Board member Akinori Taguchi of the Japanese Baptist Convention, who is also pastor of the Kanazawa Baptist Church in Japan, met with Anderson University officials June 24 to discuss a future student exchange program. Taguchi and his daughter, Ayumi Shimikawa, who is music director of the church he pastors, are in South Carolina to visit with Japanese congregations in the state. Also present at the meeting were Akihiko Shigemi, pastor of the Japanese Baptist Church in Anderson, and his wife Yoko.
Left to right: Ayumi Shimikawa, music director, Kanazawa Baptist Church; Akinori Taguchi, pastor, Kanazawa Baptist Church; Greg Allgood, AU director of campus ministries; Akihiko Shigemi, pastor, Japanese Baptist Church in Anderson, and his wife Yoko Shigemi; and Bob Cline, AU vice president for student life.Taguchi was impressed that more than 95 percent of the student body at Anderson is Christian. He expressed that AU is a place where he would feel comfortable sending students as part of an exchange program. “The most important thing is prayer. We ask Anderson University to pray with us for this exchange program.”
Greg Allgood, director of campus ministries, has seen young people from Japan come to know Christ through past exchanges: “We’ve had three Japanese students in the past two years become Christians while they were exchange students here.”
The JBC, since its inception in 1903, has grown to 330 churches and mission points and more than 16,000 members.