The following excerpt comes from the Daily Report of the 90th General Assembly of the OPC (2024). This contains the report from the Committee on Foreign Missions, and gives the rationale for the OPC's Called Fast on August 17, 2024. Click here to skip to the Fasting Resolution.
Friday Morning
Next the Committee on Foreign Missions presented its report. Rev. John Van Meerbeke (Living Hope OPC, Gettysburg, PA), president of the CFM, introduced the work of the committee. General secretary Rev. Douglas Clawson exhorted the Assembly regarding the vital, life-and-death, nature of our evangelistic work in the world. He passionately encouraged the members of the Assembly to answer the call of foreign missions as many fields are understaffed. There has not been a new evangelist sent to the field in the past year.
A missionary to Asia addressed the body, explaining his work training and examining candidates for ministry, teaching in a seminary, creating and translating online resources, and church planting. The church in Asia has seen a huge increase in church officers and licentiates.
Rev. Mark Richline (missionary to Uruguay) presented on his work with the Paysons in Montevideo, Mercedes, Maldonado, Ciudad de La Costa, Las Piedras, and the new Salvos Por Gracia mission. In the many ministries of the churches, he noted that ruling elder leadership has increased reflecting growth in the congregations. There is a need for more Uruguayan pastors. Mr. Richline and his wife have decided to leave the mission field and return to the U.S. to be closer to assist with family needs...
Rev. Charles Jackson (missionary to Uganda) reported on his work in Mbale as the only OPC minister on the field in that mission. He trains men at Knox School of Theology and helps to run the Reformation Book Room. Ninety percent of pastors in Africa have no formal theological training. Knox is settling into its new facilities, including a new library and dorm, as well as its new accreditation status. The presence of highly qualified African faculty members at Knox is a great encouragement to the students. Roughly 20 students attend each semester.
Mr. Clawson read the following resolution:
The Committee on Foreign Missions of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church hereby makes known to the Rev. Dr. L. Anthony Curto our deep thankfulness to the Lord for you, your late wife, Kathleen, and now Simone. His servants, and for your more than thirty years of faithful and sacrificial service in the missionary outreach of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ in Uganda, Ethiopia, Austria, and Switzerland. Beginning with two summers of survey work (1993–1994) in Uganda in response to a request for assistance from the Presbyterian Church in Uganda (PCU), and pursuant to the Committee’s call, you pioneered the work of proclaiming the gospel to the lost and building up Christ’s church there for the next decade (1995–2004), first in Mbale and its surrounding villages, and later in South Karamoja.
Wherever the Lord in His providence took you, you boldly preached repentance and forgiveness of sins in our Savior’s name, helping to plant more than a dozen congregations around Mbale and to establish a theological college and a Christian primary school. As the work in the Mbale district grew, you again pioneered the expansion of the work into South Karamoja. There you found drunkenness, polygamy, witchcraft, wife-beating, lying, stealing, and superstition to be endemic. You began preaching each Lord’s Day under the “big tree” in 2001 and, as you sowed the seed of the gospel, the Spirit began to move in the hearts Christ’s elect.
In 2000, after our full-time missionaries were expelled, the Committee appointed you as a missionary evangelist to Eritrea (in addition to Uganda) to supplement the labors of another missionary evangelist, who was also ministering there (in addition to Ethiopia), and you were an encouragement to the saints. In 2003 the Committee appointed you also as a missionary evangelist to Ethiopia, asking you to visit that field at least two times per year, if possible. In 2014 the Committee determined to explore possible ways for you to increase the amount of time you might be able to minister to the ERKWB brothers, and you have spent every summer since then doing so. Your labors on behalf of the Committee expanded into nearby Hungary to the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Central and Eastern Europe (RPCCEE), and you attended their very first general assembly in 2019. In addition to all the above, for the past twenty or so years, you have assisted the work of the Committee and of the OPC as part of delegations to visit churches/mission works in Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Haiti, India, Hungary, Kenya, Netherlands, South Africa, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Vietnam to encourage the saints, to discuss current issues, and/or to explore opportunities for future missionary labors.
We would be remiss if we did not take special note of the life and labors of our dear sister and your late wife, Kathleen, who went home to her Lord in April 2022. In addition to persevering with her husband through the many difficulties of your life on the mission field, she also ministered to the women in Uganda and Ethiopia, served as the first principal of the Christian primary school in Mbale, and in later years, taught annual conferences for women in Switzerland and Austria. Blessed with superb organizational skills, a hospitable heart, and a genuine humility, she gave lovingly of herself to her husband, her children, and her church—and in so doing, set a godly example for all those around her.
Brother, you were glad to spend and be spent for the souls to which you ministered Christ. Be assured that your toil has not been in vain. You have both planted and watered, and God is giving the increase in His time. The Word which you have proclaimed will not return without accomplishing all that He desires. May you and your bride, Simone, who is one with you in your labors going forward, continue to run the race that is set before you, fixing your eyes on Jesus, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things. To God be the glory!
The commissioners and guests responded in standing ovation.
A question to the committee from the floor related to whether it had any opinion related to potential reasons underlying the dearth of foreign missionaries. Mr. Clawson remarked that it may be due to cultural changes in the U.S. related to fear, possibly stemming from 9/11. But the causes are unclear. Brazil and China are not experiencing this problem...
* * *
Earlier in the day, following the report of the CFM and discussions surrounding the lack of applicants as foreign evangelists, Mr. Henes had introduced a motion regarding a day of prayer and fasting, which was then referred for perfections to the advisory committee reviewing the CFM report. It reads:
“The 90th General Assembly determines to call for a day of prayer and fasting on Saturday, August 17, 2024, that the whole church may pray as one people, and call upon the Lord with one voice, that we might lament our distress and unworthiness before the Lord, confess our sin, and commit ourselves anew to the work of the Great Commission in the faithful service of the Lord our God; that we would humble ourselves, seeking the Lord’s guidance and provision for the spreading of His kingdom to the ends of the earth; that we humbly implore God to raise up missionary evangelists for our foreign fields.”
Having posted the motion before the afternoon break to allow time for commissioners to consider it, the motion was passed without audible dissent.
