Part of our rationale as Foreign Mission Committee in giving you a newsletter every three months is that a lot happens at the Study Centre in such a timeframe. Hopefully the reports confirm that for you—even if our reports only share a portion of the work of the RSC every quarter. Yet while much can happen over three months, we’ve all recently learned that it takes far less time than that to have your whole life flipped around. Seven weeks ago, none of us could have imagined having our lives characterized by social distancing, home schooling, working from home, self-isolating, hand sanitizing, and washing grocery packaging! But that’s today’s reality, with COVID-19 trending frequently in the news as well as in our minds. It’s then to our comfort to know and profess that the future belongs to our strong God, to the one who has reigned over every pestilence and plague throughout human history. And so we, also at the Study Centre, are striving to think along the lines of what the apostle writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17, that “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” COVID-19 is undoubtedly an affliction, but along with the suffering of the rest of this age, it is a light momentary affliction in comparison to the glory to be revealed at the return of Christ and our promotion into everlasting glory in his presence.
That perspective is what the Lord is using to guide the Study Centre as it carries forward with the work. And so we then want to again bring you up to speed on the labours of Rev. Kampen over the last bit.