That was written when?

If you have ever read Machen's Christianity and Liberalism you were probably like me wondering over and over again, if Machen had come back from the grave to write this in the early 21st century. Church historians are right to point out that history repeats itself, although in the case of Christianity and Liberalism it is being repeated in "Conservative Evangelicalism" instead of Protestant Liberalism. I was struck the other day with something else that was prophetic of the present day when it was written over 70 years ago.

The preface to Louis Berkhof's Manual of Christian Doctrine was written on May 10, 1933 which is 10 years after the publication of C&L but still in the period were Protestant Liberalism was wreaking havoc on the church. What Berkhof says in his preface is totally relevant today as well:

After the publication of my Systematic Theology, the publisher requested me to prepare for publication a more compendious work on Christian doctrine, which might be fit for high school and college classes, and might also be used profitably by our older catechumens. Mindful of the great importance of the proper indoctrination of the young people of the Church, I did not have the courage to refuse, but undertook to prepare a brief manual. The work seemed particularly important to me in view of the widespread doctrinal indifference of the present day, of the resulting superficiality and confusion in the minds of many professing Christians of the insidious errors that are zealously propagated even from the pulpits, and of the alarming increase of all kinds of sects that are springing up like mushrooms on every side. If there ever was a time when the Church ought to guard her precious heritage, the deposit of the truth that was entrusted to her care, that time is now. (He continues the preface by explaining the layout and workings of the book.)
May 10, 1933

Since I am starting to think about my upcoming catechism year of teaching 7th and 8th graders the truth of God's Word and the doctrines of the church, I now have a fire lit underneath me and some extra motivation!

Open or Closed Mind?

Michelle and I were driving behind a car the other day that had a bumper sticker that read something like, “I wish those with closed minds would also have closed mouths.” I told Michelle that this shows that this driver is actually the one with the closed mind. The reason being is that this person doesn’t even allow those who disagree with him to speak about it – how “open is that?!” If one were to truly have an “open mind” then they would be willing to allow for the open sharing and discussion of ideas. What gives this person the right to speak, but to forbid that opportunity to others of a contrary persuasion?

Having an opinion about something and holding to that opinion strongly does not mean that you have a “closed mind”. It just means that your mind is made up, after you have weighed all the other options and chose the one that you feel is the correct one. You are then more than willing to share that opinion with others and defend it against their attacks. However, by doing so you must be willing to then change your opinion if the other argument is more sound that your own. If that is the case then you really can say that you have an “open mind.”

Now you can say that you have a “closed mind” when you have a strong opinion, but are unwilling to put that opinion to the test and to allow for others to put you on the defensive and to test the strength of your view.

I have been accused of having a “closed mind” in the past, and I will most likely continue to be told that because of my “conservative views” on many things. However, as I have argued above, that statement is a misnomer since I try my hardest to listen to the other side, defend and examine my own judgments, and am willing to change if my stance is shown to be untenable. It is my experience though that many times those that accuse others of having a “closed mind” are only doing so because they themselves are unsure of their position and are unwilling to put it to the test, and try to end the conversation by claiming, “You just have a closed mind.” When what they are really saying is, “I don’t believe you and am unwilling to open my mind to listen to what you have to say. Therefore, I want this conversation to end.”

There is something of a reason behind this post. Mainly it is due to that bumper sticker which I have been thinking about recently, but there is also another reason which I might post about in the future. But I just wanted to know your thoughts about being open and closed minded, and if the latter is really just a way to end a conversation before it really starts and where they might be shown to be the real “closed minded” person.

Seven

Another year has come and gone. If you know me or my family, or if you read my blog post from last year on this date, you know what I am talking about. On August 15, 2000 my father died very suddenly of a heart attack. Seven years. SEVEN! Just under a quarter of my life spent with out my dad. Unfortunately that percentage will continue to climb.

Death stinks.

Just last week Thursday I attended the memorial service here in Escondido for Dr. den Dulk. Memories flooded back. Dr. den Dulk was a very close friend of my father and he kept in contact with us over the past seven years. Being in the EURC sanctuary almost seven years to the day from when the funeral service for my father took place was hard to say the least. It was especially hard when people I knew approached me and talked about my father (which I loved to hear). But at one point I had to go into another room and physically weep after somebody told me they still kept a photo of my father in their personal files. Even after seven years, all the thoughts, all the memories, all pain, all the grief are still right there.

