Contents

Telling the Mighty Deeds of the Lord

David A. Okken

The Future of the Reformed Church in Haiti

Benjamin K. Hopp

A New House for Bethel

Judith M. Dinsmore

Foreign Missions

From the Netherlands to Uganda

Christian Education

2018 OPC Summer Camps and Conferences

Home Missions

Loving Our Refugee Neighbors

Stewardship

Giving Cheerfully: Easier Said Than Done

Prayer Calendar

News

Letters

Reviews

Announcements

New Horizons
in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church
May 2018 • Volume 39, Number 5

© 2018 by The Committee on Christian Education of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Editor: Danny E. Olinger

Managing Editor: Judith M. Dinsmore

Editorial Assistants: Diane L. Olinger, Patricia E. Clawson

Cover Designer: Christopher Tobias
Editorial Board: The Committee on Christian Education’s Subcommittee on Serial Publications

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Articles previously published may have been slightly edited.

New Horizons (ISSN: 0199-3518) is published monthly except for a combined issue in August-September by the Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 607 N. Easton Road, Bldg. E, Willow Grove, PA 19090-2539; tel. 215/830-0900; fax 215/830-0350.

Send e-mail correspondence to the editor. Letters to the editor are welcome. They should deal with an issue the magazine has recently addressed. Their language should be temperate, and they may not charge anyone with an offense. They should be brief, and they may be condensed.

Views expressed by the writers do not necessarily represent the position of the magazine or of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

The OPC website contains an archive of previous issues.

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For over thirty years, Dr. Larry McHargue, a botanist and ecologist, has been leading nature walks at the Blue Ridge Bible Conference. Originally a class for kids, the nature hike now includes the whole family, from babies in strollers to older folk with walkers. McHargue guides hikers into greater knowledge of the towering pine trees, the weeds at their feet, and the insects in between. One camper describes, “He can make me praise the Lord for his wise creation within about ten minutes of the walk.” (For more information on OPC summer camps and conferences, see Christian Education.)

Telling the Mighty Deeds of the Lord

David A. Okken

“Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord, or declare all his praise?” (Ps. 106:1–2). I have set myself up for an impossible task. As my family and I anticipate concluding our missionary labors in Uganda and returning to the United States this coming summer, I want to respond to the call of the psalmist. I want to offer thanks and praise to the Lord while recounting the great things that he has done during our time overseas. Yet the psalmist asks, “Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord, or declare all his praise?” The implication is that no one ever could.

David and Sunshine Okken in 2003 ...

-- and now with their three children, Megan, Jacob, and Caleb

This ought to be the testimony of every Christian in any and every circumstance, and it is certainly true for us as we close one chapter in our lives and begin a new one. We look back and see that God’s blessings have abounded in such great number that it would be vain to try to recount them all. Yet we are called to do the impossible, to “tell of all his wondrous works!” (Ps. 105:2). So, with the psalmist, “I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told” (Ps. 40:5).

I do so by setting forth some lessons that, perhaps, we all know to be true but that I have surely experienced while serving as a missionary in Karamoja, Uganda.

The Word of Christ Never Returns Void

We have had many occasions to feel like the prophet Isaiah surely felt when he wrote, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity” (Isa. 49:4). Yet, through the same prophet, the Lord promised,

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isa. 55:10–11)

God’s Word always accomplishes its purpose. Even when it further hardens hearts as in Isaiah’s day, it accomplishes our sovereign Lord’s purpose.

And often, it is accomplishing God’s gracious saving purposes, although we may not see it at the time.

Years ago, I was leading a Bible study in the village of Naturukan. As we were about to begin, up walked a young boy named Angella. He had just returned from hunting. He was wearing no shirt, just his Karimojong sandals on his feet and a blanket wrapped around his waist. In his hands were his bow and arrow and the reward of his morning’s work, a rock hyrax, later to be roasted and enjoyed for dinner. We invited him to hear the Word of God. He took a copy of the Bible story and sat down. I remember being impressed by his effort to read along and listen as we taught. I invited him to church but did not see him again…until years later.

Staff devotions on the front porch of the new clinic in Karamoja

Recently, Angella Paul came back into our lives when David Robbins gave him some work and befriended him. He is now a member of our church and is one of the “Timothy boys” doing his studies in the Timothy Discipleship Training program. Angella believes God is calling him to be a pastor. He is growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ and laboring with us in the gospel ministry. I praise the Lord for the marvelous purpose for which, unbeknownst to me, he sent forth his Word to Naturukan that afternoon years ago.

The Harvest Is the Reward of Christ’s Finished Work

Angella will be only one among the innumerable multitude from all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages who will at last be gathered around the heavenly throne to proclaim, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev. 7:10). We can be certain that it will be so because every last soul has been paid for with the blood of Christ, who died to ransom them for God (Rev. 5:9).

This is what encourages us as we continue to pray and labor in hope as we are instructed: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).

For years we led Bible studies in the village of Nakasien without ever seeing significant fruit. Then, just months ago, we saw a sudden and significant increase in worship attendance in Nakaale, mostly because folks were coming from Nakasien. We decided to organize a separate worship service in that village. Angella Paul and others are helping us lead it.

We are reminded that all the glory goes to God. What are we but unworthy servants of the worthy Lamb! Truthfully, it is quite humbling for me to reflect on my life and labors in Africa. I see my many failures. I see my sin. Yet, I take comfort when I remember how our Lord told us to view ourselves: “When you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty’” (Luke 17:10). Not only at the end of a missionary tenure, but at the end of our lives, such will be the testimony of every servant of Christ. It makes me all the more thankful for the truth of the gospel. Our persons and our service are pleasing to God because of Christ!

Missions Is the Work of the Whole Church

Recently, seeking a future call, I was communicating with folks from one OP congregation’s search committee. I was greatly humbled and encouraged by the words of a brother whom I had never met. He wrote, “It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to interact with someone for whom we’ve prayed for many years!”

It reminded me of how privileged we are to have served as missionaries of the OPC. I am thankful that we have never been made to feel like this has been our work alone. The prayers and support of the broader church, even of brothers and sisters whom we have never met, have been marvelous. This has been the work of a church that has responded to the words of the apostle, “And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” (Rom. 10:15).

As I go on, Lord willing, to serve in a new pastoral call in the OPC, the work in Karamoja will still be my work in that it is our work. I need not worry about how things will carry on in Karamoja in the future. So long as the Lord has called the OPC to be here, he will raise up his servants to lead us as we all carry on our work as Christ’s church.

I am so thankful for the labors of my current teammates and the amazing ways in which God is using them. Even as I write, we anticipate the arrival of new teammates. The Lord may already be answering our prayers for another minister to replace me and labor alongside David Robbins. As I was privileged to build upon the labors of others who came before me, so these servants will build upon mine. As Paul wrote, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6–7). And, surely, as is the harvest, so also are the laborers. They are the fruit of the meritorious labors of our ascended Lord, and they come to us as gifts of his grace (Eph. 4:8, 11).

The Fellowship of God’s People Is Sweet

Paul wrote to the Philippians that he held them in his heart and yearned for them with “the affection of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:8). After his sorrow-filled farewell address to the Ephesian elders, followed by his prayer, they embraced him, kissed him, and wept over him, especially because he said they would not see his face again (Acts 20:36–38). It saddens me deeply, the thought of bidding farewell to brothers and sisters whom I may never see again this side of glory. But it makes me appreciate the fellowship I have enjoyed among so many saints during my years as a missionary.

David Okken conducting a worship service in Nakaale

That has been true among the African brothers and sisters. It has also been true among my many teammates. The mission we leave behind is a completely different team than the one we joined in 2001. We have seen many missionaries come and go. Each one has brought unique gifts and blessings, enriching our lives. We have been so blessed to labor under the oversight of our denomination’s Committee on Foreign Missions and to enjoy the encouragement and fellowship of the general secretaries and others who have visited over the years.

We are also thankful for the many other short-term visitors who have been with us through the years, far too many to count. Add to that another benefit foreign missionaries enjoy: when we come home on furlough, we get to visit churches all through the denomination. It has been such a blessing to meet, worship with, and stay in the homes of God’s people. I will greatly miss that. In Uganda and stateside, I am thankful for all the wonderful fellowship and hospitality I have enjoyed with so many of you!

Heaven Will Be a Marvelous Reunion

In many churches in Uganda, it is common for a worship leader to say, “God is good,” to which the congregation replies in unison, “All the time.” The leader then says, “All the time,” to which the congregation offers a concluding, “God is good.” As I wonder how many times I have heard this over the years, it brings tears to my eyes. It is a basic Christian affirmation, a simple truth. Yet it is one that must never go without saying. It was true seventeen years ago when we arrived in Uganda, it continues to be true today, and it will be true when, as a family, we board the plane to depart from Entebbe later this year. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

I do hope to return to Uganda to visit and minister again on short-term trips, should the Lord so will. More than that, I rejoice in knowing that one day I shall be reunited with my African brothers and sisters and with all God’s people for that great reunion in heavenly glory when together we will be caught up “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17). Then, as we behold the face of Jesus, we shall have all eternity to do the impossible: give thanks and praise to the Lord, utter his mighty deeds, and declare all his praise.

