Input For Output – September 2009

Electronic Input for Your Prayerful Output

From Jim & Renata Bultema

“The Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life’s different stresses.  Our duty is not to abandon ship, but to keep her on course.”  – Boniface

Dear Friend,

How appropriate that as my family and I settle in the land of Germany a quote of St. Boniface should come to mind – and serve to guide my work.  While Islam spread in the Middle East, Boniface, a native of what is now England, was spreading the gospel in the Frankish Empire, most notably in the land that we now call Germany.  He sacrificed his life so that Franks and Frisians could have opportunity to gain life through Jesus Christ.  Boniface’s devotion led him ‘down to the peak’ of martyrdom in the year 754.

Yes, Germany … we shortened our home assignment last year so that we could spend four months this year in Kandern, where Black Forest Academy is located.  We live just a five-minute walk from the school, where Anna-Kate is in her senior year and Talya in seventh grade.  Their friends abound and adorn our home with their pop-in presence and smiles, and Renata is reveling in motherhood of school-agers perhaps more than ever before.

My primary focus throughout the fall will be my research project through Leiden University on the Turkish Protestant Church.  I have the data of more than eighty interviews to analyze and synthesize, with a surprising amount of published material also to throw into the mix.  Eventually, out of the oven of my mind will come, Lord willing, a PhD dissertation that will do more than just tell the story of the Turkish Protestant Church, more than give analyses into different aspects of that church’s life, but I pray that it will also be a work that proves to help that emerging, fledgling church to stay on course.

Surely, the Turkish Protestant Church, scattered in more than a hundred local fellowships throughout the land, needs our prayers.  Turkish believers and churches are pounded relentlessly by the waves and stresses of life in Turkey:  nationalism and Islam blend in that country as nowhere else on earth, creating spiritual storms and assailments the likes of which few of us have ever known.  Great indeed is the challenge for church leaders and believers there to keep the course.

Thanks so much for your prayers and for whatever else you are able to do to help support the endeavor.

So that Christ be known and his course be kept,

Jim Bultema, for Renata, Anna-Kate, & Talya too, and I must also add Kristoff,
who is about to embark on his second year at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA

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