Jun 2019 | The opening evening of this historical course was filled with expectation. There had not been such a mission course in Tanzania before that focused on reaching the unreached people groups (UPG). Now, in a hostel in Dar es Salaam, 42 pastors had gathered to learn about missions among the unreached.
Course participants Emmanuel and Maria
The three weeks’ program was quite intensive, and the content was both demanding and diverse. Days began at 5am with prayer, continuing until 9pm after two hours’ break in the afternoon. As the course went on, the participants’ enthusiasm didn’t wear out but kept on growing. On the weekends they returned home to shepherd their churches, meanwhile we i.a. arranged a Youth Conference, and a vision casting breakfast for entrepreneurs, visited a Zaramo village and preached in local churches.
In the graduation ceremony students were wearing academic robes and caps.
On the graduation day, some 150 people were gathered together to celebrate including family and friends, leaders of the local community as well as the hostel owner. The atmosphere was joyfully liberating. A student representative gave a speech about what they had learnt. They had received tools for reaching the unreached. Their understanding of missions was expanded, and they had realized that it’s not just for the Western missionaries alone; this calling – that is God’s heartbeat – is also for the church in Tanzania.
Just recently, in September, our Ugandan missionary in Tanzania, Francis, excitedly told us that nearly half of the course participants had already begun implementing the attained knowledge into their work in new villages and areas close to them and beyond. This is great news! One of them, Brian, organized a seminar for Pastors, where he is teaching them about the practices for reaching new tribes. At the same time, he’ll continue his already commenced work in a new village, utilizing the principals he’s learned.
Pastor Sadoki started working in three new villages. Here he’s wearing the course shirt, standing together with a new believer.
Our wonderful translator, Jane, reported: “Partakers of the training are grateful for GNN’s mission course. They began to modify their practices, having special consideration for the unreached tribes in their region. One lady went to a Masai area near Arusha. She has already made connections with members of the tribe, applying methods learned during the course to her work. It is evident that this June’s Mission course is bearing good fruit; we thank God for that!”
There are still 27 unreached tribes (6M ppl) in Tanzania. Next we will arrange for our participants an online follow-up training, and a “Next Steps” seminar which will be held in May 2020. Let’s intercede for these events as well as for the participants in their work – may God’s fire and vision spread through them!
We give God all the glory and want to thank everyone who were enabling this course to become a reality!
Our facilitator team consisted of Pastors Arto Sädeaho, Jonathan Lemmetti and Shierley Siwi. Also Ps. Erik Klar from Thailand, Aki Miettinen from Finland and Dr. Paul Ng from Singapore brought their valuable experience to these weeks.
Early Summer’s Tidings from Africa
/in News, Uncategorized /by hacusuuronen(Tanzania & Uganda)
Encouraging Internet Conference for Tanzanian Pioneers
Six new believers from Tanzanian Zaramo tribe got recently baptized
Our planned mission trip to East Africa in May boiled down to an afternoon Internet conference. We are grateful to follow-up with the participants who were part of the GNN UPG mission training in Dar es Salaam in June 2019. Our multinational teaching team from Finland, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and Uganda all contributed encouraging and timely words. Wonderful news from the on-going ministry in Tanzania included testimonies of new churches planted amongst the Masai and Vidunda tribes; pastors continuing to reach out in new areas; Muslims being reached with the Gospel and turning to Jesus. We thank God for going beyond our expectations with this fruitful ministry! – Jonathan Lemmetti
Night Radio is Blossoming Despite the Pandemic
Food Aid ready for transportation
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our church members and people in the surrounding areas are suffering from lack of food. Most of them fared well in the beginning, as they received support for food from the nearby coffee plantation, but many had to stop working due to the restrictions and, as a result, have suffered from hunger. Thanks to God that Africa Renewal Ministries’ partners were able to arrange food for 105 families. We were also granted permission from the government representatives to supply food to the local residents. Likewise, we are grateful to GNN for the additional support besides that sent for our radio ministry. May the Lord bless you and all of the GNN supporters!”
Send Your Bread
Francis (on the right) together with the man who gave his life to God in 2012
Ecclesiastes 11:1 says: “Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find It.”
In May I received the below message from our African partner, Francis.
“Hi, Pastor Arto! This morning I walked to the plot of land with its caretaker. On the way I asked him how he had become a believer. He said that, out of curiosity, he had gone to listen to the ministry workers’ conference in Muleete in 2012. During that seminar, at the closing of your session to the pastors, you suddenly asked if there was anyone who wanted to become a believer. This man was the only one who walked to the front. Then you led him in the sinner’s prayer – the fruit of that day has remained!”