Death stinks.

The memorial service for Dr. den Dulk was very nice mostly because Dr. den Dulk planned it. He picked out the songs, he picked out the passages to be meditated on, he chose who was going to speak. We had to do all of that on our own in two days, in not the best state of mind. I think we did a good job considering and we had guidance from Dr. Godfrey, Rev. Cammenga, and others which was invaluable.

There is so much more I could say, but a lot of it I did last year. Here is the link to that post.

Someday soon I am going to try and post the audio from my father's memorial service on-line so that you can hear it. I have to convert it from Audio Tape (it was aaaallllll the way back in 2000 after all) into digital. All the guys did a great job considering how much pain they were feeling as well, but Rev. Cammenga's message was really good.

That is all. Make sure you say "I Love You" to your parents!

Malawi Photos On-Line! (Its about time!)

I have finally created the webpages for some of our photos from our Malawi trip! We took almost 1,000 photos and stripped them down to just over 100. There is so much more to say that couldn't be done on website. Some of that was said in the update e-mails posted below, but most of it needs personal interaction, therefore, come and see us and we would love to chat about it! If you can't come out to SoCal, then just e-mail us or call! Our e-mail address is mandm *at* mvpol.com.

Mark and Michelle in Malawi Website

M&M Malawi Updates

We are working on getting a website made with our photos from our trip to Malawi. But that is taking a while. So in the meantime you can read our updates that we sent while we were gone.

Just a note on the posts to come. Blogs usually stack posts on top of each other, therefore, to go in sequential order you have to read from the bottom up, which is annoying. So I posted in reverse order so that if you start from the top you can read straight down.

Hope that made sense!

June 13, 2007 - from Johannesburg, South Africa

Hey all -

Just wanted to let you know that we have arrived safely in Johannesburg!! We are staying in a hotel tonight and will be leaving for Malawi at 10:20 (local time) tomorrow morning.

That is all for now! Talk to you all later, D.V.

Mark and Michelle

June 18, 2007 - from Nkhoma, Malawi

Hello all!

We are finally able to get a message out to tell you that we made it to Malawi, and actually have been here since Thursday. There is so much that we can say, but for the time being a brief recap will have to do.

Thursday:
We arrived in Lilongwe (the capital) and were greeted by Steven Roberts who was already here. Going through customs was not a problem although the bag the officer wanted to look at had my Greek New Testament sitting on top. The officer looked at it and asked if this is all I had, and I told him I also had an English Bible and when he moved some other stuff he came across one of my English Bibles. He asked if I had another one and then said he would like to have an English Bible. So I gave it to him. After that he let everybody go through without checking their bags! I guess he was already looking at it!

We then went to Matapila where we were going to be staying for the next few days.

Friday:
We went to the "orphanage" which was really a feeding center for the orphans or those that only had one parent. We had a great time getting to know the kids and leading the first half of our VBS.

Saturday:
Another day at the orphanage and we ended up playing soccer with the boys for awhile. Mark's team won 2 to one! Michelle was hanging out with the girls watching the game.

Sunday:
We went to church at Mzusa Presbyterian Church which can be an e-mail in itself. It was great! Let's just say for now that we ended up moving outside with about 700-800 people in attendance all sitting on the hillside. Steven Roberts exhorted and did a great job (through a translater).

After church we left Matapila for Nkhoma which is where we are going to be for the next four plus weeks.

There is so much more to tell you, and hopefully we can do that soon. This is a really beautiful country and the fact that we stayed in a "real" Malawi village was a great experience and Lord willing, we will be able to do that some more at the very end of our trip. The food is another item we can share with you. We have only had one meal we would rather not have again, but we ate that by candlelight and that was a good thing!! Other than that we have really had some good food.

Alright. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and we will try to give some more information and thoughts soon.

Take care and have a blessed day.

Mark and Michelle

June 23, 2007 - From Lilongwe, Malawi

Mwadzuka Bwanji -

First of all, the internet access that we have access to is very, very limited. So therefore we are unable to keep you as up to date as we would like. We have actually had to come to the capital city of Lilongwe to send this e-mail. So it might be awhile until you can hear from us again!

Being completely immersed in another culture has been great! We are slowly learning the basic phrases of the language and are able to at least communicate with the people we pass along the street. I opened this email with "How is your morning?" to which you would respond with Datzuka Bweno, Kaya enu?

