On this July 2, 2017 Lord's Day we give the following updates on news and information from PRC congregations and mission fields, as well as denominational activities:

CONGREGATIONAL NEWS:

• Rev. R. Kleyn (Covenant of Grace PRC, Spokane, WA) is considering the call from First PRC (Holland, MI). He plans to answer by July 16.
  
• On June 25 Rev. N. Decker (Trinity PRC) DECLINED the calls from Southwest PRC and from Zion PRC (Hudsonville/Jenison, MI).
• The consistory of Immanuel PRC (Lacombe, AB) has formed a new trio consisting of Revs. Allen Brummel (Heritage, Sioux Falls), Eric Guichelaar (Randolph), and Nathan Langerak (Crete, Illinois). *Update: The congregation voted on July 2 to extend a call to Rev. A. Brummel.
  

DENOMINATIONAL NEWS:

• The Synod of 2017 called Rev. D. Kuiper to serve in the PRC Seminary as professor of church history and NT studies, in replacement of Prof. R. Dykstra. Today he announced his acceptance of this call. We give thanks to God for providing a man for this position, and pray for him and his family as well as Edgerton PRC as he makes this transition and prepares for his new post.
• The PRC Synod of 2017 concluded its sessions on June 21, at Hudsonville PRC. Summary reports on each day may be found under the synod section of this website.

MISSION NEWS:

• Byron Center PRC Council has made a new trio for home missionary. The trio consists of Revs. S. Key (Loveland, CO), R. Kleyn (Spokane, WA) and A. Spriensma (Byron Center).  *Update: The congregation voted on July 2 to call Rev. A. Spriensma.
  
• On June 25 Rev. H. Bleyenberg (Providence PRC, Hudsonville, MI) DECLINED the call Doon PRC extended to him to serve as a third missionary to the Philippines.
  
• From the Provident Christian Church bulletin for today we find the following notes concerning our missionaries and their labors today and in this coming week:
  

  • Today is the beginning of two full worship services at PCC! Let us rejoice and thank God for this evidence of Him building the Church at PCC! We welcome you all and pray that you will be refreshed as we worship the Father today in spirit and in truth.

  • Rev. Holstege will preach for us twice today. Rev. Kleyn will be in Bulacan with Sem. Matt Kortus and his wife Sarah.

  • The 7M pastors classes will be held this Tuesday, July 4, at 9:30 am here at PCC, Lord willing.

  • From Friday (July 7) to Monday (July 10), Rev. Kleyn and Sem. Kortus will accompany a delegation of the PRCP to the Protestant Reformed Fellowship in Albuera, Leyte. Pray for safety and a blessing on their trip.

 The Kleyns' posted some pictures and descriptions of the recent visit of Rev. H. Bleyenberg and his wife, while he was considering the call to be a missionary to the Philippines. Below are a couple of samples. Find more at the link provided.

Rev. Bleyenberg spoke for PCC's Wednesday night class (usually led by Rev. Holstege on the Canons of Dordt) on "How To Study the Bible."

At the Ibes to say hi.

Mrs. Stephanie Lanning (wife of Rev. A. Lanning, pastor of Covenant ERC in Singapore - blog is "Stories from Singapore") has added to her posts on the recent church camp there.  We include a couple of those pictures here.

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First PRC of Grand Rapids, MI and the Reformed Witness Hour Committee announce the messages scheduled for July 2017 on the RWH radio program.

Rev. Carl Haak, pastor of Georgetown PRC in Hudsonville, MI continues his four-month service for the RWH program, as he continues a series on marriage this month.

You are encouraged to listen to these important messages and to let others know about them too. Help spread the word about the Reformed Witness Hour, now in its 76th year of broadcasting the truths of God's sovereign, particular, efficacious grace!

Below are the messages scheduled for this month, also in flyer form (attached in pdf).

July 2, 2017 - Husband, Love Your Wives, Eph.5:25-27

July 9, 2017 - Husbands, Love with Purpose, Eph.5:27

July 16, 2017 - The Husband is the Head of His Wife, Eph.5:23

July 23, 2017 - To Provide and Protect, Eph.5:23

July 30, 2017 - A Wife's Submission to Her Husband, Eph.5:22-24

PRCA FOREIGN MISSIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES
JUNE 2017 NEWSLETTER

Rev. D. Holstege (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) Rev. D. Kleyn (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
PO Box 1173 ACPO, Antipolo City, Rizal 1870, Philippines

Dear Members of the Protestant Reformed Churches and our Sister Churches.

This newsletter will be a little different from the usual. Rather than writing a summary of the various areas of our work, I give you instead some snippets of news that my wife has recently written. Hope you enjoy these. Hope too that they give you a little window into our lives and into the work here.
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Sunday, March 12
Today we were in the PRC in Bulacan. I have to say, I really enjoyed being there again. It had been a long time. Rev. Kleyn preached the first service and Rev. Flores the second (in Tagalog). The singing was really enjoyable – they do a good job and already know the Psalter well. I enjoyed seeing how the little children had grown and it was great to catch up with everyone. We had to leave soon after the 2nd service as Rev. Kleyn needed to attend a Steering Committee meeting in Provident. We got to Provident before 2:00 and Rev. Holstege had just started the meeting with the other men. I drove Leah and the kids home. The guys came home later when their meeting was finished, and the Holsteges came over for supper.

