18 Yet in My Flesh 38 Stewardship of Technology

Transcription

June 2015 | www.thebanner.org
Yet in My Flesh
38
Stewardship of Technology
18
22
Gender
Justice and
Reconciliation
What’s
a Pastor
to Do?
32
A Bible for Those
Who Can’t Read
The Solar Talking Bible
Easy to use
Powerful speaker
Solar powered
Alone and abandoned, Sangam’s faith helps her persevere.
When she would not turn from worshipping Jesus, Sangam was beaten and
threatened by her husband and his family. Sixteen days after giving birth to
her second child, her husband left her and put the children in an orphanage
so they would not become Christians. Sangam was devastated.
Ostracized by her community, she struggled for years. Being unable to
read, her only comfort was what she learned in church on Sundays. God
answered Sangam’s prayer when she was given a Talking Bible. Having
access to God’s Word has removed the desperation and loneliness she once
experienced— and has given her promise for the future. She hopes to
one day be reunited with her children and introduce them to Jesus Christ
through her Talking Bible. “Being able to listen to God’s Word has changed
everything,” she said.
Will you help us place more Talking Bibles with those struggling with
persecution and in despair?
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Please give online at www.talkingbibles.org.
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Synod 2015 of the
Christian Reformed
Church will take place
June 12-18 on the
campus of Dordt College
in Sioux Center, Iowa.
Synod is an annual
gathering of ministers
and elders from every
classis (region) of the
Christian Reformed
Church.
The tasks of synod include responsibility for creeds, the Church Order,
liturgical forms, hymnals,
principles of worship, and
moral/ethical positions.
It also provides general
oversight for ministries
that are undertaken
jointly by CRC churches.
Synod 2015
will address topics
ranging from church
structure and the roles
of elders and deacons
to how the church responds to issues such
as same-sex marriage,
new ways of doing
missions, the role
of The Banner, and ways to help
congregations engage in life-long
discipleship.
You can find the Agenda for Synod
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Printed copies of the
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COURAGE
to think deeply to act justly to live fully
“
I’m a strong believer that the
food we eat affects our health.
“[My Calvin education] has allowed
me to realize that I can’t change
everything. But I can make a small
difference… and do little things
to make things a little bit better—
if not great.
–Briella Cumings ’15, public health major
You want to change the world. And you will. At Calvin, you’ll learn to work collaboratively
with students and professors toward small, meaningful changes that impact big issues.
Improve water filtration techniques for water in Kenya. Develop cancer therapy drugs
that make treatment easier for patients. Learn to make lifestyle choices that demonstrate
one of your highest callings—to love your neighbor as yourself, here and around the world.
Explore what it means to think deeply, act justly and live fully
at www.calvin.edu/go/courage.
www.calvin.edu
Calvin College admits students of any race, color and national or ethnic origin.
Volume 150 | Number 06 | 2015
F e at u r e s
18
Yet in My Flesh
The familiar solo got him thinking about time—God’s time—and eternity.
by James Calvin Schaap
32
Unequally Yoked: What’s a Pastor to Do? S T U DY Q U E S T I O N S O N L I N E
Should Christian pastors solemnize marriages of couples who are “unequally yoked”?
by Henry Numan
Departments
Editorial: Wish You Were Here by Bob De Moor 6
I wish you could peek over my shoulder and see those who carry out our denominational work.
Catch Your Breath: Psalms in the Night by Didy Prinzen 7
During long and sleepless nights, I rediscovered a treasure.
July-August issue Synod 2015
Synod 2015 will be held on
June 12-18 at Dordt College in
Sioux Center, Iowa. Look for
updated articles at thebanner.
org, Facebook (TheBanner
magazine) and Twitter (@crc
banner) throughout synod.
You can also follow synod
via webcast and synod news
office press releases, all of which
can be accessed via the Synod
2015 website (crcna.org/synod).
The July/August print issue
will arrive in your mailbox a
little later than usual so we can
cover synod right up to the
closing doxology. Our website
will have fresh content posted
throughout the summer.
IMHO: ‘He’s Right Here’ by Monica Kronemeyer deRegt 8
What would happen if we included our children in the entire worship service instead of sending them out for Sunday school?
Letters to the Editor 8
News: World Renew-U.S. Gets New Director 10
Frequently Asked Questions 21
Does climate change have anything to do with the church?
Just for Kids: Summer Beach Fun by Christin Baker 30
Let’s go to the beach!
Tuned In: Epic Summer Reads 34
Whether you are traveling far or staying close to home, these books will take you on a journey.
Discipleship: Jump In by Linda Lugtigheid 37
God invites us to be part of his kingdom community.
Reformed Matters: Stewardship of Technology by Kory Plockmeyer 38
Technology is a gift to be used in the service of God’s kingdom.
S T U DY Q U E S T I O N S O N L I N E
Punch Lines 47
Together doing moRe
Gender Justice and Reconciliation by Adele Konyndyk 22
Cultural traditions associated with gender play a large role in the decisions parents make about their children.
The View from Here: Do You Read the YALT Blog? by Steven Timmermans 26
www.thebanner.org | June 2015 | THE BANNER 5
Editorial
The Magazine of the
Christian Reformed Church
M
Wish You Were Here
www.thebanner.org
My work with The Banner is drawing to a close at the end of August. I hope to
reserve my last editorial (July/August issue) for what may “pop” at Synod 2015. So let me take
this opportunity to celebrate and thank from the bottom of my heart my colleagues, with whom
I have had the privilege of working on the magazine, and, before that, for eight years with Faith
Alive Christian Resources. I include the many, many dedicated folks from all the denominational
agencies, ministries, boards, and committees with whom I have visioned, prayed, contemplated,
planned, collaborated, negotiated, commiserated, and, yes, sometimes vituperated.
I thank God for all of them. They have taught me so much and enriched and broadened my
life’s journey in so many meaningful ways. It has been a real joy working with them in denominational ministry.
I wish you were “here,” interacting physically or virtually, on a daily basis, with the staff and
volunteers who lead and carry out our denominational work. Had you been able these years
to peek over my shoulder, you would be amazed at the high level of dedication, giftedness, and
servanthood shown by these folks. Their kindness. Their genuine desire to work together. Their
enthusiasm. Their professionalism. And, most of all, their love for Jesus.
I owe you, faithful CRC member, my thanks as well. Not only for your encouragement, advice,
admonition, ideas, and article contributions, but also for your faithful financial giving that allows
all these good folks to contribute so much to God’s mission in this world. We’re a tiny denomination, but God’s Spirit has blessed us with a very big
heart and a significant reach that embraces our planet.
I also wish you were “here” to see the way our
denominational folks work together so well not in
spite of, but because of, their diversity. No doubt we
have a ways to go to be as inclusive as God wants us
to be. Nevertheless, on a regular basis I have enjoyed
the privilege of rubbing shoulders with African Americans and Dutch immigrants, Republicans and Democrats, “progressives” and “conservatives,” “Yanks”
and “Canucks,” old earth and young earth creationists,
the wealthy and the poor, the healthy and the hurting.
God’s Spirit has endowed them all with sincerity,
maturity, respect, and love. If we will follow their
example, our congregations will be far better places.
So to my colleagues here at The Banner, past and
present, and the many with whom we collaborate, thanks
so very, very much for your dedicated service. You rock!
And to all with whom I’ve crossed paths at the denom
level, bless you for your work. It’s stellar.
And to you, dear reader, I extend my heartfelt
thanks. You have made me more confident than ever that by “speaking the truth in love, we
[will indeed] grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the
whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each
part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth
Bob De Moor is editor
in building itself up in love” (Eph. 4:15-16, NRSV).
of The Banner and pastor
God bless you all. n
of preaching and
We’re a tiny
denomination,
but God’s Spirit
has blessed us
with a very big
heart and a
significant reach
that embraces
our planet.
administration for West End
CRC, Edmonton, Alberta.
6 THE BANNER | June 2015 | www.thebanner.org
Bob De Moor Editor
Judith Claire Hardy Associate Editor
Gayla R. Postma News Editor
Henry Hess Editor,
Together Doing More
Kristy Quist Tuned In Editor
Dean R. Heetderks Art Director
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Catch your breath
Psalms in the Night
A
s I write this it is
winter. The trees stand
empty and quiet; they
render no more rustling
leaves or song of birds.
Gone are their spring buds, their summer
bloom, and their autumn glow. Dismantled, they stretch their naked arms
to heaven. Beneath, in the frozen earth,
lie their roots, asleep.
I can identify with those trees. I have
lived through my spring, summer, and
fall. And like the trees, I live in winter
now.
A few years ago I began to lie awake
at night because of extreme discomfort
and a restless spirit. Hour after hour
would pass without sleep.
But during those dark nights I rediscovered a treasure. Decades after being
buried deep in my consciousness, the
psalms that I memorized for school on
Monday mornings in Holland came to
the surface again. I remembered every
one of them, almost to the word. This
was not of my own doing—no doubt it
was the work of the Holy Spirit.
In those long and sleepless nights when
I could no longer find words to pray, I
sang my prayers to God through the
words of the psalms. What comfort they
offered! I let them voice my laments, my
grief, my petitions. And in those psalms
I found solace, forgiveness, and assurance
of eternal life. What I also found, and
what challenged me, was the psalmists’
unchanging theme of praising God.
In my house I have a drawer that holds
a few Bibles and some small books of
psalms in the Dutch language that I
inherited from my parents. The odd time
at night when I get stuck in a psalm, I rise
and take my Dad’s little book of psalms
out of that drawer and look up the forgotten line. Sometimes I read all the verses,
even the ones that I didn’t learn. What
richness they contain!
Those psalms planted the first seeds of
faith in my heart. And, wonder of wonders,
even after I emigrated to Canada and sang
for some 60 years beautiful hymns in the
English language, God preserved in my
mind these precious psalms. He knew there
would come a time when I needed them.
It is a miracle in my eyes.
Winter is here. The trees are dormant.
I too have arrived in winter. However,
here is where the likeness ends. For I am
still able to serve, worship, and praise my
Maker. I praise him for guiding me safely
through the seasons of my life.
Deep below in the earth lie the trees’
roots. They will bring new life in the
spring. The psalms in my heart are preparing me for a new life too—and an
eternal spring!
Until then I will continue to sing those
precious psalms in the night. n
Didy Prinzen lives with her
husband in Durham Christian
Homes in Whitby, Ontario. She
is a member of Hebron CRC.
Life is this simple:
we are living in a world
that is absolutely transparent
and the divine is shining
through it all the time.
— t h omas
m e rto n
In My Humble Opinion
‘He’s Right Here’
IMHO
What would it look like
if we embraced kids’
presence and allowed
their childlike faith to
influence us?
We were just getting to the part
of the story where Jesus’ parents find him
in the temple, when 4-year-old Chloe
tapped me on the arm. I paused to let her
speak, prepared for a possible story about
her dog or the scrape on her knee—normal fare for 4-year-olds. Instead she
leaned forward and whispered, “I know
where Jesus is right now!” With knowing
eyes, she tapped her finger over her heart.
“He’s right here,” she said with utmost
confidence.
Teaching church school has opened
my eyes and my heart to what Jesus meant
when he said, “The kingdom of God
belongs to such as these.” His Spirit is
alive in these little beings who so readily
accept him and who sing and dance his
praises without inhibition. No wonder
he didn’t want his disciples to send them
away! Their joy is infectious, like laughter. Who hasn’t, at some point, clapped
their otherwise still hands or raised otherwise lowered arms in response to a
child’s worshipful actions? A little child
shall lead them. . . .
I have been asked if I miss being “in
church” because of my involvement in
children’s ministry. People are often surprised when I reply, “But I am in church!”
I am not missing out. I am in the heart
of God’s kingdom. Jesus is right here!
Jesus made it abundantly clear how
important children are in his kingdom; in fact, the Bible is full of stories
of how children were instrumental in
carrying out God’s plan on earth. So
how can congregations do more to
embrace these little kingdom-bearers
the way Jesus modeled for us?
What if we included children in
the entire worship service instead of
sending them to Sunday school while
we praise and learn without them?
Yes, it would require significant
changes in how we do things. Picture
an extended family gathering for dinner around one table—a little chaos,
perhaps some tension, definitely
messy, but with an overarching sense
of unity. This is what I believe church
and worship should look like as we
feast together on the Bread of Life.
Would Jesus want our covenant
children to participate as we remember together what he did for us? I
think he would. By including them,
we would show them that they are a
vital part of the family of God. And
maybe we could even learn something from our children—important
things like joy, expressiveness, simplicity, and candor.
What would it look like if we
embraced kids’ presence and allowed
their childlike faith to influence us? I
believe it would look like the kingdom
of heaven. n
Monica (Kronemeyer)
deRegt is a freelance
writer and the features
editor for Christian
Courier. She lives in
Abbotsford, British Columbia, with
her husband and three children.
Always Reforming
In response to the article “Always Reforming” (March 2015), I agree that we must
be careful with the interpretation of God’s
special revelation in Scripture and his
general revelation in nature.
However, I disagree that theologians
have “a more perfect revelation of Scripture” than scientists do of nature. Scripture
itself is God’s special revelation, but its
interpretations can be in error. Since the
fall, both scientists and theologians can
be wrong with their interpretations.
We agree that God’s holy Word is timeless in its authority and that God’s universe
is absolutely consistent with it. The problem is that all of us humans cannot interpret these revelations without error.
Our world needs more Christian young
people in science, technology, engineering,
mathematics, and medicine.
—Jake Buurma
San Jose, Calif.
The great Reformational principle is
“Scripture alone” (“Always Reforming”).
Believers receive and interpret general
revelation in the light of Scripture. In
comparison with creation, “God makes
himself known to us more clearly by his
holy and divine Word” (Belgic Confession,
Art. 2). We believe this written Word
because “men moved by the Holy Spirit
spoke from God” (Belgic, Art. 3).
If the historicity of the Genesis account
is denied, the divinity of Scripture—its
“God-breathedness,” as 2 Timothy 3:16
puts it—is denied. Thus is lost Scripture’s
authority, reliability, clarity, sufficiency,
and unity.
—Carmen Reitsma
New Sharon, Iowa
Miracles
Thank you to Susan LaClear for her
article “Miracles: God’s Not Supposed to
Do Stuff Like That” (March 2015). I
appreciated her humility as she shared
how the church was surprised and
encouraged by God’s healing intervention
and grace. As a prayer leader in a local
church, I also have watched as God has
blessed us with miracles of healing. It
reminds me of Psalm 115:3: “Our God is
in heaven; he does whatever he pleases.”
—John Parsons
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Trouble with Outrage
Rebecca Warren hit the nail right on the
head when she asks, “When did we become
so mean?” (“The Trouble with Outrage,”
March 2015). I realize that I am one of the
guilty ones, and I am thankful that God
is a forgiving, life-changing God. We have
been members of the CRC for some 70
years. Our church folded when we had just
25 white-haired members left. We ended
up joining the Nazarene Church. After
attending this church for the past 12 years
we feel so blessed that God has led us to
this church. They are sinners like us but
their love is genuine.
Just to encourage you. Keep it up!
—John Antonides
Pentiction, British Columbia
Beggar to Brother
“From Beggar to Brother” (March 2015)
reminded me of my careless attitude toward
the poor and hurting. By your example I
too will reach out to the empty cups that
need filling with the love of Christ.
Thank you, Lindsay. You filled my cup.
—Don Van Vuren
Orland Park, Ill.
Under New Leadership
In the News article “Under New Leadership:
Christian Higher Education in the CRC”
(March 2015), the declining loyalty to
Christian higher education is lamented.
One does not need to look too far to see
why. A brief survey of the financial aid portions of the schools’ websites gives tuition
and fees for the 2014 school year: Calvin,
$39,120; Dordt, $35,055; Trinity, $36,055.
It seems obvious that while we are trying
to convince students to invest in God’s calling for their life by pursuing higher education, we also ask that they make financial
commitments that most young adults
cannot and should not be making.
—Brian Vander Woude
Lynden, Wash.
Suitable for Framing
I am going to keep page
38 of the March issue
(“And God Said Softly,
‘Music’,” March 2015).
I love David Schelhaas’s
poem. It is fun and truthy.
Your staff put it against an aqua and
white birch background, with birds.
Suitable for framing—and I will!
—Dot Besteman
Spring Lake, Mich.
poEM
And God Said Softly, “Music”
It must have been early in the morning of the fourth day
that God in the pre-dawn, deep-blue-blackness whispered to himself, “Music,”
though it wasn’t the English word, music,
English not yet existing, nor for that matter any other earth
language. God said “Music” softly in God language,
as he imagined all those birds at dawn—
though why it had to be birds that sang and not, say,
rodents or cats or large non-human mammals—I don’t know. (Blue whales,
of course, sing and have actually made a best-selling album, still it’s
birds that are the earth’s primary singers—they do it for a living, so to speak.)
But he must have heard in his mind’s ear
all those birds waking up, breaking the silence
with their first hesitant chirps and cheeps, trills and gurgles,
then gradually gaining confidence and soaring into songs of dawn.
What a good idea, music, maybe his best creation
though it’s hard to pick one best thing,
humans being a pretty good idea, in spite of the fall,
and marriage and sex, and all the tasty foods,
and language, all languages,
but especially English—and here I know my bias is showing—
English being my native language and the only one I speak.
But back to music. I suspect it was birds who planted in humans the notion that
they could sing, and then pretty soon Jubal was tinkering with strings and whistles
and not long after that in God time, I stood in the Chorus
of The Siouxland Oratorio singing with others
the great choruses of Handel’s Messiah. He
knew what he was doing—I mean God, not Handel—though Handel
certainly did all right and so did the Chorus and Orchestra—
but we’re all just birds, really,
all of us warbling as best we can in praise of the Creator, who back in the darkness
of pre-creation thought how nice it would be to hear his creation sing.
And perhaps he also thought then how much his creatures
might be comforted by the songs they sang to him.
I’ll bet he did.
n
Reprinted from Illuminated Manuscript (2012) with permission of Dordt College Press.
David Schelhaas is a retired Dordt College
English professor and a member of Covenant
CRC, Sioux Center, Iowa. This poem is from his
collection of poems titled Illuminated Manuscript,
available from Dordt College Press.
38 THE BANNER | March 2015 | www.thebanner.org
Relationships
In the FAQ (“Relationships,” Feb. 2015),
Judy Cook responds to a reader who asks
what she can do about her husband who
yells and throws things. She is spot on by
affirming that every person has a right to
a home that is safe and secure. However,
I believe she has not addressed the wife’s
specific question “What can I do about
my husband?” Ms. Cook gives little effort
to addressing how she can help him get
help. Her husband says he does not know
what comes over him. That is the first and
most important step to change. Too often
men do not understand their anger, nor
do they know that there is help to deal
with it in a healthier manner.
Perhaps this can be explored in a future
article.
—Jon Masselink
Guelph, Ontario
Comfort
Reading the Word and in solitude welcoming the Word to dwell inside me becomes
“my comfort,” peace . . . each time I do
(“My Only Comfort—Really?” Feb. 2015).
—Conrad Douma
Dallas, Ore.
Compliments and Thanks
This morning I looked at The Banner
sitting open as I was going to read something else, but I saw the article to which
it was open was by Rev. Victor Ko, and I
knew I should read it. I was uplifted and
encouraged by “Making Disciples” (Jan.
2015), as I have been by his work in the
past. Please thank him for me. I will miss
having Rev. Bob at the helm, too. My
warmest thanks to him for his work.
