Richard Henry “Pedo” Meyer

1. 11/22/1922 Cullman, Alabama USA

 

Spouse/Family

Wife: Lois Anna (nee Kuehnert), b. Jan 9, 1923 St. Louis MO USA

1. 7/31/1947

Children: Rebecca Ruth (Schaefer) (1949); Naomi Esther (Woodward) (1951);

Deborah Nan (Luekens) (1952); Katherine Ann (Shepherd) (b. 1954

d.1985); Mark Andrew (b. 1957 d. 2004); Kurt Thomas (1964)

 

Dates of Service Field Call Assignment

1948 China Evangelistic Missionary (evacuated)

1948-1971 Japan Evangelistic Missionary

 

Biographical Summary

Pastor Meyer was born in Cullman, Alabama, on November 22, 1922, the son of the Rev. Henry Meyer and Lydia (nee` Roehrs) Meyer.

 

He was educated in the public elementary school of Cullman, Concordia High School and (Jr.) College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and graduated from Concordia Seminary at St. Louis, Missouri in 1947 with a B.D. degree (later converted to M. Div.).  He also earned the Master of Arts degree (in History) from Washington University, St. Louis, MO.

 

Richard, known as “Pedo,” was ordained and commissioned as a missionary to China in 1948, but soon after beginning his work there, he and his wife were evacuated by the U.S. Army Air Corps to Japan because of the Communist takeover of China.  He was the second missionary of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod to arrive in the newly opened Japan mission.  Japan continued to be his field of work for the next twenty-two years.  During his time there, he was engaged in pioneer evangelism, church building, campus ministry, and administration.  He planted and served churches in Kanagawa Prefecture, which included the towns of Kugenuma, Totsuka, Ofuna, and Yamato, from 1949-1954. From 1955-1965, Pedo was involved in student evangelism at Sapporo Youth Center, Sapporo, Hokkaido, as well as serving as a missionary at Bibai and doing Lutheran Hour follow-up throughout Eastern Hokkaido.  Beginning in 1965, he served two terms as Chairman of the Japan Mission during the transition to an independent Japan Lutheran Church, which achieved the status of “Sister Church” of the LCMS in 1968.  In addition, from 1965 to 1971 he was Director of the Theological Training Program of NRK (the Japan Lutheran Church), responsible for training Japanese pastors.  Concordia Seminary at St. Louis had, in 1969, conferred upon him the Doctor of Divinity degree in recognition of his leadership in the development of the church in Japan.

 

Because the missionaries evacuated from China were expected to return soon, the Mission Board in St. Louis instructed Pedo to do what could be done in Japan with an interpreter and not to study Japanese.  (A formal call to serve in Japan was not received until eight months later, and Pedo was never officially installed as missionary to Japan.)  But with the extraordinary openness of the Japanese to Christianity (and anything “American”) following the disastrous defeat of World War II, Pedo was thrown into evangelistic efforts within weeks of his arrival.  Everywhere there were opportunities to conduct Bible Classes, either in English or using an interpreter.  Children (with their parents’ encouragement) were eager for Sunday Schools.  Meetings were begun very soon after his arrival in Kugenuma, as well as a Sunday School in Meguro (Tokyo), where the Meyers lived with William Danker until his own family arrived.

 

Even after Pedo had picked up enough of the Japanese language to preach and teach, English was an effective means of reaching Japanese, especially at the Sapporo Youth Center in Hokkaido.  Music was also an effective approach, and an annual “Bach Night” attracted many to the Youth Center.  Summer Camps, beginning already during Pedo’s first term in the Kanto Area, were very successful and effective in bringing followers from the new churches of the Japan Mission together.  These Summer Camps became the first step toward establishing the Japan Lutheran Church.

 

Because the Meyers arrived in Japan when mission work was just beginning, and because Japan became a layover point for travelers, they kept busy both with mission responsibilities and hospitality.  Lois spent most of her time taking care of the family and others, assisting and supporting Pedo in his work, and trying to balance a busy schedule.  For instance, on a typical Sunday the family would be out most of the day, holding Sunday School, Bible class, and worship services in three different homes at one location, then dropping Pedo off at another location while Lois held Sunday School class for about 100 children in their home in Yokohama.  In the evening she would fix supper and after that, Pedo would go out again for an evening service in Yamato while she watched their children.  The Meyers had quite an open house and showed hospitality to lots of guests: missionaries traveling to other countries would often have a layover in Yokohama and often stayed overnight with them, and during both the Korean and Vietnam war Lutheran members of the armed forced would look them up while on a rest period.  Besides this, the Meyers boarded two men who were serving two-year vicarages in the area and, at other times, children of missionaries who were in more remote areas.

 

Returning to the United States in 1971, Pedo served as pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in New Orleans, LA until his election as president of the Southern District in 1978.  He served as District President until June, 1988.  Upon retiring from full-time ministry, Pedo became assistant pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in New Orleans until August, 1994.  Since then he has served as interim pastor for six different churches in the New Orleans area, each for about a year.  He has also served twice as a Circuit Counselor in the Southern District.  Pedo sat on the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations from 1989-1995, the Doctrinal Review Commission from 1992-1995, and acted as a synodical Reconciler from 1992-2003.  He was a mentor for the Pathways Missionary Training program of the LCMS World Mission and, as part of the mission department’s Barnabas Program, he and Lois visited missionaries in Liberia and participated in a retreat for the missionaries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, West Africa in 1988.

