1

540 Crescent St. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503

By the Spirit’s grace, discipling believers in Christ and evangelizing unbelievers for God’s glory.

Brazil, United Arab Emirates, England, Wales, South Africa, and the Netherlands

September 20, 2016Dear Friends, We trust that you and your family well, clinging to Jesus Christ as your only hope and salvation for this life and the future. Here are some notes of my summer trips.

Recife, Brazil (July 5–9, 2016)My plane got delayed for two hours in Detroit as we waited for a fourth pilot who was flying in from Atlanta. Happily, I still made my connec-tion in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and was able to get to Recife on time. It is a rugged trip of nearly 24 hours, however. To make matters worse, I forgot my flash drive on which I had spent a whole day storing files to work on in flight. That was not a good start!

I spoke five times in less than 40 hours at the 25th Annual Conference of the Puritan Project on Sanctification in Recife on the following themes to about 500 people: Worshiping with Holy Sing-ing, Living in a Holy Marriage, Promoting a Holy Home, Engaging in a Holy Ministry, and Prepar-ing for a Holy Eternity.

It was great to be with Dr. Manoel Canuto (a pediatrician and founder of The Puritan Proj-ect), Pastor Josapha (a godly minister and leader of psalm-singing at the conference), Dr. Joey Pipa (a good friend for many years and the other major speaker with me this year), and our excellent inter-preter, Rodrigo, who translated for me once before.

Dr. Joey Pipa gave five addresses on a variety of historical and practical subjects. I especially appre-ciated his address on the third use of the law from Psalm 119:9–16.

Something special happened after my address on the necessity of holiness in the ministry. Pas-tor Josapha was quite broken by the address. Under deep conviction, he asked all the ministers in the

audience to stand (about 30 were present), then asked

25th Annual Conference of the Puritan Project on Sanctification.

With Dr. Manoel Canuto, Pastor Josapha, Dr. Joey Pipa, and our excellent interpreter, Rodrigo.

2

me to storm God’s mercy seat to call us to repentance and holiness. We confessed our sins and asked the Lord to help us walk holy before God and men. It was a tender moment in which we felt the Lord’s presence in our midst.

What a joy it was to be in Brazil again to see so many friends of many years! I enjoyed quality time with two former students of PRTS, Tiago Baia and Daniel Silveira (with his wife Flavia), both of whom are being blessed mightily by God in Brazil. It was also great to spend time with Mike Coleman, the U.S. Coordinator for the Puritan Project in Brazil, and Ken Wieske, a Canadian Reformed minister who has been serving as a missionary in Brazil for many years. Both men are a great help to the Puritan Project and

have become good friends over the years. I arrived home safely (four flights, 28 hours en route) on Saturday afternoon. I actually spent more time traveling back

and forth to Brazil than I spent on the ground in Brazil. But it was all worth it. God is working in Brazil and it is great to be a little part of that. I think this was my eleventh trip to Brazil. I always find that the Brazilians pastor me every bit as much, if not more, than I pastor them.

On the flight home from Orlando to Detroit, I had a great opportunity to evangelize a businessman sitting next to me. After I got to know about his family and work, I asked him if he was a Christian.

He said, “Um, well, I’m kind of in between.” I said, “What do you mean in between?” He said, “Honestly, I don’t know.” I said, “Well, do you believe in Jesus?” “Well,” he said, “yeah, I think he was a really good man.” I said, “Do you believe he’s the only Savior?” He said, “I’m not sure.” “So what do you believe?” I queried. “I don’t know what I believe,” he said. I responded, “You’ve got to believe something.” He said, “I studied comparative religions for ten years, and it seems to me that they all amount to the same thing.” I responded politely, “I believe you are wrong there, sir. There’s only one religion that believes that the Lord Jesus Christ

is the total and exclusive Savior, and salvation comes to us completely from the grace of God.” “Ah, yes,” he said, “I’ve heard that several times now, but I’m not sure I need that.” I said, “But we are all sinners. You don’t think you’re a sinner?” He said, “Yeah, I’ve sinned all right. But, you know, I try to do my best.” I said, “You see, brother, please don’t let me offend you, but I want to say something very important to you. The Bible

is different than any other sacred book, and Christianity is different than any other religion, because in every other religion in the world, you can get to heaven through something you accomplish or do. But in Christianity, salvation is completely through Jesus because in Christianity, we have to do with God and God doesn’t think like you and I think. For God, there is no little sin because He is no little God. God sees every sin as worthy of hell, and the only way to escape damnation is through Jesus.”

He started opening up then, saying that he was really born a Jew and that some of his relatives died in the Holocaust and he’s been bitter at God all his life. He asked, “How could a loving and caring God send people into those furnaces?”

I sympathized with him and told him that I didn’t have all the answers to such challenging questions. “But one day we will,” I said. “There is a text in the Bible in John 13 where Jesus told His disciples that though they didn’t understand now what He was doing, that they would understand ‘hereafter’—that is, at a later date.”

“I find that comforting—that ‘later date’ business,” he said. “That’s a whole lot better than some simplistic answer right now.”

“I think so, too,” I said. We went on to talk about suffering, sin, our fall in Adam, and eventually that no one deserves life because we are all

sinners: “I understand your grief, your puzzlement,” I said. “But God is God, sir; God is God. What you and I need to

With Daniel and Flavia Silveira

3

see—and I need it just as much as you—is that all of us deserve death and hell because we’re all sinners. We’re all on the same level. And God made us perfect.”

He didn’t respond this time.“You know,” I continued, “I’ve been privileged to be pastoring people about forty years now, and what is amazing is that

the happiest people I’ve come to know are precisely those who don’t think they deserve anything.”“Well, I don’t know about that, but I know one thing—this whole idea of entitlement to freebies—I’m totally set

against that,” he said.Eventually, I dared to ask him: “So, do you dare to say then that there is no God in heaven?”“No, no, I can’t say that,” he said. “But I sure don’t understand Him very well.” Then he paused, and sighed deeply, “You

know, I really wish I could believe in God with all my heart.” He then looked at me and said, “Actually, I almost hate to admit this but I really envy people like you who can trust in God with your whole heart.”

