Monday, March 18, 2013

The corridors of history

Bob Maki and Dennis Hilman concluded their West African mission trip in the country of Liberia. During their time there they walked in the footsteps of missionaries from 40 years ago. Here's an update from Facebook:

Feb 28: Today we walked where the great pioneer of our church's foreign mission Pastor Andrew Mickelson walked over forty years ago when he visited Liberia for the first time with brother Gust Kandoll. He officiated at the ground-breaking ceremony of this church which was completed in 1973 and destroyed in the disastrous civil war about 20 years later.

Here in the former sanctuary some of the leaders and members of the present ALC of Liberia are gathered with Pastor Bob and Matthew. It is undoubtedly on this spot that the ground breaking ceremony conducted by Pastor Mickelson and Gust Kandoll took place.


More from West Africa will be in the next issue of Where He Leads. If you don't currently receive this quarterly magazine and wish to do so, contact the Foreign Mission Administrator at foreignmission@comcast.net.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Unity in the Word!

On Wednesday, February 13th, Sharon and I flew from Minneapolis, MN to Guatemala for a seven day trip. This was our first trip for the Foreign Mission and the first time for us out of North America! The purpose of the trip was to visit the churches and have a teaching conference with the leaders from those same churches to clarify doctrinal questions....


[After arriving we spent several days visiting the Little Lambs orphanage site in Jalapa and the churches in Zacapa with Scott and Karen Neimitalo and Colin and Carolyn Kinnunen.]


On Friday we traveled with three vehicles to Rio Dulce for the conferences. The six of us with Ryan [Ruotsala] and also eleven of the church leaders attended. The subjects covered on Friday through Sunday morning were: The power of the Word, Confession and Absolution, The Sacrament of the Altar, Baptism, Principles of the Doctrine, and The Millennium. God prepared our hearts and opened His Word so that many questions were answered and unity was found in the Holy Scripture. Those who had not been going to Communion because they did not feel worthy, now looked forward to going for the strengthening of their faith. Parents who had not baptized their children, now wanted them baptized as they understood the covenant that God makes with children. After our last session on Sunday morning we participated in the baptism of the children. We were truly thankful that God blessed our time there! Getting to know people through our fellowship was truly a blessing to us....

God again proved His Faithfulness to us in giving us a good trip with many memories and new friendships.... Mat God continue to bless the foreign mission so that the work can continue to spread the gospel to all who need to hear.

God's Peace,

Bruce Estola

Friday, March 1, 2013

Good times in Togo

Dennis Hilman and Bob Maki continued their West African trip by traveling from Ghana to Togo in mid-February. Here is an update from Dennis Hilman:


A FIRE BURNS!! For the closing session of our seminars in Notse, Togo today I led the participants and all of us leaders in an exercise in the practical aspects of forgiveness which I call "Lasting Change". Many of us were raised very close to these practices in our spiritual lives but for many people we meet in the mission field they are not very familiar. So with John 5 as a point of departure - Jesus at the Bethesda Pool - I brought very close to home how Jesus specifically asked the man if he wanted to be healed, whereby the man opened up and confessed with his own mouth what the problem was. It was then that Jesus took his hand, lifted him up and healed him.

In many other places Scripture we find out how "with the mouth confession is made". This is even a well known principle in psychology but human reasoning stops short before the REAL nature of healing and lasting change can take place when forgiveness and assurance are declared and heard in the name of Jesus and the power of His blood.  
 
All of the participants, including us leaders, were asked to take a clean sheet of paper and respond to Jesus encouragement to "cast all your cares on me, for I care for you!" and write them all down on this paper - problems, doubts, guilt, worries, fears and sins. Current ones, ones that trouble from the past and ones that shadow the horizon in the future. Much time was given for this along with the assurance that no other human being would ever see this paper.

Then we all divided into groups of six and we all went around and confessed one thing of our choice that was on this list, upon which the other members of the group put their hands upon us, assured us of forgiveness in Jesus name and the power of His blood and prayed for us with many encouraging words. What a blessed sound there was in that church today as the blood of Jesus was speaking and He lifted and healed so many there!
 
 
The next step was for everyone to raise the "problem papers" above their heads in acknowledgement that although we can never fully confess our sins and problems Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us ALL of our sins....turning everything over to Him.

Upon which we crumpled these papers up and threw them all into a burning basin, went outside and watched them disappear in the fire as we sang beautiful hymns. Not a ritual but symbolic of the fire of God's Spirit, His love and forgiveness which washes all of our sins into the sea of grace where He never remembers them again (even if we sometimes do!).

And so it was back to the everyday lives of homes, communities and congregations as we re-entered the church singing a wonderful rhythmic African song of praise.....equipped to implement what we practiced today - there on our "home altars" as Pastor Bob put it in closing.
 
 
Gone, gone, gone, gone, yes my sins are gone!


Buried in the deepest sea, yes that's good enough for me!

 Singing a hymn of praise and thanksgiving. Old things are passed away. Old church in background. New one under construction to the left.
 
SEMINAR IN TOGO COMPLETED! Many of the participants proudly show their certificates. The theme on this certificate is "The Principles of Forgiveness" (focus text John 20:21-23). Oh what an active group of pastors and church workers we had! Some of them even brought their children. The teaching was deep and practical with examples from the lives of many well-known Bible characters. How precious it is for all of us to learn more in practice about forgiveness - a major building block of everyday life and living faith!!

Dennis and Bob in Ghana

Dennis Hilman and Bob Maki have been in West Africa for almost a month. They started their trip in Ghana, then went to Togo, and are currently in Liberia. Here is an overview of their time in Ghana taken from Dennis Hilman's Facebook posts!


A CITY SET ON A HILL..... Pastor Bob with some of the young people at the service tonight at the Gbawe Church - high on a hill above Accra, Ghana. No windows and virtually no upper walls...just columns to support the roof. Wide open - for the Word as well.


IT'S WORKING - BY GOD'S GRACE!! The central board of the Apostolic Lutheran Church of Ghana. We have visited Ghana many times but when Pastor Bob and I came two years ago our mission was to facilitate unity and reconciliation in a disparity of churches. Since then this board has functioned effectively, leading the way in uniting the churches and working toward common goals. Our seminars this week focused on the central goal of salvation, with the overriding theme of "Forgiveness". The response was wonderful!


Y O U T H - BE AN EXAMPLE OF THE BELIEVERS IN WORD, IN CONVERSATION, IN LOVE, IN SPIRIT, IN FAITH, IN PURITY!! 1 Tim.4:12. Today we spent a wonderful day with these youth and children at the Gbawe (no real walls) church here in Accra, Ghana. Very involved kids. Serious about their faith!! Wish you could have been here!

WOW!! THIS IS HISTORICAL!! ALC Ghana past president Rev. Frank Famiyeh (r.) hands over all the official documents for the church van and deed for the church property to current president Rev. Emanuel Basie after years of contention. After very open discussions earlier Pastor Frank asked forgiveness of the board members present whereupon they blessed him in the wonderful name of Jesus and the cleansing power of His blood by laying their hands on him. They then asked forgiveness of him and he did the same for them personally. Plunging the past into the sea of grace!! What better way for a church to move ahead?!

The man in the bright shirt in the middle is Mr. Ben Eghan, cabinet secretary to the president of Ghana, who is also an adviser to the church board. This special board meeting was held at his home today. Some other board members are wearing more traditional Ghanaian dress.
 


More updates to follow on Dennis and Bob's time in Togo and Liberia!