GS 1968 ARTICLE 151
The Chairman addresses Synod as follows:
Brethren,
Yesterday morning we received word that it pleased the LORD to take away brother Jules Taco Van Popta. And although we had been prepared for this moment, yet something in us changed when the expect d tidings finally were received.
It would not attest to our gratitude for what the Lord had given in this brother if we kept silent. And in His servant we wish to praise this servant’s Lord and Master.
The Lord had given him a loving heart, and a keen mind. He was a kind pastor, full of compassion. He was a faithful shepherd and a trusted friend. He was a man who would never talk friendly when facing a person, and stick out his tongue behind his back. He was conscientious, sometimes to such a point that we, his friends, could not understand it. He would never try to make someone look ridiculous, but possessed the desirable gift of being able to laugh at himself and to tell stories in which he himself was the victim. He joined wholeheartedly and good-naturedly in the general hilarity at his own expense. To know him meant to trust him and to love him. I cannot characterize or describe him any better than with a word of the Saviour: “an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile”.
During this Synod we heard the expression “The Men of the first Hour”. That title applies to him first of all. He was the first minister to come to Canada and the various Churches in Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba will recall with gratitude the work which he did, especially during the first years. Hardly had he arrived in Edmonton, when it appeared necessary to visit “those in the dispersion”. He traveled, hundreds and hundreds of miles, sometimes spending two or three days in a row aboard a train, taking with him sandwiches and books. Thus he traveled from Church to Church, visiting, preaching, attending Consistory meetings and Congregational meetings, speaking about various subjects, and edifying the Church of Christ. Her he loved since he loved the Lord of the Church. Everything he rejected which he believed to be detrimental to the edification and future of the Church.
He was a scholar and had taken up again his studies of philosophy. The courses which he followed during a year he passed with an A. No one who has known him, will be surprised at that. How happy he was when his move to Cloverdale provided him with the opportunity to take up the study of philosophy. And how did the young people benefit from this study when he started to analyze the spirit that is behind the various movements and theories which vie for the sympathy of the masses and especially of the younger generation.
Now his work on earth has come to an end. He has not been allowed to take up the work to which he had been appointed: the work at our own College. He has not even known that he was appointed. If he had known he would not have hesitated, though feeling inadequate for the task. The matter of the Training for the Ministry was a cause which had the love of his heart, which he deemed necessary and wished to promote, for which he undoubtedly would have given whatever he had and was able to do. But the Lord did not deem it necessary that he knew of his appointment, that he decided about it; and that he did any work for it. We shall have to continue without him, knowing and trusting that is the Lord God who bids us to continue and Who will take care of His Church.
Thus we shall continue. Without Jules Taco Van Popta, but following after our King and Saviour Jesus Christ. His mercy we implore; His help we ask for the family Van Popta, for the Church at Cloverdale, for all the Churches.
And we wait for the day when the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.