“Oh, sir,” I said. “God is wonderful and you can know Him as well.” I then explained—or should I say preached—to him about who Jesus was and is for about ten minutes.

All the while, he listened intently, inserting questions now and then. Afterward, he asked me if I had another flight after landing in Detroit, so I thought I had better back off for a while and give him some space. After I answered his ques-tion, however, he went back to the subject of Christ and Christianity himself!

Near the end of the flight I asked him if he was a reader. He told me that he was a voracious reader and he would gladly give me his address if I would send him some of my books.

The last thing he said to me as we parted was, “You were really interesting to talk with; I think I learned some things from you. Please don’t forget to send me those books—I’m looking forward to reading them, and once I do, I’ll send you an email with my thoughts!”

“That’s great,” I said. “I’d love to dialogue with you about them.”Who can tell what the Lord will do?

Wyoming, Michigan (July 22, 2016)This evening I spoke at a local church for the American Decency Association Summer Con-ference. The emcee for the evening was Bill Johnson, chairman of the American Decency Association. About 400 people were present. Curtis Bouwers spoke on how God blesses families that walk in His ways. He and his wife Lauren with their nine children (ages 21, 19, 17, 15, 13, 11, 9, 7, 5) edified us with their sing-ing. I spoke on the need for national repentance from the bottom up, based on Ezra 9:4.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (August 1–5, 2016)I left shortly after noon on August 1 for a three-week itinerary of giving 36 sermons and addresses in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; London, England; Aberystwyth, Wales; and Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. The 24-hour journey from Grand Rapids to Dubai via Detroit and Boston went well. However, I didn’t do very well at evangelizing a Roman Catholic flight attendant who sat next to me on the Detroit to Boston flight. She was going home after four days of flying, so was off duty. She said she was very devoted to the pope. She loves the present pope most of all the popes she can remember.

The Dubai airport is extremely modern, but I had to wait nearly an hour for my checked suitcase. Scott Zeller, a ruling elder who serves the Redeemer Church of Dubai as a missionary, whisked me to a very comfortable, new motel in the heart of Dubai. Along the way dozens of skyscrapers were breathtakingly impressive.

Since I didn’t have to lecture until the next evening, I learned a lot about Dubai on my first day here, which I spent with Scott Zeller and his brother Ed, both of whom work for Redeemer Church, pioneering and developing the Gulf Training Center, which trains future leaders for Dubai and other places throughout the Middle East. They told me that with a popu-lation of close to two million, Dubai is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE consists of seven emirates. The city of Dubai, located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf in the middle of the Arabian Desert, is the capital of the Emirate of Dubai. It is an incredibly modern, beautiful, clean city built on desert sand. Dubai and Abu

4

Dhabi (where I once landed but did not visit), are the only two emirates that have veto power over major national matters in the country’s legislature.

Dubai began to flourish in the 1960s due to off-shore oil, but today less than 5 percent of its revenue comes from oil. Business, tourism, and real estate are now its main sources of income. The country, which is run by an absolute monarchy, has a budget sur-plus. Its popular leader, his High Highness Mohammed Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, is an astute Western-style businessman, who seems to have a big heart for the people. The local natives (only 10 percent of the population) are treated royally, often without hav-ing to work. Everyone else has to work. If you are a foreigner in this country, you have to return to your own country when you retire (at age 60!), even if you have been working in the UAE for decades, so there are hardly any elderly people in the church or the nation. Most of the population are men (1.4 million compared to 400,000 women) who work here from countries that are not as wealthy as the UAE. Their goal is to send as much of their earnings as possible back to their family in their home country.

Dubai is known throughout the world for its high-rise build-ings, especially the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, which is twice the height of the Empire State Building. Since 2010 the city has boasted of having the world’s tallest skyline. Dubai has 70 malls, including the world’s largest mall, which we visited. The mall, in turn, houses the world’s largest bookstore! Most of the books in the religion section were Islamic, of course, but there were several hand-fuls of Christian books in English, most of which were quite liberal.

Dubai has the busiest airport in the world in terms of interna-tional flights, and will soon become the largest airport in the world due to its expansion plans. It is the seventh most visited city in the world. Some people call it the playground of the Muslim world, as many Muslims come here to vacation.

Many Dubai residents vacate the coun-try during most of July and August due to its extreme heat. Today, for example, it is 120 degrees and humid. At night, the temperature drops to about 100 degrees. You can only stay outside for a minute or two without sweating profusely. Those who are throughout the sum-mer basically live indoors. In January, however, temperatures are in the 60s and 70s.

Dubai is one of the top 25 most expensive cities in the world and the most expensive city in the Middle East. A small apartment costs $3,000 or more to rent per month. Wages, how-ever, are very high for the Middle East.

The UAE is nearly entirely Muslim. Christian churches are few in number; they are tolerated so long as they agree not to evangelize any Muslims. Most women wear the Abaya—a long black robe with a hijab (a head-scarf that covers the neck and most of the head). Some women add a niqab which covers the mouth and nose, only leaving their eyes exposed. Most men wear the kandurah—a long white robe (sometimes called dishdasha or thawb), and the ghotrah—a headscarf. Immodest clothing is forbidden.

Dubai’s Burg Khalifa, the world’s tallest man-made structure.

Standing in front of the religion section of the world’s largest book store.

5

The official language of the UAE is Arabic; English is a second language. That is very helpful as English speakers do not have to be translated.

