Book by Dr Laurel Means

Warm greetings from Osaka, Japan!

Today I received the very interesting book entitled "Beyond Words" edited by Dr. Laurel Means published by Armour in Singapore. I found your message and a photo with Mrs. Nathalie Means in the book. Now I understand your background as a Methodist minister.

I did my oral presentation about the Malaysia Mission by the Methodist Church focusing on the Malay language learning and Malay Literature activities between 1890 and 1905 by William Shellabear at the Japan Society for Southeast Asian Studies at University of Tokyo last November. Now in the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka we have a microfilm of the Conference Minutes by the Methodist Episcopal Church in Malaya, which was stocked in Yale University Archives. 

Another recent presentation of mine was done last March at the Kwansei Gakuin University, which is basically Methodist-based, for the Society of Historical Studies of Christianity, Japan. The topic was about the Malay Prayer Circle/Fellowship between 1930-1941. I found the confidential document of the Circle/Fellowship at Hartford Seminary Archives when I visited there in August 2005.

In the beginning, it was very tough for me to collect the documents and the materials on the theme, but gradually I could grasp the whole picture more in detail to understand the complicated situation in Malaysia and mission.

Thank you very much for introducing the book on your CCM website.

Yours sincerely,
Ikuko Tsunashima