Thursday, March 16
We had a young man drop by for books who had been here once before. He belongs to a Reformed Baptist church, is a student at a Bible College, and has bought the Confessions, Psalter, and some books on Calvinism. He read through all the Confessions and said he learned a lot about what Reformed is. This time he bought Reformed Worship, but wanted to talk about a-mil and pre-mil. He stayed for more than an hour and asked many questions.

Saturday, March 18
Rev. Kleyn had the twice-monthly 7M pastors’ classes this past Tuesday in Maranatha PRC in Valenzuela. On Wednesday evening we had supper at Holsteges. The Ibe family was also there, which was really nice. All the kids got on well together and had fun playing together. And of course, the adults enjoyed good fellowship, too.

Sunday, March 19
We were in Maranatha today. The group of 4 young adults from Victory Church (which is Pentecostal and Arminian) who now attend Maranatha has grown to 5. I think that makes a total of 7 (2 go to the Berean PRC). These people are all friends and were in what they call a cell group of about 12 of them in Victory Church. They still get together now and then as a group and have many discussions about what they are learning and what they believe. Who knows – there may be more in that group that come to our churches. The ones on Sunday asked Rev. Kleyn a lot of questions about sanctification. Some of them email questions to him every couple of days, too.

Tuesday, March 21
We were in Negros today (central Philippines) for the pastors’ classes in Sipalay. It was an interesting day again. The classes were well attended (15) and there were many questions and a lot of good discussion. It’s so rewarding to see some of the men (also some of the more recent ones) really starting to get it. Some of their comments were spot on. We had loads of luggage this time because we had two large book orders and a few smaller ones. We took along about 60 books. Now again I have orders for next time.

Friday, April 14
This past Wednesday through Friday was the youth camp for the three churches here. Rev. Holstege and Rev. Kleyn went, but Leah and I and the kids stayed home. There were three speeches at the camp by the local pastors. Rev. Holstege and Rev. Kleyn led devotions and helped with the games and transportation. The theme of the camp was “Love not the World” with speeches on Youth & Money, Youth & Technology, Youth & Society. They had discussion groups after each speech and Rev. Kleyn said he was impressed with the young people – some of them talked for 5 to 10 minutes about the speech and what was relevant to them. It was so nice that the youth from the different churches could interact with each other, get to know each other and grow together. They also had teams and many organized games. One of the games was that one of the members of your group had to recite Psalm 23 and
another member, Lord’s Day 1. The game Rev. Kleyn was in charge of was that they had to find peso coins in a bowl of flour. BUT, they had to find the coins with their mouths, and that after FIRST sticking their face in a bowl of water. Wow. A little gross, but pretty funny how they looked afterwards. The staff said they put Rev. Kleyn in charge of that one because then the kids wouldn’t dare argue or put up a fuss about it. Haha.

Sunday, April 30
Rev. Kleyn preached in Provident so Rev. Holstege could preach in the PRC in Bulacan. Rev. Holstege had not preached there before, so I went with them to show the way. Traffic was heavier than normal and we were running late by a good half hour. And to top it off, the road in front of Bulacan church was being torn up, so we couldn’t park there. Instead I dropped everyone off at the church and then took the car back about a kilometer to a member’s house for parking. We had to block traffic for a while by the church (almost caused gridlock I think) trying to turn the car around to go back. A member of the PRCB came along with me and we eventually got it parked, but then had to wait for a tricycle to take us back to church. Finally, at that point, my sense of humor took over, and I could get a little bit into the local mind-set of not worrying so much about time. ☺ We had lunch at church. The Holsteges and the visitors who were with us (from both Singapore and Northern Ireland) really enjoyed meeting all the people there. We left church about 2:00 and traffic was actually better on the way home, so we were home before 4:00. From the point of view of the catholic church, we had a beautiful Sunday. We had God’s people together from 4 closely related denominations and from at least 6 different nationalities. A pretty good representation of the universal church.

Saturday, May 20
Rev. Kleyn started teaching catechism in Provident again, after a summer break (he is still helping out a little in Provident so Rev. Holstege can have time for his Tagalog learning). Leah and I went and met the ladies and children once catechism was finished and we all headed to a pool near the church. The children had fun swimming and we ordered in Jollibee chicken meals for lunch. We stayed until about 2:00.