The author is concluding his service as OP missionary in Nakaale, Karamoja, Uganda in summer 2018.

The Future of the Reformed Church in Haiti

Benjamin K. Hopp

When you think about the work of the OPC in Haiti, who comes to mind? Most likely it is the missionaries who have labored here on your behalf since 2003. Maybe you think of Matthew Baugh, who gave his life in service to the kingdom in Haiti.

Maybe you think of your current missionaries, Octavius Delfils and Benjamin Hopp, who are preaching and teaching in various locations in the capital city of Port-au-Prince and on the rural island of La Gonâve. Who would have thought that God would raise up Octavius, a Haitian man, send him to seminary in the United States, and then return him to his native land? And that he would be working alongside a native of Canada like myself?

Yet, even though we see God’s providential hand in bringing these two missionaries together to work in Haiti, they are not the future of a Reformed and Presbyterian church in Haiti. No, it is the men from the indigenous Haitian churches who are its future. The beginning of the regional church in Haiti is based on these Haitian men—from different communities, with different educational backgrounds, and with different spiritual strengths.

As the missionaries from three Reformed missions met together in March 2018, to discuss the formation of a presbytery in Haiti, we were grateful that each mission could identify men who are well on their way to being qualified as the pastors and elders needed to be the initial core of the regional church.

La Gonâve church leaders gather for biblical training

Pastor Lexene: A Lover of Good

Pastor Lexene is one of the men God has been preparing since the early 1990s. He attended a seminary in Port-au-Prince to receive his theological education and then returned to La Gonâve to plant a church in the rural community of Doglace. God prepared Pastor Lexene with the biblical education he needed to plant a church and to equip the saints for their growth in grace. Now he continues to grow in his knowledge of the Reformed faith. Praise God that some of the men he is bringing together to form the presbytery come with little or no “assembly required.”

Of course, it is not only educational background that makes one a pastor and a participant in the theological debates of a presbytery. The Scriptures remind us that an elder is to be “above reproach” (Titus 1:7). Pastor Lexene is well connected in the community. His previous work for a large non-governmental organization gave him a reputation as someone who is honest and fair in his dealings with people. He cares not just for the spiritual lives of those on La Gonâve, but also for their physical well-being. He is “a lover of good” as he preaches the gospel to the unconverted and to his congregation (Titus 1:8).

Maxime Teveno: Vibrant Humility

As you look over the group of men with whom the OPC Haiti Mission is working, it would be hard to find someone more different from Pastor Lexene than Maxime Teveno. Teveno is an elder-in-training who leads the services at the church in Nan Mangot. When you first meet Teveno, you might not see him as a natural leader. He does not come with much education, but he does bring to the table a vibrant humility, a love for people, and a deep personal understanding of suffering.

Hopp and Teveno after a service

The story of Teveno’s life is not unusual here in Haiti, but it is tragic nonetheless. He has suffered the death of two teenage daughters—one in the 2010 earthquake and the other to a grand mal seizure in 2008. His remaining teenage daughter, Esther, has exhibited the same seizures that her sister did and requires constant supervision. Teveno’s wife, dealing with her grief and difficult losses, abandoned the family and left Teveno with three children to care for on his own. His is certainly not what one might consider the ideal family, but through his suffering, Teveno shows the church how to care for their families even as he cares for God’s church.

While we might desire a regional church full of leaders who are strong and impassioned, God calls all kinds to lead his church. The people at Nan Mangot love Teveno because he loves them. He prays with them when they are suffering. He advocates for them when they are in physical need. He leads them to worship the Savior with joy. What more could you ask for in an elder than one who rejoices with those who rejoice and mourns with those who mourn, even as Jesus did?

Elissaint: Instructor in Sound Doctrine

The story of Elissaint, elder-in-training at Doglace on La Gonâve, is different yet again. He is a man with a true servant’s heart. Elissaint may not have much formal education, but he has a great desire to learn. Recently we were able to print and make available copies of Louis Berkhof’s Summary of Christian Doctrine in French. Hoping to spend some time studying with Elissaint, I gave him a copy. Several Sundays later, I sat in on his Sunday school class at Doglace, and he was already using it to teach on the doctrine of God. He could not wait to put what he was learning in front of the people! Elissaint is definitely someone who is “able to give instruction in sound doctrine” (Titus 1:9). He absorbs the teaching into his own life and then communicates it simply to the saints of this rural, island church.

Elissaint plastering the La Gonâve
guesthouse wall

The Apostle Paul reminds Timothy that elders must be “well thought of by outsiders” (1 Tim. 3:7). This is also true of Elissaint and was on display recently as we hosted a team to plaster the wall at the mission’s guesthouse on La Gonâve. He worked as hard as, or harder than, every member of the short-term mission team.

Elissaint also labors diligently to provide for his family. He works at a garden at his home near the church and is a skilled mason and metal worker. He volunteered his time building the Doglace church, using both his masonry and metal-working abilities. His faith in Jesus impacts all his life. He works hard for the Lord, not just on Sunday, but every day of the week, to show people that all we do, we do for the glory of God.

The church of Jesus Christ, both locally and globally, consists of not one member but many. Just as each of those members is different, the same can be said for its leaders—or its future leaders. Please pray with us that, as plans move forward to form a fledgling presbytery here in Haiti, God would knit together the hearts of each of these men. Pray that they would learn to trust one another despite their differences. These men are just a few of the leaders he has chosen to guide his church in Haiti.

The author is an OP missionary in Haiti.

A New House for Bethel

Judith M. Dinsmore

Last summer, Bethel OPC in rural Carson, North Dakota, packed up their pew Bibles and moved. But not just down the street, nor even to a neighboring town. No, Bethel moved sixty miles away to the city of Mandan. There, they are settling into a big brick edifice with maple wood floors and plentiful Sunday school rooms.

Built in 1920—only two years younger than Bethel’s building in Carson—the Mandan building was in decline when Bethel first viewed it. As soon as the sale went through, the members spent hours stripping carpet, cleaning furniture, and painting walls. In August, they held their inaugural morning worship service in the new sanctuary.

Bethel’s building in the town of Carson, ND (pop. 288)

It was the first Sunday morning in years that the doors of the Carson building were shut for any reason other than snow or wind. Having housed services for ninety-nine years, that building has been the site of faithful worship for as long as member Cynthia Swimley, 59, can remember. She attended with her family as a child, and, after moving back to the area in 2008, once again became a part of the church.

“It’s hard,” Swimley summed up. “When you think about all the people who have come in and out of those doors, it just hurts.”

For many years the only OP congregation in North Dakota, Bethel has been both haven and outpost. The Carson building sits by an open field on the edge of town, and, if the windows are open in spring, you can hear meadowlarks in the shelterbelt out back.

Even as the towns around it shifted, Bethel’s doors in Carson stayed open. Even as members and pastors came and went, and children grew up and moved away, the Word continued to anchor the church. As the congregation now moves to the city, the older members encourage the rest to remember how they began.

Bethel’s Beginning

Riding the wave of settlers at the turn of the century, the Presbyterians planted small churches throughout the state by means of evangelists who would travel miles by stage and team to baptize, teach, marry, and bury the homesteaders. Many of these settlers were foreign-born, lured to the area by the promise of free land, and living in sod houses once they finally arrived.

The Sunday schools the evangelists led in Grant County, North Dakota, resulted in four congregations by 1920. Although for some years served by two ministers, the churches struggled to support even those salaries. In a rural farming community, finances depended on crops, and crops depended on the sun, wind, rain, and insects. In a bad year, everyone hurt. Settlers would move on. The communities were bustling, but transient.

This was the field that Samuel Allen inherited in 1932. A football star on a Philadelphia factory team, Allen dedicated his life to the ministry while face-down in mud on the French front in World War I. When he came home, he attended Princeton and followed his mentor J. Gresham Machen to Westminster Theological Seminary in 1929. After graduating, Allen served in remote Montana. Compared to that, Carson, which sat right on the Northern Pacific Railroad, seemed positively urbane. The manse sported not only ceiling lights, but an electric stove and a refrigerator.

Allen rolled up his sleeves and got to work. Wanting to connect the churches, he held weekend revivals with services on Friday night, on Saturday, and again on Sunday. The churches would make food and spend all weekend together. For summer Bible school, kids would pile three-deep in his Ford and sing their hearts out all the way to church, led by Allen’s booming voice. When the OPC (then called the PCA) was formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in June 1936, Allen tirelessly visited each family in his four congregations to explain what was happening and to urge them to join it.

The vote to leave was unanimous in the churches of Leith and Carson, with two dissenting votes in Lark. (Raleigh declined, and soon after folded.) The document the three churches signed testifies to how well they grasped the issues at hand from sixteen hundred miles away. It begins, “We do herewith renounce the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. because of its sinful and grievous departure from Protestant principles, Reformed Doctrine, and Biblical Christianity.”

The churches signed the document in August, right after the worst heat wave in state history. In fact, 1936 holds the record for the both the lowest temperature (-60° on February 15) and the highest temperature (121° on July 6) ever recorded in North Dakota. The heat wave exacerbated the region’s drought, killing crops and leaving livestock with little to eat. With commodity prices low due to the Depression, ranchers were selling cattle to the government at $2 a head to be slaughtered for canned meat.

