Read letters from Bill Geppert
May 2012
December 2011
November 2011
April 2011
December 2010
November 2010
March 2010
August 31, 2009
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Rev. Bill Geppert
Bill Geppert has ended his service with the PC(USA).
He served at Kinjo Gakuin University at the invitation of the United Church of Christ in Japan (Kyodan)
About Bill Geppert's ministry
Bill Geppert has been under appointment by the PC(USA) as a long-term volunteer in Japan since September 1995. He is a professor of English at Kinjo Gakuin University in Nagoya, serving under the Kyodan (United Church of Christ in Japan). He is a member of the faculty of the Department of Regional and International Studies.
Kinjo Gakuin University was started by Presbyterian missionaries from the United States in 1889. A women’s university, it was founded to give, within a Christian context, equal access to women in educational pursuits. Now that women do have access to almost all areas of education, Kinjo Gakuin continues to try to provide an education with a Christian emphasis.
“I have been serving here for more than 15 years now,” writes Bill, "I am paid by the university as a professor of English. In a sense, then, I am a kind of a tentmaker missionary, following in a small way the apostle Paul and others down through the centuries.”
About Bill Geppert
“The vast majority of Japanese consider themselves Shinto and Buddhist," Bill writes. "Kinjo Gakuin University considers itself a Christian university, and there’s a greater percentage of Christians here than in Japan as a whole, which is only 1 to 2 percent Christian. This makes it a wonderful challenge to be a witness to the truth and love of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Bill holds an M.Div. from Dubuque Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, a master’s in teaching English as a foreign language from the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in elementary education from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington.
Bill was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in August 1995 and is a minister member of Olympia Presbytery.
Birthday: May 17