—Kathryn Waldyke
Makanda, Ill.
I am legally blind and have 30 percent of
my vision left. I live alone and The Banner
[on tape] is a welcome guest. Thank you.
—A. Brouwer
Grand Rapids, Mich.
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World Renew-U.S. Gets New Director
T
he Board of Trustees of
the Christian Reformed
Church appointed Carol
Bremer-Bennett as the new director of World Renew-U.S. She will
be co-director with Ida Mutoigo,
director of World Renew-Canada.
She succeeds Andy Ryskamp,
who is retiring this summer.
Bremer-Bennett, 46, comes to
World Renew from Rehoboth
(N.M.) Christian School, where
she has worked since 1993 and
has been superintendent since
2010. She said her leadership
style is based on the servant
leadership of Jesus. “Sometimes
you have to just dig in and do the
work, like washing the disciples’
feet. Other times you have to go
up on the mountain and speak.
Other times you’re walking alongside people and being very
relational,” she said. “And sometimes people fall asleep on the
job. You ask them to stay awake
and do something, and they
haven’t done it. You have to deal
with that in the quiet places and
help them grow.”
Bremer-Bennett told the trustees that her life has included
many adoptions, starting from
when she was adopted at 3
months of age by Paul and Jackie
Bremer through Bethany Christian Services. She spent most of
her childhood in West Michigan
because her father worked at
Reformed Bible College (now
Kuyper College). She said that
when she was a young child, her
mother explained to her that she
was in a forever family, likening
it to being adopted into God’s
family. “That’s when I accepted
Jesus,” she said.
Gayla R. Postma
News Correspondents
For correspondents’ email addresses,
see www.thebanner.org.
Carol Bremer-Bennett
After graduating from Calvin
College, she headed to New
Mexico to explore her Navajo
heritage. “I was running away from
God,” she said, “but it turned out I
was running straight into his arms.
I felt like this was a blessing, but
after three weeks, I felt I didn’t fit.
I could play Dutch bingo but didn’t
know Navajo. Through some
wonderful Christians, a Navajo
leader adopted me in a ceremony
as his sister. I’m a beloved child of
God. That’s my true identity.”
Adoptions have also played
a large role in her family. Five of
her six children are adopted. She
and husband Theo BremerBennett have three children of
Navajo descent and three of
Ethiopian descent. They range
in age from 7 to 28.
Bremer-Bennett said that her
Western education shapes how
she thinks, but she feels like a
Navajo in her heart. “I’ve learned
to listen and pull out the wisdom
of the quietest person in the
room,” she said.
Bremer-Bennett is an educator by training, with an M.A. in
educational leadership from
Western New Mexico University
in Gallup. She has served on the
Calvin College Board of Trustees
and served as a deacon. She and
her family are members of
Bethany CRC in Gallup, N.M.
She admitted to the trustees
that she is a little scared. “Do I have
the ability to do this? At one level,
I think I do,” she said. “But I think
what’s more important is availability. It is not about my abilities
but my availability to serve God.”
Her appointment will now go
to Synod 2015 for ratification.
—Gayla R. Postma
The Banner Garners 17 Press Awards
The Banner was honored by both the Evangelical Press
Association (EPA) and the Associated Church Press (ACP) for
work published in 2014.
Awards from the ACP included the following:
Award of Excellence
Coverage of Synod 2014, Gayla R. Postma, editor
Award winning Banner cover and some of the awards
Awards from the EPA included the following
Awards of Merit
“Leaving Home: Jesus’ Exile Experience” by Mariano Avila
The Annual Report, Henry Hess, editor; Dean Heetderks, design
Award of Merit
The Banner for overall denominational magazine
Honorable Mentions
“We Need Not Fear the Dinosaur” by Jake Buurma
“It’s All About the Call” by Gayla R. Postma
“Tuned In,” Kristy Quist, editor
“The Scandal of the Old Testament God”
by Amanda Benckhuysen
Magazine cover: “We Need Not Fear the Dinosaur,”
Frank Gutbrod, designer
Publication Website: thebanner.org, Dean Heetderks, art director
Third Place
“Bowing but Not Scraping” by Leonard Vander Zee
“Winter Grace” by Joyce Kane
“Leaving Home: Jesus’ Exile Experience”
by Mariano Avila
“An Advent Prayer” by John Terpstra
“Should Christians Carry” for art by Frank Gutbrod, and fifth place
for typography
“Tuned In,” Kristy Quist, editor
Bosma Charity Gets Official Status
Nearly two years after the disappearance and murder of Tim
Bosma, the charity his wife set up
to honor him announced it has
obtained official charitable status
in Hamilton, Ont.
Sharlene Bosma set up Tim’s
Tribute to help other families of
homicide victims, especially those
who may not have an existing
community of support. When Tim
died, Sharlene received much support from Ancaster (Ont.) Christian
Reformed Church, where they were
members. “When something happens, the people in the church just
step up,” said Tim’s sister, Michelle
DenBak. “But not everyone has that
[support], so this provides an
opportunity for those people.”
DenBak, a member of Covenant
CRC in nearby St. Catharines, serves
as treasurer on the volunteer leadership team of Tim’s Tribute. Sharlene is the charity’s chair, and Tim’s
friend Brad Bootsma is secretary.
Bootsma and Tim’s parents also
attend Ancaster CRC.
Tim’s Tribute helps families in
financial need, receiving applications through its website and
through referrals from Hamilton
Police Victim Services. But it has
expanded its original goal to also
help survivors cope with the
anxiety, depression, and other
mental health difficulties following a trauma. Sharlene and other
family members benefited from
that kind of mental health support. The program, called The
Healing Tree, is a 12-week group
program where survivors can
share their stories and work
through their grief and anger with
the facilitation of a psychologist.
DenBak said the connection
made with other families walking
through the same kinds of experiences also helps participants
know what to expect when their
loved one’s case goes to trial.
Tim’s Tribute leadership team: (Front row, l-r) Rosy Evered, Sharlene
Bosma, Brad Bootsma; (back row, l-r) Michelle DenBak, Julie Cowell,
Donna Dixon, Robyn Stahls.
In May 2013, Tim Bosma left
with two men to test drive the
truck he was trying to sell. He
never returned. A week later,
police found his body. The two
men have been charged with firstdegree murder and are scheduled
to be tried in January 2016.
Tim’s Tribute has raised about
$65,000 from individual donors and
several charitable events, including
an annual golf tournament.
—Alissa Vernon
news
Denomination and Congregations Challenged to Build Stronger
Support for Youth Ministry
T
he Christian Reformed
Church’s fledgling Faith
Formation M inistries
(FFM) convened a two-day consultation in April in Chicago with
25 key youth ministry leaders
from around the denomination
that resulted in all participants
signing what they are calling the
“Chicago Covenant.”
The youth ministry leaders are
committed to helping the denomination cultivate a shared vocabulary and theology for youth ministry and to continue working on
a denominational youth strategy.
The covenant also calls on denominational leaders and congregations to develop support structures that will help both paid and
volunteer youth ministry leaders
flourish. It calls on leaders at both
local and classical levels to promote stronger youth ministry
within the context of intergenerational faith formation.
Syd Hielema is the team leader
of FFM. He said the ideas in the
Chicago Covenant are not new.
“What is new is a vocabulary and
theology of discipleship and youth
ministry that is moving from the
fringe to the mainstream.”
Hielema said what is also new
is the corporate character of the
effort to build better support structures for youth ministry. “During
the past generation the denomination has become more and more
congregationalist. As part of this
trajectory, every congregation has
been developing its own ways of
doing youth ministry,” he said. As
a result, there is a tremendous
variety of job titles among people
in youth ministry, and many youth
Twenty-five youth ministry leaders gathered in Chicago for two days in April.
ministry leaders are functioning as
“lone rangers.”
H ielema said that those
involved in youth ministry have
largely operated on the margins,
outside of church structures. The
Chicago group articulated some
of the dilemmas facing the
denomination with respect to
youth ministry even as churches
struggle to hang on to their youth
and young adults. An Appendix
to the covenant notes that “youth
ministry matters are easily shut
out of significant decision-making
processes at the congregational,
classical, and synodical levels.” It
noted that too many volunteer
youth leaders are stretched thin,
and paid youth leaders have
sometimes experienced employment abuses. Paid youth workers
struggle to find their place and
position within a church order that
assumes that churches are led by
ordained clergy. Additionally,
youth ministry in the CRC has
historically been seconded to
Dynamic Youth Ministries (Cadets,
GEMS, and Youth Unlimited), even
though that organization is not
accountable under the umbrella
of the Christian Reformed Church.
Hielema noted that for the first
time in the history of the CRC,
there are denominational staff
dedicated to supporting youth
ministry at the congregational
level. He also noted that while the
churches are looking for leadership for youth ministry, “the
church’s systems and defaults
want to keep this kind of leadership safely parked at the margins.”
The event in Chicago was
organized by staff from FFM and
Jeff Kruithof, director of Youth
Unlimited. Hielema said that the
meeting came at a kairos moment
in the life of the CRC: a time when
FFM is being launched, Canadian
CRCs have launched a youth ministry pilot project, and Youth
Unlimited is seeking greater collaborations.
Hielema said the challenge to
denominational leaders and
churches contained in the covenant is not a power grab. “It’s a
way of saying, ‘We’re all in this
together.’ [The Chicago consultation] is a first attempt to make this
shift into more of a coherent
movement with a vocabulary, a
theology, and a support community, and a commitment to work
toward infrastructures for longterm sustainability.”
—Gayla R. Postma
Spiderman buys a “Story of
Jesus Christ” comic from Jeremy
Williamson, who is dressed as
the apostle Paul.
Witnessing at
Comic-Con
Only at a Comic-Con festival are
you likely to find Superman hanging out with the apostle Paul. The
apostle, aka Jeremy Williamson, a
member of Medicine Hat (Alta.)
Christian Reformed Church,
returned from the recent four-day
Calgary Comic & Entertainment
Expo exhausted but exhilarated.
Comic-Con, as the Expo is also
called, features the best and latest
in science fiction, video games,
comic books, fantasy, animation,
and more. It’s the second-largest
convention of its kind in Canada
and the fourth-largest in North
America. Among the 102,000 who
attended this year were numerous
celebrities and costumed fans
seeking autographs and photographs. In the midst of such a
crowd, Williamson and other volunteers from Christian Reformed
churches in southern Alberta
aspired to be witnesses for Christ.
Williamson, who started developing video games in high school,
is well connected online and familiar with what he admits is a subculture. He believes that what most
In Memoriam
individuals are looking for in television shows, comic books, and the
like, is a hero. “They see a hero in
Superman. I want them to know
Jesus is the true Superhero and true
Savior. Our aim is to share the gospel while relating it to something
many of them enjoy—comics.”
Williamson and the other volunteers engaged “geeks” in conversation and sold Action Bibles
and Action New Testaments. They
also handed out “The Story of Jesus
Christ” tracts from The Action Bible.
Action Bibles look like comics and
are illustrated by renowned comic
book artist Sergio Cariello.
The Comic-Con outreach is a
partnership between Medicine Hat
CRC and Calgary’s Maranatha CRC,
with support from the local Home
Missions committee and private
donors. Other churches provided
volunteers and prayer support.
“It was a marvelous success,”
Williamson said. “On Thursday, a
man came up to the table and
said, ‘This is great. This is really
important. A lot of people are
praying for you.’ He then left. I
didn’t even have a chance to find
out who he was.” “We interacted with thousands
of people,” Williamson continued.
“Our table was in the actors’ hall
and people were funneled by us
the whole weekend. You could
describe it as a river of people.”
A bonus for Williamson was
having his photograph taken with
Harold Perrineau, the actor who
played Dawson in the television
series Lost. “Lots of actors charge
for photos and some don’t do
photos at all, but Perrineau was
willing.” After the photo, Perrineau
joked that he’d never had his
photo taken with the apostle Paul.
Williamson is already making
plans to go back to the next
Comic-Con Expo.
—Janet A. Greidanus Jerry An Appointed Chinese Ministry Leader for
Back to God Ministries International
Jerry An was recently appointed Chinese Ministry Team Leader for Back to God
Ministries International, the media ministry arm of the Christian Reformed Church.
An will succeed Rev. Jimmy Lin, who filled the role for nearly 25 years. An
was appointed Chinese ministry program director in 2013. In his new role, he
will oversee the Chinese ministry staff, supervising the production of mobile
apps and social media platforms connected to the Chinese ministry.
In a press release, An noted the many challenges facing the team in spreadJerry An
ing the gospel in China.
Originally from Hebei, China, An moved to the United States in 1998. He subsequently earned his
MBA from Azusa Pacific University in Southern California and is working toward his M.Div. from Calvin
Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Mich. He was recently called by Orland Park Christian Reformed
Church as a commissioned pastor.
—Gayla R. Postma
Rev. Sung Yong Jin
1967 -2015
Rev. Sung Yong Jin, 48, was a loving pastor and a faithful friend to
many church members and
people in the community. Born
into a Christian family, he followed
his parents’ devotion to Christ
despite the influences of Shamanism in his extended family.
Jin graduated from Chong Shin
Seminary in Korea and studied at
Dallas Baptist University. He
earned a D.Min. in 2008 from
Southwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary.
Jin arrived in the United States
in 1994 with big dreams, working
nights while serving as a pastor
and studying during the day. In
2002 he planted Sam Il Korean
Church, now called Dallas Woori
Reformed Church, where he
served until his death.
A younger colleague from his
neighborhood said that Rev. Jin
was deeply devoted to the Lord,
his family, and friends. He passed
away on April 12 after a year of
illness.
Jin is survived by his wife,
Choon Sook, and their son,
Michael (Won).
—Jonathan Kim
Further information on recently
deceased ministers is available
each year in the front pages of the
Christian Reformed Church’s
annual Yearbook and on The
Banner’s website.
news
What to Watch for at Synod 2015
Delegates to Synod 2015 (the
annual leadership meeting of the
Christian Reformed Church) will
have plenty to deliberate on for a
week in June: from church structure to homosexuality and from
representation of deacons to the
underrepresentation of women
at synod. For a second year, synod
will also consider items related to
The Banner. The 2015 Agenda for
Synod is available online; print
copies were sent to each church.
Two Task Force Reports
The reports and recommendations of two task forces will be the
headliners. Reports from the Task
Force Reviewing Structure and
Culture and the Task Force to
Study the Offices of Elder and
Deacon have appeared on synod
agendas for the past several years,
but this year both task forces are
to make their final report.
Talk of church structure may be
sleep-inducing for many delegates,
and it isn’t a topic that tends to stir
the hearts of many people in the
pew. But the Task Force Reviewing
Structure and Culture, appointed
by Synod 2011, is making sweeping recommendations that, if
adopted, would change how the
denominational agencies will be
governed, as well as recommendations that could lead to changes in
how classes and synod itself oper-
ate. The task force is recommending changing the current 30-member Board of Trustees, which acts
on behalf of synod, to a 60-member Council of Delegates. The
boards of Back to God Ministries
International, Christian Reformed
Home Missions, and Christian
Reformed World Missions would
become subcommittees of a global
missions committee that reports
to the Council.
The report from the Task Force
to Study the Offices of Elders and
Deacons will probably resonate
more with delegates, if for no other
reason than that half of them are
elders, and many have also served
as deacons. If the recommendations of this task force are accepted,
deacons will be delegates to classis (regional groups of churches)
and to synod, starting next year.
However, there are several overtures (requests) and communications about this report, some
urging synod to adopt it, others
requesting revisions or delays, and
one asking that the recommendations be rejected.
Issues Related to Homosexuality
Homosexuality and how the CRC
deals with it will be part of several
discussions. The Committee to
Provide Pastoral Guidance re
Same-Sex Marriage, appointed in
2013, will present its interim
report. It is not expected to make
recommendations until 2016, but
Classis Hamilton is raising concerns about the membership of
that committee.
Classis Minnkota wants Synod
2015 to instruct the consistories
of two churches in Grand Rapids,
Mich., to exercise church discipline
with respect to those in their
congregations who are “publicly
advocating homosexual practice”
through their membership in All
One Body, a group that promotes
full participation in the church of
all Christians, including those who
are in monogamous, committed
same-sex relationships. Minnkota
also wants the consistories of
those churches admonished for
hosting meetings of the group
(The Banner, Nov. 2014, p. 14).
In addition, homosexuality will
be the subtext in any discussion
about the CRC’s relationship with
the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PCN). That relationship
has been strained for many years,
in no small part due to the fact
that some PCN churches ordain
practicing homosexuals. Last year,
Synod 2014 voted to return to full
ecclesiastical fellowship—the
closest form of ecumenical relationships—with the PCN (The
Banner, July 2014, p. 45).
Two overtures are protesting
that change. The executive director’s office, which is in charge of
preparing the Agenda, took the
unusual step of including a note
in the Agenda informing readers
that the overtures appear to present no new and sufficient reasons
to reopen the issue as required by
Church Order Article 31, and that
Synod 2015 will first have to
decide whether reconsideration
of the issue is warranted. One of
the overtures does note that when
the issue came before Synod 2014,
it was after the printed Agenda
had been published, so churches
did not have sufficient time to
study or respond to the recommendation that came from the
denomination’s Ecumenical and
Interfaith Relations Committee.
Female Delegates
Since 2008, the first year women
were allowed to be delegates to
synod, the percentage of female
delegates has not risen above 10
percent. Last year’s contingent was
the lowest yet at 13 women, or 7
percent. One classis is asking synod
to appoint female advisors to
synod, patterned after the practice
of appointing ethnic advisors.
When the number of delegates of
ethnic minorities does not reach
25 (based on a three-year average),
ethnic advisors are appointed to
Toolbox Ministry Funds Mechanical Work Locally and Globally
The Litner family understands that missionaries require tools to dig wells, renovate schools, fix vehicles, and more.
So Eric and Marli and daughter Malori,
members of Christ Community (Christian
Reformed) Church of Tualatin, Ore.,
founded The Toolbox Fund. The fund
financially supports and encourages leaders who are training people in mechanical
skills. “We concentrate on construction,
carpentry, and mechanical projects and
needs,” explained Marli. Part of the work
is gathering a knowledgeable group of
mechanics to help.
The Litners began The Toolbox Fund Eric, Marli, and daughter Malori Litner founded
by fundraising and partnering with other The Toolbox Fund.
churches, supporting local and global
outreach projects. Locally, one of the projects is building a small building on the church grounds to
provide space where volunteers can distribute surplus from the community garden and do lawn mower
tune-ups. “These are all ways to grow a relationship with the surrounding community,” Eric said.
The Litners were inspired to create The Toolbox Fund through their friendship with Charles Wirrell,
a missionary who unexpectedly passed away during routine surgery in May 2014. Charles and his wife,
Petra, served in both Guatemala and Sierra Leone. They were supported by Christ Community Church
and other Christian Reformed churches. Much of Wirrell’s work on the mission field was maintenance
and construction. “Charles just seemed to know how to triage things and figure out what to do, and in
what order, without much effort,” said Eric.
The Litners see their ministry as a way to continue Charles’s work. “[Charles and Petra] taught
values along with basic skills,” Marli said. “Their goal was not to create dependence on missionary aid
but to instill hope and the self-worth of knowing God’s love in personal and meaningful ways.”
—Amy Toornstra
synod. Classis Alberta South/Saskatchewan would like female
advisors to be appointed whenever
there are fewer than 25 women
delegated to synod.
