Incredible India (Leona's thoughts)

Greetings from the incredible country of India! It has been such a blessing to be here again. Many of my pictures are from Kapileswarapuram, where Pastor K and Ruth serve, instead of Rajahmundry, where Doctor Kumar and Jean-Mary serve. My time in both places was equally blessed, but I want to share new experiences with you so I’ll concentrate on more recent events instead of reviewing events the others have already shared.

Poor village people arrive daily at this small A.H. Mission Clinic. Here they find both prayer and treatment from the faithful doctor’s assistant that works here. Despite a lack of supplies, she diligently comes each day and examines 50-100 people. She is able to treat most patients and she distributes medicine when it is available. When she can’t treat a patient, she refers them to Dr. Kumar. The clinic owns six acres of land here and part of land is given over to a teak plantation. The young teak trees cost only about $1½, but, God willing, the ~1000 tree plantation will yield a substantial amount of money when it is harvested in about eight years (which will be fifteen years after it was planted.) This money is currently earmarked to help build a hospital to treat cervical cancer. Unfortunately, as a result of the collapse of the economy, the construction of this hospital halted five years ago and only the foundations are currently built. We pray that construction will continue in God’s time.

Pastor K’s wife Ruth is such an amazing example of Christian love and servanthood. She reminds me of Lydia in the Bible—someone known for their hospitality. Ruth found out that Jada, Bethany, and Lana will all celebrate their birthdays while in India and within 24 hours she pulled off an amazing birthday party complete with decorations, guests, presents, and cake! The girls have decided they need to come to India every year to celebrate their birthdays. Many of you met Ruth while she was in the USA and Canada last summer and can probably testify to her quiet nature and servant’s heart. However, today we saw a new side of her. She was a fearless warrior marching into battle against a poisonous snake while others stood back in fear! I think perhaps Ruth would prefer to remain anonymous, but I want to thank God for her love, care, and example.


When we were walking through the village a few days ago, we were invited to the local Hindu theological college where young girls are taught to sing and dance the mythological Hindu stories. The girls were so excited to meet us and I really enjoyed meeting them too. It was so heart-wrenching, though, knowing that daily they bowed before gods made by the hands of men. This stronghold of Satan is less than a half a mile from our church. However, God reminded me that His power is so much stronger than the power of Satan! So I ask each of you right now to stop and pray. Pray that each of these girls will meet the true God who created them with the beautiful talents they are now using to praise false gods. Pray that the Christians here in the village of Kapileswarapuram —perhaps the girls here at the ALC Home—will be used by God to touch the hearts of their Hindu peers. Pray that missionaries will be invited back to the Hindu college, that relationships could be formed, and that we would be able to share the story of the true God with these girls who were so eager to meet us on this trip.

Every time I visit the ALC Home, one of my favorite memories is watching the children perform songs and Bible skits for us. It is just so wonderful to see children learning and enjoying the stories of the Bible! This year the boys’ skit started with creation and finished with the birth of Enos to Adam and Eve. The scene above shows the birth of Abel. Adam is on the left, Eve is holding Abel, and Cain is on the far right. The Garden of Eden guarded by the cherubim can be seen in the background.


The girls’ skit was a bit different. They used a traditional Indian poetic style to tell the story of the birth of Jesus. The girl in the middle told the story while the girls on either side asked questions. This method of using a traditional storytelling style was not only beautiful to watch, but also reminded me of Paul using examples from Greek mythology when he explained the gospel to the Athenians in Acts.

Earlier today (Tuesday, February 8th) Bethany, Lana, and I had a second meeting with the women of the Kapileswarapuram congregation. The first meeting was held last Friday. Then the three of us—along with Julie and Jada who were still here—lead a discussion about the names of Jesus and how they apply to our lives. Today we talked about the Water of Life—the Holy Spirit. We started by discussing the importance of water to our daily lives—for drinking, washing, cleaning, cooking, etc. Then we talked about how equally important the Living Water is to our spiritual lives: it gives us life, helps us grow, and gives us power from God. We were so pleased when our India sisters joined in and shared examples from their lives as well. We ended the session today with a demonstration. Lana filled a bucket with balloons, which represented sin in our lives. Then she poured water into the bucket which drove out most of the balloons. She reminded us that the Living Water fills us and cleanses us from sin when God gives us the faith to believe.

Philippines experience!

Well John asked that we each give a brief synopsis of the Philippine Mission so here are just a few thoughts from my point of view.    Frat Aho...



I’ll explain one stop that we made in the Philippines.