Uganda’s Timely Night Radio
/in News /by hacusuuronenUganda’s Night Radio reaches people
The tight transport and public gathering restrictions have brought a collapse to the churches’ activities, causing big difficulties. Being far from the capital city, the Internet connections are unstable, thus limiting connection with others to telephone calls and text messages.
However, the ‘Night radio’ programs, that we also support, are broadcast to four other nations in East Africa in addition to Uganda. At least 30 million people live in the coverage area. Even non-Christians are amongst the listeners. Many have become Jesus followers as a result of programs. Broadcasting the Good News is not being hindered by the restrictions to public gatherings. In light of the current circumstances, we decided to double our support of this ministry. Now the programs Pr. John Magaba with his team takes care of can be listened weekly on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings. Towards the end of broadcasts phone calls are streaming in to the studio.
• Would you like to support this influential ministry? You can do that at our ‘Donate‘ page.
God at Work in Domestic Missions
/in News /by hacusuuronenMarch 15th 2020 | Pastor Ndegwa together with the baptizees
Vantaa International Christian Fellowship (VICF) is our domestic mission – a spiritual home for all nations. Just before Covid-19 restrictions closed all gatherings, we baptised six new believers! Luckily, from the beginning of VICF, we have collected visitors’ contact details with their permission in order to stay in touch with them. Now we can easily connect with our people through video meetings.
A Refreshing Visit
/in News /by hacusuuronenMap of the unreached tribes in Tanzania
In February 2020, Francis Tusiime from Uganda visited us. He is our key contact in our pioneer work in Tanzania. We invited Francis to strengthen our contacts in Finland. VICF had partially supported the successful course we held in June 2019 in Dar es Salam. Our congregation warmly welcomed Francis of whom they had heard so much about from our mission trip reports.
As we travelled to various churches in eastern Finland, our African friend was very excited to see snow for the first time in his life. The passage in the Bible: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”, opened up to Francis in a whole new way.
Throughout our travels, our guest’s modest approach and powerful prayer ministry captivated the listener’s hearts in every place. As we spent time together, we heard more of how Francis was called to ministry: Already as a schoolboy, he experienced a strong missionary call to the nations. Later on, he realised this did not mean political nations, but different tribes and people. From his mentor late pastor Wilson Ssentongo, he learnt to plant new churches in a team setting. When asked how many churches he had planted before Tanzania, his quiet answer was: ‘more than ten’.
In 2010, Francis then went to Tanzania with the blessing of his home church. He began his ministry without funds from a zero level amongst the still unreached Zaramo tribe (1.2 mill.) living in Dar es Salam area. Since the mission course we arranged in ‘Dar’ in the summer of 2019, along with the pioneers from this course, the ministry has expanded to other parts of Tanzania.
Arto, Francis and Jonathan at Radio Patmos, where our Finnish radio program airs every Tuesday at 3PM (rerun on Saturdays at 8PM).
Happy New Year!
/in News /by hacusuuronenHave a blessed year 2020!
New encounters in Jakarta
/in News /by hacusuuronenThrough this ministry we got to meet many local children.
It is amazing to see what God is doing. November 2019 was the first time for me to visit a street children’s weekly gathering in a slum area of Jakarta. It was special (and very loud) to see all the kids gathered into a small, hot room, where, after some fun games, I could also share my personal faith story with them.
Michael, the pioneer of Jakarta’s street kids ministry
This ministry was initiated by Michael, a former drug dealer. After graduating from Bible school he returned to his old neighborhood, began to reach out to his former friends and associates, also ending up starting a ministry among the street kids. Michael has an official authorization to give drug education, which he’s been doing in different parts of Indonesia. Sometimes the students of these cities are brought into a stadium, where he doesn’t only tell them about the dangers of drugs, but also gets to share with them about the faith that changed everything.
– Jonathan Lemmetti
Tanzanian Mission course greetings!
/in News /by hacusuuronenCourse participants Emmanuel and Maria
The three weeks’ program was quite intensive, and the content was both demanding and diverse. Days began at 5am with prayer, continuing until 9pm after two hours’ break in the afternoon. As the course went on, the participants’ enthusiasm didn’t wear out but kept on growing. On the weekends they returned home to shepherd their churches, meanwhile we i.a. arranged a Youth Conference, and a vision casting breakfast for entrepreneurs, visited a Zaramo village and preached in local churches.
In the graduation ceremony students were wearing academic robes and caps.
On the graduation day, some 150 people were gathered together to celebrate including family and friends, leaders of the local community as well as the hostel owner. The atmosphere was joyfully liberating. A student representative gave a speech about what they had learnt. They had received tools for reaching the unreached. Their understanding of missions was expanded, and they had realized that it’s not just for the Western missionaries alone; this calling – that is God’s heartbeat – is also for the church in Tanzania.
