A Mission Begins in Japan

Charles and Lettie Cowman began a mission on February 1, 1901, when they first sailed to Japan.

That mission and ministry are still going strong today.

They met their friend Juji Nakada in Japan three weeks after they left San Francisco.

Within a short time, they found a building and transformed it into a Gospel Mission Hall.

The trio opened a Bible school and began to share the Gospel with everyone they met.

Their organization soon became known as the Oriental Missionary Society (OMS).

120 years later, One Mission Society (a more recent name) is in a lot more countries.

Why become a missionary?

Like many missionaries, Charles and Lettie Cowman got a “call” from God to go.

It began with an interest in the missions field, birthed at a conference.

They’d been Christians about a year when in 1894 they heard A. B. Simpson (founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church) describe a faith-based mission.

Simpson knew a couple who had sailed to a mission field based solely on their faith God would supply all their needs.

Unlike many missionaries of the time, they did not have the financial backing of a mission board.

(Mission boards were usually associated with a specific denomination and funded missionaries through those boards).

The idea of a faith-based ministry invigorated Charles Cowman, a successful Western Union executive at the time.

When the convention passed an offering plate designated for Simpson’s missionary friends, Charles emptied his wallet into it.

When the plate came around a second time, he dropped in his solid gold watch and chain.

Then he looked meaningfully at his wife Lettie’s diamond engagement ring.

She twisted it off and placed it in the plate.

Once this couple made a decision, they did not flinch. They moved forward.

When Simpson called for volunteers to become missionaries, Charles Cowman looked at his wife.

That means you and me. Let’s stand and show our colors.”

Missionary Warrior (Abridged) p. 41

Preparation

The Cowmans were pragmatic. They knew they weren’t spiritually ready.

So, they enrolled at the Moody Bible Institute, studied the Bible, shared the Gospel with people they met, and prayed.

Charles, always believing your money followed your mouth, began to give away the majority of his substantial income.

They even took in boarders to donate extra funds.

When Charles determined they should set their sights on India, Lettie blanched.

A petite woman, Lettie had heart problems. She went to the doctor for an exam. He shook his head and told Charles his wife wasn’t strong enough to live in that country.

They were part of the Holiness Movement and believed in physical healing. Charles listened and crossed India off the list.

Lettie would either be healed, or another foreign mission would need them.

Meanwhile, the man himself began preaching at gospel-centered halls in the Chicago “Little Hell” neighborhood. He wanted to be experienced when the call came.

The day after he was “born again” into a life dedicated to God, Charles applied his faith. He began to tell everyone he knew at work about Jesus’ death and resurrection to enable all to become one with God.

The first person he spoke with, colleague Ernest Kilbourne, merely listened. But he returned to work the next day to say he had given his heart to Christ.

Why Japan?

The men began to pray together, particularly after Charles attended the mission conference. They both became convinced they needed to serve as overseas missionaries.

That certainty only grew when they met a new student at the Moody Bible Institute: Juji Nakada.

Nakada, known as the D. L. Moody of Japan because of his evangelistic fervor, invited them to come to Japan. Kilbourne and Cowman began to pray specifically about Nakada’s idea.

Kilbourne, however, had a vision of a road that went to China.

That would come later.

Lettie, meanwhile, spent long hours praying and reading her Bible each morning. One day, in July 1900, Lettie discerned that God wanted the Cowmans to go to Japan.

She decided not to tell Charles. If God told him the same thing, it would confirm her “call,” and they could move forward in confidence.

One morning, Charles, too, believed he had heard from God.

He wrote the date in his Bible: “Called to Japan, August 11, 1900, 10:30 am.”

When he went to Lettie, she laughed. She confirmed his call!

Faith training

Having accepted the call, the Cowmans took the responsible step of applying to a mission board.

The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was willing to send them to work in a Japanese school. (Charles to teach English, Lettie music).

But, the missionary society needed the Cowmans to wait a year for the next year’s budget.

Once they made a decision, they acted. They believed their call meant now, 1900.

Charles resigned from his job, they sold their possessions and left Chicago to attend the brand-new God’s Bible School in Cincinnati. They were the first of 72 students to enroll in the first semester of classes.

Principal Martin Wells Knapp welcomed and liked them. But, he also challenged them, why wait for a missions board?

Charles and Lettie fasted and prayed. They became more convinced they should go immediately.

Juji Nakada urged them to come to Japan. They could open a Bible school together.

They decided God wanted them to start a faith-based mission.

Initial funds for the mission

When a young woman gave them a quarter, they were excited!

A week later, it got more exciting.

As Knapp recounted the story:

“I shall never forget his [Charles’s] cry as he swung the check in the air, “O Japan! Japan! Glory to God! Japan.”

Lettie ran up to him, “Charlie, what is it?”

“Look,” was the only answer.

By this time a number of students had gathered and such a time of rejoicing! Sister Cowman crying, Brother Cowman laughing and shouting. God knows how to answer.”

When the Fire Fell, citing God’s Revivalist Magazine, November 15, 1900

A farmer had sold property and tithed 10% to the Cowman’s trip.

The money, worth $9200 in 2020, paid for their steamship passage to Japan.

Friends pledged to support their monthly living expenses with prayers and donations for the first year. Someone else donated money for the first year’s rent.

Leaving America

At noon on February 1, 1900, a small group of friends from the local Holiness Movement, waved them off in San Francisco.

Their first steamship voyage was on the SS China Maru and included a stop in exotic Honolulu.

The couple raised in Iowa who had never been so far west, watched the Pacific Ocean with wide eyes. Three weeks later, they caught a glimpse of Mt. Fuji’s triangular shape at the end of the horizon.

About their arrival, Lettie later wrote:

We stepped out by faith to follow our Lord to dark heathen shores, knowing naught of what the future held.

We did know, however, that we were called of God, as we heard Him saying to us, ‘Go ye into the vineyard.”

God’s Revivalist Magazine, April 4, 1901

At the sight of Juji Nakada’s beaming face and welcoming wave, Charles and Lettie Cowman’s mission had begun.

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