In 1905, Vories went to Omi­ha­chi­man, Ja­pan, un­der the aus­pic­es of the Young Men’s Christ­ian As­so­ci­a­tion (YMCA). He stayed in Ja­pan the rest of his life, act­ing as a mis­sion­ary, bus­i­ness­man, ar­chi­tect, so­cial work­er and ed­u­ca­tor. One of his great­est ac­comp­lish­ments was the es­tab­lish­ment of the Christ­ian Omi Bro­ther­hood to sup­port his mis­sion­ary work. He was al­so a suc­cess­ful en­tre­pre­neur, es­tab­lish­ing the Vor­ies Ar­chi­tec­tur­al Com­pa­ny (1907) and the Omi Sales Com­pa­ny (1920).

Vories de­signed over 2,000 western style build­ings in Ja­pan, Ko­rea and Ch­ina. He al­so es­tab­lished the Omi­ha­chi­man YMCA, the Omi-Bro­ther­hood Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Com­pa­ny, the Omi San­i­tar­i­um and Hos­pi­tal, and the Omi Christ­ian School Sys­tem. Af­ter World War II, Vories was in­stru­ment­al in ne­go­ti­a­tions be­tween Gen­er­al Doug­las Mac­Ar­thur and Em­per­or Hir­o­hi­to; some gave Vories cre­dit for Hir­o­hi­to’s re­main­ing em­per­or. To this day, nu­mer­ous Jap­anese vi­sit his birth place in Lea­ven­worth, Kan­sas. In 1997, Lea­ven­worth and Omi­ha­chi­man, Ja­pan, be­came sis­ter ci­ties.

Vories’ works in­clude:

• The Evangeliza­tion of Rur­al Ja­pan, 1915
• Designing My Home, 1923
• The Facilities of My Home, 1924
• Goro Ta­ka­gi, Mu­sician, 1933
• A Biography of a Young Mu­sician, 1933
• W. M. Vories & Company Architects, 1937
• The Omi Brotherhood in Nip­pon, 1940
• A Mustard Seed in Ja­pan, 1948
• Po­ems of the East and West, 1961
• The Autobiography of a Fail­ure, 1970

Lyrics

1. Let There Be Light, Lord God of Hosts