Conference at Parkland Reformed Church
I had a great, quick trip to Alberta over the first weekend of December. Moses Wright picked me up from the Edmonton airport. I had a great talk with him for the hour drive to the Dibbet home where I stayed for the weekend. A graduate of PRTS and a former neighbor, Rev. Scott Dibbet is the pastor of the Free Reformed Church in Lacombe, Alberta. He has been serving there for three years with God’s evident blessing. The church appears to have grown spiritually and has doubled in size. It was great to be with him and his wife, Becky, and their five children, Merissa, Caleb, Abby, Zach, and Emma.
Pastor Scott Dibbet with Sons and Hunting Trophies
The weekend conference was organized by the Parkland Reformed Church of Ponoka, a United Reformed Church of 350 people pastored by Rev. Mitch Ramiksoon for the last nine years. He and his wife Doris were originally from Trinidad, and are delightful to speak with. On Friday evening, I gave an address to 200 conference attendees on “What the Puritans Can Teach Us About Building a Godly Marriage.” On Saturday, I gave three addresses on childrearing: “How to Bring Children to Christ”; “How to Rear Children in the Faith”; “How to do Family Worship.” The attendees, whose responses were very encouraging, were mostly marital couples who came from a variety of Reformed churches within a two hour radius. They bought more than $4,000 worth of books.
On Saturday I enjoyed supper and fellowship at the home of good friends, Brian and Sharon Beevaart. Sharon has cancer, but so far is doing remarkably well. Please pray that God may wondrously heal her completely. We were joined by Roelof Janssen and his wife Theresa for supper. Roelof runs the book ministry of Inheritance Publications, so this made for much lively discussion as we shared experiences with each other.
Brian and Sharon Beevaart (left), Roelof and Theresa Janssen
On Sunday I preached twice for the URC of Ponoka and once for the FRC of Lacombe, spent some time with the Dibbet family, and then visited that evening with Rev. Barry and Val Beukema, a URC minister serving in Alberta. It was a delightful time.
On the flights to and from Edmonton, I was able to finish editing an excellent volume on Alexander Henderson, the great Scots leader most responsible for the Scottish National Covenant of 1638, that Reformation Heritage Books hopes to publish early next year. I also edited our next Puritan Reformed Journal—320 pages of very good material on a great variety of subjects. If you’re not getting this, you really should subscribe to that journal—you will love it!