Just recently, in September, our Ugandan missionary in Tanzania, Francis, excitedly told us that nearly half of the course participants had already begun implementing the attained knowledge into their work in new villages and areas close to them and beyond. This is great news! One of them, Brian, organized a seminar for Pastors, where he is teaching them about the practices for reaching new tribes. At the same time, he’ll continue his already commenced work in a new village, utilizing the principals he’s learned.
Pastor Sadoki started working in three new villages. Here he’s wearing the course shirt, standing together with a new believer.
Our wonderful translator, Jane, reported: “Partakers of the training are grateful for GNN’s mission course. They began to modify their practices, having special consideration for the unreached tribes in their region. One lady went to a Masai area near Arusha. She has already made connections with members of the tribe, applying methods learned during the course to her work. It is evident that this June’s Mission course is bearing good fruit; we thank God for that!”
There are still 27 unreached tribes (6M ppl) in Tanzania. Next we will arrange for our participants an online follow-up training, and a “Next Steps” seminar which will be held in May 2020. Let’s intercede for these events as well as for the participants in their work – may God’s fire and vision spread through them!
We give God all the glory and want to thank everyone who were enabling this course to become a reality!
Our facilitator team consisted of Pastors Arto Sädeaho, Jonathan Lemmetti and Shierley Siwi. Also Ps. Erik Klar from Thailand, Aki Miettinen from Finland and Dr. Paul Ng from Singapore brought their valuable experience to these weeks.
Pioneer training in Tanzania
/in News /by hacusuuronenWe are arranging a missions training course in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (June 7-26th 2019). It is our latest endeavor! During this motivational course, 50 registered local pastors and active church members will be trained to reach the unreached tribes (30) in their country.
According to a local, one of the most difficult groups to reach is the Zaramo; a tribe of approx. 1,2 million people. They are the 1st in our focus. On our last trip we visited a Zaramo village (100% muslims) and at the end of that visit the village head welcomed an evangelist to start working there. (In the above picture our team is on the way to that village.)
We have been collaborating on this project since summer 2018, and the GNN team has been busy preparing this course.
It’s not just another event! For us, this is a new channel – for the salvation of yet unreached people groups. We will use the experience gained from this course in our other destinations.
Would you like to join this effort?
Our prayer is that Good News Networking (GNN) will bear much fruit!
Celebration Time in VICF!
/in News /by hacusuuronenVantaa International Christian Fellowship celebrated her 10th Anniversary on Jan 13th 2019. Some 240 guests attended the celebration, held at Vantaan Minttukirkko which VICF rents for its regular services.
Reijo Blommendahl singing at VICF
Upbeat music and guest musicians inspired everyone in worship. Rev. Reijo Blommendahl’s strong vocals had people holding their breath during his powerful rendition of the familiar song ‘How Great Thou Art’ in several various languages.
The multinational children’s choir from VICF’s Kids Ministry also received huge applause for their performance. Greetings were brought forward by Pastor Il-soo Kim, the founder of the Finnish Korean Church, as well as by Pastor Tony Ibarra, the FEIC* coordinator based in Frankfurt.
As Prs. Arto and Orvokki Sädeaho were still contemplating about starting an international church in 2008, a vision Orvokki received one night coupled with a confirmation Arto got from the Bible encouraged them. They then found a couple that had the same vision. This joint work began from point zero (January 2009) with no knowledge of any foreigners in the area.
Ps. Arto had a hard time talking. His mind was filled with gratitude towards a gracious God. He finished by appealing for the multinational congregation to nurture unity and reminded them how Jesus said that it is the way the world will believe they are His witnesses.
Younger pastors Ndegwa and Jonathan are now taking care of the main responsibility of the church ministry. Pastor Arto is now able to focus on the core objective, VICF’s umbrella organisation GNN (Good News Networking), which is to take the gospel to the unreached people groups.
From left: Arto & Orvokki Sädeaho, Timo Virta, Wambui & Ndegwa Maina and Jonathan Lemmetti
*FEIC (above) is abbreviated from ’The Fellowship of European International Churches’.
This relational network consists of 82 churches throughout 32 European nations.
Sharing the vision in Myanmar
/in News /by hacusuuronenOn Monday we flew to Myanmar’s 2nd largest city, Mandalay (1,2 million). About 300,000 monks live in this city known as a stronghold of Buddhism. However, our thoughts were anywhere but in tourism. A young pastor from the northeastern corner of Myanmar, Simon, came to meet us. He has already been involved in pioneer work by sending out three short-term pioneers to work amongst the unreached.
The presence of the Holy Spirit spoke to the attendees and we saw how the vision began to unite them, despite denominational barriers. There was an Anglican bishop, the Trinity church pastor, Baptists, Pentecostals and others.