 

In addition to her service while in Japan, Lois has worked as an executive secretary and is an accomplished watercolor artist.  She has always been deeply involved with her husband’s ministry, especially on the mission field.  They have been blessed with six children:  Rebecca (Mrs. Scott Schaefer) of Sequim, WA; Naomi (Mrs. Ted Woodward) of Seattle, WA; Deborah (Mrs. Jeff Luekens) of Worcester, MA ; and Kurt of Shelburne Falls, MA.  A daughter, Katherine (Mrs. John Shepherd), and a son, Mark, are deceased.  All the children were born in Japan.  The Meyers have eight grandchildren and one great grandchild.

 

Nota Bene

Master’s Thesis, Washington University Saint Louis, 1948: “The Missouri Evangelical Lutheran China Mission, 1913-1948”

The Japan Mission of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, self published, 1996

“Toward a Japanese Theology: Kitamori’s Theology of the Pain of God,” Concordia       Theological Monthly, Vol. XXXIII, No. 5 (May, 1962)

“Exodus from China – 1948-1952,” Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, Vol. 71, No. 3 (Fall, 1998)

“Should I Be A Missionary?” Missio Apostolica, Vol. XI, No. 1, May 2003.

“Messiah in War and Peace,” The Lutheran Witness, Vol. 119, No. 12 (Dec., 2000)

“Speaking Through the Storm,” The Lutheran Witness, Vol. 101, No. 7 (July, 1982)

“It’s Another World,” Advance, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Jan., 1975)

 

August, 1988: “Barnabas Program” visitation and retreat for Liberia-Sierre Leone (with wife, Lois, and District President Don Sandmann) for LCMS Board for Mission Services.

June, 1992: Taught two-week course on Missions at Concordia, Irvine, for Ft. Wayne Seminary’s Extension Program.

1998-2002: Author and mentor for module E8 of the Pathways Missionary Training (on-field training for missionaries).

January, 2004:  “Missionary in Residence” at St. Louis Seminary.

 

Phase 2 Information

Biggest missiological issue faced?

Most significant contribution during missionary service?

The mission in Japan was from the very beginning designed to raise up an autonomous church, and preparations for the independence of the Japan Lutheran Church began early.  Pedo served as leader of the Japan Missionary Conference in the transition to an independent, autonomous Japan Lutheran Church in 1968.

 

Connection to today’s mission?

The Japan Lutheran Church (NRK) – a strong, independent church, carrying out it own mission - is a “sister” or “partner” church together with the LCMS in the International Lutheran Conference, becoming so in 1976.  Though LCMS continues to support a few missionaries and volunteers in Japan, the NRK was always designed to be an independent church and made the decision to retain only four missionaries in 1973, only five years after being established as an autonomous church body.

 

Lessons Learned

• Christ builds HIS church, sometimes with us, sometimes in spite of us, but always it’s HIS, and to this end he directs our lives in often mysterious, but always wonderful ways.

 

Best Practices

• Trusting the new believers.  Starting as we did with no existing church body, organization, or leaders, we depended completely on the new Christians to evangelize, teach and even preach, and early on to establish their own organization.

 

Phase 3 Information

Inspiration for entering foreign missions?

Pedo’s minister father was very mission-minded, and Pedo recalls that during his childhood he regularly saw slide shows about the various missions of the church.  Also, his uncle had been a missionary in China and served as mission promoter for LCMS while Pedo was a child, which made an impression on him.  He remembers taking an occupational course in 8th grade which asked the students to write a biography as if they were looking back on their life at its end; he wrote that he had been a missionary!  He was always interested in China, since his uncle had served there, but circumstances intervened and the Meyers spent a happy twenty-three years in Japan.  Lois was also the child of a pastor, and her father had been chairman of the synod mission board for 30 years, which meant that her family very frequently had missionaries on furlouigh preach at their church services and come to their home.  She can remember from a young age hearing mission stories at the dinner table.  Meanwhile, her mother was active in the Saint Louis Foreign Mission Ladies’ Aid.  When Lois and Pedo were getting to know each other, both were excited to share their interest in foreign missions, and they were further fortunate that both sets of parents encouraged this interest.  Pedo recalls standing in the kitchen with Lois’s mother shortly before receiving his call.  She asked where he might be called to, and he replied, “I think I’ll be called to China!”  Lois’s mother didn’t blink an eye but instead began sharing stories of a missionary she’d recently met who served in China.  The Meyers count themselves blessed to have had unwavering support for their mission from their families.

 

Quotation by/about or brief story:

 

• Lois notes that both during and after her time on the mission field, she greatly appreciated the kindness and sense of humor of all the missionaries.  The missionaries in Japan all supported each other and got through culture shock with a sense of humor!  The Meyers continue to feel very close to the other missionaries serving in Japan while they were there; they all became like second families to each other.  Their children still call other missionaries “uncle” and “aunt,” and the missionary children really became like brothers and sisters during their time on the field.
• As Americans in Japan, the Meyers along with others were of course considered “foreigners.”  They recall that when their second daughter Naomi left for college in the United States, the first letter she wrote to them stated, “It’s so strange to be here on a campus full of foreigners!”