The small churches in rural Grant County risked much that summer by cutting themselves off from the coffers of the mainline church and aligning with a scrappy denomination from out east.

The PCUSA quickly took legal action and claimed the buildings of Carson and Lark. Leith, the largest of the three, scraped together the money to pay off the mortgage on theirs—only to have it snatched, now mortgage-free, by the presbytery. Leith appealed, paid for it in full a second time, and kept it.

The oak pulpit, now at Bethel, from which
J. Gresham Machen preached his last sermon in 1936; the top piece was later crafted by Darwyn Diehl at the request of G. I. Williamson

A Home for Three Churches

After being booted out of their property, Carson was meeting in a fire hall. Lark fared better, having accepted the invitation of a small Christian Reformed Church congregation to share their building. In 1939, the Vandenburgs, a Dutch immigrant family, transferred their membership from that CRC to the Lark OPC. When the CRC dissolved soon afterward, Lark officially purchased the structure.

Originally measuring just 28 by 40 feet, it would eventually hold the congregations of all three OP churches. In the forties, it had no insulation, one outhouse, and a hitching post for the horses. The only heat was a coal stove next to the pulpit, which, during the winter, would have to be lit on Saturday to warm the building enough for worship.

“If there were blizzards, we just wouldn’t meet,” longtime Bethel member JoAnn Vandenburg remembers.

In 1953, the congregation purchased land up the hill from Lark. When JoAnn came home from the hospital with her second baby, she saw the church building on wheels being pulled to its new home. The members dug a basement for it and built an entrance, a balcony, and a Sunday school room.

That building was a second home to Cynthia Swimley, also a Vandenburg by birth. “Church was my safe place,” Swimley remembered. “We were such a family.” It was a family that kept kids busy. During a war in Africa, she remembers helping to tear up sheets for bandages. When the missionary collection came around, the kids put in their coins. On quilting day, they would sit underneath the quilting rack and, as the needles came down, whip them around and push them up through to the women above. There were choir rehearsals and presbytery camps to Denver and beyond.

The abundant life in the Lark OPC was what drew Darwyn and Audrey Diehl to the church. They began attending in the seventies. “It was such a busy church; it was such an active church,” Audrey said. “There was something that just radiated from it. I can remember so many people saying to me, ‘Oh—we’d love to go to your church.’” After an evening service in Lark, she remembers, just about the whole congregation would head over to the Vandenburgs’ and keep up the fellowshipping.

There continued to be one pastor for three locations. He would begin Sunday with an early morning service in Lark, travel nine miles up Highway 21 to hold a service in Carson, and then drive the remaining seven miles to Leith for one final service. The evening services would rotate among the churches.

But meanwhile, the thriving communities of the first half of the century were faltering as ranches grew, towns shrunk, and children moved away for better jobs. Even in 1950, funds were scant—the pastor’s salary that year was a mere $3000. Since then, North Dakota’s population has shifted from being primarily rural to primarily urban, emptying or aging almost any town not situated on a highway. In 1973, the Leith OPC began meeting with Bethel. About a decade later, Lark made the same decision. This time, however, the building came with.

Bethel’s building on the move from Lark to Carson in 1983

“Carson asked Lark to come in, and Lark said that the best way to do it was to move the building,” Audrey remembered. “So they did.” A moving company raised it off its foundation, built a timber crib underneath, put some axles under the timber crib, hooked everything up to a big diesel truck, and hauled it into Carson. The power lines had to be cut or lifted along the way so that the church could squeeze through.

Darwyn Diehl and Richard Vandenburg finished the basement and built another addition to fit it for the needs of the combined congregation. Richard, a rancher and one of ten children of the CRC family from Lark, was not your ordinary handyman. He dropped out of high school during his freshman year, but, after his conversion, started reading Calvin’s Institutes and was a studious Christian for the rest of his life. He even filled the pulpit at Bethel, always using the King James Version, which, as he would say, “I cut my teeth on.”

Richard also sewed cushions for the metal chairs and built by hand an elevator to transport the elderly from basement to ground floor. It lasted for over thirty years, making its trips several times on Sunday and again for midweek study. “It was a good one,” chuckled Darwyn.

Finally, in 2009, the elevator had to be replaced. That same year, Bethel, without a pastor and with a small number of members, was deliberating what course to take.

The Move to Bismarck-Mandan

Bruce Prentice had an affinity for the West after pastoring for a time, like Sam Allen, in Montana. The opening at Bethel caught his eye. When he and his wife, Roberta, first visited Carson on a hot, dry, windy summer day in 2012, they learned that the session hoped to start a work in Bismarck.

“No one knew what it would look like,” Prentice said, “But we knew there was no church of like faith or practice in Bismarck, the capital of the state.” (Bismarck and Mandan are two cities but, separated only by the Missouri river, one urban area.) When Bethel issued him a call, the Prentices purchased a home not in Carson, but in Bismarck.

They began a bible study in their home, and, in February 2015, the group began holding evening worship services at a hospitable Lutheran church in downtown Bismarck. At this point, the combined membership of Bethel was twenty-three.

Prentice found himself trekking in the itinerant footsteps of Presbyterian ministers of old. Each Sunday, he’d travel from Bismarck to preach the morning service in Carson, enjoy a hearty potluck, lead an afternoon study, drive the seventy-some minutes back to Bismarck, and lead and preach an evening service there.

“We were thinking of eventually two churches sixty miles apart: one in Carson and one in Bismarck. But for the time being, we kept the same name, Bethel,” Prentice said. It was a good thing they did. Last year, with the purchase and restoration of the new building, morning services began in Mandan, and all services were discontinued in Carson.

Bethel’s membership in May 2018 almost triples that of three years ago, and Prentice seeks to put credit where credit’s due. “There would be no work in Bismarck-Mandan if Carson hadn’t put up the manpower and the money,” he said. “I’m speaking humanly—God provided all of that, of course. But the folks in Carson put in their treasure.”

It’s Bethel’s legacy, he said: reaching out and seeking to continue the work. Adapting, like the prairie grass bends to the wind.

Looking Ahead

The conditions that challenged saints in 1918 are still keeping them busy in 2018. Cold weather and blowing snow make travel difficult, especially as some now drive from Carson to Mandan for worship and events.

But the move means that there is a mission field waiting for Bethel. “We need to have a vision for our community,” Prentice said.

On Sunday, the building is busy as Bethel shares the space with one church that meets before them and another that meets afterward. The kitchen still isn’t up to Bethel’s legendary cooking, although they’ve begun fellowship dinners again. There’s much to get used to.

Gradually, however, the building in Mandan is becoming home—to new and old attendees, to the young and the not-so-young.

“It was very, very difficult closing the doors in Carson,” Audrey Diehl concluded. “It’s hard when you’ve gone so long, had wonderful pastors, and had such great history. But in Carson, we were just a few adults. Now we have children again. We have Sunday schools.”

“By God’s grace,” Prentice said, “the church is taking root.”

The author is managing editor of New Horizons.

Foreign Missions

From the Netherlands to Uganda

Filippus R. Baardman

Editor’s note: Last year, Filippus R. (“Flip”) Baardman, MD, was appointed as a medical missionary doctor at the Karamoja Station of the OP Uganda Mission in Nakaale, Uganda, where he will serve as the medical director of Akisyon a Yesu (“Compassion of Jesus”) Presbyterian Clinic. Flip, a member of the Groningen-Oost congregation of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, and his wife, Anneloes Baardman-Muis, arrived in Uganda in February 2018.

I was born and raised in Gelderland, the Netherlands, and both my parents were members of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. It truly is a great blessing to grow up in a Christian family. Although God is the only one who gives faith, having two parents living for the Lord and being an example of godliness is something for which I am really thankful.

When I was eight years old, our family moved to Friesland, a province in the northern part of the Netherlands. This move was a major cross-cultural experience for me.

My father was a general practitioner and, probably because of his love for the profession, both of my sisters and I decided to go into the field of medicine.

During my first year studying medicine at the University of Groningen, my father became ill. He died a year later. During this difficult time, the Lord was very present in my life and the lives of my family, lifting us up in times of despair and giving us strength in times of weakness. I can look back upon it and be thankful that the Lord used it by blessing our family with a strong faith.

Missionary doctor to Uganda Flip Baardman with his wife, Anneloes Baardman-Muis

It was also during this year that God planted the idea in my mind of working as a doctor in Africa. Although I had never been there, I felt a strong attraction to that continent. In my fourth year of university, I met Anneloes Muis, and we married in 2016. At one point, she shared with me that she, too, wanted to live in Africa.

We started looking for a suitable place to serve, but we weren’t very successful. It was then that my sister mentioned the name of a former OP missionary to Africa, Greet Rietkerk. She is the aunt of my brother-in-law. Although I had heard of her, I had never met her. During our first visit, Greet showed us a New Horizons magazine and told us that the OPC Committee on Foreign Missions was looking for a doctor for their clinic in Nakaale, Karamoja, Uganda.

