Nordic Sun in November
Written by Peter
Happy Thanksgiving!
We’re on our way back home from our Nordic travels. Through your partnership, in the past 3 weeks alone you have served and celebrated 14 global workers and 16 local pastors and ministry leaders! With your help we are developing stories ranging from a full career of sharing the gospel to new and budding church partnerships.
Thank you so much for joining with us in this ministry. Each trip surprises us with new ways that God is at work in the lives of those we serve and in our own hearts and ministry. We’re grateful that you are enabling us to come into these cultures, learn, and serve on your behalf, and we look forward to sharing each story with you.
Sweden 🇸🇪
We didn’t expect to see the sun for this entire trip, but in each location, unseasonably bright weather greeted us and the workers we visited.
In Sweden, we travelled with Jim and Lynn Jarman, Church planting coaches that serve in both Sweden and many other places; Twayne and Mannah Hills, Converge appointees on their vision trip; Jimmy Smith, Nordic-Baltic Initiative leader, and his daughter, Cara.
Jimmy and the Jarmans introduced the Hills to many longtime and relatively new partners in Stockholm and Västerås, and they were adamant that if the Hills could survive November in Stockholm and still feel called to Sweden, it would be true confirmation.
Early in the week, we visited a small suburban church outside Stockholm, one of very few with a dedicated church building: the shortest building sight, nestled amongst the massive apartment tower blocks. About 30,000 people live in this community, and most of them are recent immigrants or refugees from war-torn places, most of which are cut off from the gospel.
One of the pastors grew up in this town, dreaming of living in far-off places to bring the gospel to people who had no access to it, and now God is accomplishing exactly that through his church, except those people have come to his home town and are desperately trying learn his language.
He longs to see a thriving house of prayer for all nations—in this tiny Swedish suburb.
Later in the week in Västerås, we visited a church plant that meets in a former night club. Heather started feeling unwell. After a series of interviews, she was completely wiped out. Heather needed a restful morning, but we had our only Sunday church service ahead of us. I could do this type of shoot alone, but we have two cameras at events like this for a reason.
Fortunately, God had already provided. Cara serves with the production team at their home church, and she was not only excited by the opportunity to film with us, she did it well.
Heather began feeling better the next day and continued as usual, but we are so grateful for the way God worked in that situation. It was another reminder that He’s working things out as they need to go.
Estonia 🇪🇪
We arrived in Estonia for the fourth time since we moved to Poland, and we witnessed firsthand the growth of the ministries led by Crick and Mindy Porier in south Estonia. Since our first visit in 2021, their South Estonia Outreach Team has grown and is made of up mostly of young Estonian leaders.
Outside of Tartu, we visited several ministry sites and churches in towns and villages with populations ranging from several thousand to less than a dozen. God is blessing the labor in the South Estonia Outreach Project and its partners.
The Refuge hosts youth events several times per week, and the coordinator, Piia, and her husband, Leho, are helping to lead a new church plant.
It’s exciting to see so many leaders being raised up, sent out, and supported.
In addition to these stories, we met with the Adkins family, still in their first few months on the field, and we captured the story of a couple who is serving among the Eastern Slavic peoples of Estonia.
Finland 🇫🇮
It had been about 12 years since an evangelical church was planted successfully in Finland. Even though the Lutheran Church is closely tied with the cultural identity, very few people have real faith, and even fewer have real church community.
Kenno and Jana are working to change that. They are Estonian missionaries to Finland, and they believe church planting is something ordinary people can do with the right training and support. After decades in ministry and church plant coaching, they have helped to start a church planting academy that equips leaders to handle the challenges of church planting.
They have put together five teams in Finland, and they are training young leaders to train church planters. One of these couples will be the subject of a video coming soon.
Norway 🇳🇴
For a few days of vacation following our trip, we met up with Heather’s parents in Norway. After they had been teaching at a conference for Christian educators in Oslo, we spent a few days in Trondheim and then Tromsø (way up in the Arctic circle).
Watch this video we made of pastors partnering to share the gospel amongst the poorest of the poor in Egypt.
Prayer
We’re praising God for another successful trip and the opportunity to meet several workers in person that we had previously only met on a screen.
We’re excited to be spending Thanksgiving in Szczecin with our friends in the Converge Poland team. It’s nice to be able to celebrate uniquely American holidays together.
Pray with us as we begin organizing and editing projects from Poland, Estonia, Finland, Sweden. We have plenty to work on now, and we have no video capture scheduled for several months.
This year, we will spend Christmas in the Buffalo, NY area because Heather has a follow-up doctor’s appointment from one early this summer. Pray for good results and a sweet Christmas with family.
With much thanks,
Peter and Heather Hanson