The first evening, I went out to supper with Scott Zeller and Dave Furman, the senior pastor of the Redeemer Church of Dubai who planted the church. The church now has 400-plus members, but on an average Lord’s Day (which all churches commemorate on Friday to coincide with the culture), there will be 1000-plus people in church, due to many visi-tors temporarily living in or passing through Dubai.

After supper, I gave three of six lectures on the Puritans to 50 students from 15 countries for the Gulf Training Center of the Redeemer Church of Dubai. Each lecture was an hour long, and included: (1) The Puritans: Who They Were, (2) The Puritan View of Meditation, and (3) The Puritans on Sanctification. The students were attentive and asked very good questions. Most were ministers, theological students, or other teachers who play an active role in their churches.

On Thursday I went out to lunch in a modern restaurant on the fiftieth floor of a high-rise building with the Gulf Training Center staff of Redeemer Church—the Zeller brothers, Trey O’Rear, and also a friend named Kyle Davis. For close to two hours they asked me questions about various facets of seminary training. That evening, I met with about 40 of the 50 students for pizza to answer their questions, and then gave them three more lectures on the Puritans: (4) The Puri-tans on Assurance of Faith, (5) The Puritans on Preaching, and (6) The Puritans on Applying Their Theology to Marriage.

The highlight of my visit to Dubai was preaching on Friday morning on How Christ Matures Our Faith (Matt. 15:21–28) to more than a thousand people at the Redeemer Church of Dubai (the daughter church of the church where one of our recent theological students, Denis Boris, received some of his early theological training). God’s hand of benediction was so evident after this sermon that I felt if I had to fly the entire way to Dubai just to preach this one sermon, it would have been worth it. Several people said they were greatly encouraged to cast all their cares upon Christ, as well as to see their burdens as a positive thing since God uses them to grow us in grace. One lady said to me, “It was as if you were preaching the entire sermon just to me and explained all my life in such detail that I could not but weep through the whole sermon. I will never view my trials the same again.” I think there is scarcely a greater joy on earth than preaching the gospel with freedom and witnessing God’s immediate blessing upon it. Certainly there can be no more rewarding occupation on this earth! Soli Deo gloria!

Afterwards I had lunch with some of Redeemer’s elders and their wives, which generated a good discussion about books with Gloria Furman (the wife of the senior pastor), who has written some books for Crossway and is very involved with finding good female authors for Crossway to publish. From there, one of the elders and his wife drove me to the Dubai airport where I took a direct seven-hour flight to London, arriving at a hotel in Hackney, London at 3:00 a.m., Dubai time.

London, England (August 6–7, 2016)Over the weekend, I had the privilege of preaching four messages for the all-black Evangelical Reformed Church in Hack-ney, London. I try to preach for this church about once a year, ever since God was pleased to use me as an instrument for the conversion of some of their young people at the Aber Conference and in their own church. I know of no church where I believe my labors have been blessed as much as in this growing church of about two hundred people. The vast bulk of the flock is under 30 years of age. In recent years, several dozens of young British Africans have been joining the congregation which, prior to that, consisted almost exclusively of Caribbean Africans. The church is now served by a gifted, thoroughly Reformed young pastor, Kehinde (pronounced Ken-day) Omotayo.

Teaching 50 students from 15 countries about the Puritans. Preaching God’s Word to 1000 people of many different nationalities.

6

On Saturday afternoon and evening, I spoke to about 150 people in a mini-conference of two addresses on “How We Should We Respond to God’s Word,” using Lydia as an exam-ple, and “How We Should Not Respond to God’s Word,” using Felix as an example. The people were as warm, responsive, and loving as ever.

On the Lord’s Day, I spoke on “God’s Consistent Grace” from Psalm 23:6 in the morn-ing worship, and in the evening worship on “How to Use and Not Abuse the World” (1 Tim. 4:1-8; 1 John 2:15-17). After the evening worship, half of the

congregation (mostly young adults and teenagers) joined me in the back of the church, where I answered two dozen of their remarkably mature and excellent written questions in about an hour. Then several young adults approached me with more questions which I attempted to answer until 11:00 p.m.

It was a great delight to be with this dear flock and these special young people. I especially enjoyed my time with Khundo Kalifungwa, my chauffeur, who is a brother of the Zambian pastor, Ronald Kalifungwa. (Ronald is an excellent preacher, a very good friend, and a student in our seminary.) Khundo teaches philosophy, ethics, and kindred subjects to about 2,000 high school students in the heart of London. He told me that he teaches various issues quite objectively but becomes subjective when students “inevitably ask me what I believe about the subject at hand.” What special opportunities the Lord has given him to have real conversations with young people! He also preaches about every other week in London-area churches. God’s grace is evident in the lives of both of these gifted brothers, particularly when one considers that they lost their father when Ronald was three years old and Khundo was only a year old.

It was a great treat, too, to be able to see Easton Howes, the 83-year-old elder of the church, who is suffering from can-cer. He made it home from the hospital on Saturday evening and was able to attend most of the service on Sunday evening. What a dear brother he is!

Aberystwyth, Wales (August 8–12, 2016)On Monday, a gracious young man from the Evangelical Reformed Church drove in a taxi with me to the London Euston train station to help me fetch my ticket, assist me with my luggage, and get me on the right train. We had a great conversa-tion on the 45-minute taxi ride. He is nearing completion of his law degree and desires to someday serve in the church as well. He loves the Lord Jesus Christ and yearns to know Him better. What an exemplary young brother he is!

From London to Birmingham, I sat on the train across a table from a middle-aged woman whose job is to coordinate all aspects of theatre productions. At first she seemed disinterested in speaking with me, but at some point I was able to speak with her about Christ and what a wonderful Savior He is! She was very polite when I spoke about Jesus and our need for Him, but I got the feeling that her heart was so filled with her leadership role in theatre that she had little concept of sin and little understanding of her need for a Savior.

