Ministry Emphasis

Ministry at Kanto Gakuin University (KGU) American Baptists (ABC-USA) have a rich mission history in Japan. From 1873, our churches have supported missionaries engaged in education, evangelism, church planting and leadership development. Present day Kanto Gakuin University (KGU) traces its roots back to the Japan Baptist Seminary, started by Baptist missionary, A.A. Bennett in 1884.

KGU currently enrolls 12,000 students and is related to the Japan Baptist Union (JBU). Dwight serves at the university as the Director of Religious Activities at the College of Humanities. In this capacity, he helps organize chapel activities, volunteer and relief activities, student groups, exchange trips, and special events at the university in partnership with four other college chaplains. In addition to speaking in chapel, he teaches classes in Christianity and English at two different colleges of the university and co-directs "The Fellowship", a campus student group led previously by ABC-USA IM missionaries Chuck and Judy DeRolf. Kari regularly volunteers at one of the Kanto Gakuin preschools, teaching English through skits, games, dancing, and Bible songs.

Ministry with the Japan Baptist Union (JBU) Dwight and Kari are active members of Kanto Gakuin Church, a church of the Japan Baptist Union. Dwight preaches regularly and helps organize special programs of the church, such as our sister church relationship with First Baptist Church of Boulder, Colorado. Kari is currently serving as the treasurer of the Japan Fellowship of American Baptist Missionaries.

Ministry with women in Yokohama area In 2006, Kari started a weekly English conversation group with some women she met through Yokohama International School. Through this program, native English-speaking women volunteer to teach conversational English to a group of women from various countries. The women who attend the classes make a donation in lieu of a lesson fee. So far, all of the money donated by the group has gone to support The House of Blessing, a daycare for Burmese immigrant children living in Chang Mai, Thailand.

Our Latest Newsletters

• Click here for September, 2008 Davidson newsletter
• Click here for March, 2008 Davidson newsletter
• Click here to see a list of our ABC-USA IM journals

Dwight and Kari both grew up primarily in the Midwest, and met at Cedarville College in Ohio. They were married in 1992, and Kari graduated with a B.S.N. in 1993. Dwight, who had majored in English at Cedarville, went on to get a M.A. in English at Miami University (Oxford, OH) in 1993. They moved to Princeton, NJ, where Adam was born, and Dwight took his M.Div. from Princeton Seminary in 1996. After one year of living in Prague, Czech Republic, where Dwight studied at the International Baptist Theological Seminary, they moved back to Dayton, Ohio. Dwight was the pastor of Dorothy Lane American Baptist Church for 4 years, and Sarah was born in Dayton, in 1999. In Dayton, Kari worked as an RN, and was an active volunteer both at church and in the downtown Dayton community. In 2001, Dwight and Kari accepted the call to serve in Yokohama, and have since been serving as ABC-USA IM missionaries in Japan. Isaiah was born in Yokohama in 2003.