Catastrophe in the end of 2025

A flash flood that surprised in seconds

In December, we reported on how flash floods caused by heavy rains and a tropical cyclone swept away areas in Aceh province. The almost tsunami-like flood swept away entire villages.

The press reported that the death toll would exceed a thousand. Usually, aid organizations focus on such natural disasters, but…

One thing made it personal for us: The flood hit the areas of pioneers who have been sent from the school over the years.

We had supported them in their work with the unreached people groups in areas and many of them were already managing on their own. Then the flood hit!

It is clear that after such devastation, we did not want to leave them stranded, but wanted to help them start anew in their work areas. They are our sisters and brothers (Mt.12:49-50).

 

A MOMENT OF GRATITUDE: The Lord protected all the pioneers!

According to recent reports, there were 25 pioneers & five established churches in need of relief help.

Pr. Shierley Siwi organised a first relief team for nine days in the midst of the devastation and reported on it after returning before Christmas.

I want to thank God for the support that came through GNN. It means a lot to the pioneers who survived the devastation. They are all safe now, but many lost everything.

Homes and prayer rooms were also partially damaged. Pastors, who had left the school in previous years, and their church congregation also suffered from the devastation.

It touched my heart to see how our pioneers, despite all the challenges, have remained faithful to where they had been sent from the school over the years.

After planting new churches, they have continued there, never leaving their place. Many of the members of the congregations had also lost everything. We helped them too!

A pioneer couple who had just started working with a small child escaped with only the clothes they wore. We rented them a place to stay for the night. We also provided cutlery and other necessities.”

 

Shierley Siwi

 

Thank you all for your supports and prayers in this blessed work!

Brief Look into Asia 2025

Indonesia (April-May)

First, a team building week in Jakarta for 19 UPG pioneers who have been working in their areas for years.

After Sunday services, we moved to the familiar Sumatra Bible School. Days begin there at 4 a.m. with prayer time. After morning activities, classes begin at 7 a.m. During the day, there are lectures for the 1st and 2nd year students. Afterwards there is an evening service.

Over the course of two weeks, Pr. Kimmo and I each had 20 sessions. The disciplined training has later been seen to our advantage in field conditions.

From the May graduation ceremony, 26 pioneers were sent to plant churches in ‘dark’ communities and 13 others among the UPG tribes. GNN has been sending regular so-called ‘start-up’ support for 1-2 years to pioneers (840€/year).

Most supporters pay 70€/month. Over 80% of those who leave succeed in their destinations!

 

Would you like to become a supporter?

Reference: 3117

 

East Malaysia and Vietnam (October)

Our two-week mission first focused on the island of Borneo, which is larger than Finland, in East Malaysia. There, 25 young employees participated in a training week.

We continued to Vietnam, where 25 pastors and evangelists participated in the training in HCM City (Saigon), the furthest coming from 1,000 km north.

The purpose of the trainings is to awaken local churches and workers to the responsibility of evangelising their unread people groups (UPG).There are 700 of such groups in south-east Asia!

 

Arto Sädeaho

Brief Look into East Africa 2025

Tanzania

In Arusha, our GNN team gave a week of advanced training to 52 pastors gathered from different provinces of the country. According to them, 3000 copies of the Sunday school manual called Mwanga (Light) were distributed. We had ordered a copy to be distributed to 2800 workers trained in the previous 22 regional seminars.

We challenged them from now on to be responsible for the rest of the seminars in the country. GNN would only support Pr. Francis, who coordinates the events and holds the training materials they received from us.

In May-July, Pr. Francis first traveled among the Maasai nomads, then he organized a children’s ministry training week for pastors in the Kilimanjaro region. Soon after, the children’s ministry in the congregations began to show growth.

Children’s ministry is key to homes and new tribes!

A children’s conference was held in Kigoma, a heavily Muslim area, for 2,500 children. It was broadcast nationwide on TV.

– The coordinator was a pastor who had been inspired by the GNN 2022 mission course.

The seminar, led by the Tanzanian GNN team, Pr. Francis, led to a children’s camp in Bunju before school started and another one in December.

West-Uganda

In Mubende, further training for pastors in areas of UPG work* and a follow-up seminar for young workers. Inspired young Dr. Jordan organised a campaign targeting students at Kampala University.

(*UPG = Unreached  People Groups)

In the same week, we participated in radio programs that we have supported for years. Bishop John reported 461 conversions recorded during 2025. The broadcasts reach 30 million people in East Africa. After each broadcast, the studio receives about 25 calls a week, many of them Muslims. Those who convert are directed to local churches.

We also supported Bishop John’s conference series in the Karamodja and Northeastern Uganda regions.

New Year 2026

When I went for my first month-long trip to Spain in 1998, I never would’ve imagined that in 2026 I would be doing full-time work with the unreached people groups.