We have only been in Malawi for just over a week, but yet it seems like so much longer! There has been so much that we have seen and done already and we still have a lot of time here!

We have already given you a brief update on our first couple of days in the village of Matapila and our drive out to Nkhoma. The biggest news since then is that we have all been able to do what we came out to do and that is teach our brothers at Josophat Mwali Theological Institute (the name was changed from NIFCOTT in 2005) and Michelle is able to teach in the primary school.

First for the guys. When Steve and Fletcher first arrived it didn't look like we would be able to teach anything. However, we are pretty much teaching ALL the first year classes!! There are even a couple of fourth year classes that we are teaching. The only hiccup that we have had is that their semester ends on July 4 and they have finals after that. So even with only two and half weeks of teaching we are trying to get in as much stuff as possible! Some of the professors have given us lists of items we can lecture on, whereas some classes we have been given free range!

For the most part all of us are teaching around 14-15 class periods (45 minutes each) covering the subject areas of Old Testament, New Testament, Church History,Systematics and Preaching. Personally I am doing all the Preaching classes (10),three OT classes and two New Testament. So really what my main goal in this trip was to use Dr. Johnson's book "Him We Proclaim" as a textbook and I am able to do that! From what we have seen thus far, the idea of Christ-centered preaching is very much needed and I hope that I can do justice teaching that!

It was fun because on the first day the Steves (Steve Roberts and Steve Bussis) gave to the first year students copies of "Him We Proclaim" and Berkhof's "Summary ofChristian Doctrine", most likely their first theological books. They applauded when they realized that they we able to keep the books as their own! We also gave copies of those books to the professors, and the remaining copies to the library.

Michelle is teaching English to the "Standard 6" grade at the local primary school which is just down the road from JMTI. She has all her classes in the morning and therefore has her afternoons free, but hopes to fill those with some other work, maybe at the hospital or with the wives of the seminary students. She has three sections of about 60 students each section!! But as she has observed the students are a lot more disciplined than back in the States! At the end of class sessions the teachers give their students an assignment and then LEAVE the room. And all the kids actually do their work! The school is much different then those in the states, the children sit on the ground of an old torn down building or on the ground outside. Thursday the Headmaster of the School introduced Michelle to the whole school (~2,000 kids,most come from the surrounding villages) and for the rest of the afternoon when ever kids around town saw Michelle they yelled "Madame Vander Pol!!". She has achieved something of celebrity status for the time being!

Our days have fallen into something of a routine and will at least until our teaching duties are completed. In the morning we have breakfast together as a group (usually consists of a fried dough "puff" that we buy from the market) and then headout. Michelle has to be at school at 7:20 and the guys have devotions at JMTI at 7:30. Lunch is usually around 1:00 and then the rest of the afternoon is filled with preparing our lessons for the next day. A couple afternoons we had the pleasure of talking with some of the students from the seminary, It was great getting to know more about their culture through these talks. After dinner (we cook ourselves, and have done fairly well!) we might continue preparing lessons, but we always leave time to play a card game or two. Bed time is usually around 9:30-10:00.

One neat thing that we have enjoyed doing is going to the market. It is an open-air market with the vendors all displaying either their wares or their produce. The food choices are fairly limited, but so far we have been living off of Peanut Butter and Jelly on White Bread and then making different things with Potatoes, Cabbage, Tomatoes, Onions, Rice, bananas, and eggs (Mark even ate a banana!!). Now that we are in Lilongwe we are going to go to the "supermarket" and buy some other things wehave been craving like meat (Mark has been craving), cheese and other fresh fruit. Overall most things are really cheap compared to the States. Food for five people for a good two days ends up costing us $4-5! The one thing that is not cheap is making a phone call to the USA! An eight minute call is around $10! Therefore, don't be expecting too many phone calls!

The next time I might be able to get an e-mail out will be on July 9 when we bring Michelle to the airport. There might be an earlier time, but don't hold your breath!

Things are going great and thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers.

Take care, we love you all.

Tiwanana (Good-Bye) from the warm heart of Africa.
Mark and Michelle

July 2, 2007 - from Lilongwe

Hello!!

Well, in a way there is nothing major that has happened in the past week plus, butyet there is a lot for us to say! We are still in the town of Nkhoma and have "settled" into a routine over the past two weeks. Although on Wednesday (July 4) classes will end and our routine will have to change.