Religious Persecution, The
Banner, and More
The Committee to Study Religious
Persecution and Liberty, appointed
in 2013, will give Synod 2015 an
update of its work. Its report in the
Synod 2015 Agenda gives a preview of what will come before
Synod 2016 when it presents its
final report and recommendations.
The Banner will get its share of
attention from Synod 2015. After
last year’s apology to synod from
editor Rev. Bob De Moor and consternation expressed by some
delegates about Banner content,
De Moor will again be at the
podium, this time to be recognized
for his significant contributions to
the life of the denomination. He
will retire from The Banner in
August 2015. Delegates will also
consider revisions to The Banner’s
mandate and decide on the process for the search for a new editor.
The proposed unification of
Home Missions and World Missions is not part of the official
Agenda, but if the boards of those
two mission agencies decide at
their spring meetings to move
forward with the process, Synod
2015 will no doubt be asked for
its blessing to pursue that direction. (See “Directors Explain
Agency Unification Proposal,” The
Banner, April 2015, p. 12.)
A close reading of the Agenda
shows that there are reports from
two new ministries this year. Worship Ministries and Faith Formation Ministries are both making
their synod debut. Both carry on
part of the work that was previously done through Faith Alive
Christian Resources, the publications ministry of the Christian
Reformed Church.
Delegates will convene for
Synod 2015 at Dordt College in
Sioux Center, Iowa, from June
12-18. The Banner will post articles
on its website throughout the
week and keep readers updated
via Twitter and Facebook. There
will also be a live webcast and press
releases from CRC Communications. The July/August 2015 issue
of The Banner will contain a roundup of news from Synod 2015.
—Gayla R. Postma
In Memoriam
Rev. Jin Phil (James) Huh
1959 – 2015
Rev. Jin Phil (James) Huh, 56,
devoted his life to missions, service, church planting, and teaching around the world.
Huh spent 11 years in missions
in the Philippines, where he started
a seminary and planted a church.
He served as a campus pastor in
Davao City on the island of Mindanao. He was known there as a good
teacher and passionate preacher.
Illness caused him to return to
the United States in 2001. He served
as general secretary for the Institute
for Asian Mission and taught at
Bethesda University and Chongshin
University in southern California.
In 2008, he planted All Nations
Christian Reformed Church in
Bakersfield, Calif. In 2011, he finished his Ph.D. at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.
Huh will be remembered most
for his Christ-like demeanor and
as a devoted mission pioneer. At
his last Thanksgiving Day family
gathering, he confessed that “even
[though] I feel limited I again feel
God’s grace is big. I realize my
limitations more and I trust [that]
God [is] closer.”
He is survived by his wife,
Youngsoon, and three children.
—Jonathan Kim
news
Iowa Church Helps
Inmates Send Their Love
to Family and Friends
Prison inmates can communicate their
love and concern from prison to their
families and friends, thanks to a greeting
card ministry by New Life Prison Community Church in Newton, Iowa, dedicated to the men who are incarcerated
in the Newton Correctional Facility.
New Life, which already holds Bible
studies and prayer groups with Newton
inmates, took seriously a suggestion from
the prison chaplain to expand their ministry. Upwards of 200 inmates show up
once a month in the prison chapel to select
up to four greeting cards, which they can
then send out to their families and friends.
Pastor Rick Admiraal purchases Dayspring cards for all occasions from
American Rehabilitation Ministries at
minimal cost. He distributes them with
help from the prison chaplain’s assistant
and a few select inmates. The cards are
available to inmates who are not in solitary confinement and who have money
in their accounts to pay for postage.
One prisoner recently selected three
Mother’s Day cards—for his wife, his
sister, and his daughter. He explained that
this is a beautiful ministry because “by
sending a card, you let people know that
you’re in here thinking about them. It
shows that you really do love them.”
Admiraal says the prison officials are
quite supportive of the card ministry and
recently approached him to expand it to
the minimum security prison as well.
New Life is an emerging congregation
that meets in the prison. It is supported by
various churches, individuals, and Classis
Central Plains (the regional group of
churches). Admiraal is called to the ministry
by Calvary Christian Reformed Church in
Pella, Iowa.
—Anita Ensing Beem
Wisconsin Church Digs Deep for Clean Water
People are familiar with the idea of raising
funds for clean water, but what about a well
drilling machine? It may seem unusual, but
this God-sized challenge to raise $75,000 for
a well-digger was embraced by the members
of Brookfield (Wis.) Christian Reformed Church.
It started as part of a Generous Church effort
and grew because of the congregation’s ambition
and relationships with strategic partners. After
learning about the lack of clean water in Mozambique and the cost to drill wells, Brookfield CRC
set their sights on raising enough money for a
small drill, similar to one used by many nonprofits throughout Africa. But they had just three
months to collect the $75,000 needed.
“People rallied,” said Rev. Peter Verhulst.
“Children set up lemonade stands and collected aluminum cans. Small groups held
garage sales. Individuals donated their tips
and lunch per diems for three months. Yard
signs were created and displayed throughout
Noteworthy
Kurt Dykstra
Sylvia Daining
the area. The church also held a ‘water-walk’
after church one Sunday.”
At the end of the three months, the church
had raised about $100,000. And while God
had indeed blessed their efforts, there were
unforeseen challenges ahead.
First, soil tests revealed that the drill they
had been looking to purchase would be inadequate. An answer to prayer came, however,
when Sam’s Well Drilling, owned by the Vander
Galien family, agreed to donate the difference
in cost for the larger drill and provide the extra
parts needed to keep the drill going. The team encountered a second challenge
when they learned that left-hand drive vehicles
are no longer allowed in Mozambique. This
time an answer to prayer came through church
member Dan Jongetjes and his family’s company, Johns Disposal. Their plan to unbolt the
drill from the existing truck and put it onto a
right-side truck was a success.
Geneva Campus Ministry at the University of Iowa appointed
Thomas Wolthuis as chaplain. He succeeds Edward Laarman.
Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Ill., has appointed
Kurt D. Dykstra as president. Dykstra is currently the mayor of
Holland, Mich.
A song composed by Dordt College professor Benjamin Kornelis was selected as a winner by the Iowa Composers Forum/Iowa
Choral Directors Association.
Christian Schools International appointed Joel Westa as its
new CEO. He succeeds Dave Koetje, who is retiring.
The American Red Cross, West Michigan Region, named Sylvia
Daining as the recipient of the Dr. Charles Drew Health Advocate
Award, recognizing her as “an individual who has dedicated their
life to a cause that directly impacts the health and wellbeing of
others.” Daining attends Madison Square Church in Grand Rapids,
Mich.
The Disability Concerns ministry of the Christian Reformed
Church won several awards for its publications at the Associated
Church Press convention.
Anthony Langeland, 18, won the Skills U.S.A. Gold Medal in
Diesel Technology for the state of Michigan. Langeland is a
member of Lamont (Mich.) Christian Reformed Church.
—Banner correspondents
munity after a local newspaper column featured their story, but it is
not yet enough for the well-digger to ship. “We are confident that God will provide another answer as he has
all along the way,” Verhulst said. “Presently we are looking into the
option of shipping to another port.”
“It’s been an incredible experience to feel the unity of the body of
Christ throughout this endeavor,” Verhulst said. “Our fellow believers
in Mozambique, the VanderGaliens, the Jongetjeses, the congregation
here, all striving for the same goal of touching the community around
Nampula with the love of Christ!”
—Melissa Holtrop
The well-digger destined for Mozambique.
Watch for the Summer Issue of The Banner
“I told my dad, the current owner of Johns, that this was an awesome
opportunity for our family company to put our faith in action,” Jongetjes
said. “We’re really familiar with right-side trucks. Each year we swap a
few garbage truck packers from truck to truck, so we thought, if we
can swap a garbage truck packer, why not a well drill? We did this to
help further God’s kingdom here on earth. It’s our prayer that our
efforts with the rig will help make lives better over in Mozambique.”
There are still challenges ahead, including shipping the well-digger.
Original estimates put shipping costs around $18,000 but this has been
bumped to $36,000. Additional donations came in from the com-
The next issue of The Banner will arrive a few days late so we
can bring you all the news of the Christian Reformed Church’s
annual synod being held in June. This year it will be a combined
July/August issue.
Our website (www.thebanner.org) will have fresh content
posted throughout the summer. You can also find more content
on our Facebook page (facebook.com/crcbanner). Visit soon and
visit often!
Just Older Youth: EnJOYing Service and Fellowship
Packing food boxes, housekeeping at a local
pregnancy center, baking cookies, and getting
together for fellowship. It might sound like
your typical youth group. The folks in this
group consider themselves Just Older Youth
(JOY) at Peace Christian Reformed Church in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The ministry started about five years ago
for adults who were available during the day.
JOY is not limited to retirees but is for anyone
who wants to come out to daytime events,
said Marsha Veldhuizen, one of the ministry
coordinators.
Veldhuizen said, “We alternate [between]
a service project and a fun outing.” Each event
draws from 12 to 18 participants.
Just like a youth group, this group has been
busy packing boxes of food for Hawkeye Area
Community Action Program, housekeeping
for His Hands Free Medical Clinic and Bridgehaven Pregnancy Support Center, and helping
at Habitat for Humanity Restore thrift store.
They also help prepare cookies and goodies
for the Angel Tree Christmas Party.
Outings have included museums and
special exhibits, trips to apple orchards and
Amish country, Mississippi riverboat rides,
wind turbine tours, and Cedar Rapids Kernels’
baseball games.
And just like a regular youth group, events
always include food, said Veldhuizen. The
group has discovered many unique local eating establishments, including a restaurant in
an old barn, a local culinary school, and restaurants where all food is locally sourced.
“JOY group events are a time when we can
have fun in fellowship. We encourage one
another and enjoy serving our greater community,” said Veldhuizen.
—Heidi Wicker
The Just Older Youth (JOY) group enjoys food,
service projects, and outings.
by James Calvin Schaap
Yet in My Flesh
ST
oogle “grandma,” Pastor Ray thought,
and you’ll find a dozen women in rimless
glasses beneath hair like spun silver, not one
of them capable of sin. But it was Grandma
who told him that when bad things happen, they come in threes—first this, then
that, then something else. Sure as anything.
“That’s paganism,” he’d told her years ago.
“Well, you’re the preacher,” she’d said, “but don’t say I
didn’t warn you.”
The Bible she kept on the kitchen table was so beat up it
looked as if she’d kicked it around the yard. She was as pious
as Samuel’s mom, forever serious about faith but committed
to folklore.
Those words came back to him all day yesterday, because
first there was Carol, his wife of 40 years, his darling; and now
her sister, Mindy. Two dark nights already registered—two
down, one to go. He was becoming a pagan.
He’d been heading downstairs toward the church office,
but when he got to the council room he sat down because a
blank computer screen would remind him too much of his
own empty soul. Upstairs he could hear Maribeth, the janitor,
her footsteps behind a dust mop over the ancient wood floor.
A funeral tomorrow, and he had to preach. Not just because
he was the pastor—a retired fill-in, half-pastor—but also
because Mindy was family, his sister-in-law.
Church snapshots and bulletin covers lay neatly beneath
the glass, a table-top museum of ex-pastors and anniversary
programs. It wasn’t as if this room hadn’t suffered tragedies
before. Put ’em in a line, he thought, and darkness would
stretch from here to Chicago, same as any church. Maybe a
million attempts at consolation too, some thoughtful, some
not: “Jesus wanted another lamb for his flock,” “She’s another
jewel for his crown.”
This time it was Mindy, his own Carol’s little sister. No one
could have seen this coming. No one.
They were twenty years separate, Carol and Mindy. Grandma
had Mindy when she was close to 50, at a time in his Carol’s
life when her mother, with child, was embarrassing. “When
you’re 17, you know your parents sleep together . . . well, you
know. But it’s something you’d rather not think about,” she’d
once told him. “I was furious.”
The two of them had not grown up in the same family or
the same house, Carol long gone when her baby sister took her
first steps. His wife had been a teacher—and a mom—when
Mindy trotted to kindergarten half a continent away. But they’d
become as close as sisters could be, some mysterious internal
chemistry making them far more than friends.
And now Mindy was gone too, just two years and a couple
months after her big sister. “Bad things come in threes,”
Grandma had told her son-in-law, the preacher. “You watch.”
He looked up at the photo of a horse barn. Stockbridge was
ancient. He remembered touring European cathedrals and thinking they’d make better museums than houses of worship because
really, who’d want to sit in that kind of cold space, week in, week
out, flying buttresses or not? Who’d want to preach there?
Churches old as Stockbridge felt like submarines without
periscopes, places where the pious still believed horrors come
in threes. Maybe that’s the text for the funeral sermon, he told
himself—“Bad things come in threes,” Book of Grandma,
chapter 4, verse whatever.
No one really knew how much he missed Carol. Sometimes
he told himself he was finished crying, but he never was. He
didn’t have it in him to say what he knew had to be said, just
as surely as the floors had to be swept. He just couldn’t face
that empty screen.
In his last charge, he’d mentored a rookie who’d told him
over coffee that he’d never, ever done a funeral. “And it scares
me,” the young preacher had told him. “This congregation
doesn’t have many old people, so the death’ll be something
really awful, you know?”
“They’re all bad,” Ray’d said reassuringly.
“Sure,” the kid told him, “but some more than others, right?”
What was so damnable was that her dying could be explained.
Some bit of placenta, just a tiny bit, stayed behind like an IED.
Kerry Swanson, a doctor, was on the consistory. He sat right
there in the consistory room and explained it as if the death of
a mom was plain cause-and-effect. “DIC,” he called it, “a rare
physical event.” She bled to death because her blood was actually too busy clotting.
There are times a pastor can’t help hating science. Mindy’s
death was no “rare physical event.” In the twinkling of an eye,
Drew became a single dad—three kids, one a newborn—and
bereft of wife. DIC. It wasn’t DIC. Death was the enemy.
Explaining made it feel as if something could be understood
and thereby dismissed. There was no way to explain the death
of two women closer to him than life itself. No way.
He needed to get up off this chair. Something had to be
written.
Someone else was upstairs now. An extra pair of footsteps
slipped over the floor amid the harmony of conversation.
It had taken a year for him to settle up with Carol after brain
cancer took her. There was no music without her. For too many
colorless weeks, he was angry she’d left. Anger is a sin. He
understood that, but he was powerless to stanch it, so he tried
“Yet in my flesh,” some part of him repeated,
“shall I see God.” Time and eternity. Eternity in time.
Some more than others. Tomorrow he’d be in the pulpit
for Mindy, who, like her mother, got pregnant when she was
too old.“I’ll be mom to the baby,” Mindy had told him, “but
strangers’ll swear I’m her grandma.”
“There are no strangers in Stockbridge,” he’d told her.
“Just sayin’,” Mindy said. “I haven’t cried as much since
Carol’s funeral, Ray. Seriously—I bawled like a baby when the
doctor told me. Drew didn’t know what to do with me.”
“It’ll keep us young,” Drew said. “That’s what I tell her.”
“He’s dead wrong, Ray,” Mindy insisted. “A baby will age
us like nothing else,” she said as she dished up baked chicken
in a sweet French sauce. He’d been having supper with them
for most of the first month he’d been in Stockbridge. “And
women come up to me—my friends. ‘I’m so jealous,’ they say.
And I tell myself they’re lying through their teeth—“
“They’re dreaming, is all,” Drew said.
“Just dreaming,” she said, “but I got morning sickness that
won’t quit.”
Outside of her husband’s presence, Mindy had told him she
was scared. With her other kids she’d always counted fingers
and toes right away, and everyone said, even her doctor, there
was more likelihood of something going haywire. Down here
in the office, he was more pastor than brother-in-law.
Mindy was 45 when she had a brand new little daughter.
Three days later, without warning, she was gone. That was the
story.
to shift it to her, his wife. He was a pastor, after all, and he
couldn’t be angry at God.
It passed when he’d stood there at her gravestone and told
her that the six months they’d had together from the time her
cancer was diagnosed until she breathed her last—that six
months was a blessing. He’d witnessed cancer deaths that hung
on for years, drenched in horrors no human being should ever
go through. Carol’s six months allowed them to say what needed
to be said, and when the end came, it was finally something of
relief, if any death can be.
This one was so very different. “Surprise” was obscene
understatement. Death amid new life, a darling baby girl, the
house strung with pink streamers.
Upstairs in the sanctuary, someone was at the piano. Some
vagrant melody floated down into the basement, one note after
another.
He and Carol had had six months to talk it through, and
her death still just about killed him. But this one—this one he
charged up to an irresponsible God who left some bit of tissue
behind, a microscopic murder.
Really? Why?
He looked at his watch. Nothing was getting done. He
jammed his handkerchief in the back pocket of his jeans and
pushed himself away from the table because he’d lollygagged
too long.
The notes plinked on the piano grew more distinguishable.
Wouldn’t hurt to look, he thought.
He’d come to Stockbridge because people knew him; Carol
had grown up in this church. He hadn’t filled a pulpit since her
death, but Drew and Mindy and a stiff old letter from the council, something written in ancient language—that and Carol,
from the grave, got him going. It was all of that and a deep sense
of should—doing an interim stint at Stockbridge CRC was
something he should do. He hadn’t anticipated funerals.
The woman at the piano was young, her hair pulled back in
a ponytail behind a fluorescent pink band, as if she’d just come
from the gym. Young as their daughter. A gray T-shirt. She
looked up at the music in front of her, sang quietly with the line
she tapped out on the piano, then stopped and looked around
because she’d somehow felt him behind her. “Oh, I’m so sorry,”
she said, all the way across the sanctuary. “Am I disturbing you?”
He walked down the center aisle, hands in his pockets. “No,
no, no. Just wanted to see who was up here.” When he got to
the communion table, he stopped. “Place is so old I figured
there were ghosts.”
“I sort of like it,” she told him from the bench.
“And you are?”
“Megan—Megan Brethhower.” Rolled her eyes. “Married
a guy from this church,” she said.
“Got dragged in?” he said.
“No, no, no,” she told him. “We could have gone anywhere.
Lots of churches around.”
“No kidding,” he said, pointing at the music. “You do this
often?”
Big smile. “Yeah, but that’s not the whole thing.” Took a
deep breath.“I’m a nurse.”
“Oh, no, you were. . . . ”
“No—but yeah, sort of, too.” She smiled.“Plus we’re in
Drew and Mindy’s small group.”
Behind him, Maribeth was grabbing last week’s leftover
bulletins from the racks.
“You’re OK with this?” he asked her.
“No,” she said, looking down at the keys. And just like that
her voice broke. “But it’s what Drew wants.” Shrugged shoulders. “We were buds, you know—me and Mindy. Sometimes
ran together. She was like my mom.” Shook her head, giggled
a little.“She’d hate me for saying that, but she was.”
He nodded to tell her all of that added up, then he waved
his pointer at the music.
“From the Messiah,” she told him. “You know it. It’s what
Drew wants.”
What this young woman didn’t know was that Carol used
to sing it in community choirs, had sung it maybe a half-dozen
times after practicing forever in their home. She may have even
sung it here. But this child here didn’t need to know. “You
mind if I listen in?” he said. “I’d love to hear you.”
