Rusch first arrived in Japan in 1925, initially to help the YMCA with reconstruction efforts after the Great Kantō earthquake,[1] and stayed to dedicate his life and energies towards youth education, post-war reconciliation and rural development in that country.

Through his association with the Anglican Church in Japan he taught both Economics at Rikkyo University and was instrumental in helping Dr. Rudolf Teusler raise funds for the expansion of St. Luke's International Hospital in central Tokyo.

Encouraged by Bishop Charles S. Reifsnider, Rusch was renowned as an unconventional, but highly effective lay evangelist for the Anglican Church in Japan, establishing a chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew at Rikkyo University in 1927.

The camp and farm, first opened in July 1938, served as an Anglican youth mission center prior to the Second World War and was rededicated in 1946 as the Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project (KEEP).

[5] Other features of the mountainside site include a Yamanashi Prefecture Nature Center, the Japan American Football Hall of Fame, and an outdoor chapel and altar constructed in 1962 by students from Lenox School for Boys.