The best way to keep you up to date on our happenings is just to go day by day from our last update.

Sunday - June 24
The four guys and Mark were assigned to join a first year student to their Sunday school class on Sunday morning. And when we say morning, we mean it! Mark met Mr.Chiwaya in front of the school at 6:00am!!(Michelle had planned to join him, but was trying to get over some sort of illness that she had had for a couple days) It was a really cold morning, which meant that most of the children were slow in coming toSunday School. Where we were supposed to start just after 6:00, we had 10 kids at 6:30. However, by 7:15 there were about 80-90 children in the classroom (at the Primary School). After Sunday School I walked back the Guest House to eat breakfastand prepare for the church service. Normally there are two church services on Sundays. At 8:30 there is an English service and at 10:00 is the Chichewa service. However, this Sunday was a special Thanksgiving service.

The thanksgiving service happens once a year at harvest time. Since these people are mostly all farmers, their harvest offering is just that - a portion from their own way to make a living. The majority of the offerings were maize (corn) contained in big bags (which required two people to carry) or in big buckets on the women's heads. The buckets were usually decorated a little bit as well. Other goods that were brought were eggs, sugar-cane, peanuts, and even a live chicken or two! The offerings were brought forward in front of a packed church section by section while the people sang and danced. It was quite the occasion. There were a lot of visitors like us who were taking pictures, therefore Mark was able to get some pictures and even some video as well. It was hard to explain our method of Thanksgiving offerings to these people!

The rest of the day was relaxing as we were just hanging out at the Guest House.

Monday - June 25
Mark didn't have any classes this day, but there was plenty for him to do as he needed to prepare for his 6 class periods later in the week. Mondays are Michelle's short days so she was done early. We ended up talking as a group for quite a whilej ust chatting, so Mark wasn't able to get done all that he wanted too, but getting to know the other guys a little better was nice.

Tuesday - June 26
Again for Mark he had no classes, but because not everything was accomplished Monday, this day was booked solid with reading! Tuesdays are one of Michelle's longer days. She had a fun day with her classes and the lessons went well. She is starting to get to know some of the children better during their breaks.

There is a group of medical students from Ireland that are staying at a house nearby. Steve Roberts and Matt Barker have become friends with them, so we invited them over for dinner. We had a good pasta dinner and a good time of fellowship. None of them are Christians, but they have been asking Roberts and Barker a lot of questions because the Christianity they know is a "dead" Roman Catholicism and seeing a couple of committed Christians who are excited about their faith is strange to them! Lord willing the conversations will continue to grow.

Wednesday - June 27
This is Michelle's longest day of teaching 7:20 until 12:45 (still not too long, but a long time to be standing with only one 15 minute break). The classes are going well. Sometimes she wonders if the students are understanding everything she says. She needs to remind herself to talk slower since the children are still learning english. The children are wonderful however and she is loving her experience at the school.

Mark finally gets to teach class!! He taught two class periods of preaching which covered looking at the book of Hebrews as a NT sermon and also some theological foundations of OT texts and how they are to be seen especially in relation to NT revelation. The classes went really well, and Mark hopes that the students are getting something out of them. They don't ask a lot of questions, but most of them seem to be taking a lot of notes. All of us teachers will be adding questions to the final exams so we will be able to figure out if they are getting the material!

The power was going in and out most of the afternoon and around 6:15 it went out for quite a while. This has happened a number of times since our being here. Thankfully we had already prepared our dinner! We were using our headlamps and candles to make it through the darkness.

We are now alone in the Guest House. There was a four person accounting team from the Netherlands who were auditing the hospital but they left early in the morning. It is nice to have the place to ourselves!!

Thursday - June 28
Michelle had another good day! The children love when she tries to talk Chichewa to them. During their break they took pleasure in being the teacher to her and trying to teach her more Chichewa. They even made her write things on the board. In the afternoon Michelle decided to walk around town and talk to some people. Anyone will talk to you, everyone is so friendly. She picked up some "chips" (littlefried potatoes) for the group at the roadside stand. The children still see her around town and shout "Vander Pol!"

Mark had two classes again, but this time one was an OT class and the other was NT. The OT class covered the Abrahamic Covenant and the NT class talked about the Kingdom of God with an emphasis on the two-age model. After class Mark had to continue to prepare for Friday's preaching class, so more reading was in store.

Nothing else really happened!

