Those details taught us God’s extreme care about everything and are still a joy as we read through the Bible today.

I was completely spoiled. Lois was national 4-H Club champion, Marion was state champion. They got me to enjoy rinsing the dishes by shaping things in castles. I just played. Bruce helped me get on the bicycle on top of the cellar and roll as far as I could even though I couldn’t reach the pedals. In family worship we each read a verse around the circle. Before I could read, Lois helped me say part of a verse.

We didn’t have children’s books to read. “Grandma” Kerr taught me the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Bernice Soontay was my best friend in church and school. Daddy and I sometimes went to their home and sang Psalm 23 together in Apache. I remember one communion service that was translated into Apache, Comanche, Kiowa, and sign language. We all rode the school bus to Boone, and on the way we met another bus that took high schoolers to Apache. At Boone we had a big four-room school for grades 1-8. About half the students were Indian and half white. The whites were about half local farmers, and the rest were transient workers’ children.

One day Roy and I were driving some trash to a dump in the pasture. After I opened and closed the gate, he sat on the other side of the vehicle and told me to get in and drive, reaching the pedals and shifting gears!

After I completed eighth grade, Daddy accepted a call to the Beulah congregation (into which he was born) in Nebraska. We had a very lively youth group there of Schotts, Shaws, Walkinshaws and more. I had a super math teacher in Superior High School.

Sterling College gave me a full scholarship, so I went where my siblings and parents and cousins and aunts and uncles had gone. I still remembered that black umbrella and felt sure I wanted to be a missionary wife or else teach in the school in Cyprus. Every night I prayed for God to give me a mission-minded husband if it was His will. I told no one.

When I was a sophomore, Gene Spear got out of the Navy and entered Sterling College. When I was a junior, Pastor Kilpatrick came to me as I left physics class and told me my father had died in the night of a heart attack. He kindly took me and others to the funeral. Mama moved to live with Lois in Kansas and then went to Sandy Hook, Ky., to teach Bible in the schools with Lillian McCracken (retired missionary to Manchuria). I spent two summers with them driving their Jeep to teach Bible schools. What a blessing to see their skills in leading children and to experience driving narrow roads among steep hills and deep valleys. God was providing just what I needed! And soon He provided more.

In my senior year, Gene finally noticed me and took me for a walk around Sterling Lake. I graduated and became a junior and senior high school math, science and English teacher in Bloom, Kan., while attending the Minneola RPC. At Thanksgiving, Gene came and took me to my aunt’s house in Sterling and there on the sofa asked me to marry him. Mama had a wide, white three-yard beautifully embroidered cotton fabric from China and suggested I use it to make my wedding dress. God had provided that before I was born!

Gene was then president of the Colorado youth camp. We were married Aug. 16, 1951, in Lois and Elmer Graham’s front yard in Topeka, a few miles from Gene’s parents’ home. God’s great providing! Roy gave me away, Marion’s John McMillan married us. Soon we headed for seminary, where God provided Carol and Bruce to be our fellow workers in Japan, the land of umbrellas, from 1955.

Called to Witness in Japan * Gene Spear*

But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me (2 Tim. 4:17).

I was born on a dairy farm near Topeka, Kan. They say I barely survived the first few months, but God gave me good health. Our family of five children was very active with the farm work, milking cows and handling machinery. Three of us even rode a horse to school each day. We had family worship each evening and attended worship every Sabbath.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1945, it was a shock. I thought I might have to go to war before very long. Before I was drafted I enlisted in the Navy. Boot camp was very trying, and I was sick part of the time. By doing some make-up tests I was able to graduate with my company, and was sent to Jacksonville, Fla., to learn to be an aviation electrician. Then I was stationed in Coca Sola, Panama, to do maintenance work in a squadron of PBM flying boats. It was there that God took special care of me. Part of my duty was to patrol theaters, nightclubs, and bars to see that the sailors did not get into trouble. In addition to the immorality of the sailors I was seeing the degenerate condition of the Panamanians, who had very few churches. There were lots of temptations, and I had to resist them or go along with the crowd. Then a sailor named Buress began urging me to attend a prayer and Bible study group. I was reluctant to go, but God seemed to be compelling me to go. At the study I was given a little book entitled, Thinking with God.