“I’m just tapping it out. I got to practice sometime, but I
just had to sort of feel it here, you know, in this church, in this
space, in this old building. I had to try to feel what it’s going
to be like.” She turned back to the music. “I don’t know if I
can do it,” she told him. “Pastor Ray, I want to do it, you know,
for Drew—and for Mindy. It’s so beautiful, and I’ve done it
before, but I don’t know if I can.”
“Well that makes two of us,” he told her.“I don’t know if I
can do it either.”
“Seriously?”
He pointed once again at the music.“Go on,” he said. “I’ll
be the audience.”
Of course he knew it, knew it all. “I know that my Redeemer
liveth” begins with nothing more than a declarative sentence,
and then builds into this marvelous baroque testimony. Yes,
he knew the music.
With just one finger, she walked with him through every line,
her voice much lower than Carol’s and couched in a reserve less
purposely muted than simply made personal for him, as if she
were taking his hand the way he knew it needed to be held.
“I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand
upon the earth.”
He knew every inch of that solo, had heard it from Carol a
dozen times; but this nurse brought it home with a glow somehow warmer than he’d ever felt, ever heard. “And though worms
destroy this body,” she sang, eyes closed as if facing an audience
she wanted somehow not to see, “yet in my flesh shall I see God.”
He was alone. It was just the preacher and the janitor and
the organist here, but this old piece and her warm voice was
an offering, a gift.
“Yet in my flesh shall I see God.”
The line echoed through the emptiness of his soul. “Yet in
my flesh,” some part of him repeated, “shall I see God.”
Time and eternity. Eternity in time.
He reached for his back pocket but didn’t pull the hanky.
That great solo had always been a performance, a transcendent testimony before millions of those who knew it too, knew
every last syllable. But this time, in the dim light of the old
Stockbridge church, what he heard from this young woman
was somehow new, something he’d never heard before.
Yet in my flesh. Yet in my flesh.
Will I see God.
And Carol. And Mindy.
When she tapped out those last voiceless phrases, she looked
up at him like a child.
“Thank you,” he told her.“Thank you ever so much.” He
pulled out that handkerchief once again, but held it under his
arm.
“Tomorrow we can cheer each other on, then,” she told him.
“You bet we will,” he told her. “We certainly will.”
He turned back to the pews, walked up the aisle to the back
of the church, and went down the stairs to the study. n
James Calvin Schaap is a writer who lives in Alton, Iowa.
His latest book is Up the Hill, available as an e-book.
FAQs
Church
Q
What do issues like climate change or recycling have to do with the
church? The church’s task is to proclaim
God’s Word, administer the sacraments,
exercise pastoral care, and engage in mission work. Yet many churches are getting
into these other issues big-time.
A
You seem to be an advocate of “sphere
sovereignty,” believing that organizations
like church, state, family, and school should
have definite boundaries. But there’s also
“sphere universality”: a sense in which how
people govern, how people behave toward
their parents and children, and how people
teach and learn must in part be addressed in
the church’s message. There is an ethical
dimension to climate change and recycling
that society needs to glean from the church’s
preaching, teaching, and evangelizing. We
must hold before people the importance of
being good stewards of God’s creation for the
sake of future generations.
I’m thrilled that more and more “creation
care” issues are finding their way into our
churches’ reflection and action. A current
synodical report states that “deacons shall lead
the members in ways that inspire faithful
stewardship of their time, talents, and
resources and so give life in this world the
shape of God’s kingdom.” Perhaps, by the time
you read this, Synod 2015 will have agreed.
Even so, your point has validity. We must
pursue these things in interaction with our
politicians. And when we do so we must
highlight the ethical dimension and not presume that we know exactly what kind of
policies our government should adopt. Similarly, the classroom might be a better way for
young people to learn about carbon emissions
than hearing sermons about fracking and the
ozone layer.
—Henry De Moor is professor of church polity
emeritus, Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand
Rapids, Mich. He’s the author of Christian
Reformed Church Order Commentary (Faith
Alive, 2011).
We must not presume that we know exactly what
kind of policies our government should adopt.
Ethics
Relationships
A fellow student in my
I experienced a sexual
Q
university class admits Q encounter when I was
to cheating regularly. Am I almost 10 by a boy I thought
obliged to let the prof know? of as my friend, even though he was
A
Allow me to first raise some questions. Is
that student a friend who will listen to your
advice or counsel? Was the admission of guilt
made to you in private, or was it a public brag?
Was injustice caused to fellow students—that
is, did others’ grade suffer due to that student’s
inflated grade? Does the student recognize that
resorting to cheating is shortchanging her own
personal development and growth? Why did
the student resort to cheating? Is she remorseful or unrepentant about cheating?
What would be the consequences if the
student confesses to the prof? Will she amend
and refrain from further cheating? What are
your own motivations for revealing this to the
prof: to help or harm the student? I almost dare
not ask the next question: Is that student also
a fellow Christian? If so, then can she see repentance and restitution, if necessary, as faithful
responses to following Jesus in this instance?
In addition to these questions, you must
also weigh the following biblical themes. The
Old Testament consistently condemned those
who used dishonesty to cheat the poor, the
widows, and the orphans (Amos 8:4-10; Lev.
6:1-7; Prov. 11:1; Jer. 5:26-28). Yet God not only
forgave but also transformed Jacob, who
deceived his brother Esau, his father Isaac, and
his father-in-law Laban (Gen. 27, 30, 31). There
might be room for grace, second chances, and
transformation. Jesus also counseled, “In
everything do to others as you would have
them do to you; for this is the law and the
prophets.” (Matt. 7:12, NRSV)
—Shiao Chong is a chaplain at York University
in Toronto, Ontario.
four years older than me. For a long time I
felt guilty. I am now 17 and have broken up
with my boyfriend because I found myself
repulsed by his desire for physical closeness.
Does this mean I am gay?
A
No. If you were gay, you would be feeling
same-sex attractions rather than no
desire or revulsion at the thought of closeness.
What you are experiencing is a normal reaction
to a sexual abuse encounter. You knew what
was happening was not right, but you were
too young to understand the implications of
the experience. And because of your young
age, you took on the guilt that should have
been felt by the boy who abused you.
At 17, a developmental stage where teens
learn about independence and identity, both the
sexual betrayal and your resultant feelings of
guilt predispose you to mistrusting your own
sexual feelings. It is easier to suppress those feelings and replace them with feelings of repulsion
toward physical attraction than it is to manage
the confusion of your childhood experience.
Counseling is recommended, as it would
help you sort out the sexual confusion you are
left with. You would learn that the abuse was
not your fault, that you have a right to be angry
about it, but also about the importance of
forgiving the person who harmed you.
Counseling, time, and maturity have a way
of healing many psychological wounds. As
your self-identity develops, bad experiences
of the past do resolve themselves, creating
room for new positive experiences of both
friendship and possible romance.
—Judy Cook is a family therapist and a member
of Meadowlands Fellowship CRC in Ancaster,
Ontario. n
togetherdoingmore
Gender Justice
Gender Justice and Reconciliation
by Adele Konyndyk
A World Renew
adolescent health
community event in
Senegal.
A
s the illiterate daughter of an
impover ished w idow in
Senegal, West Africa, young
Fama Fané was almost left
behind.
In Fama’s community,
poverty and cultural traditions associated
with gender play a large role in the decisions that parents make about the education and marriage of their children. So
when Fama’s father passed away, her
mother pulled Fama out of school because
she could no longer afford to send her.
Instead, like many young girls in Senegal, Fama stayed at home to help with
household chores and to prepare food to
sell at the market. Without an education,
it was likely that Fama would have very
limited opportunities and would be left
behind as others in her community pursued jobs and further learning.
Fama’s story is not uncommon in West
Africa. Young people from poor families
are immediately at a disadvantage when
it comes to opportunities for education
and vocation.
For girls, the situation is even more
challenging. It is common for girls never
to be sent to school at all. If they do go
to school, they are often pulled out early
when a family member gets sick, passes
away, or loses a job, since the education
of boys is considered a priority. The literacy rates in Senegal indicate that 61.3
percent of adult women are illiterate,
compared with 38.2 percent of adult men.
Once a girl is pulled out of school, she
is less likely to know her rights, more
likely to marry early, more likely to live
in poverty, and more likely to suffer the
health consequences of early pregnancies.
Her children are also more likely to be
uneducated.
In communities like Fama’s, World
Renew is working through local church
World Renew is working through local church
partners to equip men and women to use their Godgiven gifts and fully enjoy their human rights.
group discussed was their dreams for the
future. Although she had no money or
opportunity for training, Fama wanted
to be a seamstress.
Fama also took advantage of the training the adolescent health program offers
in areas such as healthy family and peer
relationships, good hygiene, reproductive
health, and avoiding risky behaviors and
sexually transmitted infections.
She joined a youth action group where
she developed leadership and debating
partners to equip men and women to use
their God-given gifts and fully enjoy their
human rights.
“Since God created both male and
female in his image, each gender has
inherent equal value, even though their
biological roles are different,” said Ida
Kaastra-Mutoigo, World Renew-Canada’s
director.
“World Renew is committed to work
for gender equality and equity in all
aspects of its programs, policies, and
organizational culture,” Kaastra-Mutoigo
added. “In our work with thousands of
communities around the world, we have
seen that the work of community transformation is unachievable when one
Please pray . . .
Above: Fama and her
mother.
Young adults take part
in anti-discrimination
training in Senegal as
part of World Renew’s
adolescent health
programs.
gender is left behind, ignored, or discriminated against.”
Educating women is a priority in
World Renew’s gender justice programs.
In Senegal, World Renew’s adolescent
health program has helped a generation
of girls to make their voices heard about
the issues that affect them, including
marriage, children, and health. It also
helps parents and other community
members—including men and boys—to
organize to support them.
Fama’s future opened up when a peer
educator—a program leader who is
slightly older than the students and who
is trained to teach health and justice
issues—invited her to join this World
Renew program.
One of the first topics that she and
other teens in her neighborhood youth
• Give thanks to God for reconciled relationships and better communication
between men and women involved in
these World Renew programs.
• Give thanks to God for evidence of
improved health for mothers, babies,
and families as a result of cooperation
between men and women.
• Ask God to continue to awaken more
young men and women to the issues
of gender equality so that they can
know their rights, make good choices,
and help pave the way for future generations.
• Ask God to comfort those who have
experienced the pain of gender discrimination and connect them with
people who can help them recognize
their true value and potential.
• Ask God to equip his children around
the world to treat each other with love
and respect, so that there is “no division
in the body, but that its parts should
have equal concern for each other. If
one part suffers, every part suffers with
it; if one part is honored, every part
rejoices with it” (1 Cor. 12:25-26).
togetherdoingmore
Gender Justice
skills by organizing community activities
about local social problems and issues.
These activities include celebration
events where youth share their learnings
from the program on a larger scale. At each
event, participants perform a skit on topics such as incest, domestic violence, early
pregnancy, and forced marriage.
“Parents are often afraid to talk with
their children about issues like adolescent
health and how to take care of their body,”
explained World Renew program consultant Esther Kuhn. “There is a big
cultural taboo on these topics.”
Kuhn says the adolescent health program community events have opened
doors of communication between parents
and children. They also have helped to
empower girls and boys to stand up for
justice in their families and neighborhoods.
Fama’s participation in community
events strengthened her good reputation
and won the respect of other young
people in her neighborhood.
Last year, Fama was one of 19 young
women selected to participate in a new
Community members learn practices that
help to improve child and maternal health,
such as the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding and the importance of maintaining a
nutritious diet.
Men and women in Kenya are learning how they can work together to improve household
nutrition.
vocational education program. She is
learning the skills of the sewing trade—
cutting, stitching, and pattern-making—
as well as taking general classes such as
French and physical education.
“When I complete vocational school,
I will receive a diploma,” she says. “Then
I hope to open my own sewing shop so
I can take care of myself and support my
mother.
“World Renew’s adolescent health and rights program is helping me realize
my dream. I will try my
hardest not only to succeed,
but to make sure that other
girls can also benefit.”
Working the
Fields Together
Although gender equality
can be misunderstood as
trying to advance women
at the expense of men,
World Renew’s gender justice ministry emphasizes
the importance of recognizing that “all are one in
Christ, whether male or female” (Gal.
3:28), and, as children of God, they are
all valuable.
This involves working to restore relationships in families and communities.
It might also involve advocating for a
change in cultural or legal traditions that
make it difficult for men and women to
be equally involved in making decisions
that affect both genders.
A community farmers group in Guatemala’s Polochic Valley is one example
of men and women working together to
create a society where everyone can contribute and everyone benefits.
Julia, one of the farming group’s leaders, described it this way: “We were taught
that men and women had different roles
in society that couldn’t and shouldn’t be
mixed. Men were the ones who had control in all the situations and women just
had to obey.
“If there was opportunity to study
and work, men were the ones to take it
and women were to care for the house
and the children. In the same way, men
couldn’t work with women in the fields.”
Community members were exposed
to a new way of thinking when World
Renew’s local partner, the Association of
Integral Development, started to offer
training in gender attitudes and intro-
ers were not—even though they were in
the same environment,” said Omanyo.
“The key is whether or not cooperation
happens at the household level.”
In some of the households involved
in the nutrition project, for
example, family members
resisted taking on new projects
such as kitchen gardens.
Alfunse and his wife are an
example of two family mem-
care of our baby after delivery. This is
education I had not received anywhere
else.”
When Omanyo spoke with other men
involved in the project, many of them
said that the project had brought them
closer to their wives.
“We are now learning from our wives.
We do not care what other men say about
us—all we know is that we are now living
a better life than before,” said one man.
bers who learned how to work together
on a household level in a new way.
“The minute my wife came home with
chickens from World Renew and wire
mesh for making a poultry house, I was
challenged. I had no choice but to help
her,” Alfunse said. “Since there was no
one to build the chicken house, I did it.”
Alfunse’s wife gained confidence based
on her new knowledge and began to use
that confidence to share her knowledge
with her husband.
“I realized that she was determined to
make sure that we have vegetables to eat
because she created a vegetable garden
out of an old sisal sack,” Alfunse explained.
“Now we eat fresh vegetables from our
own garden.
“She also told me how to take care of
her when she is pregnant and how to take
“I now help my wife collect water using
my bicycle. It is a long distance, and for
many years my wife has collected the
water and come home tired. Now we are
a happy family.”
This community’s story shows that
gender equality requires the willing participation of both men and women.
“Pray with us as we work with these
communities,” said Omanyo. “We feel the
Lord guiding us in the work.” n
Community members attend a health training session in Kenya.
duced the option of farming groups that
included both men and women.
In addition to restoring relationships
at the community level, World Renew’s
gender justice work also involves righting
relationships at home—between parents
and children, siblings, and couples.
In one community in Kenya where
World Renew is working to improve
maternal and child health, for example,
couples are learning to collaborate and
communicate in new ways as they undertake project activities together.
Ten months into this project, which
focuses on improving household nutrition through kitchen gardens and small
animal raising, World Renew team leader
Davis Omanyo noticed a startling difference in progress from household to
household.
“We realized that some households
were beginning to produce enough nutritious food to feed their families, but oth-
Adele Konyndyk Gallogly is a
staff writer with World Renew.
She lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
togetherdoingmore
The View from Here
Do You Read the YALT Blog?
Y
ALT stands for the Young Adult Leadership Taskforce
of the Christian Reformed Church. Young adults offer
all of us fresh insights and challenging perspectives
by means of this blog.
Two blog posts (yalt.crcna.org) that caught my eye
earlier this year were written by Gwen Vogelzang and
Marcus Roskamp. Both focused on no longer being
members of the CRC.
In her blog, Gwen explains why she left the
CRC. What struck me was her desire to “be
surrounded by people who haven’t always
known Jesus and who could offer different
perspectives on God and grace and what
it means to them.”
In his blog, Marcus Roskamp asks the
question, Should you be loyal to the
denomination you grew up in? “I am now
an RCA pastor,” he writes, “and my siblings
no longer attend CRC churches. My siblings
and I are all active and involved with our various
churches, but none of us remain in the CRC.”
I’m grateful for the honesty of Gwen and Marcus, and
I believe we can learn at least two things from them.
First, it often seems that membership in a congregation is
selected because of some sort of “fit” with the culture of the
church. What do I mean by that? Ronald Keener, the editor of
Church Executive, defines a church’s culture as “this is how we
do things here.”
Having recently moved to Grand Rapids, my family and I
needed to find a new church home. As we visited various
churches, we were processing our fit, seeking to evaluate how
things were done there. Like Gwen, we were searching for
authentic community.
Notice that, when focusing on a culture, the emphasis doesn’t
seem to be on how hip or traditional the music is, how dynamic
the preaching, or how spontaneous or liturgical the worship.
Although these things count, they probably don’t count as
much as the heated debates in which we engage would suggest
they do. The key, I suspect, is authenticity.
Like Gwen, we were
searching for authentic
community.
Second, both authors are addressing the dimension of
denomination, while also addressing church membership. I think
it’s helpful to remember that the former relates more to identity and ideals and the latter to community and practice.
In contrast to past generations, for many young people today
the choice of a church home is more about the congregation
and much less about denominational affiliation.
There’s something refreshing about that, especially for those of us who have tended to base
our choices more on denominational identity than on the health of a congregation.
But Marcus offers us encouragement when
he says that Reformed theology gives him
“some grounding and a place to refer back
to as I read Scripture and work through
issues in the church.”
After reflecting on these blog posts, I
end up with two thoughts.
First, in seeking a local congregation, look
for fit, but don’t ignore the theological foundations. While the statement of beliefs posted on a
congregation’s web page is helpful, a connection to a
denomination provides a mooring that is deep and broad and
is based upon the Spirit having guided generations of faithful
brothers and sisters. Although a denomination can at times be
as messy and contentious as some extended families, it also
keeps us biblically anchored and helps us to faithfully sort
through the new challenges facing each new generation.
Second, while I believe it’s possible to find both authentic
community and Reformed grounding (our 1,000-plus congregations provide many splendid examples of this), a person’s
Reformed identity need not be lost just because she or he no
longer claims CRC membership.
Our spiritual journeys are intricately tied both to a local
congregation and to a Christian identity that transcends local
ties. Rather than challenging this new generation of adults to
simply remain in the CRC, I suggest we challenge the generation I and many of you represent to continually improve as a
family of churches that are authentic worshiping communities
rooted deeply in our Reformed confessional identity.
And may all glory be given to God the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. n
Dr. Steven Timmermans is the executive director of
the Christian Reformed Church in North America.
Out and About
Finding the Faithful in Australia
I
n an effort to strengthen the dwindling Christian faith in Australia,
Rev. Julio Marcelo Ferreira Dos Santos works in partnership with Back
to God Ministries’ Portuguese outreach to broadcast the Cada Dia
radio program.
For 12 years he has been working to find creative ways to share the
gospel.
Dos Santos laments the movement away from the Christian faith in
his country.
Though statistics reveal a bleak outlook, he is encouraged by the many
testimonies he receives from listeners. One wrote, “When the Cada Dia
program starts, it seems that God enters my house and fills me with peace.”
Through hospital visits, telephone calls to Portuguese-speaking people
in the area, and direct advertising on Facebook, the pastor seeks to introduce his radio ministry. He is encouraged to learn that many have already
heard about the program. n
—by Kristen Fergus Van Stee, Back to God Ministries International
Rev. Dos Santos partners with BTGMI from his Western Australia radio studio.
Church Renewal through the Ridder Initiative
T
he Ridder Initiative is a 30-month
church renewal commitment for
Christian Reformed Church and
Reformed Church in America
pastors and church leaders to engage
in personal faith renewal. It is funded
in part by Christian Reformed Home
Missions.
