CHURCH NEWS

Calls Extended:

To Rev. J. VanHaaren, of Amersfoort, the Netherlands, by the Kalamazoo, Michigan, Congregation.

Candidate Joel Beeke has received the following calls—

To the Sioux Center, Iowa, Congregation

To the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Congregation

To the Unionville, Ontario, Canada, Congregation

To the Corsica, South Dakota, Congregation

To the Sunnyside, Washington, Congregation

To the Lynden, Washington, Congregation

To the Artesia, California, Congregation

Calls Declined:

To the ‘s-Gravenhage — Centrum, the Netherlands, Congregation, by Rev. J.C. Weststrate, of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

To the Emmeloord, the Netherlands, Congregation, by Rev. J.C. Weststrate of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

To the Hoogvliet, the Netherlands, Congregation by Rev. J.C. Weststrate, of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

NETHERLAND REFORMED CHRISTIAN SCHOOL NEWS

(Our report this month covers the school in New Jersey.)

During the past ten to fifteen years there existed a growing awareness among members of our congregations in the East that the establishment of a Christian School was an absolute necessity. However, it was not until the coming of Rev. C. Harinck to the Franklin Lakes Congregation in 1971 that any successful steps were taken towards reaching this goal.

In the spring of 1975 the consistory of Franklin Lakes asked the congregation to give its approval to add an educational wing to the existing church building. Considering the importance of the matter a 2/3 majority was required. Since this majority was not reached (a few votes were lacking), all efforts to establish a school came temporarily to a halt. It is needless to say that those who strongly supported the issue were bitterly disappointed. It seemed as if all doors were closed. However, also in this matter our impossibility was God’s possibility. Unexpectedly, God opened a door when the educational wing of the Second Reformed Church in Wyckoff, N.J. became available in July, 1975. Under the guidance of Rev. A. DenBoer of Norwich, Canada, the consistory of Franklin Lakes decided to begin operation in September of the same year. In a month’s time the Lord enabled us to hire teachers, obtain furniture and materials, establish a curriculum, and purchase buses, so that we could open the doors for 59 students on September 8, 1975. We could truly say, “Eben-ezer, hitherto hath the Lord helped us!”

Our present student body consists of 99 pupils.

We own one large, one middle-sized and two small buses, which travel many miles each day to transport our students who live scattered throughout a large area of northern New Jersey.

Our staff consists of four full-time teachers (2 grades each), one part-time teacher, one full-time teacher’s assistant (works with various teachers throughout the day) and two remedial teachers (Mathematics and Reading). All our staff-members are members of either the Franklin Lakes or Clifton congregations.

As stated before, we are operating our school in the educational wing of the Second Reformed Church in Wyckoff, N.J. The rooms in this building are ideally suited for our purposes since each room can be divided into two separate rooms with folding doors, if necessary. In addition to renting five rooms, the Second Reformed Church permits us to use their large all-purpose room in the basement as a lunch-room, for meetings and for recreational purposes. We also have the use of their large parking lot and adjacent grassland as a playground, upon which we were permitted to install some playground equipment. In short, the cooperation of this church has been beyond our expectation. We have purposely described our facilities in some detail to emphasize in what remarkable ways the Lord has provided for us.

Since our school had to be organized in one month it was impossible to establish our own curriculum. We therefore adopted verbatim the curriculum of the Plymouth Christian School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. To this day we have not regretted this decision and we certainly are greatly indebted to this school organization. Next to a basic elementary curriculum we also offer Dutch, Shop (in basements) Home-Economics (in private house) and Art. In teaching these courses we are assisted by some very dedicated parents and volunteers. We also offer remedial instruction in Mathematics and Reading on a weekly basis.

Our school is supported by the Netherland Reformed Christian School Association which is comprised of members of the churches mentioned before. The school operates under the supervision of the consistory of the Franklin Lakes congregation. However, its daily government rests in the hands of the school board which consists of the following members: President and Vice-President (consistory members of Franklin Lakes), and five additional members who are elected from the Association membership but must also be members of the Netherlands Reformed Congregations.

It is a great blessing indeed that the Lord has granted us this school which enables us to give our children a Scripture-oriented education. It is our sincere wish and continual prayer that it may please the Lord to savingly apply this instruction to the hearts of many of our children in order that in the midst of the congregations this word may be fulfilled: “A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.” (Ps. 22:30) Please feel free to write us for further information:

Dr. E.R. Nieuwenhuis, Board Secretary

779 Albemarle St.

Wyckoff, N.J., 07481

Tel. (201) 891-7034

B. Elshout, Principal

c/o Netherland Reformed Christian School

425 Lafayette Avenue

Wyckoff, N.J., 07481

Tel. (201) 444-2442 (school)

(201) 345-9587 (home)

The School Board of the Netherland Reformed Christian School.

NORWICH, ONTARIO, CANADA

Norwich still needs two teachers for their high school for the higher grades. If you are interested, please write to:

The Rev. A. M. Den Boer

Main St. P.O. Box 42

E. Norwich, Ontario, Canada, NOJ 1PO

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalm 34:1

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