Friday - June 29
Michelle gave her students a test today. The tests are all graded and some of them did very well and some did not:). It was a short day but most of the afternoon was spent grading 180 english tests!

Mark had two more preaching classes this time covering really a basic overview ofthe themes in Scripture and how we can see the fallenness of man and the need behind each text. Ultimately seeing Christ fulfilling his prophetic, priestly, and kingly roles. The other part of the class we looked at five OT genres and talked about basic over-arching strategies in which to preach those texts.

We were out walking around and up in some trees were monkeys!! There were three or four of them playing around! Needless to say, Michelle was thrilled! We did get some photos!

Since there were no more classes for anybody, the afternoon was kind of relaxed and we walked around the town a little bit. We each had dinner with a student's family which is a great time for all. We were with Mr. Mkokamasa, his wife Georgina (sp?) and their 20 month old child. Michelle enjoyed having a female to talk to. Spending most of her time with 4 guys was taking its toll. The Malawian people are so hospitable even when they don't have much.

Saturday - June 30
There is a mountain north of the town called Mount Nkhoma. It is a quite an impressive mountain and we wanted to try and climb to the top of it. The Guest House has a cabin up in the mountains which you can stay over for a night. We all made it up to the cabin and then the guys took off to try and make it to the peak. After an hour of pretty much trail-blazing to get closer to the peak we ended up turning back, Michelle met some people who passed by the cabin and they told her that they have only heard of one person making it to the top. Once Mark and Steve Roberts heard that they have made it a point to make another effort to be number two and three!

The highlight of the trip though was that we saw wild BABOONS!!! On a few different occasions we saw families of baboons playing and sitting around on rocks and such. It was great! They were a little far off, but we got some photos of them.

In the evening we all were invited to the Principle of the Theological School's house for dinner. Everybody here is so welcoming and open that we have great times when we get to have dinner with people. And we get a real taste of Malawian food.

Sunday - July 1
All of us men were assigned to fourth-year students to accompany them to their respective prayer-houses to have an opportunity to see the village churches(or prayer houses) of Malawi as well as preach. The student I was assigned to was busy this week so we had a choice of where to go this weekend. We decided to accompany Steve Roberts to his church service. It was an hour walk and we are figuring it was about 3-4 miles each way. Steve preached through an interpreter and he did a good job. We walked back home and we were quite sweaty and dirty! Michelle was wearing sandals and over dirt roads her feet were filthy! Once we got home we took showers and crashed. We were tired from the hike yesterday and the walking today gave us some good excercise!

So that is about it! Michelle will be leaving next Monday (she wishes she wasn't :() so we are going to try and send out another e-mail then with information from this coming week!

Michelle has made some plans with the wives of the men at the seminary, and she plans to attend a fellowship time on Tuesday with some woman. Again she is looking forward to some time with females!

We miss you all!

Take care,
Mark and Michelle

July 9, 2007 - From Lilongwe

Good morning, afternoon, evening, whichever it is for you as you read this.

Well today is July 9 which means I (Mark) am sending this e-mail after dropping Michelle off at the airport for her return trip to the States. She is leaving two weeks earlier than me so that we can continue to survive the rest of the summer! She really did not want to leave and it has only been in the last week or so that she has started to get to know the other student's wives and felt more of a part of the community of Nkhoma. She also wants to go back to the Katondo feeding center and Matapila with us at the end of our trip. So remember her in your prayers as she is traveling (alone) and Lord willing should arrive in LAX in the late morning of Tuesday, July 10. Also pray for me as I am away from Michelle for two weeks! She has been a great addition and balance to the four guys, and I am afraid we will reenact "Lord of the Flies" while she is gone, or the Lost boys from Peter Pan!

This past week went quickly and a lot happened, although I won't bore you will ALL the details! The four of us guys finished our classes on Wednesday and were disappointed that our main task here has completed. However, we all gave questions for the student's final exams so we will have to proctor and grade those examinations. We are arranging things for us to do while we are still around here, so you will hear about those developments as they happen.

Michelle also ended her time teaching. Even after only three weeks she will miss "her" kids tremendously. She is a celebrity around here, even miles away from town she is greeted along side the road with "Madame Vander Pol, Madame Vander Pol!!" Thursday was her offical last day because Friday was Malawi's Independence Day. However, the teachers of the Standard 6 grade organized a little going away party for her early on Friday morning to which a good number of students got up and attended. They presented her with a gift, the cloth needed to make a skirt/wrap as well as a top. Michelle wanted to get one of those outfits, and they gave her one! We also pretty much bought out the supermarket in Lilongwe of ball-point pens so that we could give one to every student (all 170 of them!). Michelle noticed quite often that they didn't all have pens, which makes it hard to do your work when you have to share! They really seemed to appreciate them as they broke into thunderous applause when we announced them!