In Birmingham, I had only thirteen minutes to collect my luggage and find my next train to the stunningly beautiful tourist town of Aberystwyth, Wales (pop. 13,000), best known for its university college, where the Aber Conference is held. In God’s kind providence, when I asked a young man if he knew where I should go, he said that he worked for the train station, took out his cell phone, told me in ten seconds what platform I was to go to, and volunteered to help me with my luggage and get me to the right spot. Even with his efficient help, I only made it with a few minutes to spare. This young man was a gift of God to me.

My good friends Pastor Gareth and Cerie Edwards were on hand to pick me up in Aberystwyth at 4:00 p.m. and that evening I attended the opening session of the Aber Conference. The evening speakers who were to deliver evangelistic mes-sages were Bill Bygroves (pastor in Liverpool, England for 35 years) on Monday and Tuesday evening; Dr. Michael Reeves (president of Union School of Theology—formerly Bryntirion West, in Wales) on Wednesday and Thursday evenings;

Evangelical Reformed Church, Hackney, London

7

and Paul Yeulett (pastor of the historic Grove Chapel, England, where Thomas Bradbury, Iain Murray, and Hywel Jones served in the past) on Friday evening. Throughout the week I visited with all three of these speak-ers—none of whom I had known before. Dr. Reeves in particular delivered some power-ful experiential messages that left a deep impression on me—one from Isaiah 61 and 62 and the other on 2 Corinthians 3:7–18. I also had a great time with him talking about various aspects of theological education. We promised that we would communicate fur-ther about different ways that our seminaries could assist each other.

The main speaker at Aber Conference delivers sermons each year four mornings in a row largely for believers and usually a series for the 1,300 attendees. This year I chose to deliver four messages on Revelation 19–22, one sermon on each chapter on “The Great Things of God” as follows: The Great Hallelujah, The Great Marriage, and the Great King’s Return (Rev. 19); The Great Millennium and the Great White Throne (Rev. 20); The Great Life in the Great New Jerusalem (Rev. 21); and Jerusalem’s Great City Center, the Lord’s Great “I Come Quickly,” and His Great Invitation (Rev. 22). I felt God’s help on three of the four messages; but Revelation 20 was a challenge—I mostly sweated my way through that address.

This is the sixth time I have spoken for the Aber Conference, but never was I kept so busy as this year. I spoke three additional messages to various age groups (on “Learning from the Puritans How to Be Salt and Light,” “How to Develop Biblical Friendships,” and a personal testimony), and participated in three Q&A sessions with different age groups (including one with 250 young people), thus having ten commitments in a little more than three days. On one occasion I was privileged to participate in open-air evangelizing on the promenade. Several unbelievers listened in, and a few more pulled up chairs by their windows to listen. Two or three stayed to talk afterward, so overall the experience was rather encouraging.

Meanwhile I was meeting with old friends and making new ones, answering dozens of questions, counseling people, and sharing meals with others. It was great to visit with Ann, the daughter of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Each day was intensely busy from early morning until late evening. But I enjoyed it all. This is my favorite conference to speak at. The people want to hear Reformed experiential messages, they pray for the speaker for months in advance, and they are deeply grateful for the messages delivered, often telling the speaker precisely what they received from God through his preaching. It is a beautiful venue to preach in and a beautiful group of people to preach to. I am always deeply humbled for the oppor-tunity to speak at the Aber Conference.

Book sales were brisk at the conference. The 120 volumes of copies of Meet the Puritans and A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life sold in the first 24 hours, as did 100 copies of 365 Days with Calvin, which I edited.

The last evening I went to Geoff Thomas’s home and enjoyed his fellowship and that of his warm, godly family. We talked until after 12:30 a.m. The only problem was that Geoff’s wife, Iola, was not able to join us as she is increasingly suf-fering from dementia, and is now sleeping sixteen hours a day. My dear friend Geoff and the family are coping remarkably well with this heavy affliction, but please pray that God will give daily, persevering grace.

When I finished speaking at the Aber Conference, David Woollin took me to the Manchester, England airport where he and I were to fly to Dubai. We were scheduled to land 20 minutes before my dear Mary, who was flying from Detroit

Aber Conference attendees

Open air evangelizing (and being interviewed) on the promenade of Aberystwyth.

8

to Boston to Dubai. All three of us then hope to fly to South Africa, where I am scheduled to speak about six-teen times in a dozen venues over the next nine or ten days. On the way to the airport we stopped at a new tour-ist attraction that was offering a display on the “Mary Jones and Her Bible” story. The history in the museum about Mary Jones and the minister, Thomas Charles of Bala, who gave her three Bibles, was fascinating. We saw the burial place of Charles near the museum just out-side of a church that dates back to the sixth century. We also stopped briefly in the beautiful old village of Bala to see an impressive memorial statue of Charles. That was especially meaningful to me since Thomas Charles’s Spiritual Counsels is one of my favorite books.

On the seven-hour flight from Manchester to Dubai, I spoke for a few hours to a 16-year-old Muslim

girl who sat next to me. She had recently read through both the entire Koran and the Bible. She was very kind and soft-spoken in discussion, yet was deeply convicted about her Muslim beliefs. She confessed she was not a very good Muslim, except during Ramadan each year. During those weeks she fasts from dawn to sunset each day, prays five times a day, and feels close to Allah. The rest of the year, Allah seems quite distant, she said, but she attributed that mostly to herself because, unlike her dedicated parents, she doesn’t usually pray five times a day for eleven months of each year.

We got to the heart of our differences—our views of Jesus Christ—about a third of the way through our discussion. Unlike most Muslims I’ve spoken to, she did not get upset when I affirmed the deity of Jesus Christ. She said she often debated with her Christian friends about this very subject. Her main objection to believing in Christ’s deity was that “it makes God seem so far away since you can’t go to Him directly.” That gave me an opening to explain the essence of the gospel to her and to assert that the reality was just the opposite, namely, that Christians go directly to God in and through Jesus who is also God. I then explained how Christians actually feel much closer to God than Muslims feel to Allah because in Christ, God is our Father every day, for twelve months of the year. To my surprise, she said that she found my comments interesting and that in all her debates with her Christian friends, no one had explained the fatherhood of God to her as I had done. When she then admitted that she would never call her god “Father,” I felt like we had made some progress.

