Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.

Evangelism Activities

The Evangelism Society of the First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI sponsored a “Summer Sing-spiration” Sunday evening, July 14, in their church auditorium. In addition to inviting their congregation to join them, they made a special effort to invite families and friends from around their church home to come and join them. In addition to audience singing, there was instrumental and other vocal participation.

In evangelism news from the Bethel PRC in Roselle, IL, we find that they are presently sending out tapes to 156 individuals on a weekly basis and six per week within their own congregation. For the month of June there were 329 unique hits to their web page.

This August the Evangelism Committee of the Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI once again sponsored their annual Summer Seminar. This year’s theme dealt with “The Christian and Money.” For four successive Wednesday’s in August, interested participants met together at Southwest for a timely discussion of money and how it affects their lives. Rev. R. Cammenga opened the series on August 7 by looking at “Making Money.” This was followed one week later by Mr. David Ondersma, a retail loan officer at a local West-Michigan bank, speaking on “The Christian and Debt.” Then Rev. Cammenga spoke on “Money and Marriage.” And finally Rev. G. VanBaren spoke on August 28 on the subject, “Treasures That Money Cannot Buy.” Outlines and handouts were provided for each discussion, and there was abundant opportunity to raise questions. If you are interested, both audio and video tapes of the seminar will be made available at a later date.

Congregation Activities

On July 1 the internships of Seminarians Paul Goh and Bill Langerak officially began. The council of the Bethel PRC made Mr. Goh and his wife welcome by inviting the entire congregation for a time of fellowship immediately following their evening service on July 7. Our Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids, MI officially welcomed Mr. Langerak and his family on July 10. Southeast combined with that welcome a demonstration of the Allen Organ that their council was presenting to their congregation for their approval at a later date. Their evening concluded with a strawberry shortcake/ice cream social, which was to help the young people raise funds for this year’s convention.

Evidently the congregation of Southeast liked what they heard July 10, because on July 22 they approved the purchase of the Allen Renaissance 320 organ.

On Thursday and Friday, August 8 & 9, the Men’s Society of the Loveland, CO PRC sponsored two lectures by Prof. H. Hanko on the rearing of our covenant children. The timing of these two lectures seemed especially appropriate, with the school year less than three weeks away. It no doubt served as encouragement, not only to parents, but also to the entire church, as they considered this essential calling. Opportunity was given for discussion and questions. Prof. Hanko also preached once for Loveland on August 11.

School Activities

With the school year now in full swing, we often fail to consider that these schools are indeed a blessing from our heavenly Father. We often just assume that they will just continue. We were reminded of this recently when we read that the Heidelberg PRC School will have to wait at least one more year to begin operation in the Chicago area. They had hoped to be able to begin with kindergarten this fall. A willing teacher was available, but the number of students was insufficient to begin. We remain confident that in God’s perfect time it will come to pass.

Northern Ireland Activities

The British Reformed Fellowship sponsored a family conference, beginning July 20, in Castlewellan, a small town in the south and east of Northern Ireland, beginning July 20. The 50 or so who attended were housed in an old castle on a large estate. Prof. Engelsma and Rev. Gritters each spoke three times on the subject of the assurance of salvation.

Minister Activities

Candidate D. Overway has accepted the call to serve as pastor of the Covenant PRC of Wyckoff, N.J.

The congregation of the Byron Center, MI PRC has extended a call to Rev. C. Terpstra to serve as their next pastor. With him on that trio were Revs. A. Brummel and M. DeVries.

Rev. R. VanOverloop declined the call he received from the Grandville, MI PRC.

Young People’s Activities

Our denomination’s annual young people’s convention was held this year at the Epworth Forest Conference Center in Northern Indiana, August 12-19. It was hosted by the Georgetown PRC in Hudsonville, MI, which makes this, we believe, the first convention ever to be hosted by a church in one state and held in another. From talking to different young people after the convention, we can also safely say that this year’s convention was a huge success. We were able to pick up some of that mood when we had the privilege of attending this year’s Pre-Convention Singspiration, held Sunday, August 11 at Fair Haven Ministries in Jenison, MI. What a blessing to sing praises to God with over 1500 like-minded fellow believers and to see 400 young people up on the stage singing.

Rev. Gritters, Haak, and Terpstra developed this year’s convention theme, “Youth, Examples of Godliness,” in three speeches throughout the week, and the conventioneers were kept extremely busy with a seemingly endless variety of spiritual and recreational activities.