Wednesday, as you know, was the Fourth of July. Since most of the fireworks displays are on the evening of the third we were commenting at breakfast around 6:15am, our time, that those on the West Coast were probably watching the fireworks right then! There is a team from South Africa staying in the Guest House with us and they threw us a Fourth of July party that evening! They came in with ballons and buttons, and the best part - hot-dogs!! They got the "sausages" in Lilongwe and had the worker at the Guest House make the buns. Since she didn't know what hot-dog buns were they told her to make rolls in the shape of a banana! They were amazing!! The best hot-dog buns ever! To top it off the lady who is sort of in charge of the Guest House makes homemade mustard which was also very, very good. We were shocked by their thoughtfulness and their excitement at helping us celebrate our Independence Day!

Saturday was a busy day. Michelle and I rode bikes (ask Michelle how that works in a skirt!) with a student, Mr. Tamale, and his wife (she rode side saddle on the back of his bike) to his prayer house about 10 kilometers away. It was mostly downhill (which was fun for me because my bike's brakes didn't work at all!!!) and we got there in about 45 minutes. We were at the prayer house primarily for a marriage seminar. But they also have a prepatory service the Saturday before Holy Communion (which they have quarterly). At that service only the communicate members attend and they get a "ticket" which they need to present before getting communion on Sunday - more on that later. The marriage seminar went fine, except that for almost two hours Michelle and I were sitting up front listening to Tamale talk in Chichewa. Apparently he is pretty funny, but we didn't know why! Tamale asked me to talk about the equality of men and women in marriage, and the problem that men lord over their wives in this culture. In many ways they are treated like slaves. I was nervous about making a huge cultural faux pas, but I told them that I was just giving them what I find in God's Word about how Christians should act in marriage, not what the world does. I think I almost got an applause when I said that in Genesis 2:18 God gave Adam a HELPER, not a SERVANT! I think my speech went well, and after I was done a gentlemen stood up in the congregation and exhorted the guys that they needed to love their wives more. He said that most often the wives are the ones when coming back from the field, they have a child on their back, vegetables on their head, and a hose in their arms while the men walk in front without anything. Tamale said it was good and needed to be heard especially in this culture. Oh by the way, the men and women sit on separate side of the church!

The ride back from the prayer house was fun when after a few minutes my left pedal fell off!! We got it screwed back in, but after a few more minutes it came off again! This time, when it came out I was pushing on it hard and it mashed some of the threads together when it came out. Therefore, we couldn't get it back in using our hands. Thankfully we got somebody with a wrench after a few minutes and screwed it back in. Since the way there was mostly downhill, then obviously the way back was uphill. So much of the way home we walked our bikes up hills. Also by this time the afternoon sun was nice and hot for us. We were very tired by the time we returned home to the guest house.

Shortly after we got back Fletcher Matandika, our resident Malawian fromWestminster, came into the Guest House! After four weeks of being in Malawi we were finally able to meet up with him. It was good to see him and here what he is doing in the village of Dzua.

Sunday morning Michelle and I were able to get a ride into church! The officiating minster for communion had a driver and took the Tamales and us along. That was really, really nice. It is amazing how a ride in a car/SUV is such a treat! When we arrived at church Michelle and I were pretty much whisked away. Michelle with the women and I was with the elders. I was given the opportunity to preach, and since it was communion Sunday I preached from Hebrews 9:1-14 and talked about how the OT sacrifices pointed to Christ and his sacrifices was the final sacrifice and the torn temple curtain showed. Preaching through an interpreter was interesting, but because of some factors with the pulpit and my notes it was good that I had afew seconds after every sentence to figure out what I was going to say next! After the service the congregation was let out of the church while the elders prepared the elements for communion. The "wine" was actually diluted Coke! It looked like white wine! I guess the congregations that can afford it use wine. After everything was ready those people with tickets were allowed back into the church. This was essentially a separate service with almost all the elements except maybe reading the Law, but since it was in Chichewa I have no idea if it was in there! The elements were distributed to two of the elders and the ministers, myself included, first and then passed around to the congregation.

