On this Lord's Day dated June 11, 2017 we may report on the following news and information from PRC congregations and mission fields:
CONGREGATIONAL NEWS:
- Rev. N. Decker (Trinity PRC) is considering the call from Southwest PRC (received May 21). He plans to answer it by June 25.
- Rev. C. Griess (Calvary PRC, Hull IA) is considering the call from Immanuel PRC in Lacombe, AB (received May 28).
- From its new trio of Revs. N. Decker, C. Griess (Calvary, Hull, IA), and R. Kleyn (Spokane, WA), the congregation of Zion PRC (Hudsonville/Jenison, MI) voted TODAY to call Rev. N. Decker to serve as her first pastor.
DENOMINATIONAL NEWS
- The delegation from the PRC Contact Committee and Faith PRC to the BERG in Giessen, Germany concludes its visit and labors today, returning tomorrow, D.V. May God grant His blessing on this trip and give a safe return to the couples (Rev. & Mrs. K. Koole, Mr. & Mrs. Pete Vander Schaaf, and Mr. & Mrs. Dave Bouwkamp).
- This second notice was also sent out this week from the Sated Clerk of Synod concerning the convening of the PRC 2017 Synod this week:
The pre-synodical service will be held Monday evening, June 12, at 7:00 p.m. in Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church. Rev. G. Eriks, president of Synod 2016, will preach.
Synod convenes Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. The seven seminarians who will be examined at synod will preach their specimen sermons on Tuesday. The oral exams will take place on Wednesday and Thursday – the schedule can be found on the prca.org website (http://www.prca.org/current/news), below in image form, and attached here in pdf.
Graduation is scheduled for Thursday, June 15, at 7:30 pm. in Hudsonville PRC. Prof. B. Gritters will deliver the commencement address on “The Ministry: An Existence, Not An Occupation.” The pre-synodical service and the graduation exercises will be streamed live at http://hudsonvilleprc.org.
Remember the synodical delegates in your prayers as they oversee the exams of the seminarians and as they deal with all the other matters brought before them. May God grant insight and wisdom in the deliberations so that the decisions edify the church and glorify God.
MISSION NEWS:
- On May 28 Rev. C. Haak declined the call from Byron Center PRC to serve as a home missionary.
- On May 14 the congregation of Doon PRC voted to extend a call to Rev. H. Bleyenberg to serve as a third missionary to the Philippines. In order to properly consider this call, Rev. Bleyenberg and his wife are currently visiting the field for two weeks (June 9-22). We pray God's blessing on them as they consider this special call (for more on this, see below).
- From the Provident Christian Church for today we find the following notes concerning our missionaries and their labors today and in this coming week:
- We welcome everyone here today. A special welcome to any visitors. May the Lord give us joy in worship, for His glory and for our blessing. Rev. Kleyn will preach for us in the first service today, and Rev. Bleyenberg in the second. Next Sunday, the Lord willing, Rev. Holstege will preach for both our worship services.
- We welcome Rev. Heath Bleyenberg and his wife Deb into our fellowship today. They are visiting the Philippines for 2 weeks while Rev. Bleyenberg considers the call to be a missionary here. We pray God will use the visit as a means to make the answer to the call clear. Rev. Bleyenberg plans to answer the call on June 25.
- The Wednesday night Bible study will be held this week, June 14, at 7:30 p.m. Rev. Bleyenberg will be giving a special lecture on how to read and study the Word of God. All are encouraged to attend.
- The Classis of the PRCP is scheduled to meet tomorrow, June 12, starting at 9:00 a.m. in the Maranatha PRC in Valenzuela. You are welcome to attend and observe the meeting of Classis.
Below is a picture posted recently on the Kleyn's blog (along with others) about a new young people's forum called "Reformed Discussion Table":
And this week Mrs. Stephanie Lanning (wife of Rev. A. Lanning, pastor of Covenant ERC in Singapore - blog is "Stories from Singapore") posted some recent pictures of a wedding there, as well as of the last delegation to Kolkata, India (April 2017). We include one of the latter pictures here - from the church camp that was held.