One night as I was reading the book I could see clearly that if I went with the crowd I would be a sinful loser, but if I served Christ He would save me from sin’s slavery and bless me with life, both now and forever. In a quiet place I prayed and promised Christ that I would serve Him with my whole life. Instead of being a nominal Christian I felt called to serve Christ in a special way, perhaps as a minister in some place where there were only a few churches. The Lord stood with me at that time of testing and gave me a new and real purpose in life.

In a bunk not far from mine there was a repulsive man who often got drunk and came in at night yelling and waking everybody up. He loved to tell about his immoral escapades when he had a chance. One day several of us were discussing some Bible passages when he came along. He asked us what we were doing. When we said we were talking about the Bible, he ridiculed us and said the Bible is full of errors. We gave him a Bible and said, “Show us just one.” He took a Bible and started searching but could not find any mistake. He asked for some more time. Every day he was reading the Bible. When asked what he was doing he said, “I’m looking for errors in this Bible.”

After some days he began to tell us that he had found some good things in the Bible. He kept reading and then he was completely changed. He truly repented and trusted in Christ. He became kind and cheerful. He was eager to go to church. He was so changed that the fellows in the squadron began calling him “Pastor.” At first I thought he was a hypocrite, but finally I saw that the Word of God and the Spirit had really changed this man. I heard that later he did become a pastor. For the first time I fully realized that “Christ really does change the worst of sinners.”

After two years I was discharged from the Navy and attended Sterling College. I spent hours each day studying Greek under Dean Calhoun. I spent more time on that course than on all the others. I can’t go into detail about college life, but I did meet a bright and cheerful girl named Ruth. She was so pleasant that I asked her to be my wife. Now we have enjoyed our married life for over 60 years. God has blessed us with five loving children, all serving Christ, plus 17 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Our children have been a great help in the work in Japan.

After our wedding we packed all we could into our car and drove off to the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The next three years were full of good study, working in a school for the deaf, and preaching. Wanting more study, I went on to Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. During that time General MacArthur was calling for a thousand missionaries to come to Japan. We were very interested in Japan because RP Missionary Sam Boyle and others we knew were working there. Many things seemed to work together to assure us that we were called to serve Christ in Japan. We haven’t ever doubted our call.

We went to Japan by ship. The ship ran into a typhoon, but God sustained all and we eventually arrived in Kobe. From the ship, Kobe looked like a village of small houses. When we got into the city it seemed that a multitude of people were going in all directions. Tiny cars buzzed around among the pedestrians who crossed the streets everywhere. We soon found that the church people were very friendly and affectionate.

Language study at the YMCA was quite a trial. We realized that the sentence structure of Japanese is very different from English. “Can we ever learn to witness in this language?” we thought. Sometimes my wife cried in frustration. But the excellent teacher told us that all of the Japanese learned the language by the time they were three. In the face of that we could not give up. The Lord strengthened us, and after two years we were able to talk with Japanese friends and explain some Bible truths. At first I preached through an interpreter at a prison reform school and at Ichinotani Church and at the Covenanter Book Store. After five years I was preaching in Japanese at the Book Store to a group of people who became Keiyaku Church.

By the grace of God a number of folks believed and were received as members. The Mission Board bought a house in Okamoto at the east side of Kobe. We moved out there, and the Book Store members met in our house. It was a great privilege to give the gospel of Christ to people who knew little or nothing about Christ and His saving grace. We were always confronted with the fact that we could never change people’s hearts. Only the Holy Spirit could open their hearts and shine His light in there and make them true believers.

We are thankful that He did bring one after another to trust in Christ. After about 20 years of preaching the gospel it was possible to organize the believers into the Okamoto Keiyaku (Covenant) Church. Working together we bought land and built a church building. Then God graciously provided Licentiate Shigeru Takiura to be their pastor. God surely answered many of your and our prayers.

We moved to Mukonoso and began teaching and preaching. Again, after about 20 years of evangelism, the Spirit of God brought together another congregation. They purchased the church property and called Pastor Kanamori to lead them. We are thankful that these two congregations continue to worship and to proclaim the gospel to others. It is difficult to say that we fully preached the gospel, but we are thankful that we could bring the gospel to a great many. We always tried to remember that “whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully.”