Sharing My Story

These years that were filled with a lot of joy and excitement
were also tinged with sadness. On July 31, 1976 the Big
Thompson river flood happened in Colorado which calmed
100 lives including 7 Campus Crusade staff women. One of
those women was June Fugiwara. June was one of the students
who came on staff from Western (WWSC) the same year (1971)
that I did. June went to the same church in Bellingham during
her student days and I got to know her during that time.
Below is taken from my September 1976 newsletter.

"I do not actually remember the first time I met June but it
must have been around 1967 or 1968. She was going to
Western (Western Washington State College) at the time.
As I recall she had not been a Christian very long. She had
come to know Christ in a personal way via one of the
televised Billy Graham Crusades.

"June attended Immanuel Bible Church at the same time
faithfully and was involved in the college-career group
on Sunday nights. During those times I saw June as
an energetic, full of life, ease to laugh Hawaiian. She was
very enthusiastic and willing to share readily what the
Lord was doing in her life. Little things and big things.
Answered prayer, people witnessed to, special scripture
verses and a quick smile were qualities that
June had in abundance.

"June was also involved on campus with a Christian student
organization called Campus Crusade for Christ. She was
involved long before my own entrance into the movement.
She became one of the key girl student leaders with her
own action group of other students. Because of this she
became a strong prospect for joining the CCC staff. Being
older than June [I found out later she was about a year
older than myself!] I graduated from WWSC in 1970 and
then took some post graduate work during the remainder
of 1970 and 1971. My primary intention however was to
work with Crusade in seeing our campus saturated with
the gospel. That was an exciting year and we saw our
goal accomplished.

"June continued her student involvement with Crusade
that year invited (along with myself) after her graduation
to Arrowhead Springs for IBS and later new staff training.
After the training we both returned to the Bellingham area
to develop our support team base. I remember very vividly
several weeks into the support time that June had hit a
snag and had run out of contacts. She was pretty discouraged.
I remember at that point I came to see her to cheer her up
and encourage her. Well I don't know if my visit did much
good or not, but she did end up raising her support more
than a month before I saw my own completed!

"June and I kept in touch over the years via prayerletters.
Because of our different locations of service (she in Berkeley,
CA. and later Hawaii) an I at Arrowhead Springs we seldom
saw each other. One of the rare times I did see her was at
Fort Collins last year. I had the privilege of taking her out
to dinner on the 4th of July. It was an excellent time of
fellowship in which we were able to catch up on each others
lives over the past four or five years. June had matured
greatly in the time. The evanescent spirit was still there
but I could see that the years of training and responsibility
had made her increasingly sober and aware of her
commitment to Christ. I noted an increasing concern
in her life for he evangelization of the Asian peoples
for her Lord.

"In the last prayerletter I received from June she enclosed
as a gift a tiny tube of 'leilani' cologne, a very sweet
Hawaiian fragrance. This fragrance was so much like
June and her life.

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His
triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet
aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we
are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are
being saved and among those who are perishing.
(II Cor. 2:14, 15)

"This was June and her life and her works. She was
and IS a sweet fragrance to the Lord. I am both sad
and joyful at her homegoing to be with her Savior.
Sad that we can no longer draw upon her enthusiasm
and her talents to use for the work we have here to
do and yet joyous that she is now with her beloved
Savior (II Cor. 5:8)."

Agape,
Don