Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Isabel, South Dakota, has a trio consisting of Rev. Arie den Hartog, Rev. George Lanting, and Rev. James Slopsema. A congregational meeting was scheduled on April 30 after the afternoon services for the purpose of calling a minister from this trio. Isabel’s pastor, Rev. Rodney Miersma, has accepted the call to labor in Pella, Iowa. 

Rev. James Slopsema and eider Dewey Engelsma have returned from their trip to Singapore with a positive report as to their contacts there. 

Just before Rev. Slopsema left for Singapore, he received a call from Faith Church in Jenison, Michigan, to become their pastor. Upon his request, Faith Church gave Rev. Slopsema permission to delay consideration of his call until after his return. He will then have the customary three weeks to make his decision. 

At a special congregational meeting held on March 10, the congregation of Edgerton, Minnesota, decided to build a kitchen in the basement of the church. The consistory brought a plan with an estimated cost of $2,200 to $2,700. The project is already under way. 

The consistory of our church in South Holland, Illinois, has scheduled a special congregational meeting May 8 for the purpose of considering a proposal that the congregation call a missionary and support him in the amount of $10,000 per year. This proposal includes that this work be carried out with the advice of the Synodical Mission Committee and under the constitution of the Mission Committee governing the mission work of the churches in common. 

The new Southwest Church building is now beginning to look like a building. The floors have been poured and the inside walls are going up. All the brick is on and all the windows are in. The committees are busy picking out colors, carpeting, etc. The Mr. and Mrs. Society is holding various fund raising projects such as a garage sale to raise funds to furnish the nursery in the new church. 

The Isabel bulletin carried a note that Mr. Thys Feenstra, a member of our church in Redlands, California, has offered his services to our congregation in Houston, Texas, to assist them in their project of building an addition to the church parsonage they recently purchased. 

The Men’s Society of our church in Edgerton sponsored a spring social on March 13 to which the members of the Ladies’ Society and all adult members of the congregation were invited for an evening of Bible study, discussion, and fellowship. 

Our Michigan area churches sponsored a lecture entitled “The Pleasures of Babylon in Jerusalem, an Analysis of the Entertainment Problem” on Thursday, April 27. Prof. Herman Hanko spoke to an overflowing house at Hudsonville Church. Many chairs had to be set up in the narthex and the fellowship room to seat the large audience. Cassette tape recordings of this lecture are available. Write the RFPA, PO Box 2006, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501. 

An open house was scheduled on April 29 at the Hudsonville parsonage so that the congregation might see the pastor’s new home. Coffee and cookies were to be served. The Hudsonville consistory has decided to schedule communion services on the 2nd Sunday of March, June, September, and December. 

The Church Extension Committee of our Loveland Church recently mailed out 600 copies of the pamphlet entitled “The Perspicuity of Scripture” by Rev. Hoeksema. The committee of our Redlands Church mailed 1094 pamphlets on “The Reformed Witness on the Subject of Marriage and Divorce” to homes in the Redlands area. 

Apparently many are not aware of the ‘new’ bulletin clerk of First Church in Grand Rapids. Mrs. Judi Doezema, 1904 Plymouth Terr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506, has served in that capacity since January, 1977. Mr. James Heys, who served as clerk and bulletin clerk in First Church for many years, has been translated to glory and the reward of grace. 

A Quiet Thought, from the Southeast bulletin: “The trials of life ‘come to pass’, but they also pass away when God’s purpose in sending them has been realized.”

—KGV