2012 year in review

During 2012, there were trips taken to Russia (3x), South Africa, Guatemala (2x), Kenya, India (2x), Pakistan, Burma (Myanmar), Sri Lanka, Ghana, Togo, Liberia, the Philippines, and Vietnam! 

 

January

During January, there was a mission trip to India with a team of six as well as a trip to Guatemala!

February

During February, a trip with a team of four went to Pakistan for the first time in ten years and then continued on to Myanmar (Burma). There was also a trip with a team of three to Russia.

March

The team which went to Pakistan and Burma last month continued on to Sri Lanka for several weeks before going home.

April

A team of two went to Ghana, Togo, and Liberia. A short trip was made to Guatemala in April as well.

May

A team of nine went to the Philippines. Five of them continued to Vietnam while the other four stayed in the Philippines. There was also a month-long trip to Russia!

June/July/August

The trip to Russia finished up in June. Foreign Mission missionaries attended the convention and spoke at various other youth camps and churches throughout the summer.

September

A trip was made to India.

October

A team of two went to South Africa for three weeks. A team of two went to Russia with an additional stop in the Ukraine.

November/December

A team of five went to Kenya for three weeks.

One or both of our traveling full-time missionaries, Dennis Hilman and Leona Matson, were on most of the trips mentioned above as well as at least one of the board members or our administrator, John Ruotsala. Our full-time missionary in Guatemala, Ryan Ruotsala, was also working tirelessly in Zacapa. In addition to the trips and the full-time work in Guatemala, there was also ongoing work such as skype sermons, monthly pastor support, weekly Spiritual articles sent by email, and much more! 

Priorities in the field

Last year, this year, and as long as the Lord allows our priority is to follow the command of Jesus and preach His Gospel to all people wherever we go!

With His guiding, we teach and hold seminars so that local pastors can continue to preach the Gospel of salvation once we leave. Due to lack of time, finances, language skills, and cultural understanding, we know that local pastors are often the best evangelists in their own countries. We trust that God is with them just as He was with the Ethiopian eunuch after Philip was taken away.

We share God’s love wherever and however we can! This is God’s work! All glory and praise to Him! Please also remember that this is Your Foreign Mission. It isn’t the work of just a small number of people, but the work of everyone who supports the work through prayer, encouragement, finances, volunteering time, or joining us on a mission trip. Thank you so much for this essential support! We pray that you would continue to help Your Foreign Mission throughout 2013.

 

A vision of heaven

We had a beautiful Sunday service here in Kapilasvaraparum. When it was over, Pastor Marty Seppala shared with us one how the beginning of the service had been quite a profound experience for him. Here’s his testimony:

“When our team stood up this Sunday to sing our song and I looked out at the congregation and I think it’s one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen! There were hundreds of people with their hands raised their in the church. It reminded me of my first wife, Barbara. When she knew she was dying she was on her bed and suddenly her face lit up and she started, well, dancing there in her bed. She said, ‘Look at them! There are thousands and thousands of them and they are so happy! They are all there with their hands raised! Come everybody! Come everybody!’ It was only a week later that she went home to be with Jesus. The people in the church today reminded me of her vision. It was beautiful!”

Woman at the Well

This is my second mission trip to India. One of the most outstanding observations of my first visit was the similarity between being converted to Christianity in Hindu India and being converted to Christianity in Israel in the Book of Acts. 

Being a baptized Christian in Hindu India often carries with it the same possibilities of rejection and persecution as becoming a follower of The Way did in the book of Acts.

The Bible in many respects comes alive in a literal way that is not experienced in 21^st century USA: baptism, spiritual warfare, idol worship, intercessory prayer, and childlike faith become literal realities rather than hypothetical sermon topics. 

Our experience at Sriranga Patnam Saturday night again brought to us the literal correlation between physical and spiritual. On the way to the evening service on a narrow street (paved path) in Sriranga Patnam, Pastor John Ruotsala told us he was going to speak on “the blind man and Jesus.” Pastor Ansten Tretten had told us before an earlier service that he was going to speak on “blind Bartimaeus” and had spoken from another text so we fully expected John to use his chosen text. As John was looking at the people gathered he began to feel he should speak from another text so he asked Leona Matson, “What should I speak about?” She immediately replied, “the woman at the well.”

Pastor John did speak from John 4 about the women at the well and the Living Water. The Word was opened and spoken in power and spirit. Our hosts generally provide us with bottled drinking water during the services and the timing of them bringing us water was perfect. Just as John spoke of the natural water that only quenches our thirst for a moment, our Indian hosts handled us bottled water without understanding a word of English.

When the service was over, we prayed with and for the local Hindus and those who have converted to Christianity. As we prepared to leave, we discovered that we had been sitting directly in front of the local community well! Our entire service had taken place immediately in front of that community hand pump well and not a single one of us had noticed until the worship service was complete.

We can only marvel at God’s perfect ways.

God’s Peace!

Sam Seppala

Evening services (by Tyrone)

The day is Thursday the 17^th it’s 8:30 PM and Doctor Kumar is patiently waiting for his 9 American/ Canadian visitors to get ready and leave for the evening service. After a few hours of rest we are ready another round of praising our Risen Savior Jesus Christ.

Arriving at our field of worship there are bright lights burning, and people everywhere singing and clapping to the beating of the drum. Our driver brings us right next to the stage, and as we get up on the stage it gets even louder! Looking out into the crowd we can hardly see the end of the field where people are. Doctor Kumar said he expected right around 2000 people for the service and there are not many empty chairs. He said that many people in attendance would be Hindus. 

 After the opening prayer Ansten had a sermon and 10 minutes into it all the lights went out. The generator ran out of fuel. So, after a 15 minute break they got a few of the lights back on and the service resumed.

After Ansten’s service John had a powerful message pleading with non-believers to come unto Christ. And after his sermon everyone was invited to come to the stage for personal prayer from one of the team members. We formed 8 different lines and prayed for all of those who came forward. 

The service was such a blessing and we pray many non-believers were saved that evening. Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.