Sunday, May 21
Rev. Kleyn preached in Maranatha PRC today. We were supposed to have a Church Order class too (Rev. Kleyn is giving a brief overview of the Church Order for the congregation), but it was cancelled because of the heat. The men had a Consistory meeting after lunch, so I sat and chatted with three of the ladies. We had a nice visit. We talked about movies (started by the recent article in the Standard Bearer about the new Disney movie promoting the homosexual agenda). We talked about witnessing at work – how terrible the talk is at their work places and how many homosexuals they work with. And we talked a bit about Rev. Kleyn’s sermon on The Communion of Saints. The Consistory meeting didn’t last too long and we got home about 4:30.

Thursday, May 25
There is a neat story about the book, Saved By Grace. A man who attends Provident has had business meetings with a man from the Netherlands and gave him two copies of the book – one for him and one for his boss. The boss back in the Netherlands wrote back and said, “I am excited to receive such a book from a business friend, which is really uncommon! The title Saved by Grace is very close to my heart, and the faith in God through Jesus Christ, grounded on the Bible, is my daily source of life. Also, I fully underwrite the Calvinist doctrine, which is the closest to the Bible.” He attends a Reformed church in the Netherlands.

Saturday, May 27
Today we had a Reformed Discussion Table meeting in our home. There is a group of young adults (headed by some of the young adults who are members of the Berean PRC) who get together twice a month for doctrinal discussions. They asked Rev. Kleyn to speak on Common Grace today. So we had about a dozen young adults here. Rev. Kleyn taught catechism in Provident in the morning and then picked up a few of the young adults at the train station on the way home. The rest arrived over the next hour or so. Holsteges were here as well. They were all bombarding the men with questions about all kinds of things. Then at 3:00, Rev. Kleyn spoke for about an hour and that was followed by an hour of questions about the topic. I said to Rev. Kleyn, “I wonder how many questions you and Rev. Holstege were asked today?” Dozens probably. Leah helped with the food for supper. They all left at about 7:00.

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In conclusion, I’m thankful to report that both our families are doing well. The Holsteges are settling well into their life and work here and both we and the saints are very glad to have them here. We thank God for His daily care and blessings. We also thank you all for your continued support and prayers.

Until next time, in Christian love,
Rev. Daniel Kleyn

On this final Lord's Day of June 2017 (June 25) we give the following updates on news and information from PRC congregations and mission fields, as well as denominational activities:

CONGREGATIONAL NEWS:

• On June 18 the congregation of First PRC (Holland, MI) voted to call Rev. R. Kleyn (Spokane, WA).
  
• On June 18 Rev. C. Griess (Calvary PRC, Hull IA) DECLINED the call from Immanuel PRC in Lacombe, AB.
  
• This morning Rev. N. Decker (Trinity PRC) announced that he had DECLINED the call from Southwest PRC.
  
• This morning Rev. N. Decker also anounced that he has DECLINED the call from Zion PRC (Hudsonville/Jenison, MI).
• The consistory of Immanuel PRC (Lacombe, AB) has formed a new trio consisting of Revs. Allen Brummel (Heritage, Sioux Falls), Eric Guichelaar (Randolph), and Nathan Langerak (Crete, Illinois).
  The congregation plans to vote next Sunday after the afternoon service.

DENOMINATIONAL NEWS:

• The PRC Synod of 2017 concluded its sessions this past Wednesday evening, June 21, at Hudsonville PRC. Summary reports on each day may be found under the synod section of this website.
• Synod called Rev. D. Kuiper to serve our churches as professor of church history and NT studies, in replacement of Prof. R. Dykstra.  He plans to announce his answer by July 16.

MISSION NEWS:

• Byron Center PRC Council has made a new trio for home missionary. The trio consists of Revs. S. Key (Loveland, CO), R. Kleyn (Spokane, WA) and A. Spriensma (Byron Center).  The congregation plans to vote from this trio on July 2nd, after the evening service.
  
• On May 14 the congregation of Doon PRC voted to extend a call to Rev. H. Bleyenberg to serve as a third missionary to the Philippines. In order to properly consider this call, Rev. Bleyenberg and his wife visited the field for two weeks (June 9-22). This morning he announced he had been led to DECLINE this call.
  
• From the Maranatha PRC and Provident Christian Church bulletins for today we find the following notes concerning our missionaries and their labors today and in this coming week:
  
  • Rev. Holstege will preach for us twice today. Rev. Kleyn will be in Maranatha.
  • The Wednesday night Bible study will meet this week, June 28, at 7:30. Rev. Holstege will teach Heads III/IV, Articles 6ff of the Canons.
  • This coming Wednesday, June 28, one of the seminary students of the PRCA will be arriving in the Philippines, namely Seminarian Matt Kortus and his wife Sarah. Seminarian Kortus has just completed his 2nd year of seminary and will be doing a brief summer internship with Rev. Kleyn and Rev. Holstege. They plan to be here for approximately 8 weeks. We look forward to their arrival and to their time among us.

 Mrs. Stephanie Lanning (wife of Rev. A. Lanning, pastor of Covenant ERC in Singapore - blog is "Stories from Singapore") posted some recent pictures of the church camp there, and the seven American visitors they enjoyed.  We include one of those pictures here.

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