Entrance to the new Akisyon a Yesu (“Compassion of Jesus”) Presbyterian Clinic

Once we contacted the Committee and began the process of applying to serve as missionaries to Uganda, we felt encouraged in every step we took. We had the privilege of visiting the mission station in Karamoja and meeting the missionaries. In September 2017, we met with the committee, and I was appointed to serve as missionary doctor at the Akisyon a Yesu Presbyterian Clinic in Nakaale.

To prepare for our move to the mission field, we attended a cross-cultural training course in Colorado, and I completed a three-month study course in tropical medicine from West Virginia University. During our time in Colorado, we had the opportunity to visit a number of OP churches in the area. We were impressed by their love for the missionaries and the work in Karamoja.

In October we learned that Anneloes is pregnant with our first child. We feel blessed by this gift and are planning to deliver the baby in Uganda. Because it is our first child, this sometimes causes us worry, but we trust our Lord in all things and feel supported by your prayers on our behalf.

We arrived in Uganda and began our labors here at the end of February 2018. As we take up this work, would you continue to pray for the safety of all the missionaries here? Would you also pray for wisdom and perseverance in what can at times be difficult circumstances? Please pray that the Lord will bless the work that is being done and that the people of Karamoja will accept Jesus as their Savior!

God’s Faithfulness through Generations

Anneloes Baardman-Muis

First of all, I am very thankful to have been raised in a Christian family. My parents are members of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, and at the moment my father is also a deacon. They raised me and my siblings to know the Bible, and they shared their beliefs with us. I come from a family with five children and have a twin brother! I feel very special to be a twin, and my brother and I share a special bond.

It was a privilege to be raised in a Christian family, but I remember becoming particularly aware of the work of the Holy Spirit when I was working for a Christian travel company in Belgium. I was responsible for the Sunday Bible study, and one of the questions that I had prepared to share was, “What does Jesus mean to you?” The answers I received from the Christians who attended the Bible study—in addition to our praying for the healing of a sick brother—showed me the power of the Holy Spirit. This moment changed me. The experience, as well as attending catechism lessons, readied me to make my profession of faith.

After that summer, I moved to Groningen to study human resource management. I also joined a Christian student association. We met every week for Bible study, and we participated in many social events. While living on my own, I had the opportunity to visit different denominations, and I came to appreciate the biblical teaching in the church where I had grown up. When my husband, Flip, and I got married in September 2016, we chose to join the same church that our parents are a part of, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands.

Although I had thought about living in Africa, the reality of serving as a missionary never occurred to me until my husband and I talked to Greet Rietkerk. She had worked for many years as a missionary doctor in Africa for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and we had a great talk about the meaning of her work.

Thanks to the Skype meetings we had with the home office of the Committee on Foreign Missions and to reading about missions, I felt strongly blessed to receive the call to serve in Uganda. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s doctrinal beliefs and approach to missions are close to my heart. The OP Mission in Uganda is already a large mission with a lot of influence in the Karamoja district. It is good to see how God shows his love for the people in Karamoja through the mission. I do not know yet exactly how God wants to use my gifts in this place, but I am curious to see what his plans are for me. I am looking forward to becoming a mother, God willing, in the beginning of July. Although this makes me worry at times, I feel blessed by your prayers.

What’s New

Appointments

Miss Ashley F. Cunningham (Covenant Presbyterian Church, OPC, Buford, GA) has been appointed to serve as a missionary associate for one year, beginning in June 2018, in Karamoja, Uganda, where she will assist the Van Essendelft family.

Mr. E. C. (Lake Sherwood OPC, Orlando, FL) has been appointed to serve as a missionary associate to Asia, for a term of one year. He arrived on the field in February 2018.

Miss Sarah F. Jantzen (Peace Church, EPC, Middleville, MI) resigned her appointment as a missionary associate in Mbale, Uganda, in February 2018.

Comings/Goings

Dr. and Mrs. Filippus R. “Flip” (Anneloes) Baardman, MD, arrived in Karamoja, Uganda, in late February, where Dr. Baardman will serve as medical director of Akisyon a Yesu Presbyterian Clinic. The Baardmans are expecting their first child in early July.

Mr. and Mrs. Mark C. (Carla) Van Essendelft and their eight children arrived in Uganda on February 21, where Mr. Van Essendelft will serve as facilities engineer for the Karamoja Station.

Christian Education

2018 OPC Summer Camps and Conferences

California—Blue Ridge Bible Conference

(Presbytery of Southern California)

PineCrest Christian Conference Center, Twin Peaks, CA

Family/all ages, June 18–22

www.blueridgebibleconference.org

California—Sierra Christian Conference

(OP churches in Northern California)

Sierra Christian Conference Association, Groveland, CA

Memorial Weekend Family Camp, May 25–28

For information, contact Brad DeBoer at 209-577-4341
or bradandjanetdeboer@yahoo.com

Campfire devotions at Sierra Christian Conference, Groveland, CA

California—Summer Bible Camp

(Presbytery of Northern California and Nevada)

Redwood Christian Park, Boulder Creek, CA

Family/all ages, June 18–22

www.pncnopc.org/presbytery-summer-bible-camp

Florida—Reformed Youth Conference

(Presbytery of the South)

RYC High/Middle School Youth Camp, June 18–23

Youth entering 6th grade (or age 11 by August 31) through
completing 12th grade

Lakewood Retreat Center, Brooksville, FL

www.reformedyouthconference.com

Maine-New Hampshire—Deerwander Bible Conference

(Presbytery of New York and New England)

Junior High (entering 6th–8th grades), August 12–16

Windsor Hills Camp, Windsor Hills, NH

Senior High (entering 9th–12th grades), August 11–18

Chop Point Camp, Woolwich, ME

www.deerwander.org

Enjoying the lake at Deerwander Bible Conference

Michigan—OPC Family Camp

(Presbytery of Michigan and Ontario)

Lincoln Lake Camp, Gowen, MI

Family/all ages, July 2–6

For information, contact familycamp@harvestopc.org or call 616-446-7621

www.facebook.com/OPCFamilyCamp

Ohio—Youth Camp

(Presbytery of Ohio)

4-H Camp Piedmont, Piedmont, OH

Junior Summer Camp (ages 9–12), July 9–14

Senior Summer Camp (grades 7–12), July 9–14

www.opcohioyouth.wordpress.com

Oregon—Family Camp

(First OPC, Portland, OR)

Camp Morrow, Wamic, OR

Family/all ages, August 22–25

For information, contact Jack Smith at 503-253-0695 or office@firstopcportland.org

Pennsylvania—French Creek Bible Conference

(OPC affiliated)

French Creek State Park, Elverson, PA

Grades 4–6, July 30–August 4

Grades 7–8, August 4–11

Grades 9–10, July 23–30

Grades 11–12, July 16–23

Post-High, July 13–16

Labor Day Family, August 31–September 3

www.frenchcreek.org

South Dakota—OPC-PCA Bible Camp

(Presbytery of the Dakotas)

Camp Judson, Keystone, SD

Grades 4–12 (completed), June 23–29

www.opc-pca-biblecamp.com

Texas—Summer Camp

(Presbytery of the Southwest)

Alto Frio Baptist Encampment, Leakey, TX

Youth entering grades 4–12, June 18–23

www.opcsouthwest.org/summer-youth-camp

Virginia—Machen Retreat and Conference Center

(Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic)

Machen Retreat and Conference Center, McDowell, VA

Science Camp (ages 10–17), July 9–14

Stronghold Camp (grades 5–12), July 23–28

Family/Labor Day Conf. (all ages), August 31–September 3

www.machen.org

Wisconsin—Camp Westminster

(Presbytery of the Midwest)

Green Lake Conference Center, Green Lake, WI

All members, friends, all ages, July 30–August 3

www.pmwopc.org/camp-westminster-2018

Other Retreats

Retreats for women, men, singles, and youth are sponsored by presbyteries and local congregations and are held at various times during the year—not just in the summer! Check out the listing at www.opc.org/cce/camps.html.

Our Membership Vows

Fallen in Adam

Glen J. Clary

The third membership vow of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church states,

Do you confess that because of your sinfulness you abhor and humble yourself before God, that you repent of your sin, and that you trust for salvation not in yourself but in Jesus Christ alone?

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” said the Apostle Paul (Romans 3:23). Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only human being who never sinned against God. He was not guilty of any sin at all. He never had a sinful thought, spoke a sinful word, or committed a sinful deed. He was absolutely free from any and all personal sins.

Jesus was also born without a fallen nature. That is, he did not inherit the sinful corruption that we inherited from Adam. Christ’s nature was entirely pure and holy; it was not ruined and ruled by sin. Jesus never desired to sin. It is true that he was tempted by Satan, but those temptations came from without, not from within. In other words, there was nothing inside of him that tempted or enticed him to sin. (See James 1:13–15.)

Every other human, however, is a sinner. We are all guilty of personal sins. The Shorter Catechism says, “No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God; but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed” (Q. 82).

We are not only guilty of personal sins; we are born under the power of sin. As a result of the Fall, we inherit a nature that is corrupted and ruled by sin. Ever since our first parents ate the forbidden fruit, the natural inclination of humanity has been to rebel against God. That’s the condition into which we are born, and the only cure for it is the saving work of Jesus Christ. By his death on the cross, Christ has secured our deliverance from sin’s guilt and power.