By the end of the discussion, however, it became clear that, just like every other Muslim I have ever discussed theology with, she believed that man is not totally depraved, and that if she does her best and is kind to people, she is quite confident that Allah will accept her into heaven. I explained to her how Christians had a much deeper view of their own sin, and that we believe that only salvation by radical and free grace through the substitutionary obedience of Christ could bring us into heaven. She said that she understood me well, but she still thinks that salvation is based ultimately upon the works of the individual rather than on the free grace of God.

South Africa (August 13–23, 2016)It was wonderful to meet Mary in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, after missing her for nearly twelve days. She looked more beauti-ful than ever! Our eight-hour flight from Dubai to Johannesburg, South Africa, went without a hitch. I was able to finish editing an excellent book on the deaconry by a Canadian Reformed author and make good progress on proofreading our forthcoming book on family worship through the Scriptures. We arrived late on Satur-day, tired but grateful to have those long flights behind us. John (a former banker) and Elaine Joubert, a very dear and hospitable couple in their seventies, picked us up and made their happy home our base for the next week. What a joy they were to us!

South Africa is the twenty-fifth largest country in the world by land area, and with 53 million people, is the twenty-fourth most populous nation. It is a greatly diversified nation, with eleven offi-cial languages. Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa with

The burial site of Thomas Charles, near Bala, Wales.

Counseling a young boy about how to evangelize his unsaved friends.

9

a population of 4.5 million; the population of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area where we would do a fair bit of minis-tering in the next week has a population of 8 million.

On Sunday morning, I preached twice at Rosebank Union Church in Hurling-ham, Sandton, on “The Only Way to Live and Die” (Phil. 1:21), to about 900 people in all. The pastor, Leigh Robinson, was very kind to us, and the people were responsive. It was an encouraging morning. Afterwards, I counseled several people, including a 9-year-old boy who was very concerned about how he should evangelize his unsaved friends. His mother said that he often brings his Bible to school and prays for them every day.

The Jouberts then drove to us to the beautiful home of their daughter and son-in-law, Sharon and Francoise Venter, where we were served a delicious meal and enjoyed the company of twenty people, including two families who came some distance to be with us as they had read many of our books and often listened to our sermons on sermonaudio.com. It was a sweet time of fellowship. Sharon is a medical doctor and Francois works in finance.

In the evening, I preached at the Crystal Park Baptist Church in Benoni. To our surprise, numerous churches in the area canceled their Sunday evening service so their people could attend the service at Crystal Park. Consequently, the sanc-tuary was filled, as was a large overflow area, and also a separate room where people watched the service by video. People were present from eighteen different churches! Though I was tired and fighting a cold, the obvious hunger for the word in this surprisingly large gathering (Mary said that it was as if a spirit of expectation filled the church), moved me to preach with considerable freedom. It was a wonderful capstone to a long day. I was also greatly encouraged by several people tell-ing me specifically what they received from the service. We arrived back at the Joubert home about 13 hours after we left in the morning.

On Monday Chris Johnson from Christian Art took David Woollin, Mary, and me to one of his retail bookstores and then out to lunch. We spent a few hours with him talking about books and the possibility of his large publishing company carrying some of our titles in its catalog and 41 bookstores throughout South Africa. Hopefully Providence will allow our relationship with this brother and Christian Art to grow steadily so that Reformation Heritage Books may soon have a larger influence in South Africa.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Nakekela Clinic, a twenty-bed facility that provides medical care to the seri-ously ill, including many patients that suffer from HIV/AIDS and a host of related diseases. The clinic also serves about 400 patients in the community in home care. We were given a detailed tour of this impressive clinic by its supervisor, Dr. Sonja Miskin, a friend of many years whose husband Dr. Arthur Miskin studied at our seminary for four years, and its manager, Dorcas, who works full time at the clinic. The clinic raises many of its own vegetables and employs a number of

Crystal Park Baptist Church

With Dr. Sonya Miskin, the Queen, and Dorcas, at the Nakekela Clinic. Several patients being lovingly treated at the clinic.

10

people to help their patients and the needy in the commu-nity in a variety of ways. Their Christ-like love for the sick and needy is tangible.

We enjoyed dinner and fellowship with Arthur and Sonya Miskin in their home, after stopping to take pictures of several zebra and a giraffe on their property. It was great to be with them again.

On Tuesday morning, Sonya Miskin drove us to Mukhanyo Theological College, where one of our PRTS graduates, Dr. Brian DeVries, serves as president and Dr. Arthur Miskin is professor of pastoral theology. I gave a chapel message to Mukhanyo’s faculty and students on “Jesus’s Office-bearing and Ours” from Luke 22:31–32, after which Mary spoke on “The Kindness of Jesus Christ,”

expounding His kindness in the physical, emotional, and spiritual realms. What a kind and special wife she is to me in modeling the kindness of her Savior and Lord!

It was great to see Dr. DeVries and his wife Lanae again, to have a tour of the new addition at Mukhanyo and hear about the expansion of their ministries first-hand, and to meet most of the faculty and students. It was serendipitous to meet my colleague, Pastor Don Overbeek from Bradford, Ontario, at Mukhanyo. He was just completing a visit to Mukhanyo on behalf of the Mission Board, together with my brother Jim Beeke, whom we missed seeing by half a day. We also enjoyed having Sarsih (Kegel) Miskin with us for the morning. It was touching to see her former students run to meet and hug her at the school adjacent to Mukhanyo.

