Our family has recently returned from a trip to the Boston area, primarily to visit relatives, but especially my mother, who is nearing the end of her earthly journey. I am thankful that she and my late father raised us to love God and to put him first in our lives. Despite growing up in difficult circumstances, she has been a paragon of faithfulness in her long walk with her Saviour.
This month I have two happy news items to share with you.
First, I have now completed a first draft of my next book. There remains much work to do. I still need to add important material to chapter 6, which will come from interviews I will be conducting with specific persons who have exemplified Christian citizenship on local and national levels. Then there is much preliminary editing in the future, as I go through the manuscript to eliminate redundancies and infelicities of expression. Finally, I will be sending the manuscript to respected colleagues and friends for their input. Although some of the headings in the chapters have now changed, I will again refer you to the table of contents I posted in March: 'Citizenship Without Illusions': update. Please pray for me as I continue my work on this book.
Second, some of you may be aware that I applied for a teacher-scholar grant to the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship (CICW) at Calvin University in January. This was to enable me to hire Michael Owens of Denver, Pennsylvania, to complete the formatting of my Genevan Psalter texts with the musical arrangements of Jacques Pierre Bekkers and Jacob Kort. A previous grant from the Stanford Reid Trust enabled him to complete the formatting for Psalms 1 through 70, but we needed more funding for the remainder. Last month I heard back from CICW what I initially took to be bad news. My project did not fit the parameters of a teacher-scholar grant. However, I am pleased to report that the CICW's publications team has offered to provide the rest of the funds to complete the project. I have posted a slightly fuller report on my Genevan Psalter blog: CICW grant: completing the work of decades. This brings a project I have worked on since age 30 closer to publication.
My ongoing series for the Politics Network of UCCF: The Christian Unions in the United Kingdom is in the home stretch with a piece on Nationalism: the need to belong. Two more instalments remain: one on democratism and a final reflection on post-liberalism.
I must admit that I am not a reader of novels for the most part. Since childhood I have gravitated to nonfiction. Nevertheless, I recently read Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and wrote briefly about it in the April issue of Christian Courier, which has posted it on their website: Raskolnikov and Resurrection.
On 25 April Jason Estopinal and I interviewed Hannah Nation for The Layman's Lounge on the subject of her edited volume, Faithful Disobedience: Writings on Church and State from a Chinese House Church Movement (IVP Academic, 2022). One of the authors in this collection, the Rev. Wang Yi, imprisoned pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, merits mention in my new book. I will link to the interview when it is posted online.
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As always, I am thankful for your financial and prayer support for my work. Please consider a regular monthly contribution, as it makes it easier for Global Scholars to set an annual budget, including the modest salary I receive from the organization. GSC's page for giving can be found here. Once you are in the page, scroll down to the heading marked DONATION DETAILS, and then choose one of the options under FUND. Americans may donate through our sister organization in the US.
Canadian donors can now donate publicly traded securities (shares or mutual funds) directly to charities without having to pay the capital gains tax. This is a cost-effective way to make a donation that comes with a substantial tax incentive. By donating securities, donors pay no tax on capital gains, receive a tax receipt for the fair market value of the securities, as well as reduce their taxes. Watch this video for more information about this option: Link Charity Canada: Donation of Securities. If interested, please visit the Link Charity Canada Inc. website, and call for details at 1-800-387-8146. Link Charity Canada is a partner organization of Global Scholars Canada, so Link Charity can easily direct funds for my work. Thank you!
Yours in God's service,
David Koyzis, Global Scholar
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