PRCA FOREIGN MISSIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES
NOVEMBER 2020 NEWSLETTER

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ in the PRCA,

Another update from your missionaries in the Philippines. While many of you enjoyed the warm fall colors, crisp cool air, and sweet apple cider, we enjoyed rain, rain, and more rain! This rainy season, one particular typhoon (hurricane) was quite remarkable, to say the least. I will come back to that.

Missionary Labors

Last August, we missionaries began our second year of training men for the ministry of the gospel on behalf of the Protestant Reformed Churches in the Philippines (PRCP). I am teaching Biblical Hermeneutics again and have added OT History. Rev. Kleyn is teaching Homiletics and Church History again and has added Reformed Symbols (the study of the creeds). Rev. Smit is teaching Dogmatics and has added Greek Reading and NT Exegesis. We are teaching a total of 3 seminary students. A few visitors have also been attending or watching our online lectures on Zoom, Skype, or YouTube. It has been a very different format for teaching, sitting in front of our computers in our studies at home and teaching through a webcam. But it is working well enough. We expect to finish the first semester in early December when the students will take their final exams.

Although the Philippine government has been very strict throughout this pandemic, there have been some happy developments recently. In their quarantine guidelines, mass gatherings, including religious services, are now allowed up to 50% of the venue capacity. So, with much thanksgiving to God, the churches of the PRCP are gradually returning to normalcy in terms of their Sunday worship services.

First year seminarians Jethro Flores (left) and Emmanuel Jasojaso (right) taking a midterm exam.

In other labors, I have continued to pastor the Provident PRC with preaching on Sundays in their sanctuary and teaching during the week on Zoom. We recently completed a very enjoyable and very relevant Bible study on the book of Revelation on Wednesday nights from April through October. I am currently teaching OT Bible stories to the children and Essentials of Reformed Doctrine to the youth. We rejoiced greatly when three of the young women in the Essentials class came before the Council to profess their faith and to ask for approval to make public confession.This they will do, Lord willing, on December 13. I also attend (as advisor) the meetings of the Mission/Contact Committee and Translation Committee of the PRCP. However, Provident’s outreach work to two Brethren churches north of Manilawas put on hold because the congregations were not gathering during the quarantine. The work will continue, Lord willing, in January. In the meantime, the pastor of one of the churches (Pastor Ronil Domingo) has been attending many of our seminary classes as a visitor.

Rev. Kleyn, in addition to his full-timeload of preparation and teachingat the seminary, also continues to preach regularly on Sundays when requested by area churchesof the PRCP. He also attends(as advisor) themeetings of the very busy Finance Committee of the PRCP (on Zoom). However, the mission work in Southern Negros Occidental, which is primarily the workof Rev. Kleyn and Rev. Smit,has been put on hold due to the tight travel restrictions between the islands.

Rev. Smit, in addition to his full-time load of preparation and teaching at the seminary, continues to preach regularly on Sundays mainly for the Maranatha PRC through their Facebook page. He also attends the meetings of the Theological School Committee of the PRCP (as advisor) and devotes a lot of time to theological studies (reading and writing) for a program he is taking at a local Presbyterian seminary.

All three of us attended the Classis of the PRCP (as advisors) on October 31 which is currently recessed and scheduled to continue on November 30.

Typhoon!

On November 1 (a Sunday), a super typhoon passed through the Philippines. Due to the potentially strong winds and heavy rain, Provident’s Council decided to cancel the worship services. In the end, though, the storm did not hit Manila very hard or result in much damage. The experience was like so many before. A typhoon comes. It looks menacing on the radar. Then it breaks apart, at least in our area. And we are thankful.

But then came the typhoon of the evening of November 11. The Philippines called it Typhoon Ulysses (the rest of the world named it Typhoon Vamco). At midnight, we lost our electricity. Our fans turned off. Our kids’ night lights went dark and they woke up. The mighty hurricane wind rushed over our house like a freight trainin gust after gust. Having grown up in Michigan, far from hurricane territory, I had rarely heard the wind blow like that before. After a night of little sleep, we discovered the results the next morning. A large branch had fallen from a tree in our front yard. One of our neighbor’s mango trees fell down. More trees were down in the streets.