A team of five to seven leaders from
a congregation grow in leadership
styles, engage in reflection, and create
authentic communication.
The group is assigned homework
and meets together monthly to share
lessons. The goal is to equip leaders to
become more missional within their
communities, but that process needs
to start with personal transformation.
Pastor Ray Vanderkooij of Bethel
CRC in Acton, Ontario, experienced
personal conviction from his Ridder
experience.
“God showed me that if I am going
to be meaningfully connecting with
people who are marginalized, I needed
to step into meaningfully ministering
to the seniors in my ministry,” he said.
A group
involved in the
Ridder
Initiative.
Vanderkooij has since begun visiting
seniors on a regular basis, opening the
way for sincere conversations.
Willemina Zwart, pastor at Good News
CRC in London, Ontario, and her team
are nearing the end of their 30-month
journey.
“I have much more accountability and
consistency in my spiritual disciplines,”
she said.
As part of the process, coupled with
the power of the Holy Spirit, Bethel CRC
is seeking to fight youth homelessness in
its neighborhood.
“It is a devastating issue and one
that has really captured our hearts,”
Vanderkooij said.
Another influential partnership that
has indirectly been affected by Ridder
is the collective kitchen that has blossomed within Good News CRC.
Once a month, eight members from
the community prepare food in bulk and
take home 25 single-serving meals. n
—by Rachel Gabrielse,
Christian Reformed Home Missions
togetherdoingmore
Out and About
Calvin Alumnus Writes Book about His Coaching Career
A
s a high school math
teacher for more than
five decades, Calvin
College alumnus Dick
Katte was all about numbers.
But on the court, as a basketball coach for 48 years,
numbers weren’t his game.
So he finds it surprising that
his win total—876—made him
the winningest coach in Colorado high school basketball
history.
“It’s amazing that it happened,” said Katte, who was on
the sidelines of the Denver
Christian High School basketball court from 1964 to 2012.
“I never had a goal to reach
a certain number; I just wanted
to go to work and help young
people every day.”
Those who know Katte,
though, are grateful that the
legendary coach has shared
some of his expertise in his
recently published book, Over
Time: Coach Katte on Basketball and Life.
The book is a compilation of
biographical information on
Katte, from his upbringing in
Sheboygan, Wisc., to his battles
with a brain aneurysm and
cancer. It includes basketball
strategies, his philosophy of
coaching, his memories of individual games and championship
seasons, and how to raise up
young people of character.
“Writing the book was a
good process for me,” said
Katte. “Most of it was pretty
easy to recall. And though I
didn’t always see why something happened at the time, I
always had something good
to take away from the experience.”
Such was the case in Katte’s
second run at a state championship in 1972. (He won his
first in 1970.) In the championship game, Denver Christian was up by double digits
in the fourth quarter.
“I told [my team] to slow
it down, pull Eaton out of
their zone and make them
guard us,” he wrote. “Well, we
never could get going again,
and we lost by a point. . . .
After over 40 years, some still
carry that disappointment
with them, and I feel bad that
Calvin Seminary Uses Electronic Monitors to Show Prayer Concerns
L
ast December, Calvin Seminary
dean of students Jeff Sajdak got
an idea: to use the electronic
monitors stationed in the seminary for prayer messaging as a way for
students, professors, and staff to be
more mindful of prayer.
Very quickly a plan emerged. A fiveday prayer template was designed, each
beginning with “Praying today for . . .”
and reflecting a rotation of five themes:
•
•
•
•
•
the world
peace and justice
missions
the church
the seminary
The templates are identical in color
and design so viewers immediately
recognize each prayer screen focusing
on the day’s suggestions for petition
and are reminded to pray continually.
Sajdak’s office took responsibility for
identifying one to three particular needs
One of the prayer monitors at Calvin Seminary.
for each day’s theme, which they forward
to Daryl Boersema in IT.
As editor for the monitor messaging
that is shown every day, Sajdak uploads
the week of prayer screens for daily
inclusion in the rotation. Start and end
times are automated, so the process is
simple.
The rotation can also be disrupted
for any immediate need of a crisis
nature that may come up in the seminary community. n
—by Jinny De Jong, Calvin Seminary
we didn’t win it. It’s one of the
lessons from life: about how
you deal with adversity.”
Indeed, Katte himself benefited from this lesson when a
brain aneurysm nearly took
his life in 1984, and nine years
later, when he battled cancer.
“My setbacks helped me
become a better coach because
it humbled me,” he wrote. “I
realized I wasn’t in control,
and that’s the hardest thing to
learn—especially for coaches.
. . . Adversities are given for a
purpose. How you use them
is up to you.”
Following those trials, Katte
would go on to win three more
state championships, including one in his final season.
For Katte, one of the biggest
lessons in the book, and a message he discloses frequently, is
“bloom where you are
planted.”
“What that always meant
to me was that I didn’t have to
change schools or ‘move up’
the coaching ladder to receive
fulfillment as a coach. Each
person must have a mission
and vision to become the person God gifted him to be.” n
—by Lynn Rosendale,
Calvin College
Longer versions of
these and other
stories are online at
thebanner.org/
together.
Mikhail outside of the
library where he serves.
Back on the Streets
M
ikhail had lived on the streets of St.
Petersburg, Russia, for 10 years. When
a pair of strangers found him at a
train station, they thought he was an
old man. He had a long, dirty beard, and they
could smell the alcohol on him.
“Do you want to change your life?” they
asked. “God has a new life ready for you, if you
are ready to trust in Jesus.”
The Holy Spirit drew Mikhail to this message, so he followed them. After that day,
Mikhail lived for a year in a house for recovering addicts. He began attending church and
devoted his life to serving Christ.
Still, it was hard for Mikhail to see his place
in God’s kingdom.
Much of that changed when Mikhail met
Gary and Galya Timmerman, who serve with
CRWM in Russia. Gary Timmerman and
Mikhail first met at a discipleship school, but
their relationship grew from there.
“Mentoring Mikhail gives us a unique experience in discipling,” said Timmerman. “I’ve
really enjoyed seeing him grow in his faith and
in his gifts.”
Over the past several years, CRWM has been
taking steps to hand over its Christian media
library to local leadership. Now Mikhail plays
a part in that transition.
Every Wednesday, Mikhail goes to the large
church library and helps visitors find books or
devotions that will help them in their spiritual
journey. But that’s not all he does there.
“I don’t want a brilliant testimony like
Mikhail’s to sit behind closed doors all the
time,” said Gary Timmerman. “Sometimes I
go there also, and while I tend the library
inside, Mikhail goes on the main street, sharing his testimony and passing out flyers for
the library.” n
—by Brian Clark,
Christian Reformed World Missions
just for kids
Think about your favorite summertime
activities. Hanging out at the park with
friends? Camping? Visiting an amusement
park? Fishing? All of these activities are fun.
But for lots of kids, going to the beach is right
up there on top of the list.
ch?
What Is a laBndeala
ong the edge
h of
A beach is a stretc
lakes.
such as oceans or
er
at
w
of
of bodies
is made up of
Usually the land
les, and shells.
sand, rocks, pebb
any different
There are also m
North
Some beaches in
kinds of beaches.
en
op
ected to the wide
America are conn
lantic and Pacific
waters of the At
her beaches
oceans, while ot
er from the
contain fresh wat
shores
e beaches on the
Great Lakes. Som
have
n
n and Lake Huro
of Lake M ichiga
nes.
du
sand called sand
huge mounds of
are
t
bu
allenge to climb,
They may be a ch
of
nd
ki
e dow n! What
lo ts of fu n to sl id
to
se
clo
If you don’t live
beach is near you?
to
y
ne
to enjoy a jour
the beach, read on
!
om
ur own living ro
the beach from yo
at
amazing animals th
The beach is full of
’s
er
at
w
and beneath the
n
live on the shore
ea
oc
g
t these interestin
surface. Check ou
eatures!
and freshwater cr
Blue Crabs
These cool ocean critters have a hard outside shell
called an exoskeleton. Even though they are mostly
brown and gray, blue crabs have blue tints on their
claws. The tips of female blue crabs are also a bright
reddish-orange color. Blue crabs eat plants and small
animals like mussels, snails, fish, and smaller crabs.
Did you know?
Some blue crabs lay around two million eggs in
two weeks!
Beach in a Bottle
If you live too far away to visit a bea
ch, bring
the beach to you! Try making this coo
l beach
in a bottle.
Here’s what you’ll need:
•
•
•
•
•
Clean plastic bottle or glass jar with
lid
Sand (use gravel if you don’t have
sand)
Sea shells or pebbles
Veggie oil or baby oil
Water
• Blue food coloring
•Funnel
Here’s what to do:
Use the fun nel to pou r
sand into the bottle or jar. Add
pebbles, shells, beads, or any other
cool beach treasures you have. In
a
separate container mix the water,
baby oil, and food coloring. Then
use the funnel to carefully pour the
solution into your bottle. Make
sure your bottle top or jar lid is
sealed tightly. You can also ask
an adult to help you secure
the lid by sea ling it
with plumber’s tape
or hot glue from a
hot glue gun.
Illustration by Scott Holladay
Summer Beach Fun
Seagulls
Fun Fishy Beach S
nack
Make your ow
seen seagulls.
If you’ve been to the beach, you’ve
lake shores.
ter
They live near ocean and freshwa
people. If
of
id
afra
These sassy sea birds are not
y might
the
ch,
bea
you’re having a picnic on the
gulls
Sea
d!
foo
r
swoop down to try to steal you
they
e
aus
bec
s”
have been called “garbage bird
ps
scra
ch
dwi
san
eat just about anything. Besides
,
sels
mus
id,
squ
,
fish
from your picnic, seagulls eat
!
diet
e
som
is
t
Tha
.
shellfish, bugs, and earthworms
n edible beach!
Here’s what you’ll
n
eed:
• Whole graham
crackers
• ¼ cup finely cr
ushed graham cr
ackers
(or vanilla wafers)
• White frosting
• Blue food colo
ring
• Goldfish cracke
rs or gummy fish
Did you know?
Here’s what to do
ocean. They
Seagulls can drink salt water from the
ove the extra
have glands near their eyes that rem
water.
salt so that they can safely drink the
:
Stir the blue food
coloring into the
white frosting.
Use a plastic knife
to spread the blue
frosting on
a gr ah am cr ac ke
r (t hi s w ill be yo
ur
“w at er ”) .
Sprinkle crushed
graham crackers
onto a portion
of the graham crac
ker to create “san
d.” Add goldfish to the “water
.” Then enjoy your
beach snack!
Walleye
The walleye is a freshwater fish that makes its home
in deep rivers and lakes across North America. Walleye are shimmery gold and olive color with a white
belly. These freshwater fish can grow to be 30 to 35
inches long (1 m) and weigh around 10 to 20 pounds
(4-9 kg). Walleye usually eat small fish and bugs and
search for their food at night. For people who enjoy
fishing, walleye are fun to catch—and good to eat.
Jellyfish
Did you know?
A female walleye can lay more than 100,000 eggs!
Jellyfish are very intere
sting creatures that
live in the ocean. They
have mushroom-like
bodies with long wigg
ly arms called tentacles. They squirt water
from their bodies
to push themselves for
ward. Their tentacles are used to sting the
ir food. Watch
out: sometimes jellyfish
sting people
too! Jellyfish eat fish,
shrimp, crabs,
and tiny plants. Jellyfis
h come in a
range of different color
s: pink, yellow,
blue, and even purple.
tles
Green Sea Touceran creatures. They are
les are
n
e world and ca
Green sea turt
hell turtles in th
-s
e
rd
th
r
ha
t
fo
es
n
rg
ow
the la
). Kn
ounds (317 kg
p
0
in
e
70
liv
er
s
ov
le
h
rt
weig
, these tu
r of their skin
35
greenish colo
swim around
d
eans an can
oc
g
al
in
ic
ov
op
m
a
tr
,
as
warm
’s as fast
at
th
—
h)
kp
6
(5
in the
miles per hour
s move quickly
re
tu
ea
cr
e
es
reen
car! Though th
owly on land. G
e much more sl
ov
ndy
m
sa
ey
m
th
,
ar
er
wat
gs on w
eg
0
0
-2
0
0
1
y
all sea
se a tu rt le s la
turtles eat sm
a
se
y
ab
b
ny
ti
beaches. The
sh.
abs and jellyfi
cr
e
lik
s
al
anim
?
Did you knows can hold their breath for hours
le
rt
tu
a
ed animals,
Green se
are cold-blood
ey
th
e
nc
Si
.
er
cold water.
under wat
reath longer in
b
r
ei
th
ld
ho
they can
Did you know?
Ma ny jel lyf ish ha ve bio
lum ine sce nt
organs, which mean so
me parts of their
bodies glow in the dark!
Christin Baker is a full-time
stay-at-home mom. She is
a member of Resurrection
Fellowship Church in
Grand Rapids, Mich.
by Henry Numan
What’s
a Pastor
to Do?
ome time ago a young
couple—both from Christian
homes—asked me to perform
their wedding ceremony. I
invited them to come to my
office to discuss their request.
During our conversation, they
made it very clear that they wanted their
wedding to be totally “neutral.” If I were
to officiate at their wedding, they said, I
could say anything—but not use the word
“Christ.” They were adamant about that
fact. Their reason was simple: one of these
young people was a Christian but the other
had become a non-Christian.
The discussion was intense, and there
was no conclusion other than for me to
say that I could not function simply as a
justice of the peace because as a pastor I
am dedicated to the Christian faith and
its claim on all of life. Needless to say, the
couple—and their parents—were upset
with me. But I concluded that I had no
choice. Was I wrong in my judgment?
Could I possibly have left the door open
for some kind of follow-up?
Scripture has always held Christians
to a high standard about life issues, and
it will continue to do so. But are there
instances where major concerns have
perhaps changed in terms of their application to the “here and now”? Issues
differ in terms of priority and significance, and we often end up agreeing to
disagree in such cases. Are views on marriage one such area?
Just how do we as Christians respond
when a couple wishes to get married but
are very clear about their individual value
systems: one being a Christian and the
other having a different faith or claiming
no faith at all? They love each other, of
course, but differ clearly in what they
believe and share in their relationship.
Should you expect your pastor to perform
a ceremony for a couple who are “unequally
yoked” and who have compromised their
life values in order to be together? It is a
question of “to do or not to do”—and these
circumstances become occasions for a
judgment call by the pastor who is asked
to perform the wedding celebration.
Marriage in Scripture
In his lengthy discourse on marriage,
1 Corinthians 7, the apostle Paul expresses
his own opinions, for example in verses
6 (“I say this as a concession, not as a
command”); 12 (“If any brother has a
wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce
her”); and 40 (“In my judgment, she is
happier if she stays as she is”). He mixes
his opinions with the basic instruction
that marriage is a holy or sanctifying
relationship that must reflect the union
of Christ and his followers, the Body—
even if one partner happens to believe
something other than the Christian faith.
In Ephesians 5:31-32, quoting from
Genesis 2:24, Paul makes clear that the
two becoming one flesh should be a
powerful symbol of this union of Christ
and his Church. Do such passages leave
any room for a pastor to “negotiate” a
wedding for a couple when they are of
conflicting faiths?
bling blocks in their marriage. This is
especially true in the case of couples with
different faiths or no faith at all. I always
instruct them to read a form for Christian
marriage in order to remind them that
their marriage goes way beyond the wedding ceremony and all the excitement of
the happy day. We talk about how our
belonging to Christ gives concrete shape
and positive expression to each other’s
life “until death do us part.”
That conversation always includes
open-ended questions, including the following: What do you find attractive about
him/her? What do you mean when you
say you love him/her, and at what cost?
How can you possibly say you’ll stay
together for the rest of your lives in light
of so many obstacles and uncertainties?
You will have disagreements and disap-
The “rubbing off” of the Christian partner’s
faith to the non-Christian one must be the
noble aim of a marriage between a couple
that is unequally yoked.
Based on such biblical teachings, I have
made the decision to proceed when, for
example, the couple represents two differing faiths but are willing to agree to
my open presentation concerning the
way of Christ. Admittedly, these situations involve a calculation of risk that
could end up with non-commitment.
But often the results are a growing toward
and into the Christian faith as well as a
happy marriage bond. As an intermediary for Christ and his cause, in such
judgment calls I have witnessed the grace
of our Lord became something lively and
concrete, demonstrated in a healthy family life and commitment to the church.
One senses potential in such cases.
What’s a Pastor to Do?
So what does a pastor do in each and
every individual situation? In making any
plans for a wedding ceremony I have
always insisted on a time of up-front
preparation to make sure the couple is
fully aware of potential pitfalls and stum-
pointments: how will you work such things
out positively and proactively, not reactively, thereby making healthy choices
together along the way? And—so important—you may claim that one of you is “a
believer” (perhaps Christian), the other
not at all religious. But do you realize that
everyone believes in something, regardless
of what that belief is? How can these different beliefs work in your marriage? And
finally: What direction-setting will you
make if you are blessed with children?
The decision to proceed with a marriage
ceremony is not a simple line to be drawn,
not a matter of black and white or right
and wrong. Pastors must be abundantly
clear of their own stance with respect to
upholding Christian marriage and careful
to avoid appearing to yield that stance in
any particular situation. However, as Paul
makes the case to the Corinthian church,
the “rubbing off” of the Christian partner’s
faith to the non-Christian one must be
the noble aim of a marriage between a
couple that is unequally yoked—and such
positive outcomes do happen. The grace
of Christ often happily transfers from one
partner to the other by means of love and
tenderness, leading to a common Christlike faith commitment. The pastor’s job
is to clearly inform the couple of why the
Christian foundation for marriage is not
just an afterthought but the very foundation of and for their future. This understanding will lead them to an honest
choice: instead of a “no trespassing” sign
that prevents entry, the “gate” of grace is
open to them.
Would I be willing to officiate at a
wedding for a couple who express two
different faiths? It all depends on their
response to my explanation. If the couple
then agrees to a genuine Christian ceremony I would proceed—but with the
full intent and their permission to follow
up with them after the wedding has taken
place. I have experienced many good
results in which the couple has become
involved fully with a commitment to
Christ and so to one another.
But sometimes that doesn’t happen.
Recently one such couple was referred to
me by people who knew I was a Christian
pastor. Would I perform their ceremony,
already planned to take place in a beautiful location? I responded with a conversation in which I discussed the foundations
of Christian marriage and outlined what
I would ask of them, that is, a Christian
commitment to each other for life. I hoped
that this would become an occasion for
witnessing for Christ and sharing the Good
News. The couple listened closely to my
explanation. But some weeks later, they
cancelled the arrangement since their
families were not comfortable with my
basic Christian stance. In this case, I
needed to fully accept and respect their
decision, even though I would very much
have preferred a different ending.
Tough decisions? Yes. Are there easy,
glib, quick answers? Never! Times have
changed, but not the claim of Christ to
be the center of all of our lives. n
Henry Numan is a retired
pastor living in Vancouver,
British Columbia.
Tuned IN
Epic Summer Reads
Orhan’s Inheritance
by Aline Ohanesian
reviewed by Kristy Quist
The Jaguar’s Children
by John Vaillant
reviewed by Sonya VanderVeen Feddema
Young friends Héctor and César flee dire circumstances in Mexico
by being smuggled into the U.S. by “coyotes”—human traffickers.
