Advances in technology have provided us with some very exciting opportunities to make White Horse Inn content more readily available to larger and larger audiences.  The growth of social networking on the internet and the wide acceptance of on-demand content by way of audio streaming, mp3 downloading, and podcasting are just a few of the advances we are quickly adopting to be more effective.  In addition, the improvements we are making to our web site, www.whitehorseinn.org, are extending the reach of the Reformation far beyond what radio and print alone can do.  In fact we are preparing a major upgrade to the capabilities of our website in 2010.

The new year, 2010, marks the 20th anniversary of the White Horse Inn broadcast. I am humbled and grateful by the testimony of so many listeners who tell me over and over again "I understood the Gospel for the first time listening to the White Horse Inn", or "I discovered the Reformation through White Horse Inn." I know this testimony resonates with many of you.  It is indeed our story! And this story continues to be heard on the radio and now on the Internet, in CD players, iPods and mp3 players.  No longer is our message of Reformation limited to a particular night at a given time slot in just a few major cities, we are taking the Reformation to the world.

To find the lessons point your web browser to http://www.africanbiblecolleges.org and select "Online Courses" from the right-hand menu.  From there you will be able to access any lesson or subscribe to them via iTunes.  New lessons are added weekly.

In 2010 WSC will celebrate our 30th anniversary of educating future leaders of Christ's church to preach and teach the inerrant Word of God.  Over the past 30 years, Westminster Seminary California's dedicated faculty has provided a biblical, Reformed, covenantal, and practical education for more than 800 graduates who now serve Christ around the world and throughout our country.

It is our hope and prayer that the church of Jesus Christ will flourish in our time and that your children and your grandchildren will always have faithful preachers so that they will hear the whole counsel of God preached and come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. But faithful preachers must be fully and carefully educated if they are to minister the Word of God effectively.  WSC is a seminary where that is happening.

While there are many worthwhile causes competing for our attention and dollars, particularly in today's troubled financial times, we believe rigorous, high quality, biblically-based theological education like that offered by WSC must remain one of our very highest priorities.

Westminster Seminary California is committed to continue its vital mission to prepare pastors "for Christ, His Gospel, and His Church."  Please consider how you and your church can fulfill your biblical responsibility to support the work of the seminary through annual giving and by sending us as students those whom God has called to theological education.

[Note: Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim now has a number of young men being trained at Westminster Seminary California for which we thank God: Chris Coleman, Nathanael Taylor, Noel Navas, and Joshua Lim.]

Work project season is in full swing, and construction continues on the Tepeyac High School thanks to the many who volunteer their time and the many who give to this cause.  We are in the process of obtaining accurate cost estimates, but it appears that it will take another $200,000 (plus) to occupy the High School and outbuildings.

The construction of the High School building has been underway since 2001.  The goal of the school has been to build as money is raised, so when completed the school will be debt free.  Over the past few years the construction has continued to slow as it feels the effects of the slowing world wide economy. The donated funds have become less and less and have caused long delays in construction. These delays have caused the construction costs to rise. The bulk of the building is constructed out of concrete and steel, the cost of both continue to rise.

[To see photos of the construction work go the Reformed Missions web site.]

The tuition assistance need has increased 60% this year for the Tepeyac school.  We have 32 requests from 4 local reformed churches as well as school staff.  There has been a surge in students this year for which we praise God.

*Joint Venture Committee is formed of members of multiple United Reformed churches, is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan; and is responsible for the financial support and oversight of the Costa Rica work.

Perhaps the most significant change is the addition of Nick Lamme working full time to assist and expand the work of Rev. Green and CLIR (Confraternidad Latinoamericana de Iglesias Reformadas). Nick is a graduate of Mid-America Reformed Seminary, comes with his wife Rosie and their three children, and is excited about the work in Costa Rica. He has been working in Costa Rica since September, 2008 and his duties include: teaching at Tepeyac school, preaching, translating, writing, editing, and preparing the CLIR journal.

Rev. Green still continues on in the same capacity as before, but the addition of Nick allows him to expand the scope and reach of CLIR.

*The Joint Venture Committee is formed of members of multiple United Reformed churches, is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan; and is responsible for the financial support and oversight of the Costa Rica work.

As you have heard by now, the Rev. Derrick Vander Meulen of the Bethel URC (Jenison, MI) has accepted the call of the Oceanside URC to serve the Kauai Reformation Church (Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii). We are overjoyed and expect the Lord's name to be praised on this island as he works out his good pleasure. Since we began public services in September 2007, the KRC has grown from its initial core group of around 30 adults and children to an average Lord's Day attendance of 50-60. Many of your ministers and seminary students [Rev. Marcelo Souza being one and Rev. Andrew Compton another] have served the church plant well and for that we thank them as well as your, their church councils, for their service. 

[Rev. Vander Meulen was installed at the Oceanside URC on June 28th and has moved to the island of Kauai to preach, teach, and shepherd this new flock of God.]

As airtime costs continue to rise and as more and more of our listeners tune in through other mediums (online streaming, podcasting, and CDs), we believe that we can be better stewards of the funds you entrust to us by putting the money we are using to pay for radio time toward other opportunities.  Our last broadcast on your local station KKLA will be August 30, 2009.  We are excited about the changes and the ability to reach more people more cost effectively.

WORC is working with Word and Deed to build up the churches in Malawi. The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) is a large federation of 124 churches each with a dozen or more preaching stations.  One quarter of the churches have no minister and of those that do, the minister cannot adequately cover the dozen or so preaching stations scattered in the area.  This leaves the local elders, who are poorly trained, to do the preaching. This is why the idea of Logos Ministries was born.  The purpose is to teach the local leaders Reformed theology in order to deepen their understanding, build up their faith, and strengthen the churches there.

The teaching of the local leaders consists mainly of a travelling tour by Manuel Kamnkhwani (a Malawian and Westminster Theological Seminary graduate and acting director of Logos Ministries) and Martin Thondolo. They arrange a meeting with the leaders of a group of preaching stations and spend several days teaching them theology and supplying meals.

WORC is looking for ministers or trained teachers to volunteer to spend a few weeks in Malawi, at an arranged seminar, to teach and encourage the ministers there. Our hope is that the volunteers will be funded by their local churches. The ministers of the churches in Malawi do have formal training and understand English but in a church that seems to be a mile wide and an inch deep, they are stretched to their limit.

Please remember the African Bible Colleges need (and growing need because of expansion) for scholarship funds to enable qualified African students to fulfill the Great Commission in their own continent.  A $1,500 annual gift enables one qualified student to receive a full year of ABC's boarding school education.

Our big push this Fall is our "Calvin in the Capital" speaker series (www.CalvinintheCapital.org, and we have a fan page on Facebook). We have gotten a lot of interest, and are promoting it widely. We covet your prayers that this event might raise our profile and help us add some likeminded folks to our core group. Already, we have seen an uptick in visitors and inquiries. In less than a month, people from 16 countries and 45 states have visited our website, and I just fielded a call from someone in Georgia looking for a DC church for a friend moving to town.

We are still quite small. It has been difficult to be actively growing the church while working another job (I now have a day job at the Missile Defense Agency at the Department of Defense... quite a unique URC pastor's resume I have going now). And we've lost some major families as the economy and politics has taken them elsewhere (including the Sasse family, who have moved to Texas). If we can get our numbers up just a little more, I believe it will be crucial for me to go full time. Christ Reformed Anaheim is one of the few churches that made an annual commitment to us last year. I am praying hard that other churches in the URC will see the value of what we're doing here in DC, so that I can tend to this work full time early in 2010.

Thanks for your prayers,