But the worst damage was not in our neighborhood, which is up in the mountains east of Manila. The worst, we soon discovered, was down in Metro Manila, in the city of Marikina where Provident PRC is located. The Marikina River overflowed the dike around Provident Village and filled the village with muddy water. The flood waters rose higher and higher, submerging the first story of all buildings and rising into the second story of many, including Provident’s church building. Perhaps you saw the bulletin announcement from the Contact Committee of the PRCA regarding this flood. Although all thel ibrary books were lost, as well as the sanctuary Bibles and Psalters, much equipment was destroyed, and there was even some structural damage... Although personal property was also lost by some of the five families of the church who live in that area... Yet the congregation is thankful to God for sparing all their lives and comforting them with the precious Reformed faith that they have come to know and love: the truth of the sovereignty of God over rain and drought, riches and poverty, and all things, and His eternal love for His elect and beloved people in Christ, using our light and momentary afflictions to work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

As of this writing, the church building is still being cleaned and repaired from the flood damage, but our heavenly Father is meeting the needs of the congregation. Please remember our Filipino brethrenin Christ and us missionaries in your prayers. We the Holsteges look forward to seeing many of you on our furlough from December 16-June 30, the Lord willing.

In Christ,
Rev. Dan Holstege

This special meditation has been prepared by PRC home missionary, Rev. Aud Spriensma.

A Pastor’s Prayer for God’s People

Meditation on Ephesians 3: 14-19 

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

In times like these, we need praying pastors who love their flock. There are the sick, sorrowing, unemployed, and those who are lonely with the Covid pandemic. There is upheaval in state and federal government, and even upheaval in the church. How we need praying pastors! I remember taking my church directory and praying each day for five or more of the members or families of the church, each with their own particular needs and circumstances, making sure that none got forgotten.

Notice the posture of the pastor Paul. He was on bended knee. Posture in prayer is never a matter of indifference. The slouching position of the body, while one is supposed to be praying, is an abomination to the Lord. On the other hand, it is also true that Scripture nowhere prescribes one and only one, correct posture. Different positions of the head, arms, hands, knees, and the body as a whole, are indicated. All of these are permissible as long as they symbolize different aspects of the worshiper’s reverent attitude, and reflect the sentiments of his heart. “Bowing the knees” pictures humility, solemnity, and adoration.

The prayer is addressed to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, in Christ, to the Triune God who is our God and Father. The prayer is for the Father’s Family, which in Greek is a play on words: patera pasa patria. What a beautiful picture of the church! Jew and Gentile are one church or family of God. It is one family, whether already taken to heaven or yet here on earth. How close the ties are that unite the part of the church that is in heaven with the part that is still on earth. When we recite the words of the Apostle’s Creed, we say, “I believe an holy catholic church, the communion of saints.” Do we cherish those that have gone before us? Do we remember in our prayers the martyred church? What about pregnant mothers and their unborn children? It is the whole family for whom Paul prays: Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, male and female, young and old, educated and uneducated, sick and healthy, those faithful and those who are straying: everyone! It is in the family as a whole that God’s great purpose of making known His manifold wisdom is fulfilled. May the pastor remember all these in his prayers, both privately and in his congregational prayers. It is the church that is found in different nations, cultures, and denominations.

What did the Apostle Paul ask for God’s family? Let me list them briefly in this meditation.

First, it is that believers may be strengthened internally through the Holy Spirit. Paul had been talking about suffering for God’s cause. It is in suffering that the grace of God is manifested. But who has strength for suffering? We certainly do not choose suffering. We shrink from it. But it is not only in times of suffering that we need to be strengthened. We need strength every day of our lives and in every circumstance. Is it in temptations, the needed strength to resist it and be victorious? Is it in tough moral choices at work, that you need the strength to do the right thing, so that Jesus is honored? What about the strength that the busy wife and mother needs to do all the chores around the house without complaining or becoming weary is well-doing? Do not we all need strength to be powerful and faithful witnesses, speaking and living the truth?

Second, Paul prayed that believers may be indwelt with Christ by faith. Oh, may Christ abide mightily in our hearts and lives! Do you see here the concept of the covenant? Christ not only dwelling with us, but He dwells in us! The result will be that as believers, we will be rooted and grounded in love. There are two figures used here, one from agriculture and the other from architecture. Love is pictured as something that nourishes us and then also is pictured as a solid foundation.

