We just arrived home from a wonderful time in Washington attending Eric's installation service into the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC).
Many of you know that currently Eric serves as pastor in the United Reformed Churches of North America (URCNA), but we are serving in Uganda as part of the OPC. Typically, if a pastor were to switch his credentials into the OPC, his installation would be at his local church, but because Eric isn't being called to a particular congregation, but rather to Uganda, his installation service was held at the meeting of presbytery (the gathering of leaders from OPC churches throughout the greater Northwest area). So in addition to the installation service, we also sat in on the meetings, which I could give a wife-ly commentary on, but I'll refrain...
Pastor and good friend, Dan McManigal, gave a very challenging and encouraging message from I Thessalonians 2.
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| Rev. Dan McManigal of Grace Church |
Rev. Calvin Malcor asked the questions of installation.
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| Rev. Calvin Malcor and Eric |
Mr. Mark Bube, General Secretary of the Committee on Foreign Missions for the OPC, gave the charge. Once again, we felt our utter helplessness to do this on our own strength and our utter dependence upon God.
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| Mr. Mark Bube |
These two men, Rev. David Thoman on the left and Rev. Dan McManigal on the right have been a constant source of encouragement to Eric in recent years. Rev. Thoman is the assistant pastor of our current church and is in the trenches, planting a new congregation: Redeemer Reformed. Rev. McManigal planted another daughter church of our current congregation a few years ago (Grace Church) and has seen the Lord pour out abundant blessing on that congregation. The six of us have enjoyed quite a few triple dates in the past few years and the fellowship and encouragement from these men has sustained us and edified us. These men are lovers of God, warriors of the cross and and men of courage...we count ourselves blessed to have walked with them these past years. Dan McManigal is also moving on as he and his family are moving to another city to obtain adequate education for their sweet boy who struggles with his hearing. So our prayers are with them both: Dan as he seeks what God would have him to do next, and David as he continues to fight the good fight here. We are also praying for God to richly bless our current congregation with a new pastor who will be an even greater blessing here than Eric has been.
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| David, Eric and Dan |
This week has also been exciting as we have purchased our plane tickets and packed our first boxes. We praise the Lord for his grace. Please continue to pray for us as we are in great need of God's continued grace and strength.