After church the ladies went out back and started to sing and dance around. Michelle was included in that and had a great time! I hung out in the back of church. After a little bit Mr. Tamale, the Rev., a couple of elders, and I were escorted to a local house where we were served lunch. I had goat meat along with rice. It was pretty good, prepared with a little too much salt, but still good. Michelle also had dinner with some ladies and had Nsima (staple food of Malawi) also served with goat meat. Needless to say she didn't eat the goat!

After dinner the guys I was with walked over to a lady in the village's house to give her communion since she was sick. Thankfully the ladies came along so I finally got to talk to Michelle! We were separated from about 9:30am to around 4:00pm! After visiting this lady we went back to the car and drove back to Nkhoma.

We had a very busy weekend, but it was really good to be at a village congregation, to be able to partake of the Lord's Supper as well as bring the Word of God to his people on the other side of the world.

There is soooooo much more to say, but Lord willing it will be easier for me to do that when Michelle gets back to the states and when I follow in a couple of weeks. If your church is looking for ministry opportunities, then please let me know! The Nkhoma Synod church of Malawi has a lot of needs especially in the face of a lot of Liberal pressures from South Africa and the US. They are trying to hold on to the Reformation, and are so thankful for the connection and encouragement that we provided coming from WSC.

That is all for now. Please keep Michelle in your prayers as she is traveling the next two days and for those of us remaining and the work that we are going to be doing here.

Take care, and God bless.
Mark (Michelle in absentia)

July 16, 2007 - from Lilongwe

Hello all -

Well, this is probably one of the last e-mails to be written from the country of Malawi. Lord willing, in a week, those of us remaining will be heading back to theStates on Monday the 23rd, arriving back in SoCal on Tuesday the 24th. In case youhaven't heard, Michelle made it back safely last week, and has already been back towork for a little bit. She wants to be back in Africa though!!

Not much has happened in the past week. We have been busy preparing text versionsof our lectures for the students to have as a resource as well as grading exams. Saturday we were all under the weather, so that wasn't the best of days. Fortunately, now we are all feeling a lot better and hopefully all our illness isover so our flights will be as pain-free as possible.

I was able to preach again this past Sunday at a "revival" service or a "crusade". I cannot tell if the Spirit was working or not - if he was, it was in Chichewa! Pretty much the only thing different about this service was that it was outdoors,and that 4 people preached. So the service essentially lasted, all told, 5 hours!!! Thankfully I was underneath shade for the whole time, but a majority of theaudience was not. So I don't want to hear anything from any of you when a servicegoes over by five minutes while you sit in air-conditioning!!

I look forward to talking to a lot of you in person soon. Keep us in your prayersas we finish our work here. Thanks again for all your support. There would havebeen no way for Michelle and I to serve the church here in Malawi without yourprayers and financial support.

God Bless,
Mark

July 25, 1007 - from Escondido, California, U.S.A.

Well, well...

It is hard to believe but the Malawi trip is over for both of us as Mark came homeyesterday afternoon. All the flights went great and were uneventful although,long... very long! The one thing that happened is that none of Mark's and the otherguys' checked luggage made it out of Africa with them! Thankfully, Mark just lookedup the report on-line and all the luggage has been found and is enroute to San Diegowhere it will be delivered to us hopefully tomorrow.

We are working on a website with photos and stories so look for that in a couple ofdays (we took almost 1,000 photos so we have to sort through them all!). Unfortunately there is so much to show and tell about that the website will not doit justice at all. Therefore, next time you are in Southern California let us knowand we can give you a proper presentation!

Take care...
Mark and Michelle

In Memoriam: Robert den Dulk

This morning we got news that Robert den Dulk had died after a long bout with cancer. Dr. den Dulk was a great friend of my family and his death hits very close to home. Dr. den Dulk worked very closely with my father at WSC and even stepped in to temporarily fill his position when my dad died almost seven years ago.

May the Lord be with the den Dulk family during this time of mourning and grieving. We can thank the Lord that Dr. den Dulk was professing his faith in Christ throughout his struggle with cancer and all the way up to his death.

The letter sent to friends and family this morning can be seen here. An "In Memoriam" page is currently being built on the WSC site and I will link to that when it is finished.

UPDATE:
The In Memoriam page for Dr. den Dulk is now posted on-line here.