Rev J R Tallach
On Monday, January 6, my wife Mairi and I left Scotland for Zimbabwe. The main reason for the journey was to represent the Foreign Mission Committee at the fiftieth anniversary of Mbuma Mission Hospital, though it had also been arranged that I would assist Rev S Khumalo, Bulawayo, at New Canaan communion.
On January 9, after months of planning by Dr Snoek and her staff, around 400 gathered in a marquee pitched beside the Mbuma church for the fiftieth anniversary of the Hospital. The usual 8 am worship had been replaced by a worship which I took at 10 am and formed the beginning of proceedings. The passage read was from John 4 and I recalled that the late Rev James Fraser had chosen Mbuma as the place for a Mission station because there was a good supply of water there. This served to highlight the fundamental nature of the gospel in the running of these “handmaids” of the gospel – medicine and education. Without the water of life there is no good news for lost sinners.
The Mission Administrator, Mr M A Mpofu, introduced the guests from Zimbabwe, Holland and Scotland, welcoming all to the meeting. I then gave a brief history of the Hospital, emphasising especially the foundational work done by Mr Jan van Woerden, who had patients in various Mission buildings even before the hospital was built. I also acknowledged the generous support of the Dutch churches over the years, both in finance and personnel. Mr Marange, on behalf of the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health, spoke warmly of the amount and the quality of what is done at Mbuma and encouraged the staff to continue the good work. He recognised that the Government hospital at Nkayi was learning from Mbuma Hospital.
A letter was read by Mr Barth of the Mbuma Zending Committee from Ds de Jong, Chairman of the Committee. He sent encouragement based on Psalm 41:4: “Lord, be merciful unto me; heal my soul”. This was followed by messages of greeting and exhortation from the Moderator of the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church, Rev N M Ross, and from Rev John MacLeod, Convener of the Foreign Mission Committee. Dutch friends and relatives sang Psalm 121:7,8 in Dutch: “The Lord shall keep thy soul; He shall preserve thee from all ill. / Henceforth thy going out and in God keep for ever will.”
A tour of the Hospital followed, after which the meeting reconvened and Dr Snoek, Medical Officer at Mbuma, spoke of a change of direction in their work, in that local clinics would be set up throughout the area served by the
Hospital. These clinics would come under the medical supervision of Mbuma. Arrangements for the first of these were already under way at Lutsha, a village 30 km from Mbuma. Rev M Mloyi, Zenka, gave a vote of thanks to all involved, quoting Psalm 127:1: “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it”. Rev N Sibanda, Mbuma, brought matters to a conclusion with prayer. Food was provided for all before they dispersed.
On the following Sabbath I took a service at Mbuma and another at Simbo and attended a Bible study at the Hospital in the afternoon, taken by Mr Makhunya, one of the Hospital catechists. On the Monday, Mairi and I left the kindness and care of Dr Snoek and the other Mbuma staff and travelled to Ingwenya, where we were made equally welcome by Miss Norma MacLean and Rev Alasdair MacLean. On the Thursday I travelled down to Zvishavane with Rev S Khumalo for the New Canaan communion, while Mairi stayed at Ingwenya and helped with the Sabbath school. New Canaan is one of nine stations in Mashonaland which were pastored by the late Rev Z Mazwabo. About 60 were in attendance at New Canaan during the week, with well over 100 at the services on Sabbath, and the singing was memorable. After the 8 am service on Monday we returned to Bulawayo, and on to Ingwenya for the night. The next day, Tuesday, January 21, after warm farewells at Bulawayo airport, we left for home and arrived safely the next day.
We would acknowledge the Lord’s kindness and care over us and trust that the words of the Psalm sung in Dutch have a wider and more enduring significance than for this one occasion: “Henceforth thy going out and in God keep for ever will”.
