i

Our Corner of the Harvest Field

This is the age of the harvest. Jesus has told us that "the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" (Matt. 9:37-38 NKJV). We should expect the harvest. We should plan for equipment and storage facilities to be there when they are needed. But something unique is happening in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church right now. Our corner of the harvest field has suddenly been inundated with crops that are ready to be picked. A sense of amazement has come over those of us who work in OP Home Missions. We did not advertise in one city that we hoped to raise up a group to form a church there. We did not send an evangelist to another city to start a Bible study that would lead to the forming of a new church in that place. But around the country, groups are springing up where we did not plant or water. God is raising up Bible studies and worshiping groups, and they are asking the OPC to receive them and to provide pastors and ... Read more

The Home Missionary Who Never Retired

In 1940, in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, a young missionary faced perhaps the toughest decision of his life. War was imminent and the consular authorities had advised him to leave China. The Committee on Foreign Missions of the newly formed Orthodox Presbyterian Church had left it up to him: he could either continue his work among the Manchurian Chinese or evacuate the country with his wife and children. At the urging of the local Chinese, who feared that the presence of foreigners would draw unwanted attention from the Japanese, he decided to leave Manchuria. A new chapter in the life of Henry Coray began when he returned to the United States. He continued to do missionary work, but this time in California, where he would plant churches for the next twenty-six years. Today, at age 95, Henry Coray lives with his wife, Betty, in a retirement home in Goleta, California. When we visited him to ask about his home missions experience, we found him busy at his desk, writing his latest novel (he has written ... Read more

A Look Forward - after Fifty-six Years

I joined the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1942, while I was a student at the University of California, Berkeley. I joined Covenant Church of Berkeley, under the ministry of the Rev. Robert K. Churchill. I had made a conscious decision for Christ when I was seven years old. When I was in tenth grade, and a member of the United Methodist Church, I decided to go into the ministry. As I was finishing high school and entering university, I began to study for a local preacher's license. Soon after Pearl Harbor, I met with a group of Methodist ministers. At that meeting, when I refused to agree to attend a seminary on their approved list, they decided not to "take me under care," as we put it. I had to go church hunting. Covenant Church was a new work then. It was meeting in a storefront, a good walk from the campus. Bob Churchill taught a course on gospel history at a student ministry called the Bible League. I attended these lectures during lunchtime, along with about ten other students. This course ... Read more

CONTACT US