I am glad to have witnessed that GNN Finland’s operations are structured in a way that best serves reaching unreached people groups around the world.

The relationships that Pr. Arto and Pr. Orvokki have created over the years, especially with Indonesia, have also been clearly revealed to me. The continuity of the work has been prepared so that GNN can continue to operate for decades to come, if our Lord’s coming is delayed.

We strongly believe that when believers start with a strategy to reach the unreached people groups in their own country, the mission calling can be fulfilled, perhaps within the next generation.

Pr. Arto often quotes the words of Jesus saying, Jh.9:4:

As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.

We can only imagine the progress of the world in the future. However, we believe that everywhere we will see nations where individuals proclaim Rm. 10:9 saying:

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

We will see a great harvest. We believe that GNN activities will also grow. That means we need you to join us in this work with prayers and financial support.

GNN Finland is not “our” organization. We believe that it belongs to God and we get to serve Him together as one.

A blessed beginning of Year 2026!

 

 

Kimmo Sarajärvi

Uganda

Night-Radio Ministry Support in Uganda

Radio Ministry here is progressing well. From the last report till December 2024, we have had 171 decisions  to follow Jesus on radio program. And now so far in this January 2025, we have recorded 40 New conversion. To God be all the glory!

We failed to make it to Karamoja outreach in time as we had planned, this is because of financial difficulties. However, we’re trying hard to make sure we go there before the GNN Leadership Conference reaches. Keep that in your prayers too.

We can’t wait to receive you with team on 28th February!

– Bishop John Magaba  –

Harvest in Ugandan Night Radio

I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to share with you the exciting news from yesterday’s Sunday morning radio service (22. December-24). By God’s grace, 26 people accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour, including Muslims, Catholics, and Protestants.

The response was overwhelming, and the radio phone lines were jammed with callers seeking prayer and sharing their testimonies. Some Muslims who couldn’t get through on the phone sent messages confessing their decision to follow Jesus Christ. I prayed for all of them, as well as for the sick and those with various prayer points.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to you and GNN Finland (Good News Networking) for your love and support towards our radio ministry. Your partnership has enabled us to reach the unreached people in Uganda and Africa at large with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are grateful for your trust in us and for being part of this great commission.

– ’Flash-Jordan’ –

Two seminars will be held in Mubende

 

Missions 2025 in East Africa

The GNN team will go to Tanzania on 21st of February 2025, and will continue to Uganda on 28.2 for another week. A lot of prayer support is needed for this two-week trip!

Once landed in Tanzania, 3,000 copies of the children’s teaching books called Mwanga (Light) are ready to be distributed to pastors from different provinces who gather in Arusha.

They distribute them to workers who already were trained in their areas. We give them a three-day video training in Swahili* (8 lessons of 2nd level training filmed by children’s veterans Mama Mirjam and Mama Raili). The purpose is for the participants to share the teaching further in their regions.

There is a crying need for children’s ministry in Tanzania. There are almost 30 million children under the age of 14!

We are grateful that the costs of the Mwanga book edition were covered, thank you to the donors!

And while writing this GNN News in English, we had also donations almost to the whole budget for Tanzania, Arusha and Uganda, Mubende that consists of 4 seminars all together.

Would you like to support this training?

On the map, you can see how GNN children’s work has progressed in different provinces. The pastors who joined GNN’s former mission courses have already reached out to 10 new tribes.

Our man in Africa, Francis Tusiime, is a Ugandan missionary who has been coordinating GNN’s work in Tanzania since the year 2018.

Harvest in Ugandan Night-Radio

Below is a wonderful testimony from Uganda ’night-radio’ that we are supporting.

I wanted to share with you the exciting news from yesterday’s Sunday morning radio service (22. December-24). By God’s grace, 26 people accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour, including Muslims, Catholics, and Protestants.

The response was overwhelming, and the radio phone lines were jammed with callers seeking prayer and sharing their testimonies. Some Muslims who couldn’t get through on the phone sent messages confessing their decision to follow Jesus Christ. I prayed for all of them, as well as for the sick and those with various prayer points.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to you and GNN Finland (Good News Networking) for your love and support towards our radio ministry. Your partnership has enabled us to reach the unreached people in Uganda and Africa at large with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are grateful for your trust in us and for being part of this great commission.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous Happy New Year 2025!!

Blessings,

Flash-Jordan

Christmas Greetings 2024


Our Father’s heartbeat

Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20:21)

The heart is the center of a person’s being. The director of our Mission training, Ensio Mustonen, once said that a doctor comforted him by saying that the heart will last until the end. When we talk about matters of the heart, we mean those things that captivate our attention.

Eventually when it’s time to leave our legacy, it’s important for us to direct it to what serves the purpose closest to our heart’s desires. The legacy may be spiritual, something that speaks to the next generations, but usually it concerns the legacy we bequeath to those left behind.