Out of the Mouth ...

Our daughter and son-in-law were reading The Jesus Storybook Bible to our grandchildren. The story of the Last Supper ends with, “Then they sang their favorite song and walked up to their favorite place, an olive garden.” When our five-year-old grandson heard this, he shouted, “Olive Garden? That’s their favorite place? I love the Olive Garden!”

—Lois Hilbelink

Rockford, IL

Note: If you have an example of the humorous “wisdom” that can come from children, please send it to the editor.

Congratulations

The Shorter Catechism has been recited by:

• Silas Scott, Covenant Grace OPC, Roseburg, OR

Home Missions

Loving Our Refugee Neighbors

Christopher B. Cashen

Do you remember the question asked in Luke 10 by the lawyer in an attempt to test our Lord Jesus Christ? In the end, it was not the Lord who was tested, but the lawyer himself. He asked, “Who is my neighbor?” but he was not really searching for his neighbor’s identity. The parable Jesus told in response—the parable of the Good Samaritan—uncovered the fact that the lawyer was having a problem discerning the depth and the breadth and the width of the comprehensive love of the living God for his people.

In July 2017, the congregation of Redeemer OPC in Atlanta, Georgia, began a ministry that caused them to probe the depth and breadth and width of God’s love as they endeavored to shine forth Christ to their new neighbors from all nations called refugees.

Many things may come to mind when you hear the word refugee: you may think of places of turmoil around the world, the work of terrorists, or the politics of responding to such issues. But what does the word actually mean? There is certainly a legal definition when the title is used in the context of immigration. But more broadly, refugee simply refers to men, women, and children who are seeking refuge.

The reason why they must seek refuge varies from family to family. They each have their own story. Many are fleeing war. Some are fleeing persecution. According to the 1951 UN Convention, a refugee is one who is seeking refuge “outside the country of his nationality” due to a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” Importantly, a refugee is also one who is “unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”

Chris and Grace Ann Cashen with Zecharias and Bethel Weldeyesus

Redeemer OPC’s pastor, Zecharias Weldeyesus, is himself—along with his wife and five children—a political asylee from the Horn of Africa. Under his leadership, Redeemer began reaching out to its new neighbors in Clarkston, Georgia, last summer, including calling me to serve as an evangelist there.

31.8% of the residents of Clarkston were born in another country.

Clarkston is a small city about seven miles from Redeemer, on the edge of the sprawling metropolis of Atlanta. It has been referred to as the “Ellis Island of the South” because of the significant concentration of resettled people from all nations. When you walk through the farmer’s market or on the grounds of the many apartment complexes, you see people dressed in clothing from all over the world, speaking languages that are foreign to our American ears. The Atlanta Magazine described downtown Clarkston as extending “a total of just three city blocks, give or take. And yet there may be no place in the country as kaleidoscopically, vibrantly, viscerally diverse” (“Ellis Island South,” January 2017).

Where do you start when reaching out to a city like that? Redeemer began by seeking to gather information about the field: who was already working in Clarkston, what their beliefs were, and how our vision would fit in with these existing ministries. We attended orientation classes for volunteers with resettlement agencies and parachurch groups and began to help the local PCA mission work. In September, we joined an English as a Second Language (ESL) program held in an Atlanta PCA church. Through these contacts, we have begun to meet and minister to several families from Syria and Afghanistan.

Grace Ann Cashen and Bethel Weldeyesus with after-school helper, Bayan, and students Maya and Tariq

The language barrier has proved challenging but has also opened doors for ministry. One widespread difficulty for parents who do not speak English is helping their children with school work. We were given the opportunity to begin an after-school program two days each week for elementary school students at one of the many apartment complexes. The children receive help with homework, practice writing, sing songs, are taught Scripture, create crafts, and play games. On Monday evenings, we also hold an ESL class at the same apartment complex. Throughout the week, we are beginning to schedule in-home visits with our ESL students to teach and establish more personal relationships.

All of this is intended to show forth the love of Christ, to establish sincere and lasting relationships with individuals and families, and to enable the sharing of the gospel. We are praying that the Lord would be pleased to plant an OPC church in the heart of Clarkston in the near future.

Why would the church choose to begin this kind of ministry? Simply put, the Word of God is clear concerning the duty of God’s people toward aliens, strangers, and thus, toward refugees within our land. Moses, as he was moved by the Spirit, wrote that “you shall treat the stranger who sojourners with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:34).

And as the fifth and last book of the Pentateuch was recorded, the Israelites were informed in no uncertain terms that God “loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 10:18–19). Refugees are certainly our neighbors before whom we, as the church, need to shine as the light of Christ. Their presence in our country gives the church a unique opportunity to meet the physical needs of our friends while we share the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ with them.

Webster’s Dictionary (1828) defines “refuge” as that “which shelters or protects from danger, distress or calamity; a strong hold which protects by its strength, or a sanctuary which secures safety by its sacredness; any place inaccessible to an enemy.” Redeemer OPC began this ministry because the church knows that true refuge can only be found in the One who said to his disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

With all the press on the topic of immigration and with the acts of terrorism being committed throughout the world, questions about safety abound. Is it “safe” to serve, to minister, to those from Islamic and other countries? The short answer is that even though our experience in this ministry is quite short, we have been sincerely welcomed into several refugee homes and never felt anything but genuine hospitality. Is it safe? The broader answer is that as Christ called his disciples to make disciples, he also promised to be with them. He is with us each time we go out.

Diaconal and gospel ministry to refugees is certainly not limited to Clarkston, Georgia. Our new neighbors are being resettled across the United States. Resettlement agencies are always looking for help. Volunteering is an excellent way to be introduced to refugees and to begin to love your new neighbors.

If you would like more information about starting a refugee ministry in your area, or would like to receive a periodic update regarding the Clarkston ministry, please contact Chris Cashen at allnations3799@gmail.com.

The author is an evangelist called by Redeemer OPC, Atlanta, GA, to serve in Clarkston.

Home Missions Today

For up-to-date Home Missions news and prayer updates, e-mail HomeMissionsToday@opc.org. New editions: May 9, 23.

Stewardship

Giving Cheerfully: Easier Said Than Done

M. Scott Johnson

As an apostle of Christ, Paul wore many hats. He was a preacher, teacher, theologian, missionary, mentor, and counselor. One top of all that, Paul was also a fundraiser. We often overlook this aspect of his ministry, but, in Paul’s mind, encouraging Christian generosity was at the heart of his gospel labors. This can be seen in the two whole chapters he devotes to the subject of Christian giving in his second letter to the Corinthians.

In 2 Corinthians 8–9, the Apostle urges the church in Corinth to give generously and cheerfully to the impoverished Jewish Christians living in Jerusalem. Supporting Paul’s appeal is the inexorable logic of the gospel. If Christ, who was rich, made himself poor for our sakes that we might be rich, then we also ought to give of our resources to help others (2 Cor. 8:9). The God who has saved us in Christ is a giving God, so we must be a giving people.

How contrary to the spirit of the gospel is a tight-fisted Christian who is loath to part with his resources! But how Christ-like is the believer whose “abundance of joy,” like the Macedonians’, overflows “in a wealth of generosity” (8:2)! No wonder Paul held up the Macedonians as models of Christian giving. Their generosity was both produced by and expressive of the gracious self-giving of our Savior.

Because believers are to give out of gratitude to Christ, we ought to give with a cheerful spirit (9:7). But if we’re honest with ourselves, that’s easier said than done! Though we understand the logic of the gospel that calls for thankful, generous giving, we sometimes struggle to part ways with our dollars. As we write out a check for Sunday’s offerings, or place cash in the offering plate, we’re besieged by unwelcome and pestering thoughts of what else we might use that money for: “I could be adding this to my daughter’s college savings account,” or “this would be just enough to upgrade my phone,” or “this amount would pay for that new dishwasher we’ll need soon.” And so we give, but reluctantly.

When that happens, we’re looking at Christian giving the entirely wrong way. According to Paul, when we give of our resources to advance Christ’s kingdom, we aren’t losing wealth, we’re sowing wealth. Paul reminds the Corinthians of a great spiritual principle that governs our giving: “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (9:6). Hear how the Reformer John Calvin applies this verse to giving in his commentary:

This teaching should be firmly fixed in our minds, so that whenever fleshly prudence holds us back from doing good out of fear for what we shall lose, we may immediately resist its promptings by remembering how the Lord declares that in doing good we are sowing seed.

In other words, we will give cheerfully when we keep in mind that giving to the ministry of the church is a form of spiritual sowing. When a farmer sows his seeds in the ground, he doesn’t “lose” the seed. Rather, over time, that seed produces a field full of grain. In the same way, God promises us a harvest of spiritual blessing in this life, and an even greater harvest of blessing in the life to come, when we give generously to support Christ’s kingdom.

When by God’s grace this truth is firmly fixed in our hearts, we will give willingly and cheerfully.

The author is pastor of Grace OPC, Wasilla, AK.

