Japan
In Japan, new board chair of Ibaraki Christian seeks ‘education of the whole man, guided by Christian philosophy’
Students walk by the library at Ibaraki Christian University in…
Life-changing exchanges
Christian universities in Oklahoma and Japan mark a half-century milestone.
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HITACHI, JAPAN — I was 12 years old when I met Mariko, a beautiful young woman and exchange student from Ibaraki Christian University. She stood out because, like this awkward junior high student, Mariko was tall.
It was 1977, and Mariko was part of an exchange program that had started three years earlier between Ibaraki Christian and Oklahoma Christian University. We toured the Philbrook Museum of Art and the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Okla.
In 1986, Connie Penick spends the summer with a Japanese family and attends Ibaraki Christian.
Nine years later, I was the exchange student, spending my summer living with a Japanese family and taking classes at Ibaraki Christian. I became good friends with Tomoko, a close friend of my host family’s daughter.
Forty-seven years after that first meeting with Mariko and 38 years after hanging out with Tomoko, I reunited with both of these wonderful women in Japan as we celebrated a half-century of cultural exchanges between Ibaraki Christian and Oklahoma Christian. It’s the longest continuous mutual exchange program between any two schools in the U.S. and Japan, said John deSteiguer, Oklahoma Christian’s chancellor, who traveled to Japan for the commemoration.
Connie Penick and Mariko reunite in 2024.
My father, Joe McCormack, was on faculty at Oklahoma Christian when the schools became sister campuses in 1974. He sponsored some of the first groups who made the journey from Oklahoma to Japan. It’s because of my father that I was in Tulsa that day in 1977 — and he’s why, while I was a student at Oklahoma Christian, I spent the summers after my freshman and junior years in Japan. My dad’s love for the program played a role in my decision to spend a year in Japan in 1992, teaching English at a junior high school.
The relationship with Ibaraki Christian has changed lives for eternity in both countries. In 1980, I witnessed my friend Emiko give her life to Christ on a frigid day in Japan. The baptistery was built into the stage floor of an unheated auditorium on Ibaraki’s campus. Emiko went into that ice-cold water so that she could be united with Christ and become my sister.
Mariko, whom I met back in 1977, met her husband, Larry Weatherford, through the exchange program. So did Tomoko, who spent a year at Oklahoma Christian. There she met Mike McLain. Now they run an English school in Japan.
Although Ibaraki Christian has roots in Churches of Christ, most of its 2,500 students do not come from a Christian background.
Oklahoma Christian University professor Joe McCormack teaches students from Ibaraki Christian University as part of the two institutions’ exchange program.
Christianity is a minority faith among the 125 million souls in Japan, and the country has fewer than 1,200 Church of Christ members.
That’s why the partnership between Ibaraki Christian and Oklahoma Christian is so important. It has helped missionaries strengthen congregations across Japan. Short-term mission teams study the Bible with Japanese English students, many of whom would never hear the Gospel otherwise. In Oklahoma, OC students invite visiting Ibaraki students to church.
Earlier this year, OC hosted a visiting group of administrators, faculty and staff from Ibaraki Christian, including outgoing president Naomi Ueno. Oklahoma Christian unveiled a carved stone on campus that commemorates the 50-year partnership.
On Ibaraki’s campus, the university hosted a standing-room-only reception for those of us visiting from Oklahoma. Yoshiya Noguchi, Ibaraki Christian’s chaplain, led “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” in Japanese and English. Jim Batten, an Oklahoma Christian alum, was there with his wife, Michiyo. The Battens dedicated their lives to Ibaraki Christian, where Jim served as a professor and chancellor. Also present was Randy Voss, who was part of the first exchange program in 1976. He now serves as principal for Ibaraki Christian’s junior high and high schools.
The celebration was an example of a Japanese concept of ichi-go ichi-e, “one time, one meeting.” My brother, Dr. Jeff McCormack, discovered the term while reading our father’s journals, which spanned three decades of travels to Japan. Jeff recently retired after serving as Oklahoma Christian’s chief academic officer. He loved the exchange program, just like our dad, who passed away in 2022. The 50-year celebration was an ichi-go ichi-e gathering that occurs once and never again, Jeff said.
Earlier this year, OC hosted a visiting group of administrators, faculty and staff from Ibaraki Christian, including outgoing president Naomi Ueno.
But the partnership between the two universities is far from over, said Ibaraki Christian’s new president, Hiroshi Shoji.
“It feels like there is still so much ahead,” he said.
John deSteiguer agreed, adding, “Mark your calendars for May 17, 2074. We’ll be back for the 100th.”
CONNIE PENICK is an administrative assistant for The Christian Chronicle. She and her husband, Jay, worship with the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.
