Fosen Mission Update 6

Our days at Fosen is coming to and end, but our mission will continue. God has led us in a wonderful way and we have met with some very precious people. We have names and telephone numbers and a lot of follow up work to do when we return home. We don’t know how this will turn out. The fruit of this mission trip is in the hands of God. But we know that his word will never return to him empty.

Yesterday we went to Stokkøya. Acyually, we didn’t know what to do in the morning. The day was kind of open as we had not made any spesific plans. Early in the morning we had a message and a phone call from someone we never met before, inviting us for an evening meal. The we talked with Roald, a Christian leader in the Lutheran prayer house in Åfjord (NLM). He was very kind and helpful. In his understanding all the free churches and most of the Lutheran prayer houses in the coastal villages had been shut down and turned into ordinary houses for people to live in. Some had become summer houses. The only free church that was not closed down, according to Roald, was the Baptist Church at Stokkøya.

Therefore we decided to go to Stokkøya yesterday. On the way I called a Baptist preacher, a friend of mine, who was from Stokkøya and recently had moved back to his native place. He was not at home but told the amazing story of his greatgrandmother who became a baptist in 1890 and had been praying for revival. In 1930-1934 the revival came. 100 people out of the 600 inhabitants on the island repented and was baptised as believers. Almost every family on the island was touched by the revival and had some baptists among them. But today the church consists of mainly elderly people praying for a new revival.

When we came to the centre of Stokkøya we went to the local Coop store and asked for direction. Them we had a very good conversation with the people at the store and was able to witness for them. They were very friendly and open. One of them had attended the Sunday school in the Baptist church.

According to Wikipedia about 300 people live on the island today. That is only half as much as the number of people who lived here hundred years ago. The same thing has happened to all the coastal villages of this area. The number of people has been drastically reduced as many families have moved away to sette in more central areas of Norway. But God loves the people in islands and distant coastlands. The precious people of these villages scattered along the coast are longing to hear the word of God. Whe will bring them the Good News of the Kingdom of God?

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