Prayer Calendar

May

1. Ben and Heather Hopp, Haiti. Pray for continued growth and faithfulness among the church leaders in Haiti. / Jason and Amanda Kirklin, Waco, TX. Pray that the Lord would send new visitors through Trinity OPC’s outreach. / Andrew (and Cyndi) Myers, yearlong intern at Trinity Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Hatboro, PA.

2. Jay and Andrea Bennett, Neon, KY. Pray that Neon Reformed Presbyterian Church would be organized by 2020. / Pray for the labors of associate missionaries Octavius and Marie Delfils, Haiti. / David Haney, director of finance and planned giving for the Committee on Coordination.

3. Heero and Anya Hacquebord, L’viv, Ukraine. Pray for wisdom as the church identifies and prepares candidates for church office. / Pray for Chris (and Nancy) Walmer, area home missions coordinator, Presbytery of Central Pennsylvania. / Andrew Farr, yearlong intern at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Ada, MI.

4. Pray for Home Missions associate general secretary Al Tricarico. / Retired missionaries Betty Andrews, Cal and Edie Cummings, Greet Rietkerk, Young and Mary Lou Son, and Brian and Dorothy Wingard. Pray that they will be blessed with good health. / Aijalon (and Jana) Church, yearlong intern at Covenant OPC in Sinking Spring, PA.

5. Ben and Melanie Westerveld, Quebec, Canada. Pray that God’s Word would take root in those who attend outreach activities. / Jim and Bonnie Hoekstra, Andover, MN. Thank the Lord for newcomers to Immanuel OPC and pray that they stay. / Pray for the seminarians who are starting pastoral internships in 2018.

6. Lowell and Mae Ivey, Virginia Beach, VA. Pray that the Lord would prepare men from Reformation Presbyterian Church for future service as officers. / Missionary associate Janine Eygenraam, Quebec, Canada. Pray for her witness to non-Christian friends and contacts. / Mark Stumpff, Loan Fund administrator.

Dave and Elizabeth Holmlund

7. Pray for Foreign Missions general secretary Mark Bube as he provides counsel and encouragement to our foreign missionaries. / Pray for Dave (and Elizabeth) Holmlund, regional home missionary for the Presbytery of Philadelphia. / Pray for Marvin Padgett, executive director of Great Commission Publications.

8. Matt and Elin Prather, Corona, CA. Pray that the Lord of the harvest would add to Corona Presbyterian Church. / Pray for Foreign Missions associate general secretary Douglas Clawson as he continues to press for the advancement of OP foreign missions. / Pray for the publication of the Trinity Psalter Hymnal.

9. Pray for Foreign Missions administrative assistant Ling Lee and secretary Katrina Zartman. / Andrew and Billie Moody, San Antonio, TX. Pray that San Antonio Reformed Church would have a sacrificial love for the lost in their community. / Scott (and Elizabeth) Creel, yearlong intern at Redemption OPC in Gainesville, FL.

10. Daniel and Amber Doleys, Springfield, OH. Pray for the work and red tape surrounding a new building purchase for Living Water OPC. / Pray that Mark and Carla Van Essendelft, Nakaale, Uganda, would be able to build solid relationships with the local people. / New Horizons managing editor Judith Dinsmore.

11. David and Rashel Robbins, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray that the Lord would use the Timothy Discipleship program to raise up godly young leaders for his church. / Pray for Steve (and Joanie) Doe, regional home missionary for the Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic. / Pray for Linda Foh, OPC.org website technical support.

12. Jeremy and Gwen Baker, Yuma, AZ. Pray for more evangelism opportunities for Yuma OPC. / Missionary associates Schylie La Belle, Paige Vanderwey, and Angela Voskuil, Uganda. Pray for patience and understanding as they work with children. / Stephen (and Felicia) Lauer, yearlong intern at Redeemer OPC in Beavercreek, OH.

13. Dr. Flip and Anneloes Baardman, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for the children who come to the clinic in need of medical care. / Pray for Home Missions administrative assistant Katie Stumpff. / Short-term Missions coordinator David Nakhla asks for prayer for the teams and individuals preparing for short-term missions projects this summer.

14. Bradney and Eileen Lopez, Arroyo, PR. Pray for the spiritual growth of Iglesia Presbiteriana Sola Escritura as a whole body and as individuals. / David and Sunshine Okken, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for outreach efforts to the elder men in Karamoja. / Jan Gregson, assistant to the finance director.

15. Missionary associates Christopher and Chloe Verdick, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for opportunities to build good relationships with coworkers. / Chris and Megan Hartshorn, Anaheim Hills, CA. Pray for numerical and spiritual growth at Anaheim Hills Presbyterian Church. / Navy chaplain John (and Linda) Carter.

16. Bill and Sessie Welzien, Key West, FL. Pray that Keys Presbyterian Church would grow in holiness and in numbers / Pray for missionary associate Leah Hopp, Nakaale, Uganda, as she builds connections in the community through public health lessons. / New Horizons editorial assistant Pat Clawson.

17. Eric and Dianna Tuininga, Mbale, Uganda. Pray that those attending the new members class will respond in faith to the gospel message. / Pray for Jim (and Judy) Bosgraf, regional home missionary for the Presbytery of the Midwest. / Pray for Daniel (and Victoria) Garcia, yearlong intern at Escondido OPC in Escondido, CA.

18. Matthew and Lois Cotta, Pasadena, CA. Give thanks to the Lord for Pasadena Presbyterian Church’s new members and pray for their membership class. / Charles and Connie Jackson, Mbale, Uganda. Pray for safety in travel. / New Horizons proofreader Jessica Johnson.

19. Missionary associate Kathleen Winslow, Prague, Czech Republic. Pray for the wisdom and diligence to use her time well for the good of God’s kingdom. / Pray for Home Missions general secretary John Shaw. / Janet Birkmann, Diaconal Ministries communications coordinator.

20. David and Rebekah Graves, Coeur d’Alene, ID. Pray for a new facility to accommodate the growing congregation of Coeur d’Alene Reformed Church. / Pray for affiliated missionaries Jerry and Marilyn Farnik, Prague, Czech Republic, as they prepare for summer outreach teams. / Navy chaplain Tim (and Janine) Power.

21. Affiliated missionary Linda Karner, Japan (on furlough). Pray for fruit from an online math course she recently established. / Jim and Eve Cassidy, Austin, TX. Pray for South Austin Presbyterian Church as they are temporarily without a worship space. / Charlene Tipton, database administrator.

22. Josh and Kristen McKamy, Chambersburg, PA. Pray for faithful outreach and for returning visitors to join a new members’ class at Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church. / Affiliated missionaries Craig and Ree Coulbourne, Urayasu, Japan. Pray for the work of a new counseling ministry. / Pray for New Horizons editorial assistant Diane Olinger.

23. Mark and Jeni Richline, Montevideo, Uruguay. Pray for Mark as he works to plant a church in Maldonado. / Eric and Donna Hausler, Naples, FL. Pray for the Lord to give Christ the King Presbyterian Church wisdom in reaching families in their community. / New Horizons cover designer Chris Tobias.

24. Pray for Bill (and Margaret) Shishko, regional home missionary for the Presbytery of Connecticut and Southern New York. / Ray and Michele Call, Montevideo, Uruguay. Pray for spiritual growth and understanding for new church members. / Doug Watson, part-time staff accountant.

25. Missionary associates Markus and Sharon Jeromin, Montevideo, Uruguay. Pray for godly family leadership and wise parenting. / Larry and Kalynn Oldaker, Huron, OH. Pray for four additional families to join Grace Fellowship OPC in 2018.

26. Pray for Mark (and Peggy) Sumpter, regional home missionary for the Presbytery of the Southwest. / Pray for tentmaker missionary T. D., Asia, as she assists and encourages local homeschoolers. / Pray for Christian Education general secretary Danny Olinger as he prepares to present the work of the Committee on Christian Education to the general assembly in June.

27. Mr. and Mrs. M. M., Asia. Pray for growth and unity in the Reformed churches. / Bob and Grace Holda, Oshkosh, WI. Pray that God’s Word at Resurrection Presbyterian Church would strengthen faith, evangelistic zeal, and Reformed convictions.

Mr. and Mrs. J. M. and family

28. Pray for Ryan (and Rachel) Heaton, church-planting intern, Naples, FL. / Mr. and Mrs. J. M., Asia. Pray for Mr. M. as he works on a book on church planting for translation and publication. / Pray for stated clerk Ross Graham as he prepares and distributes the agenda for the 85th General Assembly that will begin on June 11 in Wheaton, IL.

29. Missionary associates E. C., E. K., and M. S., Asia. Pray that the contacts they make will desire to attend church. / Pray for Miller (and Stephanie) Ansell, church-planting intern, Houston, TX. / Kathy Bube, Loan Fund document specialist.

30. Chris and Grace Ann Cashen, Clarkston, GA. Pray that the Spirit would work in refugees’ hearts, so they may desire to hear the Word. / Mr. and Mrs. F., Asia. Pray for Mr. F. as he teaches membership and officer training classes.

31. Mr. and Mrs. K., Asia. Pray that the Lord will use Mr. and Mrs. K. to bring more families into the church. / Pray for Lacy (and Debbie) Andrews, regional home missionary for the Presbytery of the Southeast.