We were on our way from Cagayan de ore to a remote place called Kitcheroo when one of the vans ran out of gas so we had an un expected delay on a busy street near a public park of sorts. I pulled out a guitar and struck up a tune while waiting for the guys to get us on our way. A small crowd gathered to hear the music. I noticed in particular a certain dude who had a dew rag on his head… he looked like a gangster. He seemed to enjoy the music. While I sang I saw a few members of our small missionary band stop and talk to the people. I gave up the guitar to Randy and heard a few more songs… Then he sang “On the Hills of Glory”….. “no young ones crying no old ones dying… on the hills of glory I will tell my story of how Jesus saved a wretch like me.”

I watched as the gangster looking man compelled his friends to come and listen… then I watched as Jesus touched his heart… I put my arm around him and felt him tremble as he listened and silently wept…. Then I watched as Dennis preached the love of Christ to him and the others as we got back in the van and headed for Kitcheroo.

Frat

Team India

We have been requested to show a picture of the entire India team.     The clothing has been gifted to us by our hosts!

India by Bethany

The below pictures and captions are by Bethany.  Her and all the other team members have been very busy in various capacities of the mission.   The Foreign Mission is so thankful for them!

This was the slum church /school that we visited in India. Here is where us young people taught the children songs, games, paper mache, and Bible stories.

 These were the paper mache boats for the story of Noah’s ark. We also did Whales with the story of Jonah.

 At Alvar Helmes Mission Hospital the orphan children dropped petals as we each received our flowers, as our welcome. There we toured the mission Hospital, and sang songs with the orphan children and watched them perform.

 We spent part of one day driving to the different wells donated to the people of India through the Foreign Mission by private donors. In this picture, The Doctor is posing by one of these wells with a group of the local women who use it.

 At ALC Home, this is where some of the food preparation is done by the help. We were able to spend some time there learning their Indian way as well.

Please keep praying to the Lord that His Word would affect the hearts of the people here in India!

India

The pictures and comments in this particular posting are by Jada!  She is now on her way back to the USA, and we pray for safe passage for her and Julie.  It was great to have them with us!  As always, the preaching of the Word of God is the top priority on these trips, but pictures of people sitting to listen do not make good blogs........ hence the below pics and notes! (as with all previous posts!)

We taught the kids in the slums for three days and one of those days we told them the story of Noah. Then we had them color pictures and they were all so proud to show them.

We had the chance to visit the Alvar Helmes Mission Hospital where the Doctor works and the Little Lambs Orphanage where Jean-Mary (the doctor's wife) works with the orphan kids. While we were there, we got the chance to enjoy the children’s singing. It was such a neat thing to experience!

 These kids were some of the ones that greeted us when we first arrived at Pastor K’s. The children are all so beautiful and they are such a joy to be around! They will truly be missed.

We got the opportunity to serve lunch and tea to the pastors who attended the pastors’ seminars! There was so many of them that showed up to be filled with the Word. It was so incredible.

Julie and I got to go with Pastor K, John, and nine of the girls to play in the water on the beach. The rest of the group gets to do this after we leave because they are staying longer. We were given a sneak peak since we are leaving sooner. We had such a great time playing in the warm water and building sand castles!  It is great to be able to spend these few minutes relaxing and connecting with the orphan children since they go to school 6 days per week...   on Saturday night they are ready for some fun, as were we from much work this week!

Vietnam- Dennis

Hello again! I know this comes hot on the heels of my last article about the Philippines but I just had to send it right off because Vietnam was so exciting. You can put it in your library and look at all the pictures when you get time!

Vietnam - Mr. Joe Country
Last summer when I visited New Hampshire I received a unique offer. The legendary Mr. Joe from Massachusetts offered to send me and Jonathan Aho to Vietnam to bring God's love to some of the many children and youthand their families that he has befriended over the last 16 years. He has in fact brought over 100 polio handicapped kids to the US for major operations during that time - often with deformed limbs - those considered cursed by their culture. In recent years he has begun supporting more than 200 youngsters in Vietnam by assisting them with their education. The amount of creative compassion he has shown, the amount of "caring and sharing", as he calls it, is truly overwhelming. A living ambassador of the love of God!
I came to Vietnam with part of our Philippine team last week having learned the wonderful news that Mr. Joe himself was here with Jonathan Aho. Here to celebrate his 83rd birthday and to meet hundreds of young people with their parents and their families. The amazing experience was deepened and broadened by the fact that it is the time of Tet, the Chinese New Year, when the whole country is celebrating.