After we took a fast train back to Sandton, the Jou-berts drove us to Randpark Ridge, where I preached to two hundred people for the Honeyridge Baptist Church, pastored by Stuart Cranna. The pastor could not have treated me more warmly. Afterward we fellowshipped with Matthew and Tina Pieterse, friends whom we met on our first journey to South Africa about twenty-five years ago. [Mary is kindly taking over writing about this trip now.]

I (Mary) was a bit nervous about traveling to Dubai alone. I drove to Detroit Thursday, parked the car in long term park-ing, stayed in a hotel, and caught the 6:10 a.m. flight to Boston, then on to Dubai. On the first flight I sat by a young mom who grew up Hindu, went to a Roman Catholic school, and thinks the Koran is a beautiful book. On the long flight I sat by a medical student who is American but is training in Australia. She is Unitarian. “We don’t have dogmas. We just take the best of the beliefs we like from each religion,” she said. I responded that most of us agree on the beautiful royal law—to love God above all and our neighbor as ourselves, but that it is a very serious thing to add to or subtract from God’s Word.

If there is any one theme in the religious views of people we meet in our travels, it is that all belief systems lead to the same God, that each person can custom design his or her religion, and that rules are distasteful. While claiming to be tolerant, these people are intolerant of Christianity because of its exclusivity. Ironically, within this exclusivity is a loving invitation for sinners to come to our holy God for the greatest gift ever, free grace salvation!

It was wonderful to meet my sweetie at gate B23 in the Dubai airport. Christian Book Discounters (CBD) brought us to South Africa. Peter Temple works for an insurance company and heads CBD on the side. He has followed his father John by bringing in ministers who have authored dozens of books to teach and preach and promote books. My dear hubby presented his books enthusiastically and compellingly, which resulted in very brisk book sales. We ran out of Meet the Puri-tans and A Puritan Theology in the first few days. Lynn sets up the book table at the various venues in Johannesburg. (She kept telling us that they had never sold so many books!) Janet sets up the book tables in Cape Town. She also made the arrangements for our trip with David.

Speaking at Mukhanyo Theological College

With Dr. Brian and Lanae DeVries

11

A highlight of the trip was unloading a large suitcase of goods from Grand Rapids that included fleece shawls, hats, and feminine kits for the Nakekela patients from Esther Guild, slippers from Dianne Arnoudse, and 121 pairs of donated eyeglasses! Sarsih Miskin sent pictures later of the people receiving these items. Thanks to all who had a part in this gift!

Wednesday, August 17In the morning, I met with twenty ladies at Rosebank Union Church and spoke on Blooming in your Church Garden, based on Song of Solomon 4, which compares the church to a garden. I also drew parallels between plants and spiritual life. There was a nice discussion afterward.

David, Joel, and I ate lunch at an Italian restaurant with Jim Wright, Roger Tewson, and Garth Randall from Good Neighbors Bookstore and John Wycliffe Col-lege. We toured their facilities; including the bookstore which carries all our RHB titles. Joel’s good friend Mar-tin Holdt, who passed away a few years ago, started the Augustine Bookroom with his wife Elsabe. These books were recently sold to Good Neighbors. It is a similar set-up as at PRTS and RHB, with the seminary and book min-istry on the same grounds.

In the evening, we headed out for Brackenhurst Baptist Church. Joel preached on “Living in a Godly Marriage: Learning from the Puritans.” Many families of various ages were present. It was neat to see them introduced to the

Puritans and mining treasures from the pages of those that have been reprinted. Pastor Doug van Meter and his wife have set a beautiful example of love by fostering a number of infants, several of whom have been adopted by church members. Right now they are caring for a little black baby who was born at 28 weeks and spent twelve weeks in neonatal care. They came here from America to do a church plant. Brackenhurst called Doug as an interim pastor 23 years ago, and he never left.

Thursday, August 18On Thursday, Joel first spoke for a group of ministers at Her-itage Baptist Church in Melville on “The Amazing Program of Puritan Preaching.” Then a 90-minute drive brought us to Pretoria Central Baptist Church. I was pleasantly surprised when Jane Korevaar, whom we have known for many years from Ontario, showed up! She is working for Reformation Studies, which was started by a Canadian Reformed pastor in South Africa. He became too ill to preach, so he helps provide material to assist African pastors in preparing their sermons. They email him the text they plan to preach on,

and his staff replies within 48 hours with three attachments of up to five pages each of sound biblical exposition on the text. Jane is working to improve the managing and the mar-keting of this ministry. Of the estimated two million pastors in Africa, they reach 4,500.

Joel spoke this evening on “How to Do Family Wor-ship.” The very first time he ever spoke on this was 22 years ago at the Skogheim Conference in South Africa. At night we met a couple that had been to Skogheim. They told Joel with tears in their eyes about the positive impact his preach-ing of that sermon has had on their family all these years. Praise God!

With my helper David Woollin and two ministers from South Africa

The older couple on the left were impacted by my first address on family worship 22 years ago.

12

Friday and Saturday, August 19–20We went to Baptist Theological College in Randberg, where Joel spoke at chapel on Jesus’ office-bearing and gave a lecture on Puritan preaching. The president, Dr. Martin Pohlmann, had a number of things in common with Joel, including age and when they began in the ministry. Book selling went very well.

The final event in Johannesburg was the Family and Mar-riage Conference at Weltevreden Chapel, in Weltevreden Park. It was organized by Pastor Tim Cantrell, who is also helping lay the groundwork for a seminary to be built in the future. The theme was “Holy Homes in a Hectic Age.” About 400 people from 35 churches attended, mostly couples but many singles as well. Joel spoke to the whole group on “Nurturing Friendship and Intimacy in Marriage,” “How Fathers Should Raise Their Children,” and “Living in a Godly Marriage.” I feel incredibly blessed to be married to a man with such deep convictions. In a split session, he addressed the men and I addressed the women on “Family Kindness.” We met many interesting people, who are eager to lead their families in biblical pathways. For each address or sermon we provided books related to the subject. We were whisked away to the airport as the conference was ending in order to fly to Cape Town, where we

were greeted by Peter Temple. He and his wife, Helen, and their three children hosted us.