News

In Memoriam: Charlotte M. Kuschke

Diane Olinger

On March 8, 2018, on her ninety-third birthday, Charlotte M. Kuschke, longtime member of Calvary OPC in Glenside, Pennsylvania, joined the church triumphant.

Born in San Francisco, California, Charlotte became a Christian while in high school and began attending First OPC. After moving to Pennsylvania, she met Rev. Arthur Kuschke, librarian of Westminster Theological Seminary, and the two were married in 1951.

Charlotte Kuschke

When their children went to school, Charlotte began thirty years of teaching music, and, for a time, German at Phil-Mont Christian Academy. She was an unwavering supporter of Christian education generally and Phil-Mont and its students in particular. Charlotte was a talented singer and choir director. She was known for her love for her Savior and his church; she was a good and thoughtful friend. Charlotte is survived by her sons David and John Kuschke and her daughter Margaret Cowell, and by six grandchildren.

Update

Churches

• Grace Fellowship OPC in Germantown, PA, held its last service on February 25 and has been dissolved, with the authorization of the Presbytery of Philadelphia.

• At its January meeting, the Presbytery of the Southwest adopted the request of Beal Heights Presbyterian Church in Lawton, OK, to dissolve on March 1.

Ministers

• On February 3, the Presbytery of Philadelphia, concurring with William F. Snodgrass, dissolved his pastoral relation with Grace Fellowship OPC in Germantown, PA, contingent on session and congregation agreement, which have occurred.

• On February 28, Douglas P. Harley resigned as pastor of El Camino OPC in Goleta, CA, with the consent of the congregation and approval of the Presbytery of Southern California.

• The Presbytery of the Southwest dissolved the pastoral call of Brian E. Belh to Beal Heights Presbyterian Church in Lawton, OK, effective March 1.

• On March 16, Charles A. Muether, formerly the pastor of Hope Reformed Presbyterian Church in Pella, IA, was dismissed by the Presbytery of the Midwest to Covenant East Classis (RCUS) to be a church planter.

• David L. Veldhorst, formerly the associate pastor, was installed as pastor of Bethel OPC in Oostburg, WI, on March 21.

• On March 23, Zachary M. Simmons was ordained and installed as pastor of Resurrection OPC in State College, PA.

Milestones

• Charlotte M. Kuschke, 93, widow of Rev. Arthur W. Kuschke, died on March 8.

• Retired OP minister Stanton P. Durham, 83, died on March 21.

On February 23, 2018, Daniel Adams (center) was ordained as associate pastor to youth and young adults at Redeemer OPC, Ada, MI. He is flanked in the front row by Steve Igo, Mark Sallade, and John Ferguson to the left, and Charles Williams and Francis VanDelden to the right.

Letters

Hate Has No Home Here

Editor:

The crux of Carl Trueman’s article “Hate Has No Home Here” (March 2018) is his definition of oppression. Just as some say that only what is physical is real, Trueman seems to say that only oppression which can be measured objectively is real oppression. But his view has counterexamples. Blacks have long been experiencing real psychological harm from various expressions of white supremacy. Kids suffer psychological oppression from verbal and online bullying. Trueman’s criteria for oppression is problematic.

Curt Day

Bethlehem, PA

Editor:

Didn’t “Hate has No Home Here” (March 2018) miss the point of the yard signs? While the article was thought-provoking, I’m curious why it focused so much on gender identity. I’ve seen a few (too few) of those signs in my city, and I always unambiguously understood them in the context of immigration and other ethnicity-oriented issues. It was frustrating that any issues of perceived economic and humanitarian (“real”?) oppression—whose sufferers might be given a glimmer of encouragement from the yard signs—were completely skipped over.

Nathan Vander Wilt

Richland, WA

The author replies: Day imputes a view to me that I do not express in the article (because, of course, I do not hold it): that psychological oppression cannot be real. My point was simple: that the wider understanding of oppression has shifted in precisely the direction Day indicates. His criticism thus misses the mark even as it unintentionally supports my basic comment on our current political culture.

Vander Wilt, if he has “always unambiguously understood [these signs] in the context of immigration and other ethnicity-oriented issues,” he has understood them more reductively than he implies I have done. They have a much broader reference than that. Yes, I focused on the issue of psychological identity politics (a general category including race, as Day helpfully points out); but that I chose to highlight sexuality does not logically entail that I do not think other oppressed groups do not exist or that I do not care about them or that they are not embraced by the signs. This is not a zero sum game.

Having said that, the cheap and ostentatious virtue of such signs is something I find problematic, no matter who is seen to be encompassed thereby.

Reviews

Karl Marx, by William D. Dennison. P&R, 2017. Paperback, 144 pages, $14.99. Reviewed by OP pastor and professor Alan Strange.

This outstanding treatment of Karl Marx, written by OP minister and professor William Dennison, appears in time for the two-hundredth anniversary of Marx’s birth on May 5, 1818.

Marx—like Nietzsche, Freud, and Darwin—is one of those nineteenth-century figures who has seminally impacted the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries. Every time one thinks we’re over and done with him, take the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Marx comes roaring back—for example, the Occupy Wall Street movement, the mark made by socialist Bernie Sanders in the last US presidential election, and the Marxist leader of the UK Labor party, Jeremy Corbin.

Marx’s perpetual appeal is surely what Dennison notes as “Marx’s psychological analysis of avarice and greed on the part of the capitalist” (92). Marx, of course, denies biblical revelation and attempts to remain within naturalistic humanism in his analysis, undermined by his own materialism, which does not, consistent with its own metaphysic, allow such insight. Because of common grace (and thus in spite of himself), “Marx clearly understood capitalism’s transition in the political economy during the Enlightenment—that is, its turning of the traditional Western vices of self-interest, passions, and greed into virtues” (92). Marx shows how far this goes and how property and money acquire divine attributes (93).

Marx is right about the seductive power of these things to man in his fallen state, but his proposed remedy is at odds with this state of affairs: “to place confidence in the human will to return to a state that bypasses the sensual gratification of wealth and power is sheer illusion” (94). Man’s original sin was not “an offense toward the objectification of nature [as Marx perceives capitalism]; rather his sin was against the authority of his personal Creator,” as is that of Marx and Marxism (95). Though God’s common grace permits Marx some insight, his rebellion against God subverts it. The antithesis resulting from man’s sin means that Marx’s prescription for what ails fallen man is even further off the mark, as if man truly desires to throw off his greed and embrace a radically egalitarian society.

Dennison begins his book with a treatment of the complicated Marxist tradition, detailing both orthodox Marxism and departures from it. He then proceeds to “a brief sketch of Marx’s life.” One interesting biographical note is that Marx, though struggling at times with crushing poverty, “upgraded” to better neighborhoods and lifestyles every time he had an opportunity to do so. He may have hated capitalism, but he never disdained its fruits for his personal use, whether through his friend Engels or his various inheritances. The third chapter brings us to Dennison’s primary focus: Marx’s philosophy of history, which is nothing less than a secularized version of Christian eschatology in which fallen man achieves salvation through the proletariat seizing the means of production and turning the table on his bourgeoisie oppressor, all giving way to socialism, and, finally, the truly classless society, communism.

The best is yet to come: Dennison’s final chapter and brief concluding remarks are a tour-de-force presuppositional critique of Marx’s view of history. Especially helpful and insightful is Dennison’s analysis of Marx in terms of Augustine’s (and the Westminster Confession of Faith’s) four-fold state of man. Dennison demonstrates how Marx borrows from the Christian faith to undermine that faith and to promote his materialistic utopia. This is an excellent Van Tilian analysis of Marx that should be procured and carefully studied by all ministers and interested laymen.

For Me to Live Is Christ: The Life of Edward J. Young, by Davis A. Young. Committee for the Historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 2017. Hardback, 349 pages, $10.00 at OPC.org. Reviewed by OP minister Thomas S. Champness Jr.

A rich treasure awaits in this warm, well-written book in which a son honors his father—a true labor of love. Davis Young traces the life of Edward J. Young from his birth on November 29, 1907, to his death on February 14, 1968. Not only do we learn of Dr. Young’s life and labors, but also much of the history of Presbyterianism in twentieth-century America, as well as the history of Westminster Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. But what we have here most of all is the life of a man of God who labored tirelessly in the service of God and his fellow man until his great heart finally gave out.

The trajectory of Young’s life was set early on. In his midteens “he felt called to Christian ministry” (9). He began his study of Latin and Greek in high school and went on to major in Greek and minor in Latin at Stanford University where he also studied Hebrew, Aramaic, French, German, Syriac, and Russian. After graduating from Stanford in 1929, Young devoted the next two years to studies and travels in the Middle East and Europe before entering seminary in 1931.

Young’s winsomeness shines through on these pages. “Lay people did not feel intimidated by him because he carried his prodigious learning so lightly. He was humble, self-deprecating, and enjoyed lighthearted banter” (234). When first invited to join the distinguished faculty at Westminster Seminary, Young wrote Paul Woolley that he was “rather stunned” by this invitation and went on to say: “The only serious obstacle is the fact that I feel so utterly incompetent to teach Old Testament” (88).