Home visit to Chau (far left) who Mr. Joe brought to the US for medical attention already years ago. Others, left to right, Frat Aho, (Do Duy) Duc - a brilliant young man who was also brought to the US for surgery some years ago and is now as successful businessman in Saigon - Randy Kinnunen, Colin Kinnunen and Karl Somero. Chau's aunt in the background. Wherever we went we brought the Gospel message of God's love in Christ Jesus.

Chau's house from the street - his family waving from the upper balcony.

 Visit to orphanage near Saigon where over a hundred children live - many of them handicapped - and from where many of Mr. Joe's children have come. Randy and Frat singing.

 Another home visit. This time to the home of a 16-year-old girl Nhi and her brother Tu - Now living alone after the death of both of their parents. Here bringing fruits and flowers to their mothers grave - who died only four months ago.

 Here we are in the Mekong River Delta in the big city of Ben Tre. This is a monument to the victory of many small Vietnamese boats over the big US Navy ships on this river. Note sculptured trees - in parks everywhere in Vietnam.

Mr. Joe receiving young people and their families in our hotel restaurant. 

 Mr. Joe outside the hotel getting ready to leave for the big birthday celebration.

 Addressing the guests at the birthday party with his translator Minh - another of his "miracles".

 With the crowd of over 300 well-wishers. Mr. Joe had not been back in Vietnam for 14 years and the reception was truly overwhelming. I also brought a message of God's love in Christ Jesus even though I was warned that there might be informers in the crowd and not to use my Bible. I believe God gave me the words and way to speak that might have even piqued the interest of the most die-hard Communist. To Him be the glory. All in all I spoke seven times during my stay here on this message of the love of God in Christ Jesus, but this was by far the biggest audience I spoke to.

 The Palace of Independence - formerly the Presidential Palace of South Vietnam. I and probably many other people will never forget the dramatic and traumatic scenes of the helicopters evacuating the last Americans and many frantic Vietnamese from the roof of this building in April 1975 as Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese. Yesterday I was able to tour this building which is now basically a museum. An edifice of unabashed luxury it was completed in 1966 by and for the South Vietnamese government with American support.

 A HELICOPTER, mind you! On the roof of the Palace - just where everyone was evacuated. And an American made one at that!! Boy did this give me shivers down my spine!

 Here is Duc again, with his vintage American Jeep from 1969. He is the head of a club of people who own these restored relics of the war.

 Jonathan Aho and I celebrating the Chinese New Year in Saigon, Vietnam. We have a lot in common.

Light decorated street - one of many. On our last evening in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) Jonny and I and Isabel Aho joined virtually millions of Vietnamese thronging the central streets of Saigon to celebrate the Tet New Year - it is a city of about 10 million people and it seemed they had all taken to the streets - many of which were closed for traffic last night. I can only describe the experience as gorgeous and exhilarating. Everyone is so very friendly here. Saigon is a truly beautiful city. I thank God and Mr. Joe that I was able to come here and experience so much of it in just a week!

NOTE - I wrote this on my last day in Vietnam - just before I headed for the airport to fly first to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and then on to India. I am now here in Kapileswarapuram at Pastor K's and Ruth's with our team of nine Americans, Canadian and this Finn. But that's another story!

Loving Indian greetins of "Wandanalu"!

Dennis

India

.. The below pictures and comments are by Matthew! All the young people have contributed so much on this trip! Today however, we have all agreed that we have been the ones on the receiving end of the blessings from God through the people we have met on this trip!

We taught many Bible stories to the children.  They thoroughly enjoyed them and could recite them back with exact details. 

At an nightly open air church service in a village. The people were very interested in hearing the Gospel preached and most (1,000+) came to the front for prayer after the service.

 At a Sunday morning service, there must have been 50 people crammed into a few small rooms in the house!  The woman singing had the most interesting eyes.

 This is at a church in a more rural area where they have recently got a well installed.  The women are very grateful to have access to water now!

 Baptisms of 10 men and 4 women were done at a river.

We were able to walk  the streets of a small village, the Indian people were very welcoming to us.

Email foreignmission@comcast.net if you are interested in coming on a future trip!

Philippines- Dennis

Philippine Photo Fare
There are so many sides to the Philippines. Our team of Colin Kinnunen, John Ruotsala, Karl Somero, Frat Aho, Randy Kinnunen, Leona Matson, Jada Questad and Julie Matson saw many of those sides after we met up in Manila on January 19. First we all flew to Cagayan do Oro on the southern island of Mindanao where we got started with our church meetings and home visits. Then it was up in the very northernmost tip of that island where the majority of our mission efforts took place near the city of Surigao at a place called Kitcharao. I know you won't remember all of these names but you might have a bit of fun pronouncing them or looking them up on Google Earth! Maybe for you these places might seem like the ends of the earth since they are exactly on the opposite side of the globe from New Hampshire, for instance. Mindanao, by the way is an island that in itself is bigger than Ireland and even bigger than 122 entire countries on this earth! It also has the largest Muslim population in the Philippines.

