"Ejler Jensen was the first Seventh-day Adventist missionary to the Japanese island of Okinawa, where he planted a vibrant church community, including a school and hospital, in the 1950s.
Jensen, who died at age 102 on August 27, set about building an Adventist church big enough for 200 people on Okinawa when there was 600,000 people and not one single Adventist on the island, which was devastated after World War II. Building materials consisted of war remnants and military supplies.
As church membership increased, Jensen began designing a 15-bed hospital that is regarded today as the leading private hospital on the island.
"Adventist members in Okinawa and the Japan Union Conference will never forget Elder Jensen, who built the foundation of the Okinawa Mission,” said Masumi Shimada, president of the
Ejler E. Jensen was born in 1912 to Danish immigrants in Alberta, Canada. The Lutheran family converted to the Adventist Church through an Adventist bookseller.
The family moved to Modesto, California, United States, in 1918 to grow table grapes, but a combination of drought, gophers, and a weak economy devastated them. Financially ruined, they moved back to Canada.
At age 20, Jensen became a literature evangelist to raise money for college. He was given an old bicycle with wooden wheels and a territory of hundreds of miles.
After serving as a pastor for two years in the U.S. states of Nevada and Utah, Jensen accepted a call in 1944 to work as head of the Alaska Mission, a territory that would later become a U.S. state.
One night, while flying with a bush pilot, a storm forced a landing on a small, isolated inlet. Ice developed on the wings and propeller and the plane began to sink.
Jensen and the pilot jumped out and waded to shore. Disoriented, wet, and freezing, Jensen began to pray fervently. Then, out of the blowing snow, an old Eskimo appeared, dressed in white, and waved at the lost pair to follow him. He led them through the storm to a small settlement, where villagers gave them shelter until the storm passed.
When Jensen asked the villagers for the rescuer’s name in order to thank him, the villagers replied that no such person lived in the area.
“Dad was certain that his guardian angel had appeared to save him that day,” Linda said.
While in Alaska, Jensen accepted an invitation to serve as a missionary in Indonesia. Seventeen days into the voyage across the Pacific Ocean aboard a freighter he received a cable asking him to go to Japan instead.
Today, Okinawa has 16 Adventist churches with a membership of nearly 2,100, according to the Adventist Yearbook." ANN
His lord said unto him,
Well done,
thou good and faithful servant:
Mathew 25:21
