A Clear Vision: The Motivation for Gordon D. and Evon Laman to Serve as Missionaries to Japan, 1959-2002 (The Missionary Memoirs Series of the Van Raalte Press)

Born in 1934 into a Dutch American Christian family, Gordon Laman’s childhood and his entire life were impacted by vision impairment, a form of low vision that doctors could neither understand nor correct. His diagnosis was finally confirmed in 1957 to be a rare congenital defect called blue cone monochromacy. His two brothers also shared this defect.Gordon’s early years working on the family’s small truck farm with his older brother were a rich time of learning and boyhood adventures, but his vision impairment threatened to limit future vocational possibilities. At the age of thirteen, following his decision to make a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, Laman spent a week at a Christian youth camp where he interacted with missionaries who taught about world missions. Despite strong feelings of inadequacy for such a vocation, Laman could not get the idea of world missions out of his mind and heart, so at that young age, he committed to a plan of twelve years of education and preparation, trusting in God’s guidance, strength, and provision.Laman worked various jobs all through high school and college to help pay for his education. These years were filled with his love of music, adventures with several close friends, and most importantly, meeting and courting Evon Southland, his future wife, who also came to share his vision for a life of missionary service. They were married in 1957, and in 1959, they departed for Japan to begin the fulfillment of their vision—to collaborate with Japanese Christians in witnessing to Jesus Christ and building up his church in Japan.The first barrier to overcome was the Japanese language. After two years of full-time language study and the beginning of assimilation of the Japanese culture while living in Tokyo, the couple moved to the southern island of Kyushu to begin work in partnership with Japanese pastors. Working entirely in the Japanese language, Gordon gradually became very fluent in the language as he served as a colleague with the Japanese, preaching and doing pastoral work in the churches. But he also attempted to creatively encounter and witness to those outside the churches, using literature, radio, music, and Bible correspondence courses. Working cross-culturally meant the delicate balancing of cultural sensitivity with efforts to make a difference. Ultimately, mutually rewarding deep relationships and friendships were formed. During their twenty years serving on the island of Kyushu, the couple’s three children were born and raised, and they grew up bicultural and bilingual.The extreme resistance to the Christian faith of the Japanese people led Gordon to conduct in-depth study and research into the history of this resistance while also seeking ways to witness to them more effectively. A personal encounter with a Japanese theologian resulted in an unexpected offer to join the faculty of Tokyo Union Theological Seminary. Gordon was asked to serve as the director of field education at the seminary and teach in the field of practical theology. He developed courses in communication and missiology. In relation to his course on Asian mission, he developed a program and study tours for cross-cultural study, to provide encounters of the Japanese seminary students with seminary students and other Christians in neighboring Asian countries. Laman’s twenty-one years on the seminary faculty led to countless opportunities for evangelistic preaching and lectures on mission in churches throughout Japan. God was faithful, and the vision was realized.This book is written in the first person out of Gordon’s rich memories of growing up in western Michigan and his forty-three years of missionary life with his wife Evon. Read more