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News, events, updates, and tidbits from the Presbyterian Historical Society. Use tags to read related articles or sort by author for similar posts written by PHS staff members and volunteers.

October 1, 2014

Mary Parke and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades. In this fifth excerpt from her diaries, Mary describes her satisfaction with both learning Japanese and teaching Christianity while she and “Mr. Thompson” anxiously await a letter from the Board of Foreign Missions about their proposed marriage. [1]

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Yedo [now Toyko]. August 19 [1873]: Returned from Yokohama yesterday morning.[2] Much that was pleasant...

September 5, 2014

Mary Parke and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades. This fourth excerpt from Mary’s diaries chronicles the deepening relationship between Mary Parke and “Mr. Thompson.”[1]

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June 28: [1873, Yedo, now Tokyo] Raining, raining. A long long walk with Mr. Thompson. Oh! even to you, my diary, I cannot think to utter it. How much the heart may contain—what burdens the soul may bear!—Who knows how through all the light may dawn! It is safe in God’s...

August 8, 2014

Mary Parke Thompson and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades. In this third excerpt from Mary’s diaries, beginning after she had been in Japan approximately three weeks and just met her future husband, she describes her frustrations with learning Japanese—a problem that faces many new missionaries but was especially vexing for a woman in 1870s Japan.[1]

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May 12 [1873, Yedo, now Tokyo]: By chance, I might say, I secured a Japanese teacher today. God is very mindful of...

July 10, 2014

Mary Parke Thompson and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades. In this second excerpt from Mary’s diaries, she records her first overseas voyage to Japan and her first several weeks in the country she would come to call home, including some of her first encounters with her future husband.[1]

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Mary Parke left San Francisco April 1, 1873, aboard a paddle-wheel steamer bound for Yokohama. She was sick most of the way.

April 13: A long period of neglect...

June 4, 2014

Mary Parke Thompson and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades—from the 1860s into the 1920s. The Presbyterian Historical Society received their personal papers in 2011, a collection that contains a wealth of information about Presbyterian mission work in Japan, including Mary’s seven handwritten diaries. PHS volunteer Sue Althouse, herself a retired missionary to Japan, has been processing the Thompson Papers, and she has chosen excerpts from Mary’s diaries to share with our readers.

Mary Calhoun Parke was born...

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