Many have commented on Young’s courtesy and respect shown to those with whom he disagreed. Perhaps no one appreciated this more than his own son. Davis testifies that from his father he gleaned the crucial distinction between the person and the idea. “From him, I learned always to be courteous and respectful toward those with whom I disagreed. By example, I was taught to be fair and to represent opposing viewpoints accurately and politely” (274).

One of the decided strengths of the book is the masterful summaries of Young’s books, such as My Servants the Prophets, Who Wrote Isaiah, Prophecy of Daniel, Arabic for Beginners, and An Introduction to the Old Testament. In addition, the author’s footnotes contain brief but helpful explanations of such diverse subjects as modernism and dispensational premillennialism (49), Ras Shamra (116), and the Zadokite Fragments (209).

How salutary it would be if this biography serves as a powerful stimulus to many—a stimulus to continue resolutely in Young’s courageous and learned battle for orthodoxy; a stimulus to the study of Scripture in its original languages; a stimulus to strive for transparent clarity in written word and speech; a stimulus to honor our parents as Davis does so well in this volume; and a stimulus to read and treasure the writings of Young himself. And who will take up the challenge to read aloud four verses a day of the Hebrew text of Isaiah along with Young’s lucid commentary?

The loss of Young at a relatively early age was a heavy blow to many, but to none more than his own immediate family. Lillian’s account of her husband’s death is poignant. In the epilogue Davis writes:

My mother has long since joined my father in the presence of the Lord Jesus, and one day my sister and I will as well. How thankful to our sovereign God my sister and I are for the years our father was with us, the love he showed, the example he set, and the memories he left with us. God’s overflowing grace has sustained us over the years, and we look forward to a reunion in the life to come.” (332)

The Christ of Wisdom: A Redemptive Historical Exploration of the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament, by O. Palmer Robertson. P&R, 2017. Paperback, 432 pages, $15.00. Reviewed by Peter Y. Lee, OP minister and professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.

This is a helpful book on the wisdom literature of the Old Testament by Dr. O. Palmer Robertson. It provides useful, and indeed often outstanding, commentary. For instance, Robertson offers a way to preach/teach Proverbs 10–31 by identifying wisdom themes (74–99) that can function as sermonic topics.

He also briefly comments on the relationship of biblical law and wisdom. This was insightful, and I would have appreciated further reflections on it. After all, no matter how helpful wisdom literature is, we still are unable to live wisely due to our fallen nature. Just as there is a three-fold use of the law, couldn’t there also be a three-fold use of wisdom? He never presses this relationship, but his thoughts would have been valuable.

In Job, he points to the abundance of images in chapters 3–37 and the powerful way in which they are utilized to communicate the message of the book. He states, “Without the figures of speech, the whole piece of literature would fall flat. But with the images, the book comes to life” (139). As with his comments on Proverbs 10–31, this is helpful for preaching purposes.

In Lamentations, Robertson shows the interconnection between the outstanding literary form of the book (numerous acrostic poems) and its overall message. However, Robertson often equates the suffering of the city with the sufferings of Christ (298, 303). I wonder if this is a legitimate parallel, since Israel suffered due to their sins, while Christ did not. The former needed to repent, but not the latter.

Some of Robertson’s thoughts on Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs were not persuasive to me. For example, he says the Song of Songs is not about Christ per se. Rather, it is about human love and the effects of Christ’s redemptive work (334; 338–39). As true as this may be, it is a rather disappointing conclusion for a book that wants to focus on the Christ of Wisdom.

The most obvious weakness is that Robertson includes two books that are not traditionally examples of wisdom literature, namely Lamentations and the Song of Songs. He says that the wisdom books may be called the “how-to books” of the Old Testament. Thus, he offers the following summary for each book—Proverbs: How to Walk in Wisdom’s Way; Job: How to Puzzle; Ecclesiastes: How to Cope with Life’s Frustrations; Lamentations: How to Weep; Song of Songs: How to Love. His explanations for the inclusion of Lamentations and Song of Songs in this list is unpersuasive, even confusing. From this explanation, all Scripture could be understood as wisdom instruction. Any distinctive features of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes are now lost. Yet, given the insightful comments of Robertson, to have more from him is hardly a problem.

The greater weakness of the book is highlighted from its title, The Christ of Wisdom: A Redemptive Historical Exploration of the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament. When I saw this, I was very enthusiastic since there is a lack of redemptive historical and Christocentric treatments of the wisdom literature. But, disappointingly, the book was neither strongly Christocentric nor redemptive historical. Robertson says that redemptive history moves not only in a linear fashion but also cyclically. This cyclical pattern is found in the daily aspects of life: the cycle of daily sin, father-son relations, dialogue amongst friends, coping with frustrations of life, etc. (xvi–xvii). In essence, he redefines the term “redemptive history” and thus turns our attention from history to daily living.

For students looking for an innovative redemptive historical analysis (as it is traditionally defined), this book will be a disappointment. For pastors looking for preaching aids and traditional, conservative introductory discussions of wisdom literature, this book will be a benefit.

Christ and Covenant Theology: Essays on Election, Republication, and the Covenants, by Cornelis P. Venema. P&R, 2017. Paperback, 504 pages, $18.50. Reviewed by OP pastor D. Patrick Ramsey.

As the subtitle suggests, this new book by Cornelis Venema, president of Mid-America Reformed Seminary, is not an overview of covenant theology but a collection of previously published essays related to covenant theology. Most of the essays have been significantly revised and focus on issues that have been at the center of substantial debate and controversy among Reformed churches in North America for the past two decades.

The book is divided into three sections. The topic of the first section is bi-covenantalism: the position that there are two general covenants between God and human beings, a pre-Fall covenant of works and a post-Fall covenant of grace. In the first chapter, Venema defends the covenant of works in light of recent criticisms. In the last two chapters, Venema provides a careful evaluation and critique of the doctrine of republication (the idea that the Mosaic covenant is in some sense a covenant of works) as it is espoused in the 2009 book of collected essays The Law Is Not of Faith.

This section will be of particular interest to readers of New Horizons for a number of reasons. First, Venema aptly defends the teaching of the Westminster Standards on the covenant of works. Second, Venema interacts with a number of past and present members of the OPC, including John Murray, Meredith Kline, David VanDrunen, Bryan Estelle, and John Fesko. Third, he skillfully guides the reader through the issue of republication, which, due to its controversial nature in the OPC, was the topic of a recent general assembly committee study report.

The second section of the book deals with the relationship between covenant and election. This is a very important issue in covenant theology and failure to understand it properly results in a number of problems. In fact, as he argues later in the book, several errors of what is known as Federal Vision theology stem from improperly relating covenant to election. Although the chapters in this section are mostly historical in nature (studies on Bavinck and the Canons of Dort), they are quite helpful in thinking through various issues pertaining to this topic, including the salvation of the children of believers who die in infancy. The last chapter in this section does a terrific job of demonstrating how covenant theology supports paedobaptism.

The third section of the book focuses on recent controversies. The first three chapters are a critical evaluation of the Federal Vision against the background of the Three Forms of Unity. The final chapter is a critique of N. T. Wright’s interpretation of Romans 5:12–21.

In the introduction, Venema states that his aim in the individual chapters and in the book as a whole was “to defend what might be termed a consensus opinion on these issues.” This reviewer, at least, believes that he has achieved his aim. He defends the consensus opinion on the covenant of works, the Mosaic covenant, the relationship between election and covenant, justification, the law, and salvation.

The writing style is somewhat dry. The book is also repetitive at times due to its anthological nature and the author’s penchant for rehearsing the position he is criticizing even after he has provided a comprehensive summary. Nonetheless, the book is quite good overall. If you are interested in the topics addressed in this book, then I recommend it to you as a reliable guide.

Announcements

Looking for Trinity Hymnals

Your brothers and sisters at Providence OPC, Madison, Alabama, are looking for twenty to thirty gently-used, red Trinity Hymnals to replace some of ours that are wearing out. We are glad to pay shipping costs and a mutually-agreeable asking price. Please contact us at providencechurch@hotmail.com or by church phone at 256-722-0227.

Correction

In the April issue, p. 23, the quotation from Anselm of Canterbury should have been dated as from the 1000s.

Positions Available

Pastor: El Camino OPC in Goleta, California, is seeking a full-time pastor for a mature congregation in a midlife crisis (we’re fifty-something years old) but with a vision to reach young families, local tech professionals, and the UC campus community in the greater Santa Barbara area. The successful applicant will be an experienced church planter, appreciate hymns and liturgy, preach expository sermons, and be an outgoing apologist for the gospel and Reformed theology. Send inquiries to donnajdejong@gmail.com.

Controller: Currently seeking applicant with accounting degree or equivalent experience to direct and manage the design, development, and operation of a centralized accounting system for all denominational agencies of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. This position includes financial management and reporting, payroll, and human resource management. Applicant should have an understanding of nonprofit fund accounting as well as experience with accounting software. A CPA designation, membership in a NAPARC member church, and familiarity with the OPC are desirable. This is a part-time position (25–32 hours/week), which could lead to full-time employment. Resumes should be directed to david.haney@opc.org.