Reflections On Faith and 17th Century European-American Colonists
The two-way hardships and dangers of missionary service.
In his own brilliant way, historian of missions Andrew F. Walls, wrote that the fundamental qualification of the missionary service is that of a readiness to live “on terms set my someone else.” The first “Someone” is of course the Lord, and the second “someone” would be the people of the culture in which the missionary serves. Since missions requires the presence…
The Writer and His Writings – Does one reveal the other?
It is interesting to consider the degree to which writings reveal writers. One factor must, of course, be the subject matter. An autobiography can be revealing or concealing. Through the autobiography, the writer – when brutally honest – tells all, and readers are exposed to “aha moments” in recognition of assumptions made while reading the author’s other books. Conversely, the autobiography may…
Hold the Sources!
What Jim? Back to sources again? Yes, I want to camp on a certain thought. If Dr. Thomas had not produced volumes of correspondence, would his biography have been doable today? We live in an age when mailboxes are filled with bills and junk mail. Few people take the time to write letters in 2024. Most of our mail is electronic and virtually…
A Peek at the Sources
I’ve been thinking that my readers would be interested in how I gathered the resources used in Mediko, so I have prepared the following remarks. Enjoy! In the process of writing Mediko, I held many different documents in my hands. Books with yellowed pages, tiny old photos in black and white, microfilm, small pamphlets, magazines, and thousands of pages of typed and…
Why the eschatology?
I have heard from some readers that they struggled with the frequent references in Mediko to eschatology (the doctrine of last things). It is true that I included much about that subject from Raph’s training at Newton Seminary to the latter years of his life. While Raph’s struggle with the date-setting of the word “imminence” as he saw it is not crucial…
A Breath for a Blog
It is natural to breathe. The absence of breath is fatal. A blog does not flow naturally when there is no time to breathe, and breathlessness has characterized the last few months. The absence of fresh blog material is not fatal, but it is discouraging to the reader. It is to the blogger, too. Now that the season of breathless, breakneck running…
100 Years. 40 Years. Forever!
In Iloilo, in 1923, blessed with a generous gift from Mrs. Marguerite Doane, Dr. Raphael Thomas, Miss Ellen Martien, and others with the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, founded Doane Hall Evangelistic Institute. 100 years later, in the year 2023, Doane Baptist Bible Institute, Inc., celebrated its centennial with joy and thanksgiving to God. When I consider the thousands of administrators, teachers,…
Seeking the Philippine Connection
Being a published author is exciting and exhausting! I am always exploring new avenues of promotion for the book. The most elusive of those, so far, is my search for ways to introduce the book to readers in the Philippines. Many of my readers have purchased their copies of Mediko through Amazon, but Amazon is still in its infancy in the Philippines,…
What is a D.Min.?
Far too often on my book materials the letters D.Min. follow my name. Some of you will be wondering what it stands for: displaced minister (?); desires mints (?). No, none of the above. It stands for Doctor of Ministry. It is an earned doctorate. I completed the work for the degree in 2009 at Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, PA. My…
Beginning
I have thought before about writing a blog, but I never did it. Now that I have this website, I am motivated to begin writing posts for my readers. I hope to use this blog to further explore the places, history, characters, and ministries described in Mediko. I also intend to delve into other interesting subjects, and to discuss my other writing…
