Forty-nine years ago, forward-thinking members of the Japanese Seventh-day Adventist Churches in the Southern California Conference (SCC) began the Saniku East West Language School as a church-sponsored education ministry. Its primary market continues to be children of Japanese business executives whose corporations post them here in Southern California for two to five years.
This evangelistic (99 percent of students are non-Christian) educational (academic curriculum provided by the Japanese Government and supplemented by Bible classes) afterschool school, with Seventh-day Adventist teachers and principal, became so well known that one year ago the Southern California Conference Education department was assigned direct supervision. Members of the three Japanese churches in SCC provide the members of the school board.
Several unique mission outreach activities reach the parents of the students: 1) a highly popular nature club, 2) “Mochi Pounding” a Japanese cultural tradition and 3) Japanese Sports Day, with this year’s attendance reaching nearly 500 participants and spectators.
And last, but not least, the Alumni of the school continue to share their Christian Education influence wherever they serve. Indeed, this evangelistic endeavor is 90 percent funded by the participants and so highly valued by the Japanese Government that they rate it #1 out of the 300 Japanese Language Schools outside Japan.