Abandoned in the desert, they descend into a hell of thirst, hunger,
fear, brutality, and spiritual confusion. Trying to retain his sanity,
Hector tells stories to an unknown contact on his friend’s phone—
stories about his Zapotec grandparents, about Cesar’s moral conflict
with a Mexican agricultural company, and about himself, including
his thoughts on gods, the Roman Catholic Church, and Jesus. The novel, which
includes profanity and vulgarity, reveals the horrors of human trafficking and the
power of story to inspire courage in humanity’s darkest hour. (Knopf Canada)
The Hardest Peace: Expecting
Grace in the Midst of Life’s Hard
by Kara Tippetts
Kara Tippetts spent the last few years fighting cancer as it
showed up in ever more frightening places. In her book she
witnesses openly and honestly to what God did in her life
before and after her diagnosis. Tippetts expresses her sadness
that the end will come, her joy in the moments she has with
her husband and young children, and her faith in the grace
of Christ that will carry her and her family in the coming
days. Especially poignant as she passed away in March, Tippetts’s story is heartbreaking, beautiful, and full of hope.
(David C. Cook)
On the death of his grandfather, Kemal,
in 1990, Orhan inherits the family business in Turkey. But the family home is
bequeathed to an unknown woman
named Seda who lives in the United
States. Orhan sets out to find out who
this woman is and why his grandfather
has given her this gift. Weaving together
the Turks’ horrific treatment of Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire
and the history of Orhan’s family, Ohanesian builds an unflinching novel that
is both heartbreaking and riveting.
(Algonquin)
Ordinary:
Sustainable
Faith in a
Radical,
Restless
World
by Michael S. Horton
reviewed by Robert N. Hosack
In a culture constantly looking for
what’s new, radical, epic, innovative,
emergent, and revolutionary, Michael
S. Horton returns his readers to the
ordinary means of grace. “No one
wants to be ordinary,” contends Horton. Yet the radical mentality that
dominates contemporary evangelicalism causes everyday Christians to
become anxious about their spiritual
lives. Ordinary counters with a sustainable discipleship for a long obedience in the same direction.
(Zondervan)
No Parking at the End
Times
by Bryan Bliss
reviewed by Adele Gallogly
Since 16-year-old Abigail’s family sold everything and moved across
the country in anticipation of the end times,
t h e y a re ef fe c t ive ly
homeless. Abigail is torn
between relying on the
judgment of her parents—who still trust the
preacher whose prophecies came to nothing—or following her twin brother’s call
to strike out on their own. As Bliss
explores the tenuous ties of family loyalty
and the hard work of staying hopeful, he
gives Abigail an authentically restless voice
filled with questions as well as expressions
of love for her family. This excellent novel
will be a worthwhile and poignant read
for young adults, parents, and anyone
who gives guidance to youth. Ages 13 and
up. (HarperCollins)
Father Brother Keeper
by Nathan Poole
reviewed by Adele Gallogly
Nathan Poole’s
collection of
symbol-rich,
superbly crafted
short stories is set
in the harsh landscape of the
southern U.S. His
characters suffer,
and their personal hardships—sickness, suicide, dementia, violence, poverty—affect their family
relationships. Like the mounds, fields,
and tributaries that surround them, they
have mysterious inner lives that other
people do not necessarily see or understand. The tranquil intensity of these
stories deserves to be savored on a peaceful stretch of grass or to be read aloud to
listeners who long to be swept up by an
evocatively poetic work. (Sarabande)
Black Dove, White Raven
by Elizabeth Wein
reviewed by Francene Lewis
Teo and Emilia’s lives are forever changed the day Teo’s mother
is killed while flying her stunt plane. Their mothers were best
friends, and Emilia’s mother follows through on their dream
to take the children to Ethiopia where they—one African
American and one Italian American—could grow up without fear or harm because of the color of their skin. But
Ethiopia is not the haven they originally envisioned. Evils
from the past and the present arise to threaten their lives.
Author Wein once again uses the framework of flying to
explore unexpected corners of history and the human spirit.
Ages 12 and up. (Disney-Hyperion)
Atlas Girl: Finding
Home in the Last
Place I Thought to
Look
by Emily T. Wierenga
reviewed by Sonya VanderVeen
Feddema
The Joy of
Missing Out:
Finding
Balance in a
Wired World
by Christina Crook
reviewed by Jenny
deGroot
“Beware the barrenness of
a busy life.” Author Christina Crook reaches back
2 , 0 0 0 ye a r s to q u o t e
Socrates in the introduction to a book that speaks
into a twenty-first-century
reality. A journalist with
three young children and
an often-traveling husband,
Crook decides to go offline
for a month. She invites the
reader to consider the
effects of living a “wired”
life, the challenge of setting
personal, family, and work
boundaries, and the
rewards of living into alternative choices.
In her late teens, Wierenga wanted to leave her family
behind, unaware of how much they loved her and how
much she really needed them. With vulnerability and
a keen eye for detail, she relates her childhood battle
with anorexia and its recurrence in her adult life. As
she traveled the world, married, nursed her ailing
mother, and had two children, Wierenga learned that
“no matter how many flights I take, no matter how
many countries I visit, if God’s will and heart are not
my ultimate destination then I am to be more pitied
than anyone.” (Baker)
Rutabaga the
Adventure Chef:
Book 1
by Eric Colossal
reviewed by Francene Lewis
Bored with regular ingredients,
Rutabaga decides to become an
adventure chef. From a dragon’s
egg to mushrooms plucked from
a legendary sword, Rutabaga wants to cook
exciting new dishes. The bold lines of the comic illustrations and the enjoyable story engage the reader in
the ongoing quest for adventure and cooking. Follow
Rutabaga, his trusty cooking pot, and his portable
kitchen as he searches for the next great unexpected
dish. Ages 8-12. (Amulet)
M ore R eviews
online
Tuned IN
Fierce
Convictions
by Karen Swallow
Prior
reviewed by Adele
Gallogly
Hannah More was an
accomplished author
and philanthropist
best known for opposing the slave trade
and promoting education for women in
18th-century British society. Fierce Convictions is a crisply written, rigorously
researched biography that charts More’s
“extraordinary life” through the events,
works, and relationships that established
her legacy. This is no glossy, idealized
portrait; Prior embraces the complexities
of More’s personality. This book will likely
reinvigorate readers in their own faith-led
journeys by showing that our “facts and
our wishes can produce great stories when
serving things much grander than ourselves. And that the stories we tell ourselves
and others matter.” (Thomas Nelson)
Monty’s
Magnificent Mane
by Gemma O’Neill
reviewed by Sonya VanderVeen
Feddema
Monty loves to hear the meerkats
praise his gloriously beautiful mane,
so he allows them to play in it. But he
gets irritated when they tug on it and
tickle him. When he angrily shakes them off, he falls and damages his mane. Now
Monty is really angry, and his vanity leads to danger for the meerkats. Unselfishly,
Monty intervenes to save his friends. O’Neill’s vibrant illustrations enhance her
humorous tale in this picture book with the serious yet subtle message that the
love of friends trumps vanity. Ages 3 and up. (Candlewick)
Finding Me
by Kathryn Cushman
In successful Christian writer Cushman’s latest novel, Kelli
is grieving the recent death of her father and stepmother
when she discovers that her life has been shrouded in lies.
She embarks on a journey from her unraveling life in California to small-town Shoal Creek, Tenn., to discover her true
history and find out who she really is. Fans of inspirational
fiction will find this page-turner moving and satisfying as
Kelli learns more about her place in the world and in God’s
love. (Bethany)
At the
Water’s
Edge
Tell
by Sara Gruen
reviewed by Jim
VanderVeen Feddema
Romahn
From the author of
Water for Elephants comes this elegant tale of American debutante
Maddie and her wealthy, ne’er-dowell new husband on a trip to Scotland during the last weeks of World
War II to try to film the Loch Ness
Monster. Maddie is a spoiled rich kid
who has never worked or even made
her bed or cooked a meal. The initial,
somewhat critical portrayal slowly
evolves into heartfelt sympathy for
Maddie. Gruen is a wonderful storyteller whose writing keeps the
reader pursuing the next surprising
turn of events. (Spiegel & Grau)
by Frances Itani
reviewed by Sonya
A young soldier named
Kenan returns home
from World War I. His
wife, Tress, agonizes about his refusal to
talk about the war. As they drift apart,
Kenan is befriended by Am, Tress’s uncle.
Am is also one of the “walking wounded,”
as is his wife, Maggie, though their sorrows are of a different nature. When the
mysterious Lukas comes to town and
starts a choral society, Maggie joins. She
sets in motion a series of events that
changes all their lives. Itani’s thoughtful
novel reveals the power and freedom of
truth-telling in the context of a loving
community and the corrosive nature of
secrets that wear down the human spirit.
(HarperCollins)
My Battle
Against Hitler
by Dietrich Von
Hildebrand
reviewed by Jim Romahn
Dietrich Von Hildebrand
was an outspoken critic of National
Socialists long before Hitler and his
henchmen seized control of Germany. A
Catholic philosopher, he skewered the
fundamental principles underlying both
National Socialism and Bolshevism,
clearly articulating how they are at odds
with Christianity. Much of what he wrote
before and during the war is informative
in today’s circumstances of an aggressive
Russian nationalism and radical zealots
in places like Iraq, Syria, and Nigeria. In
particular, his perspective on the Roman
Catholic Church and Christianity is a
welcome call to sound thinking and gracious living. (Image)
Discipleship
Jump In
or years I sat blithely on
the banks of the river of
God’s kingdom. I attended
church. I tried to live a good
life. I did a daily devotional
and popped the odd prayer to
heaven as needed. Things were
comfortable there on the fringes. It never
even occurred to me that God might
want to use somebody like me in his
almighty purposes.
Years later, as a missionary encouraging small churches in rural Bolivia, I
suspect that the kind of misunderstanding I had of true kingdom life is one of
the main maladies that cripples the
church. Instead of jumping into the river
of abundant life in Christ, many of us
choose to sit comfortably on the banks.
God calls us to be part of the kingdom
community; we are “a chosen people, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s
special possession” (1 Pet. 2:9). Christians
are all part of a body, says the apostle
Paul, each with our own unique form and
function. And just like the human body,
if even a small part is sick or doesn’t function properly, the whole body is affected
(1 Cor. 12:26).
We are saved, reconciled, loved, and
adopted as God’s children. Flowing from
God’s grace comes our responsibility to
worship and serve God with all our heart.
So why is it so hard for us to take the
plunge into fullness of life with him? Too
often we are shackled by feelings of inadequacy, the chains of comparison, or just
plain apathy. But when we come to God,
recognizing our weaknesses and fears and
bringing our offering of a willing spirit,
the Lord delights to equip us and use us
for his glory.
One congregation I worked with in
Bolivia identified an urgent need to visit
families who were facing difficulties or
God beckons
us to pass
through the
rapids, the
still waters,
and the
deep pools
together.
who had stopped attending the church.
We got a group together and made a plan
to visit some of these families two by two.
The following week we met with the
group again, expecting to hear excuse
after excuse as to why no visits had been
made. But like the seventy-two returning
to Jesus, this small group came back joyful and encouraged. They had been
warmly received in each home, and some
of those they visited had returned to
church the very next Sunday.
God took me to South America to
shake me out of my apathy. On a shortterm mission trip God spoke to me about
the needs of his world and showed me
that he has a purpose for each one of his
children—including me.
The river has taken me away from my
home and family, and at times I have had
to swim hard to keep my head above
water. But God has turned my fears, weaknesses, and inadequacy into peace and
abounding joy. Swimming with God has
brought me the fullness of life God promises to all his followers: the privilege of
sharing in the work of building God’s
kingdom here on earth.
God’s call on our lives is not to sit on
the banks dabbling our toes in the river,
but to jump right in. He beckons us to
pass through the rapids, the still waters,
and the deep pools together. As we let
go and immerse ourselves fully in God’s
kingdom, we fulfil our part—together
with the body of Christ worldwide—in
accomplishing his purposes here on
earth. n
Linda Lugtigheid has been
a missionary in Bolivia for
12 years. She is currently on
sabbatical in Canada, where
she attends Blenheim (Ontario)
Christian Reformed Church.
Re f o r me d M a t t e r s
Stewardship of Technology
O
Our Reformed understanding of
stewardship begins with the notion that
everything we have—time, talent, or treasure
—is a gift from God’s hands. And we, in
gratitude for these good gifts, seek to use
them effectively and efficiently in service of
the kingdom of God.
While we may acknowledge technology
as one of the gifts God has given us for our
work in the world, we do not always consider
what it means to develop an attitude of stewardship in our use of these gifts. When we do,
we tend only to think in terms of the limits we
place on our use of technology—for example,
the number of hours we should spend using
television. Yet just as we would not subject
our stewardship of time, talent, or treasure to
such a truncated understanding, neither
should we do so to our use of technology.
A Reformed understanding of the stewardship of technology begins from the same
foundation as our broader view of stewardship—technology is a God-given gift mediated
through the good gift of human culture and
innovation. Stewardly use of these gifts does
indeed recognize the effects of sin on our use
of technology and the need for limits—the
corruption of sin opposed to the kingdom of
God cuts through every aspect of creation,
including technology. As such, a healthy view
of technology will adopt neither wholesale
acceptance nor outright rejection.
A positive vision of stewardship ought
to celebrate the ways that technology can
be used in the service of God’s kingdom—in
our individual, congregational, and communal lives.
Social media and the ubiquity of cell
phones have dramatically changed the landscape of how we communicate with one
another, and our churches are wise to adapt
to this. Youth leaders can communicate effortlessly and instantaneously with large groups
of students and parents. Our use of natural
resources can be dramatically reduced by the
simple act of digitizing the endless paper trail
of council minutes and agendas. Not only do
I now carry a Bible with me everywhere in app
form, but I can also check my schedule in a
moment, decreasing the likelihood that the
suggestion “Let’s find a time to grab coffee”
becomes only a half-hearted attempt at maintaining a relationship. We do not have to look
far to find ways that God can call us to use
technology in service of the kingdom.
Of course, our use of technology must be
done with discernment. After a period of selfevaluation, I determined that my own use of
Facebook was not aiding my discipleship
journey. In fact, it was forming and shaping
me as a whole in ways that run counter to my
Perhaps we should
challenge our
deacons to encourage
us to be good
stewards not only of
our time, talents, and
treasure, but of our
technology as well.
identity as a child of God—and so I deleted
my account. This is not, however, a decision
that everyone needs to or even should make.
Like the way that we use our time, our money,
and our abilities, our use of technology should
be subject to God-given wisdom. We are right
to ask tough questions about the values of
the companies from whom we purchase our
technology and to prayerfully consider how
our use of technology points us and others
toward or away from God.
The contemporary testimony Our World
Belongs to God has this to say about our stewardship of technology: “Grateful for advances
in science and technology, we participate in
their development, fostering care for creation
and respect for the gift of life” (par. 50). These
guiding principles form the backbone of a
stewardship of technology.
So perhaps we should challenge our deacons to encourage us to be good stewards not
only of our time, talents, and treasure, but of
our technology as well. n
Kory Plockmeyer is the
pastor of Covenant CRC
in Sioux Center, Iowa.
ADS
Denominational and Classical
Meetings of Classis
CALL TO SYNOD 2015 The council of First CRC, Sioux Center, Iowa,
calls all delegates to Synod 2015, elected by their respective classes,
to meet in the B. J. Haan Auditorium on the campus of Dordt College,
Sioux Center, Iowa, on Friday, June 12, at 8:30 a.m.
All area CRC members are invited to join the delegates in worship
at the synodical Service of Prayer and Praise on Sunday afternoon,
June 14, 2015, at 4:00 p.m. at First CRC, 321 Second Street SE, Sioux
Center, Iowa. Rev. Mark Verbruggen will deliver the message. All CRC
churches across the continent are requested to remember the deliberations of synod in their intercessory prayers on Sunday, June 7, and
on Sunday, June 14.
Council of First CRC, Sioux Center, Iowa
Deadlines: July/August issue is 6/18/15; Sept. issue is 8/10/15. Details online.
Prices: Most ads are $0.33US per character (min. 150  characters including
punctuation and spaces). A discounted rate of $0.26US per character applies to
Anniversaries, Birthdays, Obituaries, Denominational and Classical Announce
ments, and Congregational Announcements. Photos are $22US extra.
To Advertise: Place your classified ad online at www.thebanner.org/classifieds or
email it to classifieds@thebanner.org or fax it to 616-224-0834. Questions? Call
616-224-0725.
Available for Call
Church’s 90th Anniversary
Rev. Edward Rockett Following the closure of Fresh Word Ministries, the council of Bethel CRC, Lansing, IL would like to acknowledge
the faithful work of Rev. Rockett. He is now available for call & we
heartily commend him to the churches. Rev. Rockett can be contacted
at 773-953-5839 or erockett25@yahoo.com
GRACE CRC, KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN plans to celebrate 90 years
of God’s faithfulness on Saturday, August 1, 2015. All friends and past
members are invited to attend a Pig Roast. For reservations, location,
and time, call Kim Westrate, 269-388-3584, e-mail Dwestrate@aol.
com, or call the church office, 269-345-2864.
Rev Jack VanderVeer has faithfully completed his term call (Jun
’11 - May ’15) as River Park Church’s Associate Pastor while we waited
for God to provide our next Senior Pastor. River Park Church is thankful
for Jack’s leadership and pastoral care and warmly recommends him.
Our congregation prays for God’s blessings on Jack’s journey ahead. He
has completed his MA in Counseling Psychology and has demonstrated
effectiveness as a pastor in the community beyond church walls. Jack
can be reached at pjackv@gmail.com or 403-803-0329
Congregational
Retirement
Pastor Robert Pohler Fruitport Christian Reformed Church
announces the retirement of Pastor Robert Pohler and is searching for
a new pastor for our 100 member church. We are located near the
shoreline in Western Michigan. Interested candidates are asked to
contact our Search Committee at crcfruitport@aol.com.
100th Anniversary Neerlandia Alberta CRC plans to celebrate
100 years of God’s Faithfulness on August 1&2, 2015. Visit www.
neerlandiacrc.org or phone 780-674-4232 for information and dinner
tickets. Everyone welcome.
OR TO APPLY.
Northern Heights CRC Kalamazoo, MI is celebrating 50 years of
God’s faithfulness. All former Pastors, members and friends are invited
to a cake and ice cream social on Friday, July 24 at 7:00 pm.
We are seeking an experienced individual to
serve as the DIRECTOR OF NURSING (DON)
at our brand new skilled nursing facility (SNF).
PLEASE CONTACT US AT
JOBS@MEADOWBROOKVILLAGE.ORG
OR AT (760) 746-2500
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Kentville CRC 1955-2015. On June 26, CRC of Kentville, Nova
Scotia will celebrate 60 years of God’ s faithfulness and care. The
congregation will celebrate this special event with joy and thankfulness
and a potluck supper.on Friday June 26, 2015. We invite friends, former
pastors and members to join us in giving thanks and praise. For more
information you may contact the church at 1-902-678-6293 or by
email kentvillecrc@ns.sympatico.ca or you visit our web site; www.
kentvillechristianreformedchurch.org
JOB OPPORTUNITY
OUR COMPANY
Meadowbrook Village Christian
Retirement Community
of Escondido, CA opened in 2009
as an independent and assisted
living facility. Our mission
is to honor God by serving others
with love & compassion.
