Missionary's Journey: The Gentle Teacher's Letters from Kyoto

From 1917-1921, Yasashii Sensei Dorothy Spencer taught at St. Agnes School and St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Kyoto learning Japanese in her missionary work. Young Buddhists were dishonored if they continued in their Christian inquiry. A young man asked to hear the history of Christianity from the time of Christ to the present. Another difficult task was reaching across language and cultural barriers to give comfort and an answer to 'why?" coming from a young mother who had just lost her three year old. Dorothy climbed mountains, visited temples, celebrated festivals and learned about different foods. She learned customs such as the fire victim apologizing to neighbors for being a nuisance. She dealt alone with personal grief. An itemized bill was received for building a lectern 'one carved piece Holy Chicken". A young man overseas wrote that he was 'learning many slangs", while a local shopkeeper interspersed his conversation with 'ain't that awful". A foreign phrase taught him by some customer. In time, she learned fluent Japanese and before returning home to America, joined her cook and household help in throwing parched beans around the house to drive the devil out and bring another year of peace.