Winchester, Kan., RPC

Kyle Borg, pastor

The Winchester RPC was blessed with John Tweed serving as session moderator and filling our vacant pulpit for 2-1/2 years. His service came to an end when we joyfully welcomed our new pastor, Kyle Borg, and his family to Winchester at the beginning of July. Pastor Borg was ordained and installed on Nov. 6, 2013.

During the year the congregation also experienced the joy of seeing four of its sons and daughters united in marriage. God’s goodness continued to flow as we welcomed the arrival of four new babies to our church family. —Joan Wallace, correspondent

First (Phoenix, Ariz.) RPC

Jon Maginn, pastor

“It may be that the Lord will work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few” (1 Sam. 14:6).

Since our last update in 2007, there has been much activity and foot traffic in and out of First RP Church of Phoenix. In some ways, we feel like an oasis where the wild beasts come, and then leave to make their home elsewhere. Our weekly prayer times occasionally sound like the people in Nehemiah 4:10: “The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.”

Some of the trials over the last few years have seemed overwhelming. In one month, right before a summer church conference, we had two elders and a deacon in the hospital—perhaps we should have held a church service there. We added four families and a number of singles into membership, and only one family and one single member have remained. One member had to return to a Navajo reservation after a year-long job search and many temporary moves. Our church building requires work days and many work hours, from staffing the irrigation schedule that keeps our lawns green, to filling holes to keep out the pests. Sometimes, it feels like that’s all we do—patch the holes in our building and in our lives, and keep going.

Sometimes, the balance of struggles and blessings makes us grateful for the birth pangs of growth. We’ve installed many new items in the building, such as an air conditioner, while the Home­school Resource Center across the parking lot provides janitorial service and repairs that would otherwise fill up our members’ schedules. Pastor Jon’s wife, Bonnie, lost her full-time job last year, but God has been faithful in providing temporary work that allows her to speak to people about Christ and present-day martyrs during and after work. We’ve been blessed to host the Pacific Coast Presbytery once, spent two years helping the Tucson work with pulpit and pew supply, and rejoiced at the inclusion of the Brea congregation into the fold of RP churches on the West Coast.

The blessings do outweigh the struggles. We stop to give praise for them on Wednesday prayer night. God provided a new clerk of session in Charles Shipman to replace Elder Hal Reyburn, who is now elder emeritus. After many psalm sings that involved half the congregation, we were greatly encouraged to host one recent winter psalm sing that was attended by many non-member friends, old and new. One visitor even returned to our new Tuesday night Bible study and provided some rousing discussion. With Tucson RPC we shared a mission team, led by Stephen McCollum from Northern Ireland, one of the many visitors we’ve had from that lovely country. Some of our fondest recent memories are of our three-month pulpit swap in 2012, which blessed us with the company of Stephen and Joanne Wright and their three boys from Convoy in Northern Ireland.

In adult Sunday school classes, evangelistic challenges came from The Truth Project and Answers in Genesis videos, matching our pulpit challenges from Pastor Jon. Challenges to live and expand our faith have come from reading through A Praying Life, the Westminster Larger Catechism, and R. C. Sproul’s Foundations series. The kids don’t escape easily, either, as Pastor Jon has volunteered to teach them the Shorter Catechism.

However, Sunday school lessons could never match the sermons we’ve heard. While the book of Job seemed to let loose a great number of congregational health issues, our spiritual health was greatly increased by Pastor Jon’s recent sermons on Christ’s ministry to the woman at the well, and our many guest pastors’ encouraging words on how to fan the flame of our faith from embers. Studying our way through Job, Joshua, Philippians and now the gospel of John has clarified our goal: to bring the water of life to a dry and thirsty land. This area has beautiful weather, great housing opportunities, and many who are in great need of the gospel.

One of the blessings of our close-knit congregation is the fellowship shared between congregants and visitors as we visit each other’s houses, rejoice and sorrow together during house moves, child rearing, and impromptu session meetings. We even host fun events from time to time, like Talent Night or Dads and Donuts—or a women’s retreat, held at the Reyburns’ place in Sedona.

The formation of multiple church plants in Tucson, Las Vegas and other places have greatly encouraged us—we are not alone in our labors. Many have come before, and many will come after to build the kingdom. It’s wonderful to have baptized members join us at birth, like Samantha Willson in Sept. 2010, or to hear their professions of faith as communicant members, like that of Ameliya Anseth in 2013. We pray this trend continues.

Though the workers are few, hearing from those with faith in far-off lands from Mexico City to Singapore is truly like receiving a cup of cold water in the name of Christ. We aim to pass that on to those we meet.

—Linda Shirey, correspondent

Higashisuma (Kobe, Japan) RPC Sumito Sakai, pastor

Higashisuma RP Church held four funerals this past winter. In November, Mrs. Tsruko Miyamoto went to be with the Lord. Mrs. Kazuyo Yamaguchi’s father and mother passed away in January and February. We give thanks that her mother confessed faith in the Lord before her death, and we ask for God’s mercy upon the family.

 Our oldest communicant member, Mrs. Rinko Harada, passed into glory at the age of 103. She had been involved in the efforts to produce a Japanese psalter for many years. Her family represents four generations of members in the congregation.

 The Lord gave us wonderful opportunities in these funerals for sharing the gospel and hope of the Lord Jesus Christ with nonbelieving family members. We pray His comfort to the family members, and ask that He would cause more of them to seek faith in Christ.

—Pastor Sumito Sakai