Third, Paul prayed that believers may be able to grasp the fullest dimensions of Christ’s love, a love that surpasses our full knowledge. It is a prayer that we may know the breadth and length and depth and height. May we grow in our awareness of that love, particularly through the routine hardships, sufferings, and persecutions of our lives.

Fourth, Paul prayed that believers may “be filled with all the fullness of God.” This is the climax, the top of the ladder in the prayer. In other words, the knowledge just described is transforming in character. We, beholding as it were in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit (II Cor. 3:18). Contemplating the love of Christ’s love means that we are increasingly transformed into that image!

What a prayer! How I need that prayer! How God’s family needs that prayer! May God give us pastors that are in prayer, praying these things for us!

O love of God, how strong and true, Eternal, and yet ever new, Uncomprehended and unbought, Beyond all knowledge and all thought.
O heavenly love, how precious still in day of weariness and ill, In nights of pain and helplessness, To heal, to comfort, and to bless.
We read thee best in Him who came to bear for us the cross of shame; Sent by the Father from on high, our life to live our death to die.
O love of God our shield and stay through all the perils of our way; Eternal love, in thee we rest, forever safe, forever blest. ~ Virgil Taylor

This special meditation has been prepared by PRC home missionary, Rev. Aud Spriensma.

Paul Is Made a Minister

Meditation on Ephesians 3: 7-8 

Whereof (the gospel) I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

The Apostle Paul cannot get over the fact that he was set apart in a special way to preach the gospel. It is a gospel in which he glories (Rom. 1:16,17). God had chosen him, the persecutor of the church, to proclaim the gospel of the grace of God in Christ. “I was made a minister.” That was the task that had been assigned to him, the cause that he had been called to serve according to the gift of God’s grace that was given unto him. The Apostle Paul had not taken to himself the distinction of being a gospel minister. The office with which he had been invested was a gift of God’s grace, something that is stressed over and over in Paul’s letters. How did it come to him? The Apostle says in vs. 8 that “God’s grace was given to me…according to the effectual working of his power.” How mightily that power of God had operated, and continued to operate in Paul’s life and ministry. The Lord receives all the credit for whatever Paul as a gospel minister had accomplished. How every gospel minister needs to understand this!

What was Paul’s estimate of himself? It was a very humble one; he was not proud at all! “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given…” We read the same things in I Cor. 15:9, “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Again, the apostle says in I Tim.1:15, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” In our present passage, Paul does not give the reason for calling himself “less than the least of all saints.” But we come to a sensible conclusion that he says this because of his former or even current life. He was a persecutor of God’s people and considered himself the chief sinner. This sense of humility is also needed in pastors today as they mount the pulpit but also as they bring the Word of God from house to house. “I am the chief of sinners!”

The calling given to him was to preach to the Gentiles “the unsearchable riches of Christ!” These are riches that cannot be tracked or traced; unfathomable and unlimited resources of grace of God in Christ. There are ocean depths that can never be plummeted and treasure stores that are inexhaustible! But to proclaim to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ was only part of Paul’s task. His mission was broader. It was also to make all men to see “what is the fellowship of the mystery” that had been hid and now is revealed. Salvation is for both Jew and Gentile, by grace through faith. Now instead of fear between these two groups, there is trust. Gloom is replaced with gladness, hatred with love, separation is replaced with fellowship. This mystery had been concealed. Now, however, it was being revealed by the world-wide preaching of the gospel.

What an incentive for us to break-out from our exclusiveness. We seek to bring the gospel not just to Dutch middle-class folks, but to African, Asian, Indian, and South American peoples, wherever the Lord opens up a door for us! May “all men” be enlightened by the fellowship of believers that goes beyond one’s own culture and background. This is something God’s angels in heaven as well as the church on earth may wonder at: God’s manifold wisdom and purpose.

What boldness and access we have with God through faith. May the church boldly proclaim the truth of God’s grace and wisdom! Let us pray for and encourage young men to seek the ministry! May we pray for and appreciate the pastors that we do have! And let our pastors be humble men, not boasting of their gifts or lording it over the congregation. The privilege of bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ causes us to stand in amazement that God is pleased to use us for the gathering and building of his church!

We’ve a story to tell to the nations that shall turn their hearts to the right,
A story of truth and mercy, A story of peace and light, A story of peace and light.
For the darkness shall turn to dawning, And the dawning to noon-day bright,
And Christ’s great kingdom shall come to earth, The kingdom of love and light. (H. Earnest Nichol)