Obituary
Rev J A T van Dorp
Rev Johannes van Dorp was born on 22 July 1931 at Maarssen in the Netherlands. He was one of a family of 10 children, who were catechised by their father from the Heidelberg Catechism in their early, formative years. As they found no suitable church in Maarssen, the family held worship in their home.
They suffered great privations during the Second World War and they decided to emigrate. They considered settling in South Africa, but eventually they chose to go to New Zealand. This came about when Mr van Dorp’s cousin, Mr Dick Vermeulen, who served in the Dutch army in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), accepted an offer to settle in New Zealand in 1947 on his demobilisation. The Vermeulen family followed.
Mr van Dorp’s parents desired to emigrate to a country with an acceptable church connection. After reading The Free Presbyterian Magazine in Holland, they contacted Mr John Grant (the then General Treasurer, who handled subscriptions for the Church Magazines). In his own words Mr van Dorp recalls, “My father decided to write a letter to Mr John Grant to advise him of his desire to emigrate to New Zealand with his family”. Molly Harvey, on a visit from New Zealand, happened to be with Mr Grant at the time and she encouraged him to contact Mr van Dorp, senior.
Eventually the whole family, father and mother and 10 children, emigrated to New Zealand and settled in Gisborne. In this city on the east coast of New Zealand, the family attended the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Mr van Dorp trained as a teacher and taught in Holland for four months before leaving for New Zealand at the age of 21. He intended to continue his teaching career in New Zealand but instead took a clerical job in the Government Health Department in Gisborne, where he met Jean, his future wife. And Molly Harvey was later to marry Cor van Dorp, an older brother of the minister; he was to become one of the original elders of the Gisborne congregation.
Rev William MacLean arrived as deputy in 1958. Mr van Dorp tells of the impact that Mr MacLean’s preaching had on him: “He did not hesitate to sound warnings about Sabbath-breaking and the sin of unbelief. He used to call the sin of unbelief the greatest possible sin, which is actually a rejecting of Christ, because He is offered to us in the gospel as the only Saviour, the only name given under heaven whereby we must be saved.” However, it seems that the gospel was made the power of God to salvation for him through a sermon read by his father in their home.
It was under the faithful preaching of Rev William MacLean, by then minister of the Gisborne congregation, that Mr van Dorp was enabled to make a public profession of faith and, subsequently, received a call to the ministry. On one occasion when he was exercised as to whether he had true saving faith, he mentioned to someone how he was challenged by the words in Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please him”. The words of Psalm 147:11 were blessed for his relief: “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy”.
He left for Scotland in September 1971 after doing part of his divinity course in Gisborne. He was away from his wife and four sons for 14 months. He returned to Gisborne at the end of 1972. His ordination and induction to the Gisborne congregation took place in August 1973, and he laboured for 38 years in this charge. After the death of Rev D M Macleod, Auckland, in 1978, Mr van Dorp had the sole ministerial responsibility for the Free Presbyterian congregations in New Zealand. It was then that he became the Clerk
of Presbytery, a duty which he efficiently fulfilled till he retired. He also diligently fulfilled his role as interim moderator of several congregations, including Auckland, Wellington and Tauranga in New Zealand, as well as Singapore. He travelled long distances for communion seasons throughout the Presbytery.
In 2011 he and Mrs van Dorp retired to live in Grafton to be near their eldest son, Richard (an elder in the Grafton congregation) and his family. About a year later he was diagnosed with serious complications from a melanoma. He continued to take services after retiring and gave assistance at the time of the Grafton communion in May 2013; he took the prayer meeting on Wednesday and opened the fellowship meeting on Friday. However, on June 24 he entered hospital and then a nursing home, where he stayed till his death some months later, on 9 November 2013. There he exhibited a patient and submissive Christian testimony, which was acknowledged by the staff.
During his ministry he sought faithfully and diligently to preach the gospel. “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” To his mourning widow and family we extend our warm sympathy and commend them to the God of all comfort.
(Rev) E A Rayner