Philippines Mission Newsletter - April 2022

PRCA FOREIGN MISSIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES

April 2022  Newsletter

Missionaries: Rev. D. Kleyn (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) & Rev. R. Smit (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Dear fellow saints in the Protestant Reformed Churches, greetings from across the Pacific.

We think of you all often, pray for you daily, and trust that you enjoy, as we do, the Lord’s care and blessing.

No doubt your weather is gradually warming up as Spring arrives and God’s creation comes to life again. We have entered our dry season here and temps have slowly climbed from daytime highs in the low 80s to highs in the mid-90s. This makes our periodic “cool offs” at the Faith Academy pool most welcome and enjoyable.

Speaking of Faith Academy, the school the Smit children attend, we are very glad that after almost two years of online instruction, face-to-face classes started up again this past March. This has not happened yet for the public schools, but we are grateful the government has at least approved it for some private schools. At first the children attended only two days per week, but now they attend from Monday through Thursday, with Friday being an at-home study day. This is a significant and encouraging development for us all.

We are also once again teaching face-to-face seminary classes. While the first semester of the current school year was a hybrid of online and face-to-face instruction, since January we have been able to meet in class. That comes after at least 1 ½ years of “virtual” instruction.  Rev. Smit and I provide the instruction, and the classes are held in the guest house behind our (the Kleyn’s) home. The PRCP has one seminary student, and he is currently taking 5 courses: Hebrew, Dogmatics, Church Polity, NT History, and NT Isagogics. To save travel time, the classes are all taught on two days each week. And what a difference face-to-face makes! It certainly underscores how inadequate virtual instruction is. Please pray that the Lord blesses this work and that He might raise up more young men to study for the ministry. The need here, as is also true for you, is indeed great.

Now that covid restrictions are lifting, we should soon be able to visit the pastors and churches in Southern Negros Occidental again, specifically the three who have expressed a desire to be Protestant Reformed and eventually, the Lord willing, to join with the Protestant Reformed Churches in the Philippines. Our last visit there was in February of 2020. In the meantime, we continue to send them copies of the Standard Bearer, Beacon Lights, PR Theological Journal, etc. They are eager for us to visit again and to resume our regular work among them. The Lord willing, we plan to visit them in May.

The PRCP churches have continued to experience some struggles and disappointments, especially on account of covid and of the schism in the churches, but by God’s grace they are doing well. Most of the regular church activities have returned to normal, such as catechism classes, Bible studies, Classis meetings, etc.  And apart from a six-week period in August and September of 2021, the churches have also been able to hold face-to-face worship each Sunday. Rev. V. Ibe preaches most Sundays in the Berean PRC, and the two missionaries provide the preaching in Provident PRC, in Provident’s outreach work in Guiguinto (about one hour north of Manila), and as needed in the Berean PRC.

One of the recent disappointments for the PRCP (as also for us missionaries) was that the emeritus pastor, Rev. L. Trinidad, withdrew from the denomination and joined with the RPC in Bulacan. A few others in the PRCP have recently done the same. In spite of these departures and the harsh accusations leveled against the PRCP and PRCA, we and the saints here are confident that the Lord uses also these events for the building up of His church as well as for our own personal growth and good.

This past March the Philippine government again opened the country to foreign visitors (tourists). This means that a delegation of Doon, the FMC and the Contact Committee will be able to visit us and the churches here again. Both we and the saints here look forward to this and pray it will be possible, the Lord willing.

With the approval of Doon’s Council and the FMC, both missionary families plan to take furloughs this year – something that has been on hold for a few years. The Smits hope to take theirs in June and July, and my wife and I from mid-July and into August. We have scheduled our furloughs so as to minimize the overlap (it will end up being about two weeks). We hope to see and fellowship with many of you soon. Until then, may the Lord watch between us and bless each of us in his/her unique place and work in His kingdom.

In the love of Christ,

Rev. Daniel Kleyn