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Message from the Chancellor

Message from the Chancellor (日本語で)

 

70th

 

 

 

 

 

In preparing for the 70th Anniversary of our institution I have studied the history of Ibaraki Christian. From various people I have heard the story of Logan Fox's dream many times. Logan was the first President of Ibaraki Christian Junior College, and one day in 1949 he was looking over the almost barren campus with a group of students. He asked them to close their eyes, and then told them of his dream of the growth of IC. He asked them to imagine a chapel over here, a gymnasium over there, and classroom buildings and dormitories here and there. He said something like "You have to dream, to use your imagination to see what can be in the future." Expectation is a necessity for positive growth. His was a marvelous dream. He had high expectations. A great part of his dream came to fruition by the time he returned to the USA in 1955.

 

However, when he came to the campus the last time in 2010, he was amazed at how much IC had surpassed even his wildest dreams. When I met him in February of 2016 and presented him a picture book of our current campus and images of our new school gate in front of Omika station, he was once again overwhelmed. However, I think his dream, and his positive expectations, have been a tremendous influence on the development and growth of IC.

 

 

What do we expect in the future of Ibaraki Christian today? I see three wonderful elements that I expect to come to greater fruition by the 80th or at least before the 100th Anniversary. I would like to share them with you.

 

First, we will have a new school image, because we are building a new school gate…in front of the new Omika train station. Ours will be the closest campus to a JR line train station in all of Japan. With this new gate in front of the new Omika station, IC will become even more accessible. The construction is already taking place, and hopefully will be complete before 2020. This is a physical improvement that will of course have a strong influence on IC's future.

 

Second, I see an even more International IC. We have had international students on our campus from various countries through the years, and have sent over a thousand of our students abroad, but I see an increase of these in the future. Through our university 'dual degree' programs we will send more of our students to foreign countries for study, and we will receive more students and train them here for at least two years. The curriculum for such training will hopefully expand to the possibility of a complete BA degree for international students…in Japanese or in English! This will also help our Japanese students, because they will have daily opportunities to meet and work with students from other cultures, and be able to take many courses in English.

 

Along with this, we are now dreaming of an 'English Village' here that will not only be helpful for our regular students, but also for the community. Wouldn't it be great if we could have a place where learners could spend a few days in a facility where only English is used…helping them to develop their understanding. This would require more property, faculty and staff than we now have, but this dream might become a reality through our many efforts.

 

Third, as a school based on Christian values, I also see a more developed Christian Center where students can gather for Bible study and fellowship, and from which they can go out as volunteers and help people in our community, both in a spiritual sense and a practical physical sense. This is a place where we can help our students to live by the greatest commandments according to Jesus: Love God with all our hearts, and Love our neighbors as ourselves. I see a new Community Volunteer Training/Service Program that will prepare our faculty, staff, students, and people of the community, to be effective volunteers in case of a disaster. With a commitment to Jesus and his teachings on love, I see a Christian Center that focuses on academic and spiritual research programs, teaching and training that will develop Christian leaders for local churches as well as for Ibaraki Christian.

 

Dreams are wonderful, but worthless if we do not strengthen them with our imagination and expectancy. Please close your eyes and imagine a beautiful gate leading into a beautiful campus where people from many nations gather to learn and grow together. Imagine the feeling of love and respect in our international faculty, staff and students. Imagine the Christian Center that is really the center of wonderful love and service in our community and beyond…reaching as far as possible to all humans in need. Imagine how those, not only in the Ibaraki Prefecture but throughout Japan, would be saying, "Wow! Ibaraki Christian is really a positive, loving, and fantastic academic institution! Graduates from IC are so well educated and also so well developed spiritually that they become positive leaders in whatever community they are employed. I want my children, and their children, to attend Ibaraki Christian!"

 

 

September 1, 2016

 

 

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