Sunday, August 21Joel preached on “Heirs with Christ” from 1 John 3:1–3 twice at Tokia Community Church on Sunday morning. What an amaz-ing gift God the Father gives to His children, to be adopted as sons of God! In the afternoon, we traveled to Emmanuel Church in Durbanville, where Joel preached again. We met a retired Dutch Reformed pastor and his wife, who left their for-mer church because it is allowing married homosexuals in the pulpit. His looks and actions reminded us both rather strikingly of Rev. Lamain (Joel’s predecessor in Grand Rapids who served our church for 37 years).

Monday, August 22Our final day in South Africa was spent at George Whitefield College, which overlooks the spectacular False Bay in beau-tiful Muizenberg, a suburb of Cape Town. Joel addressed the students and faculty on Puritan preaching and gave a chapel message as well. Sadly, these seminary students who are at a time in life when they most want to buy books can least afford to buy them. Ben Dean, the post grad dean, urged the students, “If you don’t own Puritan Theology, sell your mobile phone and buy it!” Joel loves addressing seminary students. We pray that as they are being molded, their hearts will burn with the desire to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world!

Rev. Ross Anderson, professor of biblical studies, took us out to lunch at a cafe near the beach. He had pastored St. James Church for 23 years, but experienced burnout nine years ago. His doctors feel it was a delayed reaction to a traumatic experience. He was preaching Sunday evening, July 25, 1993, when four gunmen entered the sanctuary through different entrances. They opened fire with auto-matic rifles and threw hand grenades with nails attached to them into the congregation of 1,000. The terrorists left after using up their ammunition. A church member had a revolver and aimed at the terrorists but narrowly missed Ross. That deterred the terrorists from setting off four pet-rol bombs they had in their car. Eleven people died that

With Dr. Martin Pohlman

With Peter and Helen Temple, our gracious hosts in Cape Town.

After lunch at a restaurant overlooking tbe beautiful False Bay

13

evening, and over one hundred were injured—many seriously. Ross helped care for the wounded and had to bear grim news to two families that their teens had died in the fray.

The Pan African Congress (PAC), claimed responsibility for the St. James Massacre. They had hoped to gain votes, but the slaughter had the opposite effect. Apartheid had already ended and Nelson Mandela had been freed, so many blacks were satisfied with the direction things were going. They saw this brutal attack on a mixed race Christian congregation, whose pastor had spoken out against apartheid in the past for what it was—extreme cruelty. Today the PAC has diminished to nearly nothing. The thugs who planned and carried out these horrific acts were convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but they were granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee. One died in a car accident and the rest have been sent to prison again or have died.

Local (Provincial) elections were held several weeks ago. The ANC, which has typically been the party of the blacks and colored people (the proper term in South Africa for those of mixed race, often with some Malaysian blood) has in recent years been fraught with corruption. Surprisingly, it lost the election. The Democratic Alliance (DA) won, but needed to form a coalition with several smaller parties to gain a majority, which they did this week. Overall, there is more hope and peace now in the country as well as optimism that the poor will receive more of the help they need.

Ross and his wife, Lindy, have two children in their twenties and an adopted daughter. Ten years ago, local social workers approached Ross, asking for help from the church to foster abandoned babies for a few months as they were waiting

for adoption. Lindy is a Nursing Sister and Midwife, so they said, “We can do this.” So they received a little girl who had cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and autism. She had no name, so they nicknamed her “Poppy Honey.” After a few months, no one came forward to adopt her. By this time, she had crawled into their hearts, so the Andersons decided to adopt her. They made her name official. The doctors warned them she would never walk or talk, but today Poppy Honey not only walks, but she runs! She’s not an intellectual, but she communicates. And she is incredibly cheerful. When I asked if we could share her story and her picture, Ross said, “Yes, by all means! Ask people to pray for Poppy Honey!”

Then we were off to the airport for our 36-hour trip home! From Cape Town to Dubai we conversed with a sweet, cheerful, beautiful 24-year-old woman, named Nandy, from Swaziland, sitting next to me. She was raised Seventh Day Adventist, became a Christian while living in Johannesburg, and married a Muslim man, against the wishes of her mother who warned her that she was being unequally yoked. She is a university student who hopes to start a business someday. She supports herself by being a model, but she only models modest clothing. She adores her husband and admires his family for their devotion to their religion.

We asked her what they thought of the violence happening at the hands of radical Muslims. She said they totally dis-associate themselves from groups like ISIS and don’t even regard them as Muslims. She was optimistic about everything, almost to the point of being naïve. Her father died when she was young. She has four biological siblings. Her mother runs a school for autistic children and adopted three more children. We couldn’t help but be concerned about Nandy. If she has children, there will be a struggle over religion. Pray with us that this precious woman’s love will be used by the Holy Spirit to win her husband over to Christianity! And pray that the news we keep hearing of many Muslims coming to Christ in the Middle East will continue!

I had a window seat on the 12.5 hour flight from Dubai to Boston. As we took off, I saw the burned remains of the Emirates plane that burst into flames as it landed August 3, in which all the passengers escaped in 90 seconds, but one fireman died. It was a clear day, and as I followed our path on the flight tracker, I took pictures of places we had never seen before. We flew over the Persian Gulf. Iran has vast uninhabited areas of desert and wilderness with no water and no

With Dr. Ross AndersonThe George Whitefield College

14

vegetation. I wondered if I saw some missile siloes or nuclear plants. Tehran was smaller than I expected. We followed the west coast of the Caspian Sea. We flew over Russia for a long time, then Latvia and the Scandinavian countries, right over the area we celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary in Norway in 2014. Then the route took us to places we have flown over many times before, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, and then to Boston. We are so small and the earth and our Creator are so big! The last leg was Boston to Detroit.

