I re­mem­ber my first mis­si­on trip to Af­ri­ca a few ye­ars ago. I re­mem­ber our ar­ri­val in a home in the small vil­la­ge where the ser­vi­ces were held. There was a tab­le co­ve­red with a white tab­lec­loth in the shade of a tree and some chairs around it. Some ser­vi­ce gu­ests had al­re­a­dy ar­ri­ved, and they cheer­ful­ly gree­ted the new­co­mers.

We as­ked them if we should start the ser­vi­ces right away but were told that we would eat first. We could vi­sit with the adults, play with the child­ren and en­joy a fes­ti­ve meal be­fo­re we sat down in the shade of the tree to keep ser­vi­ces. We, who had adop­ted the hec­tic wes­tern li­fes­ty­le, re­a­li­zed right away that time was dif­fe­rent in Af­ri­ca.

Be­cau­se our trip took place in De­cem­ber, I was thin­king about the events of Christ­mas. I had al­so pic­ked some Bib­le texts as to­pics for my ser­mons. In the very hot we­at­her, ho­we­ver, Fin­nish Christ­mas with its snow and cold we­at­her see­med very dis­tant, and I en­ded up using ot­her texts. We know, of cour­se, that Je­sus was not born in the mid­d­le of snow and cold we­at­her. And the mes­sa­ge of Christ­mas is the same re­gard­less of the cli­ma­te. Je­sus, who was God’s gift to pe­op­le at the first Christ­mas, was the cent­ral to­pic of our ser­mons.

My pur­po­se in blog­ging about these ser­vi­ces is to start a se­ries of blogs where the mis­si­on work done by SRK and the re­la­ted hu­ma­ni­ta­ri­an work are desc­ri­bed open­ly. Many pe­op­le are in­te­res­ted in mis­si­on trips to dis­tant lo­ca­ti­ons. When we star­ted our hu­ma­ni­ta­ri­an pro­ject, we dis­cus­sed the pos­sib­le ways to re­port about mis­si­on work to Fin­nish pe­op­le. It has been he­art-war­ming to see that many lo­cal rau­ha­nyh­dis­tys as­so­ci­a­ti­ons have ac­ti­ve­ly inc­lu­ded in­for­ma­ti­on of mis­si­on work in their events. The pur­po­se of these blogs is to re­la­te per­so­nal ex­pe­rien­ces and to desc­ri­be the at­mosp­he­re of mis­si­on ser­vi­ces in dif­fe­rent lo­ca­li­ties and by dif­fe­rent wor­kers. Blogs are being writ­ten by spe­a­kers, trans­la­tors and ot­her vo­lun­teers as well as ser­vi­ce gu­ests.

What do I re­mem­ber best from my mis­si­on trips? I have had a chan­ce to see Af­ri­can na­tu­re, co­lor­ful birds and some rare ani­mals. They have been uni­que ex­pe­rien­ces. I have been ab­le to see things not seen by tou­rists – small vil­la­ges and pe­op­le’s ho­mes. Days have gone by wit­hout mee­ting any ot­her white per­son ex­cept my com­pa­ni­on. This has made my trips very spe­ci­al. I have met and vi­si­ted with or­di­na­ry pe­op­le. I have ex­pe­rien­ced warm friend­li­ness and hos­pi­ta­li­ty in the midst of po­ver­ty and need. I have seen child­ren’s wide-ey­ed ama­ze­ment and joy about the vi­sit of these stran­gers in their home vil­la­ge. God has been cal­ling pe­op­le in­to His king­dom, and they have been com­for­ted by the mes­sa­ge of the for­gi­ve­ness of sins. I have ex­pe­rien­ced the bond bet­ween be­lie­vers. I have been es­pe­ci­al­ly touc­hed by this bond and fee­ling of uni­ty du­ring my mis­si­on trips.

Upon le­a­ving our new friends, we have al­wa­ys been as­ked to bring gree­tings to Fin­land and to re­mem­ber them in our pra­yers. They have al­so pro­mi­sed to re­mem­ber us in their pra­yers. The lo­cal ser­vi­ce gu­ests have been gra­te­ful for the vi­sit of spe­a­kers who pre­ac­hed God’s word. I want to share these gree­tings and good wis­hes with all of you who have been sup­por­ting this work.

Text: Juha Alan­ko

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

You will find the ori­gi­nal fin­nish blog post here.