As you have done to the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40.
In the RCUS, people have been giving to mission works for many years. The question that enters a person’s mind is, “What has this accomplished?” I have been asked to write an article about what our giving has done in missions, so I have put together information sent to me by the persons involved in those ministries.
Mission2Germany is a project to teach reformed theology to German-speaking students with the goal that they can become missionaries and pastors in their own country, proclaiming the Word of God (Rom. 10:9-17) in a secular environment.
Contrary to its historical image, which dates back to the time of Martin Luther and the Reformation, 21st-century Germany is now a spiritually dark country and a mission field. It is no exaggeration to speak of “Dark Germany.” In a recent public presentation, Franklin Graham—the son of the late Billy Graham—noted that almost 1,000 local churches in Germany closed down last year.
In 2025, for the first time in history, Christians—defined as members of the two major churches (the Roman Catholic Church and the former state Protestant Church, EKD)—now make up a minority of the population in Germany. According to research from a U.S. university, parts of Germany are considered among the “most godless” regions in the world.
To further illustrate the spiritual darkness in the German-speaking world, consider the following statistics about German-speaking children in Europe: 94% never attend a church service; 3% attend occasionally (e.g., on Christmas or Easter); and only 3% attend church services regularly (weekly, monthly, etc.).
Mission2Germany needs your prayers and financial support. If you are able to help—even with a small portion of the needed amount—we would be deeply grateful for your support.
Reformed Faith and Life, which broadcasts the Gospel to French-speaking countries in Africa receives $20,000.00 from the RCUS. Of that total, $10,000.00 comes from Synodical guidelines while the other half is gathered by special collections on the Synodical Day of Prayer for Foreign Missions. Other projects have included helping with translating the Bible into Armenian and conferences to reintroduce people in France to the Calvinist part of their history.
Pearl of the Orient Reformed Church in the Philippines:
Pastor Vic Bernales: The donations you send help support both our family and our ministry. As the pastor of a small congregation, the allowance I receive from the church covers only about 40% of our family’s needs. The remaining 60% is provided by donors from North America, primarily the United States. Roi, our third child, was diagnosed with bone cancer. Donors kindly sent additional support to help us cover his medical expenses. We have truly seen the Lord’s provision through both our local church and our faithful donors in the U.S. Every year, we host a youth retreat, and donor support allows us to rent a venue where our young people and some adults can gather and study the Scriptures together. Additionally, every two years, the Pearl of the Orient Covenant Reformed Church holds the National Heidelberg Youth Camp. We help subsidize our youth’s camp fees, and in some cases, assist with their travel expenses. The funds our denomination receives through your ministry also go toward relief efforts for families affected by natural disasters such as typhoons and floods. At times, they are used to support pastors in our denomination who are faithfully laboring in the field but receive little compensation. Our Classis oversees the distribution of these funds.
Pastor Nap Narag: With this generosity that the RCUS brethren is extending to us, we are not only sustained with our needs but we are also able to serve the saints in our local congregation, assist our PORC churches that have no pastor, extend help to our less privileged pastors and church members, and help our denomination fulfill its mission in establishing and instituting churches that the Lord brought under our care. In addition, the RCUS supports Learning Centers in the Philippines in which about 16 men are studying God’s Word through the efforts of Heidelberg Theological Seminary.
We have supported Christians in the Congo and their ministries by helping fund churches. We have continued to support and encourage them for about 25 years. In 2003, the Congo Economic Development Committee was formed and worked through 2023. It purchased land, built schoolhouses, developed farming techniques, and helped start various farming projects throughout the Congo, including an oil palm farm which is just coming into production. We have seen great results from this. Although some projects failed, we have seen others prosper. We possibly will work to start micro businesses for pastors there. We started that work in Kenya, but we need to form a committee in the Congo to oversee it and translate the forms we have developed from English into the Congolese languages. Language is a huge barrier in the Congo because they speak various languages there.
Kenya is another place we have supported for about 30 years. We have built churches and schools there. Because we felt that our methods of support were not yielding the hoped-for results, we decided to change our methods.