Applicants must be licensed (or become licensed)
in California as a Registered Nurse (RN) and have
DON experience in a SNF.
Candidates should be service-oriented, organized
and attentive to details, familiar with Medicare
requirements, proactive in addressing possible
areas of concern, and
experienced in hiring,
training, and
managing staff.
Find out more about our company at www.meadowbrookvillage.org
Announcements
Vacationing in the Eastern U. P.? Join us for worship (10 AM)
at New Hope CRC of Kincheloe. We are 20 miles south of Sault Ste
Marie and 35 miles north of Mackinac Bridge - just off I-75/Kinross
exit. More info: newhopekincheloe.org
Birthdays
100th Birthday
Sadie (Eisma) De Vries will reach her
100th birthday on June 20, 2015. Please
send cards to Hillcrest Healthcare Center,
2121 Avenue L, Hawarden, Iowa 51023.
Her grateful son, Curt, gives thanks to God
for her alert mind and a life of faith and
service. Great is His Faithfulness!
Agnes Stroo Vandermolen wife of
the late Jack Stroo and Herman “Dan”
Vandermolen will celebrate her 100th
birthday D. V. with an open house June 20
from 2 - 4 p.m. at the Lake City Chr Ref
Church. Formerly of Jenison, she now
resides with her daughter Elaine at 5711
Falmouth Rd. McBain, MI 49657 She has been a life-long blessing to
her blended family: Suzanne (George) Towers, Maxine (Harvey) Brink,
Elaine (Robert) Clark, Cathleen (Leo) VanArragon, James (Dorothy)
Stroo, Mary (Jim) VanderKam, Lois (John) Lukaart, and Marie (Paul)
Jacobs. She has been blessed with 26 Grandchildren, 55 greatgrandchildren, and 5 great-great grandchildren. We thank God for her
life of service and her Christian witness to her family.
Margaret (Brunsting) Blankespoor celebrated her 100th
birthday with friends and family on May 10, 2015. God has blessed
her with 4 children, 13 grandchildren, 29 great grandchildren, and
Church Position Announcements
Pastor Hope CRC is looking for a Pastor to lead our congregation
in Stony Plain, AB. We are looking for someone who is an effective
preacher and a dynamic leader. For more information and a church
profile, please contact Esther Duplisea at hopecrc.clerk@platinum.
ca or 780-892-2149.
Pastor: 2nd CRC of Fremont, MI is in need of a Pastor to share the
good news of Jesus Christ to our congregation and community. For
more information and our church profile, please contact Jason
DeKuiper at jdekuiper@comcast.net.
SENIOR paSTOR Faith Christian Reformed Church in Sioux Center,
Iowa is looking for a Senior Pastor. We are searching for a candidate
who is gifted in preaching, can provide motivation for outreach/
discipleship, is an effective leader, and is compassionate, caring and
sensitive to the needs of our congregation. For information and/or
a church profile contact Search Committee Chairman, Lyle Gritters,
at Lyle@dordt.edu.
Full Time Pastor Third CRC of Zeeland, MI is seeking a full time
pastor to keep us rooted in truth and growing in our community. For
more information contact Steve Langeland at Steve. Langeland@
gmail.com.
Pastor The CRC of Collingwood ON is seeking a pastor who desires
to lead a small, dedicated congregation. We seek a spiritual leader who
is gifted in preaching, meeting the pastoral needs of our congregation
and mentoring us to reach out with love to the community around us.
For more information, contact Jeff Beck at jandcbeck@hotmail.com
Pastor/Candidate Bethel CRC in Saskatoon Sk is offering a
one year renewable term for the pastor position. If you are interested
in this opportunity please contact Anthony @ 306 221 1598 or
nienhuis@sasktel.net
Music Director Edmonton, Maranatha CRC-10 hour position
to lead and organize music ministry. Details at 780-479-5824,
averboon@telusplanet.net
Youth Director Western Springs Christian Reformed Church,
located in the western suburbs of Chicago, seeks a highly qualified
individual to lead the youth ministry of the church. The ideal candidate
for this half-time position will be able to lead the junior high and
senior high youth programs of the church through organizing regular
meetings, planning special events, coordinating youth involvement
in worship, and participating in youth education. A bachelor’s degree
from an accredited college is required. In addition, candidates should
have prior experience working with youth. Salary for the position is
commensurate with experience and qualifications. We invite qualified
candidates to send us a cover letter and resume by email to office@
crcws.org. Projected start date of July 1, 2015. Additional information
about the church can be found at www.crcws.org.
PASTOR Faith Community Fellowship CRC in Mount Vernon, WA is
seeking a pastor who would be dedicated to the preaching of the
Word and to providing pastoral care to our congregation. For more
information as well as our church profile, please contact Chris
Ledeboer at cledeboer@hotmail.com.
Senior Pastor Bethel CRC, Churchill MT is a rural church located
in the Gallatin Valley just outside of Bozeman, a fast growing university town. Bethel’s mission statement is “Planted to Grow and
Sow”. As believers, God has planted us here to grow spiritually into
Him by the hearing of His word and to sow that same Gospel message
into our families and neighbors of the greater Gallatin Valley and
beyond. Is this where you should be planted? If interested, contact
Ron Hoekema at rb_hoekema@yahoo.com
Worship Coordinator Westwood CRC (Kalamazoo, MI) is seeking a half time Worship Coordinator to help plan and lead both traditional
and contemporary worship. Applicants must have worship leading
experience with the ability to sing, play the piano, and develop musicians/vocalists. Some music training and sound/projection proficiency
is desirable. Contact Randy De Jong at ranjodejong@att.net.
worship director WA State Mill Creek Community Church is
currently accepting applications for a Worship Director as well as a
Children’s Ministry Leader. For Info. please email Rene’ at millcreekchurch@comcast.net 425-745-2094
Pastor Position at Calvin CRC in Le Mars, IA. We are located in the
ice cream capital of the world in Northwest Iowa. Our congregation is
seeking a leader who cultivates a personal, daily relationship with God,
is gifted in preaching, has a passion for reaching the community by
inspiring both young and old through Jesus’ example to integrate their
faith in their daily lives, and does this by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our
church profile is available at crcna.org. For further information contact
search committee chairperson Tom Bjorge at tlbjorge@yahoo.com.
Ministries Pastor Forestview Community Church is seeking an
individual who will join our church as Ministries Pastor. Our desire
is that all members of our church will be equipped and empowered
to live out their fullest potential in Christ. This new position is being
created to help us achieve that vision. Working alongside our Teaching Pastor and Office Administrator, the Ministries Pastor will
oversee and support the organizational ministry structures; develop
and implement new programs; ensure all ministries are adequately
staffed and cultivate servant leadership among the members. To
learn more about us please visit www.forestviewcommunitychurch.
ca. Please send credentials or request more information by email to:
Jessica Romaniuk jessr@cncwoodcraft.com
Full time, Director of Youth MINISTRIES WoodyNook CRC,
a multi-generational large church located outside Lacombe in
Central Alberta, is seeking someone passionate for working with
youth and intergenerational ministries. A degree in youth ministry
is preferable. For the job description and full church profile please
visit the website www.wncrc.ca/serving. If this position interests,
you please send your resume to ericjondoef@yahoo.com
1 great great grandchild as well as several siblings. She resides at 725
Baldwin, Apt. 256, Jenison, MI 49428.
95th Birthday
Dena Kooy (Withage) of 301 Homestead
Blvd. #322, Lynden, WA 98264 plans to
celebrate her 95th birthday on June 12
with her husband John and children Wayne,
Beatrice and Brenda, Greg, Garth and Ted
along with 12 grandchildren and 15 great
grandchildren. Thank God for longevity.
Jerry Jonker, of Holland MI, will celebrate his 95th birthday on June
13 with a family dinner. We thank Dad for his wonderful Christian example
and thank God for His goodness and faithfulness throughout the years.
Richard D. Sytsma turns 95 on June 20. His birthday also marks
74 years since he married Dorothy Baar, who died October 31, 2014.
His children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren thank God for
his faithfulness. Happy birthday, Dad and Grandpa!
90th Birthday
Stuart D. Eppinga Sr. 2111 Raybrook Ave. SE #4004 Grand
Rapids, MI. 49546 on June 17, 2015. Celebrating with him will be his
wife of 68 years Helene (Batts); his children: Stu and Vicky, infant son
William in Heaven, Bill and Arlene, Marla and Scott Huizing; 9 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. Psalm 104:33
James Jager of Grandville, MI, will be
90 years old on June 23, 2015. His birthday
will be celebrated with an Open House on
Saturday, June 20, 2015, 2 to 4pm, at the
Sunset Manor, Town Square Room, 725
Baldwin St., Jenison, MI. Cards may be sent
to him at Sunset Manor, 725 Baldwin St,
B22, Jenison, MI 49428
Annetta DeBoe Prins Thanks be to God! On June 5 Annetta will
celebrate her 90th birthday. Her children invite you to join us for a
party from 2 to 4pm, Saturday, June 6th, at Breton Terrace, 2500 Breton
Woods SE, Grand Rapids.
Rev. Kenneth Slager of Grand Rapids, Michigan, will be 90 years
old on June 11, 2015. His wife, Alice, seven children, nineteen grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren give thanks for his life and
faith. Cards may be sent to 2111 Raybrook SE, #1006, Grand Rapids,
MI 49546. “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love
mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Kathryn “Kay” (Vander LAAN)
TALSMA of Grand Rapids MI (formerly of
Wyckoff NJ, Bloomington MN, and Ponte
Vedra Beach FL) will be 90 years old on
July 14! Friends may send greetings to 2105
Raybrook SE, #3056, Grand Rapids MI
49546. “Van het concert des levens krijgt
niemand een program.”
RALPH VISSER of Lynden, Washington, turned 90 on April 19. Celebrating the day with an open house at his home, he is thankful for
the many family and friends who came. Married to Cora for 67 years,
he has 4 children, 9 grandchildren, and 19 greatgrands. As a retired
dairyman, he still volunteers, giving of himself as needed. His
example of servanthood, love for the Lord inspires us all. “Thy Word is
a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path.”
Shirley (Sittema) Zylstra plans to celebrate 90 years of life on
June 18. Her family praises and thanks God for her faith, generosity,
and Christian example. We love you Mom. Happy Birthday!
with 9 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren, are grateful for God’s
faithfulness in their lives.
Anniversaries
70th Anniversary
Sjaardema Don & Ruth will celebrate
70 years of marriage on June 28. They will
take a cruise with their family as thy thank
God for good health and many blessings,
including 3 children, 10 grandchildren, and
15 greats. 809 Spring Lakes Blvd. Bradenton, FL 34201
65th Anniversary
SCHOLTEN William and Shirley (Gorzeman), of Lynden, WA. celebrated
their 65th wedding anniversary April 17, 2015. We thank God for our
children Joan and husband Dale Allen, and Steven (deceased). We are
thankful to God for His goodness and blessings through the years.
Sytsma Leonard and Hermina (Ten Harmsel) of Elmhurst, IL, celebrate
65 years of marriage on June 7. Address: Park Place Unit 4303, 1050
Euclid Ave., Elmhurst, IL 60126. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
60th Anniversary
Dekruyter Gordon and Joyce (Schuitema) 5721 Lawndale, Hudsonville, MI, 49426, will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary on
June 2, 2015. They with their children: Tim & Julie, Doug & Deb, Brad
& Linda, David & Amy, 15 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren
praise God for the many years of his faithfulness and blessings.
POORTINGA Richard & Tena (nee Pasma) of Ingersoll, ON hope to
celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on June 30, 2015! Their
daughters and their families give thanks to God for His many blessings
and great faithfulness.
Peters Neal and Ann (Koning) will celebrate DV 60 yrs of marriage
on June 22, 2015. They with their children Ed & Susan, Tim & Sharon,
Kathy & Ken Brock, Ernie & Maria, 11 grandchildren and 8 greatgrandchildren are thankful for God’s faithfulness and blessings through
the years. We plan to celebrate with an open house on June 25, 6:309pm at Ridgewood CRC, 1571 Baldwin St. Jenison, MI 49428. We love
you Mom and Dad.
Pruim Henry and Evelyn Pruim will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary July
2, 2015. They were married July 2, 1965 at
the First Christian Reformed Church in Sioux
Center, Iowa by Rev. B. J. Haan. They have
two children: Sharon (Pruim) Barry, Kennett Square, PA; and Henry Pruim
and his wife Christie, Orlando, FL. They have two grandchildren: Kayla
and Kirsten Pruim, Orlando, FL.
VerHage Lloyd & Bernice of Holland, MI will celebrate 60 years of
marriage on 6-17-’15. They and their 4 children and 8 grandchildren,
share their joy and gratitude to God for all of his many blessings.
55th Anniversary
Raterink Gary & Shirley (Sneller) of Hudsonville, MI 49426 will
celebrate 50 years of marriage on June 5, 2015. Sharing their joy &
gratitude to God are: Lisa(Tim) Bowman- Gabrielle, Christian, Trusten
& Gracianna. Michelle (David) Brouwer- Madeline, Lily, Jorja & Liza.
Scott(Jeanna) Raterink- Tyler, Caden & Will.
Devries Richard and Janet (Van Ramshorst) of 46967 Elizabeth Lane,
Decatur, Michigan 49045, will celebrate 55 years of marriage on June
17. Thanking the Lord with them are their children Dawn (Brian Gerrish), Jeffrey (Lora) and Michael (Jodi) and six grandchildren. Praise
God for his faithfulness and abundant blessings.
Obituaries
50th Anniversary
Berkenpas (Groothuis) Grace Jacoba Berkenpas, age 82, of
Byron Center, MI went home to be with her Lord and Savior on Tuesday,
April 7, 2015. She was preceded in death by her parents, Klass and
Cathrine Groothuis and infant son Charles Berkenpas. She will be
lovingly remembered by her husband of 64 years, Willard J. Berkenpas;
her children, Patricia (Robert) Dykhouse, Laura (Steve) Meyering, Bill
(Anola) Berkenpas, and Marci (Peter, Jr.) Woodfield; her 12 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren with 3 on the way.
Hoekstra George and Sharon (Hoving), Burr Ridge, IL, will celebrate
their 50th wedding anniversary on June 25, 2015. We praise God for
the love and devotion that they have shown to each other, their family, and those they encounter every day. Much love from their son and
his family, Russ and Elise Hoekstra (Kaleb, Chloe, and Natalie).
de Waal Nick and Maria celebrate 60 years of marriage on June 1.
Their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren thank God for
His faithfulness.
Nassenstein John & Judy of Highland, IN celebrated their 50th
wedding anniversary together with their children Cheri (Mark) Kohut
& Rick (Lisa) Nassenstein, 10 grandchildren. We thank the Lord for the
many blessings and faithfulness through the years.
KREYKES, Donald and Coral (Haveman) of 6434 Leisure Creek Dr SE,
Caledonia, MI 49316 will celebrate 60 years of marriage on June 16,
2015. Their children, Michael and Cheryl Brandsen, Robert and Barbara
De Vries, Jon and Michelle Kreykes, and Jim and Katrina Kreykes, along
PLUG Leon and Rosalie(Schabacher),18231 Walter, Lansing IL 60438,
will celebrate their 50th anniversary on June 5, 2015. Much love from
your family: Eric and Amy Williams (Brian, Tyler, Katie); David and
Diane Plug (Dylan, Drew). We rejoice in God’s faithfulness
gerritsen Robert G., age 93, passed away Tuesday, April 7, 2015.
Preceded in death by wife, Irene; brother and sister-in-law Harold and
Jerry Gerritsen; survived by sons Robert and Barbara (Bowman) Gerritsen, Lawrence Gerritsen, and Randall Gerritsen; sisters and brotherin-law Lois and Henry Vander Meer, Marian Sytsma; brother and sisterin-law Marvin and Verna Gerritsen.
Imaginative Reading for Creative Preaching
with
Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. & Scott Hoezee
June 19–24, 2016
Snow Mountain Ranch, Colorado
A preacher’s reading deepens preaching because it deepens the preacher…
Calvin Theological Seminary President Emeritus Neal Plantinga’s hugely popular and successful seminar,
Imaginative Reading for Creative Preaching, is being offered at Snow Mountain to provide participating
pastors a deeply enriching seminar in the mornings while bringing their families along to enjoy the
afternoons together. Generous financial support will be given to all pastors and their families.
For more details and application information please visit http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/events/
Sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Preaching of Calvin Theological Seminary
3233 Burton Street S.E. | Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 | 616-957-6085 | preaching@calvinseminary.edu
www.thebanner.org
www.thebanner.org
| February
| June 2015 | THE BANNER 41
Danhoff Adrianna Margaret passed away
on April 18, 2015. She was preceded in
death by her husband, Harold; her brother
and sister-in-law, Steve and Kay Cok and
her sister and brother-in-law, Marie Ellen
and Bob. She is survived by her brother
Calvin (Marilyn) Cok, brothers-inlaw Menno Gremmer and Kenny (Ellen); her five children, Doug
(Annmarie), Rita (Joel) Becraft, Becky (Dave) Veltkamp, Harve (Sue),
and Don (Sharon); 13 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
De Jong Janis Dorn, age 80, of Holland,
Mi passed away on April 1, 2015. She is
survived by her husband of 57 years,
Benjamin De Jong and her daughter
Kimberly De Jong. Jan was a public relations representative for Pan American
Airways in Honolulu, was a executive
assistant to presidents of corporations in San Francisco and was a
leader of women’s Bible studies and Christian women’s associations
for many years. Jan would like to be remembered as a devoted and
loving wife, a caring mother and someone who had a deep and abiding personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
DE VRIES Lois (Rens), 79, of Lakewood, CA, went home to be with
the Lord on Feb. 5, 2015. Survivors include her husband of almost 60
years, Virgil; a daughter, Verla (Harold) Van Foeken; two sons, David
(Vali) De Vries & Brian (Leslie) De Vries; eight grandchildren, Kristen
(David) McClure; Nolan Van Foeken; Shannon (Michael) Caldwell; Nicki
De Vries; Natalie De Vries; Brianna De Vries; Chloe De Vries & Molly De
Vries; two brothers, John (Gertrude) Rens & Gerald “Bing” (Audrey)
Rens; sister, Helene Jasper; three sisters-in-law, Coba Rens; Bette (Ken)
Venhuizen & Betty De Vries; many nephews & nieces. She was preceded
in death by her parents, Tim J. & Elizabeth (Huisman) Rens; brother,
Bill Rens; sister, Hermina & her husband Mel Borgman; two brothersin-law, Vernon Jasper & Stan De Vries. Born and raised on a farm
between Orange City & Sioux Center, IA, she was the youngest of six
children. Lois & Virg lived most of their married life in California. A
loving wife, mother, grandma, sister, aunt, & friend, she will be missed
by many.
Ippel Henry Peter Ippel entered his eternal home on April 27 at the
age of 95. Henry was the loving husband of the late Marian Ribbens
Ippel whose love and life he shared for 68 years. He is survived by his
seven children; David and Barbara Ippel, Paul and Trudi Ippel, Charles
and Sheri Ippel, Beth and Randy Zylstra, Tim and Linda Ippel, Robert
and Mary Ippel, and Lester Ippel. Henry received a special joy and
blessing from his 26 grandchildren and 38 great grandchildren.
