The Rev. Bob Culpepper felt a call, one he wasn't sure he wanted to hear at the time.

The News & Observer, Raleigh, NC
16 Apr 1999, Final Edition
Faith Section, excerpted from Page F1
"The mission fields"
By Eleanor Lee Yates

Culpepper Connection's Note: The following text was excerpted from an article about various experiences of Americans serving as missionaries abroad. It was not written to be a complete biographical or spiritual profile.

The Rev. Robert H. Culpepper and his wife, Kay, had a rather shaky arrival in Japan as Southern Baptist missionaries after World War II.

On one of their first nights in Tokyo, they awakened to their baby's bed sliding across the floor. No damage was done, but the couple realized earthquakes were yet another adjustment they would be making.

The Culpeppers served as Southern Baptist missionaries in Japan for 30 years. Culpepper had been working on his doctorate at Southern Seminary in Louisville when he said he felt an unmistakable call.

With World War II over, there was momentum on seminary campuses to send missionaries to Japan. In January 1951, after saying goodbye to their disbelieving parents, the Culpeppers headed to Tokyo with their 6-month-old daughter.

Culpepper would be teaching at the Theological Department of Seinan Gakuin, the Japan Baptist seminary in the town of Fukuoka. The couple would also establish churches. But their first job was learning the language.

"I feel sorry for my first students," Culpepper said. Though he worked with a translator, it was a struggle. "I didn't allow much time for questions and answers afterward. I prayed the students wouldn't raise their hands."

Their work turned out to be a seven-days-a-week schedule. The Culpeppers started a church in their home. A red-letter day came a year later after the couple arrived. Culpepper preached his first sermon in Japanese.

The Culpeppers returned permanently to the United States in the 1980s when he took a teaching position at Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest.

Culpepper Ancestry: The Rev. Robert H. Culpepper is the son of James Pickren Culpepper (1898-1968, GA), son of James Alexander Culpepper (1860-1932, GA), son of John (and Nancy Clark) Culpepper (1812-1870, GA), son of Christopher Culpepper (1768-1830 , NC/GA), son of James Culpepper (1729-1799, VA/NC), son of Henry Culpepper II (? -1733+, VA), son of Henry Culpepper (? -1699, VA).