Instead of giving funds for churches and pastors, we have decided this past year to support micro businesses there. We presently have six micro businesses started in the Reformed Federated Churches of Kenya and the Emmaus Reformed Churches of Africa. We have a committee there to manage the funds. They send out applications to pastors, and the best business projects are selected. The micro businesses get about $750.00 each. They receive it in Kenyan Shillings. Of that amount, 20% is a grant and 80% needs to be paid back to the committee (no interest is charged). They are given three months before they need to start paying back into the fund. By doing this, the fund becomes self-supporting, and the money from the RCUS Synod helps make that fund larger. We believe this works better than giving money for churches and pastors. If more churches were added it would diminish the funds provided for each one. In this way, hopefully they can expand the number of churches as they receive funds from their businesses.
We also have Learning Centers in the churches of the RFCK and the ERCA. This year, we will expand to ten Learning Centers with about 90 students. To receive a Learning Center, there must be at least five men who wish to study God’s Word. Heidelberg Theological Seminary has set up twenty-six courses for them to receive a certificate of completion. Drs. Schlegel and Morgan were sent there this year by the RCUS to teach classes and to give out certificates to those who had successfully completed the twenty-six classes.
In addition, we help young ladies there through “Freedom for Girls” which is run by HEART, a Christian faith-based humanitarian organization, to empower women, children, and youth in Kenya by strategically intervening to promote sustainable health, education, and economic strengthening. We have supplied over $800.00 per year to this group which provides a year’s supply of sanitary towels and underwear to school-aged girls so they don’t have to drop out because they miss one fourth of the education.
A mission field that is really expanding is the Spanish Language efforts. As Pastor Alpuche reports:
In June, 2023, Jose Fabila and I visited Pastor Octavio Valenzuela and his congregation in Vicente Guerrero, Baja California, Mexico. Later in the same year, in August, my family and I visited them again. In April 2024, Greg Williams (a member of Ebenezer RCUS in Shafter) also visited them. In 2024, the congregation in Vicente Guerrero officially entered into corresponding relationships with the RCUS. We keep regular contact with Pastor Octavio.
In December 2024, I visited Ecuador as a professor of our Seminario Reformado de las Américas. In March 2025, I visited el Mesias Reformed Church in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This trip was funded by el Mesias Church in Mexico, but we are talking with them about entering into corresponding relationships with the RCUS. As a result of my visit, two men from their church are now taking seminary classes in Seminario Reformado de las Américas.
In April 2025, I visited San Pablo Theological Seminary of the National Presbyterian Church in Merida, Yucatan. I also visited Berit Theological Seminary of the National Presbyterian Church in Campeche, Mexico. I met with some pastors of their presbytery. They also would like to have corresponding relationships with the RCUS. In this trip, I also visited John Knox Bible Institute of the Independent Presbyterian Church in Mexico.
In May 2025, I visited Bolivia through ITEM (International Theological Education Ministries). I gave lectures on the Sermon on the Mount. This church in Cochabamba, Bolivia, has invited me to be one of the speakers in their National Family Conference in October. These are reformed Baptist churches that would like to know more about our reformed doctrine.
In July 2025, I visited the Grijalva-Usumacinta Presbytery of the National Presbyterian Church in Tabasco, Mexico. During their sessions, they agreed to have corresponding relationships with the RCUS.
In addition, the Foreign Ministries Committee, Westminster Biblical Missions, and Seminario Reformado de las Américas have supported translating Reformed materials into Spanish. So far, translations include: articles from the Reformed Herald; A Brief Bible History by J. G. Machen and J.O. Boyd; Marriage in Honor by W. G. DeVries; Prayer by C. Bouman; The Three Forms of Unity; Ten Reformed Doctrines by M. Persaud; The Childrens Catechism; The Certainty of Faith by H. Bavinck; and The Comfort Filled Life by M. Koerner; and the “Heidelberg Catechism.” Many other translations, short and long, have been completed or are in process.
The work of missions is on-going, and we have people working in missions part-time and full-time, both as paid persons and as volunteers. Your giving helps support this important work in God’s Kingdom. If God has put it on your heart to help a certain group, you may do so by donating to our Mission Fund. A check may be written to Providence Reformed Church, 245 E. Vine Street, Lodi, CA 95240. Please indicate how you’d like the funds used.
Elder Jerry DeYoung
Providence Reformed Church
Lodi, CA