Konynenbelt Aleida Konynenbelt (Wevers) Passed away on March
13, 2015. in Abbotsford, BC (78 yr old); Beloved wife of the late Arie
R. Konynenbelt (1999) Children; Sharon; Wendy (Sam); Lesa (Ron);
Joy, Ray (Denise) 13 Grandchildren; 2 great grandchildren.
LANTING Jane (Kampen) 80, of Mt Vernon WA, went home to be with
the Lord her Savior on April 11, 2015. Survived by her husband of 62
years, Case, children George(Marilyn), Frank(Ingrid), Andy(Marcia),
Jerry(Linda), Robert(Wendi), Heidi DeJong, Karen(Warren)Timney,
Susan(Ken)Root, 34 grandchildren and 44 great grandchildren. Her
parents, 5 siblings and her son-in-law Frank DeJong preceded her in
death. She was a living example of Proverbs 31.
LUCAS Jacob died and went to be with his Lord in heaven on Monday,
April 20, 2015, at the age of 91. He was preceded in death by wife,
Esther H. Lucas, in 2010, after 64 years of marriage; also his brothers,
Art Lucas and Harold Lucas. Jacob was a strong man of faith who was
generous to all and was a dedicated daily prayer warrior for his family.
He served his Lord with his time and talents with various disaster
response teams, both in the U.S. and abroad. He was also influential
in helping start the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity and served
as past president of the Grand Rapids Home Builders Association.
Jacob also served in the Naval 78th Construction Battalion from
December 1942- January 1946. He will be greatly missed by his
children, Steve (Patsy) Lucas, Mary Lucas, Roger (Mary) Lucas, Marlene
(Scott) Lehnert, Jessica (Jonah) Cajigas; grandchildren, Lona (Adam)
VanLoozenoord, Jamie Erbes, Jenny Lucas, Katy Lucas, Hope Lucas,
Jake Lucas, Steven Lucas, Jeff (Mandy) Lehnert, Laura (Ryan) Wiersema,
Matt (Ashley) Lehnert, Sam Lehnert, Precious Cajigas, Faith Cajigas;
great grandchildren, Ava, Abigail, Anna, Natalie, Jacob, Brielle, and
Alexis; brother, Bob Lucas; sisters and brother-in-law: Ada and Harley
Rillema, Esther Betten, Betty DeHaan, Doris Pennell; brother -in-law,
Blaine Johnson; and several nieces and nephews. He was a loving
father to 25 foster children. A funeral service was held Friday, April
24, 2015 at South Grandville Christian Reformed Church, 4130 Wilson
Ave. SW with Rev. Dr. Daniel Mouw officiating. Memorial contributions
may be made to Grandville Friendship Homes Inc. Interment Rosedale
Cemetery.
VANDERVELD Peter Frank Vanderveld, age 83
went to be with our Lord on April 9th, 2015,
4985 Gulf of Mexico Dr, # 406, Longboat Key,
FL, 34228. Beloved husband of Anna Jean, nee
Lanenga ; son of the late John and Rose
Vanderveld; loving father of Barbara (Dale)
Deschamps, Paul (Susan) Vanderveld, Glenn
(Karen) Vanderveld, and Patricia (Drew) Vlasak; devoted grandfather
of David (Annie) Deschamps and Nicole (Rick) Brown; Elisa, Peter
(Katie) Vanderveld, Jennifer (John) Arnold, and Laura Vanderveld;
Lyndsey (Dan) Bolt, Katie, and Allison Vanderveld; and Mitchell,
Ashley, Tyler, and the late Christina Vlasak; great-grandfather of Noah
and Avery Brown, Ella and Abigail Arnold, and William Deschamps;
fond brother of John Vanderveld and the late Jeanette Decker, Margaret VanderLeest, and James Vanderveld ; uncle of many nieces and
nephews.
VanSledright Adrian, 92 went to be with his Lord 2/18/15. Preceded
by brothers Peter, Elmer, and Rich. Survived by wife Florence Mitchell,
brothers Ray (Lorraine), Henry, sister Martha, sisters-in-law Ardith
and Ruth VanSledright.
Employment
Caregivers Needed Are you interested in working for the best
living assistance services company in West Michigan? Visiting Angels
is looking for people who can be excellent, not average; make a connection with our clients; be perfectly dependable; practice compassion
and work with integrity. Contact Heather at 616-243-7080 or heather@
vangels.com. www.vangels.com
Director of Development Sunset Retirement Communities and
Services is a Christian, not-for-profit organization that provides residential communities and services for seniors. We have four communities that offer a variety of care levels ranging from independent living
to skilled nursing. Sunset has a tradition of excellence that began in
1973. With staff and board members dedicated to enriching senior
lives, our resources are focused on innovative living and offerings. The
Director of Development is responsible for the implementation of a
strategic approach to fund raising that includes, major gifts, financial
donations, grant solicitation/writing, and in-kind resources. The position will provide general oversight and day to day operation of fund
development operations including, but not limited to, fund raising
activities, promotion, special events, policies and procedures related
to fund raising. Interested applicants should apply online at www.
sunsetcommunities.org, please be sure to include your resume and
cover letter. Any questions can be directed Melissa Ohm, Human
Resource Director at mohm@sunsetmanor.org
Executive Director Bethany Home is licensed as a Multi-Level
Retirement Community with Independent living, Assisted living
including Memory Care, Skilled Nursing, Adult Day Care and In-Home
Care Services. The Executive Director has the following responsibilities:
Provide leadership, guidance and development to a staff of 230
people. Manage a $12 million annual budget, meeting the goals of
Bethany Home. Work with the board and staff to create, implement,
monitor and adjust a strategic and tactical plan. Engage and work in
collaboration with the board of directors on matters of governance,
mission, vision, and strategy. Resumes and applications should be
emailed to: ahutchins@bethanyripon.org or mailed to The Search
Committee, Adam Hutchins, Director of Human Resources, Bethany
Home Society of San Joaquin County, Inc., 930 West Main Street, Ripon,
CA 95366 Candidates should provide a cover letter describing their
interest in and qualifications for the position, a resume, and the names
and telephone numbers of three professional references. In the cover
letter, candidates should address the following questions: 1)Describe how your faith impacts your approach to the care of
seniors. 2)Give an example where you have seen an organizational strategy
through to a successful conclusion.
3) Describe your approach to solving conflict.
References will not be contacted until candidates have been notified.
For full consideration, materials should be received by July 1, 2015.
For additional information about Bethany Home Society and a position
profile, please visit our Web site at bethanyripon.org
Real Estate: Sales and Rentals
Lake front log Cottage 2 bdr, sleeps 8, 30 min N of GR. Sandy
swimming, incl. boat, swim raft, kayaks. All sport lake $750/wk Call
Shawn for photo’s 616-240-3915
WEEKLY RENTAL: Douglas/Saugatuck, MI: Newly built Lake Michigan
family guest house, 2br, loft w/ 2.5ba - sleeps 8. Lake Mi view & private
beach. Call Ken @ 630-268-1531 or email Groenjk@aol.com
COTTAGE 4 RENT 4 bed, 3 bath, updated. Sleeps 12, Hess Lake, MI
private waterfront. $1,300/week. Call Lonnie 616-942-0048.
Cottage rental On quiet Campbell Lake near Hart, MI. 2 BR, all
sports lake, kayaks, swim raft and row boat furnished. Great golf nearby.
$600.00 per wk. 616-844-7154. Email for pictures @ eedzg2@charter.net
Lake house for sale Beautiful landscaped lakefront year round
home on beautiful cedar lake. Completly furnished 219-374-9321 Cell
708=284-7608 E-mail. Colonelscutie@aol. Com 219-374-9321
Home For Rent 3 bed, 1 1/2 bath home just blocks from Calvin
College. Home has AC, finished basement & fenced backyard. $1,200
monthly. 616-334-6208
Anna Maria Island, FL Condos pool, beach access, linens, fully
equipped. 1 and 2 bedrooms. $650-750/wk. D. Redeker, 941-778-1915.
redekercondos.com
BEAUFORT, NC: two 1 br furnished cottages for rent in historic coastal
town, near beaches, w/d, TV, A/C, internet, grill, bikes. www.theshellcottage.com (252) 504-6262.
Kissimmee Home for Rent 2 Kissimmee homes for rent in gated
community 3 miles from Disney. 6-bedroom, 4-bath or 3-bedroom,
3-bath, both with privatepools. Clubhouse with rec. room, theater, &
pool w/slide. floridavacahome.com 708-372-2855
Galveston Beach Rental Super Cute 2bd. 2bth Furnished
Beachfront Condo w/ Pool on Seawall Blvd at Four Season on the Gulf
Private Owner 815-404-9134
Thornapple Lake Lodge
Near Hastings, MI - Enjoy a pleasant lakeside home that sleeps 16.
Natural scenic view on a quiet
all-purpose lake. Central to Grand
Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Lansing.
For details and reservation
requests email ThornappleLodge@gmail.com
Strata Home For Sale Enjoy comfortable retirement living in
Canada’s west. 2Bdrm, 1 ½ bath, LR, DR, carport, 1285 sqft single
strata home in a 55+ complex near church (Duncan CRC), schools,
shopping, banking, & sports field/track. Reasonable strata fees, friendly
neighbours, 45 min N of Victoria. Asking $300,000 – make an offer.
Contact jduifhuis@shaw.ca
Hutchins Lake Cottage For Rent Fennville, MI. 2BR, 370 acre
all sports, Lk screened porch, dock, kayak. Summer weeks open. $1000/
wk call-txt (630) 258-8076
For over 125 years, Christian Reformed World Missions has been helping members of the CRC fulfill
their calling to be God’s witnesses to the ends of the earth. See what the Lord is doing, visit crwm.org
Travel
Holiday In Holland in our
self-contained cabin or suite. We
also offer vehicle rentals and
tours.www.chestnutlane.nl
Tour Egypt Spiritual Journey with Steve and Frankie Wunderink.
Learn the impact of Egypt on our Bible! See traditional sites and more.
For next tour check TourEgyptWithMe.com or 702-561-5619
NIAGARA FALLS Trillium Bed & Breakfast. You can reach us at info@
trilliumbb.ca or book online at www. Trilliumbb.ca Brian or Mary at
905-354-3863
Paradise Travel Escapes Creating Memories Made in Paradise.
Call or email Brenda Berg, an In-Home Independent Travel Agent to
start planning your next “Escape to Paradise.” Berg.ben22@gmail.com
616-446-5687
Spectrum Tours - Atlantic Provinces Tour: Quebec, Gaspe
Peninsula, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova
Scotia - September 26 - October 2015 A passport or enhanced
driver’s license is required for this tour. Guided tours of Quebec City,
(boat tour to Bonaventure Island), St. John (Reversing Falls) Fredericton (capital of NB), Prince Edward Island (including home of Anne of
Green Gables), the Cabot Trail, and Halifax (including Peggy’s Cove),
Motor Coach from Grand Rapids- includes 16B, 2L, 14D, 16 nights
lodging, services of local guides, admissions fees to National Parks,
2 ferry crossings, fun, fellowship. Tour escorted by the Diepstra family
- cost for 17 days is $3399.00 PP/(DO)-Single Supplement add $900.00.
For detailed brochure or to make your reservation-call Spectrum Tours
at 616-243-381 or 1-800-243-8381. Limited Seating!
spectrum tours - New England Tour - September 30 - October 9, 2015 A passport or enhanced drivers license is required for this
tour. Guided tours of Montreal, Shelburne Farm, Portland, Kennebunkport, Boston, Cape Cod and Nantucket Island. Visit Trapp Family Lodge,
Mt. Mansfield, Portland Headlight (most photographed lighthouse in
Maine), Quincy Market, Provincetown, and Norman Rockwell Museum.
Stop at Niagara Falls on the way home. Motor Coach from G. R. Includes
9B, 2L, 9D, 9 nights lodging, all admissions, services of local guides,
dinner cruise on Lake Champlain, boat cruise to Nantucket Island, fun
and fellowship. 10 day tour is $1979.00 PP/(DO)- Single S, add $550.00.
For detailed brochure or to make a reservationcall Spectrum Tours
at 616-243-8381 or 888-243-8381
spectrum tours - New York City - November 12 - 17, 2015
NEW YORK! NEW YORK! Always an exciting place to visit- see the
Rockettes in Radio City Music Hall, “The King and I” in the Beaumont
Theater in the Lincoln Center. Dinner at Rock Center Café around the
skating rink, Harbor cruise around the Statue of Liberty- visit Ellis Island
and new 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center. Tours of Lower East
Side Tenement Museum and the NBC Studios. Free time at Chelsea
Market, Trump Tower and Tiffany’s. Worship at the Marble Collegiate
Church. Riding tour through the neighborhoods of Little Italy, Chinatown,
Soho, etc. Motor Coach from G. R. includes 5B, 5D, 5 nights lodging (2
in PA, 3 in Times Square), all admissions, tickets to Rockettes and “King
and I”, services of excellent tour guides in N. Y. $1599.00 PP/(DO)Single S. add $400.00. For detailed brochure or to make a reservationcall Spectrum Tours at 616-243-8381 or 888-243-8381
spectrum tours - Mackinac Island Tour - October 26-29, 2015
Featuring 3 nights in the historic Grand Hotel - each unique room is
randomly assigned. Excellent value for wonderful experience! Includes
3 full breakfasts, 2 Grand Buffet lunches, 3 full dinners, ferry crossings,
taxi between dock & hotel, carriage tour of island, many planned
activities, discounted shopping. Motor Coach from G. R. $829.00 PP/
(DO)- Single S. add $230.00. For detailed brochure or to make a
reservation - call Spectrum Tours at 616-243-8381 or 888-243-8381
Products and Services
Absolutely Best Prices paid for religious books. Contact Credo
Books, 1540 Pinnacle East SW, Wyoming, MI 49509, ph. (616) 249-9291.
gvsbooks@gmail.com
BOERS’ TRANSFER & STORAGE, INC Offering professional moving
services within the United States and Canada. EXCELLENT CLERGY
DISCOUNTS and an approved mover for retired CRC clergy! 13325 Riley
Street, Holland, MI; 1-800-433-9799 or 616-399-2690 email: larry@
boerstransfer.com; www.boerstransfer.com Agent for Mayflower
Transit, LLC.
CARING FOR AGING PARENTS? Visiting Angels offers in-home assisted
living. Our caregivers will prepare meals, do light housekeeping, run
errands, provide transportation to appointments, and joyful companionship. Whether you need a few hours a day or live-in care, for assisted
independent living in your home anywhere in West Michigan call Trish
Borgdorff at 616-243-7080 or toll free at 888-264-3580. TRIP
Participant.
True Blue Caregivers is an affordable and dependable agency
that offers in- home(non-medical) care to seniors. Let us help you stay
in your home! We are a small company with a big heart. Learn more
about us at: truebluecaregivers.com or call (616)406-6819. We are
owned by Calvin grads and serve the greater Grand Rapids Area.
REMODELING? Call Ken DeVries today. Kitchens, baths, tilework,
wood flooring, windows, etc. Licensed/insured. Serving West Michigan
since 1985. 616-457-5880. www.homework-construction.com
REFORMED WORHIP MAGAZINES FREE TO A GOOD HOME - Almost
complete set (missing 2 or 3 issues) looking for a new home. If you or
your church is interested, please contact John Veenstra at cnorton
wheeler41@gmail.com.
Every
Congregation
Needs Safe
Church
Ministry
Safe
Church
Ministry
Equipping Congregations in
Abuse Awareness, Prevention,
and Response
Safe Church Ministry does most of its work through
people like you. Come join us! Be a resource in
your own congregation, classis, and community.
Connect with others of like mind. Join a movement
to change our culture and build communities of
respectful relationships where abuse is unthinkable.
Training and support is available through Safe
Church Ministry.
Find resources for your congregation and more
information on our website, crcna.org/safechurch
or call 616-241-1691 x2193.
Join the Safe Church conversation on the Network
at network.crcna.org/safe-church.
Safe Church Ministry
1700 28th Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49508-1407
They will live in safety and no one
will make them afraid.
—Ezekiel 34:28
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HU M OR
Punch Lines
What has made you smile
lately? Got a joke or funny
incident you’d care to share
with your wider church family?
Please send it to The Banner at
1700 28th Street SE, Grand
Rapids, MI 49508-1407; or email
it to editorial@thebanner.org.
Thanks!
A
s he was dying, a ver y
wealthy man regretted all
he would leave behind. After
intense negotiation, God allowed
him to bring one suitcase to
heaven filled with whatever the
man wanted. He decided to bring
gold bars because these would
allow him to take as much of his
wealth with him as possible.
Arriving at the pearly gates, he
explained to St. Peter that God
had allowed him to take the suitcase with him. Peter reluctantly
agreed, but asked, “May I see what
it is that was so precious to you
that you would take it here?” The
man opened the case, eagerly
awaiting Peter’s reaction to his
great riches.
Peter peeked inside and then
turned to the man, incredulous.
“You brought pavement?!”
—Mark Stephenson
I
learn a lot from my elementary
age Sunday school students.
One day, as an introduction to a
Bible story about Elijah, I asked
the class, “Is it always easy to follow God?” Grace answered confidently, “No. He’s a lot faster than
we are.”
—Cindy Michael
M
y daughter is an educat i o n a l a s s i s t a nt at a
Roman Catholic high school for
special needs students. One day
the lesson was about Easter. She
asked her student if he knew the
meaning of Easter.
The young man thought for a
while but had no answer. To help
him along, she started to sing, “Up
from the grave he arose.”
The boy interrupted and said,
“I know, I know!” He then started
to sing, “He knows when you are
good or bad, so be good for goodness’ sake”!
—Corrie De Wilde
T
he Bible story I was teaching
my grade 2 Sunday school
students was about Jesus healing
a man with a skin disease. One of
the girls interrupted and said
proudly, “I know that story—the
man was a leprechaun!”
—Ashley Elgersma
tion who had not sinned to stand
up. An older man near the back
stood up. The preacher asked,
“Are you saying that you have
never sinned?”
“Oh,” said the man, “I have
sinned, but I am standing up for
my wife’s first husband.”
—Bob VanderLaan
D
uring conversation at a
dinner, I informed the man
seated next to me that I was a
preacher. He replied, “You know,
we’re actually in the same trade.
I am an anesthetist; my job is
putting people to sleep. And you
do the same thing!”
—Walt DeRuiter
T
he other day, after one of her
lessons, I was giving my
6-year-old daughter a pep talk. I
told her, “I believe in you!”
Her response? “But Mom, we
believe in God!”
—Torrey Edwards
T
he irony of life is that by the
time you’re old enough to
know your way around, you’re not
going anywhere.
—Sue Lauritzen
M
y daughter and I often
have to remind my 4-yearold grandson, Daniel, that when
talking in church we have to use
our “inside voices.” One Sunday,
when the pastor was getting
particularly passionate during a
part of his sermon, Daniel leaned
over to me and said, “He has to
learn to use his inside voice.”
—Dick Vandersma
T
he pastor was preaching a
stirring sermon on sin. He
stated that all have sinned, and
there is no one who has not
sinned. To prove his point, he
asked anyone in the congrega-
“It’s O.K. by me. Ask your mom.”
A Christian University
in Hamilton, Ontario
I know the world can be
transformed. Redeemer is
helping me see that while I
can’t do everything, through
God’s grace, I am doing what I
can do now to facilitate change
locally and globally.
-Brent McCamon
READ MORE at
MyRedeemer.ca/Brent

18 Yet in My Flesh 38 Stewardship of Technology

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