From high seas to higher calling

Navy man, family spend 12 years as missionaries

By Sara Greene

LITTLE ROCK — During his father’s Navy career, Tom Nowlin, 48, lived in Japan for four years.

“I think all the (Japanese) memorabilia we had in our home had made an impression on me,” Nowlin said.

After five years of his own in the Navy, Nowlin and his wife, Sharon - who now live in the Old Lexington community near Clinton - and their three children, spent more than a decade in Japan as missionaries.

Following graduation from Marion High School in 1978, Nowlin married his high school sweetheart and joined the Navy to become a machinist aboard nuclear submarines.

“I was influenced by my dad’s Navy career, and I think it’s a noble thing to serve your country,” Nowlin said.

Naval service is somewhat of a tradition in the Nowlin family.

His father, the late Richard Nowlin, retired as a Navy chief. The Nowlins’ son Justin attended the Naval Academy, has a physics degree and works in Bentonville, and their son Aaron is reporting to the academy this summer. Their daughter Kristen has two children: Emma and a son named Nathan Thomas Hale, which is a tribute to Tom and the nuclear submarine USS Nathan Hale.

Submarine duty had Nowlin patrolling the world’s oceans for 2 1/2 months at a time. While not at sea he went to college to earn his Bachelor of Arts in religion and sociology at Charleston Southern University.

After getting out of the Navy, Nowlin fed his appetite for religious studies by getting his Master’s of Divinity at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He has done doctoral studies in theology and church history at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Germantown, Tenn. He first pastored at Beech Grove Baptist Church in Owentown, Ky., followed by Marvell First Baptist Church in Marvell.

In 1990, the family felt the call to missionary work and moved to Kobe, Japan.

As missionaries, the culturalchallenges included learning to drive on the opposite side of the road and the nuances of language and communication.

“There are so many adjustments. You have to learn their world view in order to communicate the gospel, and learn how your words are going to be heard and how you are describing those constructs,” Nowlin said.

For example, many religions in Japan are polytheistic with impersonal, superhuman gods, and worshippers must ring bells or clap their hands to gain the gods’ attention.

Nowlin said many Japanese have difficulty with one deity that would even care about the well being of humans.

“My experience there was something that stretched my theological thinking a lot” because Christianity is the minority, Nowlin said.

His advice for anyone considering missionary work is to practice humility.

“People always appreciate humility. I think that’s respected and the Japanese people respected us because we listened to and respected them.”

After living in Kobe, the family moved to Osaka to start a church in Izumi, which has 2 million people. Nowlin then got a job as adjunct professor of English at the Japanese National Defense Academy in Yokosuka.

“Some of my students were from Vietnam, Cambodia and some were South Korean. The cadets loved to visit our homes and eat traditional American meals and we would use those opportunities to build bridges of understanding with them,” Nowlin said.

While he was teaching, Sharon directed an English language and Christian ministry for local women.

“We provided help, for example, when a U.S. sailor married a national; we’d help them if the sailor had to visit the Japanese hospital or when a national would need help negotiating the American side of things,” Nowlin said.

The Nowlins’ oldest children learned the sacrifices required for missionary work. They had to commute two hours by subway,train and bus to attend the international school in Osaka.

“As a treat on Fridays I would get up early to drive them to school so they could sleep in the back of the car. I would sit in the school library to work on sermons and office work. Then we’d eat lunch together in the cafeteria and I’d drive them home in the afternoons,” Nowlin said.

The most enjoyable part of living overseas was getting to know the Japanese people.

“They’re not different than anyone else. They have their families and their concerns. In our dealings with our church we would share traditions back and forth while we shared the gospel,” Nowlin said.

While a home on Tokyo Bay may sound exciting to globetrotters, Nowlin said he is an Arkansan through and through.

“I’ve lived in many places in the states, overseas and in Hawaii and I would rather live in the state of Arkansas than anywhere else, I simply love Arkansas: The Natural State, and am proud to be numbered among Arkansans. To me, Arkansans are the salt of the earth kind of people - hardworking, sacrificial, tough-minded, frugal and thrifty. Arkansans are creative and industrious and know how to make much out of little,” Nowlin said.

The Nowlins wanted to be closer to their aging parents so the family moved to West Memphis where Tom pastored at Cornerstone Baptist Church.

“My father often would tell me, ‘You can always find good in just about anyone, and if you can’t just don’t say anything.’ This saying has served me well over the years when I heeded it,” Nowlin said.

In 2004, the Nowlins moved to Clinton where Tom started working for Petit Jean Electric Co. and pastored at Botkingburg Baptist Church until 2007.

When he isn’t at the electric company office, Nowlin tends to a flock of about 45 Suffolk sheep and club lambs for area 4-H Clubs and FFA students.

Nowlin said his agriculture career had a rough start.

“My dad and I raised beef and hogs in the mid-’70s when feed prices were so high and livestockprices were down. While I was overseas I did a lot of reading and research and thought if I ever got the chance, I’d like to raise sheep. So three years ago, I started,” Nowlin said. He is now the northern director of the Arkansas State Sheep Council. He also belongs to the Marshall Rotary Club and attends church at Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian in Fairfield Bay.

In September Tom and Sharon will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.

“I told one of my Japanese friends when you find a rose in the desert, you pluck it. She’s my Rose of Sharon,” Nowlin said.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 71 on 05/15/2008