 Little Drummer Boy. On our very first evening at the Overcomers Apostolic Lutheran Church in Kitcharao the service was getting underway. As the singing began this little drummer took his place behind the drums - an essential instrument in Philippine services where there is no organ or piano.  At first I thought he was just there on a childish whim but soon it was evident that he was serious. He accompanied many of the songs with perfect rhythm, talent and sensitivity during the evening - and then even at some of the bigger services later that weekend. Seeing him there so completely engaged in what he was doing brought to mind some of the children God had called at an early age in the Bible, like Samuel, David and Jeremiah. Truly an inspiration!

 River village - the focus of our team outreach mission effort on Friday in Igpit.   Each member of our ALCA team was designated to go with a Filipino team of about nine people each (we formed nine teams in all) and went out to this river village to visit homes, pray with the villagers and hold services. What an experience that was! - uniting our mission efforts to count for Jesus and really putting into practice what we were learning. All the homes in this village were built on stilts since the river floods their village a times in the rainy season.

 Here is our Filipino team with a family of villagers. We called our team "The Burning Bush". Team leader Jun-Ed Senonis on the left. We shared from the Bible and prayed very specific prayers with this family. The young couple at the far end were planning a February wedding, the young women in the blue and green flowered dress was in labour at that very time(!) and the mother in the middle needed acute prayers for the financial well-being of her family as well as peace and unity in their home.

 After our home visits we gathered by the shores of the Mindanao Sea - actually an extension of the Pacific Ocean - for a service in the village church. Later the children and many others thronged around John and Leona on the shore.

 Home from school - a typical overloaded motorbike scene - here bringing village kids home from school since the only way to reach the village is on foot, bicycle or motorbike.

 Pastor Bert Senonis, the driving force behind the Overcomers Apostolic Lutheran churches on Mindanao, with his wife and adopted daughter. While we were there this little Giveth Lynn became very ill and was diagnosed with acute leukemia. She was hospitalized immediately but the doctors say that there is a very good prognosis for complete healing from the type of leukemia she has with proper care and medication. This frail little girl needs our prayers.

 A beautiful lake in the mountain country of northern Mindanao - taken from the balcony of our hotel room there. In the clear, clean and warm water I even went swimming one evening with some of the others.

Our big service on Sunday with over 500 people in attendance and about 14 different churches represented. God gave me to speak on the women at the well of Sychar - how Jesus opened the discussion with this "foreign" woman by asking, "Give me to drink". That question and Jesus' response echo still through the world wherever people are thirsting for the Living Water. You can see Colin, Karl and John in the front row. Julie, Jada and Leona are largely hidden behind them.

At an impromptu wayside stop, Frat Aho shares his passion for bringing Christ to the people through his beautiful gift of music - with those who happened to be standing around. This is what mission is all about, sharing the gifts that God has given us and the message of the Gospel of Jesus "in season and out of season!" Frat and Randy Kinnunen sang everywhere we went and proved to be a great blessing to our mission effort.
We spent one week in the Philippines before our team divided up - part going to India and part of us to Vietnam. More on that later.
I really love to share my "wanderings" with you. I just pray that God would bless you as He does me with them.
In His love and wondrous peace,

Dennis

India

Please find the below pictures and comments by Julie!  These show the Mission from the eyes of the youth, who are the church today! 

 These “Angels” were helping to tell a bible story. The Children love being able to see the messages in action and be able to be a part of it.  Daniel and the Lions Den is certainly one of the favorites.

 This man is an excellent driver/body guard. He was with us everywhere we went while we were in the city.  He suffered from a stoke about a year ago and was healed. Since then he has been attending church and it’s a beautiful thing that he was with us. Although he was there to serve us our prayer is that every message spoken and every word said as we ministered to children. The large services appeared to speak  to him as well.

The women at a village church were happy to show us the well that was donated.  

 We gave special gifts to those with Leprosy; this man had such a smile on his face the whole time!

At the ALC Home, morning begins long before the sun comes up. It was a treasure to wake up and all the children came to me saying “good morning”. They then one by one came to the well to pump water to bath with.

There will be more posts coming from the other travelers!  Please check back!