Driving home I asked Joel questions to make sure he was awake, but I was asleep and dreaming before he could answer. I was even seeing things in the road that weren’t there. Finally we were home. We give thanks that we don’t need bars and gates on our homes. We give thanks for the many friends we have all over the world who give up creature comforts to bring the gospel to others. Pray for God’s blessings on the work of the Lord all over the world!

The Netherlands (August 30–September 5, 2016) One week later, I (Joel) flew overnight to the Netherlands to attend and speak at the John Owen Conference (in com-memoration of the 400th anniversary of his birth), organized by the Theologische Universiteit Apeldoorn. The three-day conference had three plenary speakers: Carl Trueman: “The Rise of the Modern Person: Does Owen Play a Role?”; Kelly Kapic, “John Owen’s Puritan Spirituality for Today”; and me, “The Reception of John Owen in Early Modernity.” In addition, twelve papers were presented—including sev-eral by American friends: (David Murray, Ryan McGraw, and Danny Hyde), and Dutch friends (Arie Baars, Wim van Vlastuin, Gert van den Brink, Reinier de Koeijer, and Henk van den Belt). I spent some quality time with these friends, as well as with the rest of the speakers (Tim Bay-lor, Hans Burger, Aaron Prelock, and Alexey Rusakov—a

converted Jew ministering in Ukraine) whom I had not known before. Overall the conference was good, though a bit tiring. Imagine listening to fifteen addresses with accompanying discussions in 48 hours—all on John Owen! The addresses will be edited and presented to Brill Publications for print as a volume on Owen, on whom far too few books have been written.

Conferences like these are small but important because of interaction with others. I had a lengthy conversation with two young men who are interested in coming to our seminary. I enjoyed my time with Arie Baars, who recently retired from his full-time position at the seminary in Apel-doorn, and Martin Kater—Baars’s successor and one of the organizers of the conference. I also spoke with some well-known professors about their programs, and how PRTS might co-labor with them, particularly at the PhD level. One school plans to do a study with us about the possibility of offering a joint PhD degree. One contact like this is really worth the trip.

One morning, Henk van den Belt and I walked the 1.5 miles from our hotel to the conference, stopping along the way to take pictures of the Groote Kerk in Apeldoorn, where Queen Wilhelmina attended church. There is a statue of her outside of the building. I put my arm around her only for the accompanying picture as I much prefer Queen Mary of Grand Rapids!

On the second evening of the conference, Henk van den Belt arranged a trip for a number of us to attend the Geert Grote House in Deventer, the Netherlands, a museum opened three years ago in honor of Geerte Grote. Grote was the founder of the well-known Brethren of the Common Life and of its Modern Devotion. We also saw the beautiful old church building in Deventer, dating back to the thirteenth century, where Grote attended church. It is less than a block away from the museum. The Groote Kerk in Apeldoorn

With Dr. Arie Baars (center) and Dr. Martin Jager

15

On Saturday I had lunch with Willem van Vlastuin, Professor of Theology and Spirituality of Reformed Protestantism at the Free University of Amsterdam and Rector of the Hersteld Her-vormde Seminary that has about 50 students and operates in the confines of the Free University. The rest of the day I proofed my forthcoming book of 600 pages of sermons on the book of Revelation for the Lectio Continua series of preaching through the New Testament, now being published by Reformation Heritage Books.

On the Lord’s Day, I enjoyed preaching in three Hersteld Hervormde churches. I preached at Kral-ingseveer in the morning, with its pastor, Gert van den Brink, translating for me to about 350 people in a cozy, full church. Afterwards I was surrounded with a cousin of my wife and several friends of many years.

We went to Woudenberg in the afternoon, where I led an English service for their new pastor, Rev. Wiljan van Bli-jderveen, with about 300 people attending. We also visited with the van Blijderveen family (with four children under the age of 6) before and after the church service. After the afternoon service, I was surprised to meet two of our seminary graduates and their families, Rev. Nicodemus Ude from Nigeria and Rev. Hans Molenaar from the Netherlands, as well as

several other good friends who had come from various parts of the Netherlands. The new pastor told me that it was like a family reunion for me after church!

In the evening I preached to a congregation of 700 people in Ophe-usden through a translator, in their beautiful, historic church building, parts of which date back to the fourteenth century! A plaque on the wall contains the names of about fifty Reformed ministers that have served the church all the way back to 1639. Before that it was a Roman Catho-lic Church. We also enjoyed some private time with the pastor and his family, Rev. Jan and Anneke Outboden at their home, together with their four adopted Chinese girls—aged 9 to 13, with twins who are 11. Preaching three times, plus traveling 4.5 hours to the various churches throughout the day, arriving home late Sunday evening, and then get-ting up at 3:30 a.m. for a flight home from Amsterdam, left me rather exhausted on Monday morning, but I recovered. The Lord is good.

Marius Storm, missionary from South Africa to the Netherlands for the last quarter of a century, went out of his way to chauffeur me throughout my Dutch travels. Marius picked me up from the Amsterdam

With Rev. Gert van den Brink and Rev. Nicodemus Ude

The old church in Opheusden

16

airport, took me out to dinner one evening with his gracious wife, Amanda, drove me to the three churches I preached at on the Lord’s Day, and drove me back to the airport at 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning to catch an early flight home. What a special brother he is!

On the flight home, I worked on the final proof of volume 3 Perkins’s Works, which we hope to publish yet this year. Thanks to the six hours we gained on the way home, I arrived at the Grand Rapids airport before 1:00 p.m., where I was so grateful to see my Queen and home again!

Warmly, Pastor Joel BeekeRev. and Mrs. Jan van Ouden with their four beautiful, adopted, Chinese girls