I think that the most far-reaching is the kind of legacy that is for the eternal good of people. Funds given to missionary work are according to the Father’s heart, and the supporter can be happy about it even during his lifetime.

Whenever I send support to the work of the unreached, I feel great pleasure when I think of the goal they will pursue, with the result that people from all ethnic groups will once stand before the throne singing a new verse. What a sight!

GNN Finland reg. is a small missionary organisation with a big vision. We drive on ‘one track’ which means focusing on reaching different people groups with the Gospel.

Up until now, we have managed to keep local expenses to a minimum. We don’t even keep an office so that the ‘earmarked’ funds directed to us go to the right places in which they were assigned, even paying the bank charges ourselves.

In cooperation with local partners, we train and employ selected national pioneers among unreachable tribes and new areas where the message of Jesus is not known.

A young man died in traffic in Sumatra while on his way to Bible school. A grieving father made a song whose words touch me every time.

Life is an opportunity to serve the Lord.

Don’t waste the time you’re given from Him.

Like a fragrant flower that blooms in the morning in the meadow,

Then withers in the heat of the day.

Likewise, life here only lasts for a moment.

Chorus:
Oh Lord, use my life while I’m still strong.

Then when I am weary, my life has become a blessing.

Whether you are young or old, we are only here on earth for a brief moment. When the time comes, what kind of foot print will we leave behind us?

 

 

 

 

 

– Arto Sädeaho –

Children – the world’s largest Unreached People Group

Did you know that eight out of ten children in the world have never heard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? In Tanzania alone, there are nearly 30 million children under the age of 14 years old. Such a challenge is certainly huge. But we can do our part, if we work together.

The GNN local team we have trained in Tanzania, has since 2021 held 22 regional Sunday school seminars to 2,800 participants consisting of local pastors, bishops and Sunday school teachers. To them our team arranged the first level training.

After realizing the value of a child, they have gained a new perspective at work. Children’s ministry has multiplied and even new churches have been born. However, the second level was unfinished due to limited funds. In addition, a useful teacher’s guide book was missing.

Now, an improvement is planned for it from the beginning of 2025:

I have just agreed that 3,000 Mwanga (Light in English) – book edition in Swahili language will be printed in Tanzania. It will be distributed to all who attended the first level course. Therefore, we plan to fly end March to Arusha, which is located near Kilimanjaro.

Here is the plan: Key persons from each course will come to Arusha. There they will receive a number of books along with them to distribute for those who already participated our regional seminars.

Would you like to be part of this challenge? Funding is greatly needed and printing one book costs less than one euro. How many of those greatly needed books would you like to cover?

European Network of International Churches

In October 2024, in the 42nd week, the pastors of the FEIC – Fellowship of European International Churches, gathered for the 20th time for a joint summit. This time we gathered in Budapest. Pastor Edsel Klit from VICF church in Vantaa was there.

When pastors and other activists struggling with similar questions come together to prayerfully consider different challenges in a supportive atmosphere, it is clear that creativity enriches the participants.

An idea popped up of such a network in Slovenia in 2003 at a meeting with pastors. My friend, Terry Hoggard, then the pastor of the Brussels Christian Center, took the initiative and the FEIC Summit 2004 was held for the first time in an inn in the mountains of Austria.

Now the network has more than 80 international congregations from 32 countries and VICF congregation is one of them. The 42nd week of autumn has become the regular time for such an Annual Event.

Then in the mountains of Austria, the idea of expanding the work globally was born. This time, too, Terry Hoggard assembled the Global ICF network, which together with four similar networks organized the first Global Conference in Hong Kong in 2011. Global ICN gatherings are organized every three years.

– Pastor Arto Sädeaho –

 

From October 15-17, I had the privilege of attending the FEIC Summit in Riverside, Hungary, an eye-opening experience that I hope to share with you. This was my first time at the summit, and I was eager to connect with other attendees.

On the first day, I engaged with several inspiring individuals during a round-table discussion, laying the foundation for meaningful relationships. Following this, I participated in a leadership session led by Dr. Aaron Cole, the pastor of Life Church in Wisconsin, and was moved by Mark Oais, who shared his impactful experiences ministering to Muslims in Turkey.

The second day was equally enriching, focusing on the discipleship curriculum and the continuation of our leadership discussions. I had the pleasure of meeting Phil and Jane Heeke, who introduced me to effective discipleship programs for both men and women.

The final day featured further leadership discussions and a panel in the afternoon, deepening our collective insights and strategies.

Overall, the summit was a transformative experience, allowing me to forge valuable connections and acquire essential tools for ministry. The atmosphere was incredibly uplifting, as we came together to pray, share challenges, and encourage one another in our endeavors.

I am immensely grateful to our church for sending me to the FEIC Summit. This experience reassured me that the Lord’s work among international churches is thriving in Europe. Together, we can continue to advance this mission and bring hope to many.

– Pastor Edsel Klit –