August 23 Today in OPC History

When David W. King rented a boat to Priscilla (P.J.) Eyres, the daughter of OPC pastor Lawrence and his wife Geraldine, in August of 1964, he immediately fell “head over heels” for her. P.J. would not date an unbeliever, so he began attending the OPC in Long Beach, CA as it was the only way he was allowed to spend time with her. He had a standing invitation to their home for dinner and they spent a lot of time walking and talking on those Sunday afternoons. Through Pastor Eyres’ ministry, Sunday school classes and elder Mac Laurie’s Machen League meetings, David became a Christian. After a long-distance courtship (David was at UCLA and Priscilla went to nursing school in the Chicago area) and much cajoling, P.J. finally agreed to marry him and they were wed August 23, 1968 in the Long Beach church.

David was interested in teaching history but wanted a good grounding in theology and apologetics, so he studied at Westminster Theological Seminary from 1968–1971. Gradually, he began to feel the call to pastoral ministry and was ordained as an evangelist in 1972 in the Presbytery of Ohio in Alliance, Ohio, laboring with a group which had left the PCUSA and was eventually organized as Christ Reformed Chapel. In 1982, he moved his growing family to Hamill, South Dakota, where he served at Westminster OPC.

In 1990, David and Priscilla moved their family a final time to Janesville, Wisconsin, where he served as pastor of Christ OPC until 2016. Their five children can all attest to their faithfulness to Christ’s church and their heart for those who are suffering from the burdens of sin and temptations of this world. Their marriage is a wonderful testimony of Christ’s atoning work in his church: not as a shining example of perfection, but what it means to love through serving one another and to forgive through the grace of the cross.

Editor's note: today's entry was written by David and Priscilla's daughter Joanna, wife of OPC pastor Matthew Kingsbury.