Our Latest Newsletter for the amazing month of March!

 

Dear Ones, We hope and pray you and your families are all doing well. With all the changes happening around the world, things may seem unsettling, but one thing is sure, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is our anchor and as long as our trust is in Him we will not get lost in all the turmoil. We thank you for your help and partnership in establishing the kingdom of God in the hearts of those we meet here. With love and appreciation, Philip and Rita   THE NEWSLETTER CONTENTS: 1. A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT 2. BIBLE STUDIES 3. OUTREACH MEETING 4. OUTREACH 5. STOP FOOD WASTE 6. THE VINEYARD 7. PRAYER REQUESTS Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness…  (Colossians 3:12) *    *    *  In the last few years, there have been no shortages of global crises. On the one hand, the illness, conflict, and suffering we see on the news can breed fear and paint a negative view of the world, but there is a brighter side: they can also spark amazing generosity and empathy.  God created men and women to, among other things, reflect His love and care for one another, and these generous and empathetic traits tend to shine especially bright in times of challenge and grief.  The Bible tells us that kindness is one of God’s attributes—“God our Savior showed us how good and kind he is. He saved us because of his mercy, and not because of any good things we have done.” (Titus 3:4–5) The Bible also lists kindness as one of the fruits of the Spirit that believers should strive to cultivate in their lives.  Helping others is good for our own mental health and well-being. It makes us feel part of a wider community and connected with those around us. Not only that, kindness also breeds kindness. When we hear about or see the generosity and kind deeds of others, it inspires us to be kind too. And I think we can all agree that kindness is needed now more than ever. (Ronan Keane)  *    *    *  A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. (Saint Basil) STOP FOOD WASTE: We work as volunteer at “Stop Food Waste” every week where we serve approximate 50 families weekly. They are from places such as Ukraine, Kurdistan, Somalia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, J, etc. There are also some homeless people from Denmark that come which has surprised us. We started out working as volunteers every Tuesday. However we have been called upon several times to please come on Fridays as well. The last several times the main lady in charge was not able to be there for various reasons, and has indicated that she hopes we will be able to run it on our own more frequently. BIBLE STUDIES: We are very excited about the growing interest we see in our Bible students. They are awakening to the wonderful truths of the Word of God. One of the evidences of this is that they are very concerned about not missing any of the lessons. Here Philip is running an eight lesson course on healing. The course brings out that healing is as much a part of the atonement as salvation, and that God wants us well! That it is always His will. This is not realized by many Christians. OUTREACH MEETING: Because of our regular street ministry and consequent experience, we were asked by our church to prepare material to share at an outreach meeting where representative of 4 different churches in our city were available. We prepared a 4 point lesson covering: 1. Evangelization and the Scriptural background 2. Methods — Different possible ways of presenting the Gospel. 3. Common Questions that people ask, and some suggested Scripture based answers. And questions you might ask them to help you get to know them and to start a spiritual conversation. 4. References to on-line resources and books that can help you gain valuable insight in how to answer wisely and be better prepared and equipped for ministering to the un-reached. OUTREACH: This month we distributed around 200 tracts. We often go to the city center but try to be ready to reach out whenever we are out and about. We aim to use the tracts as a conversation starter rather than just for mass distribution. However people are not always ready or interested in stopping to talk so we are thankful to hopefully having placed something thought provoking in their hands i.e. “Born Again. Are You? When we actually get in a conversation with people and ask them if they know what that means, most don’t and others have very vague answers. This then is a nice conversation starter as it gives us an opportunity to explain and get on to the right subject. One day we were left with just one tract. We really didn’t want to take it home, but no one seemed interested in taking it. When we arrived at the bus stop we found a gentleman there. He readily received the tract and we ended up having a deep and very meaningful conversation. The Lord seemingly kept the tract for this precious soul! *           When waiting for a bus we ended up on a bench next to a couple of young girls. We gave them the tract we wrote called, “Born again. Are You?” and asked if they knew what that meant. They didn’t! So, we took them from Nicodemus (John 3) where Jesus told him about the need to be born again, to Adam and Eve and explained how they died spiritually, etc. and then finally we led them to salvation as they both readily accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Praise the Lord! * One Sunday I noticed a new visitor in the church, C. He turned out to be a young student from Columbia studying in a nearby city. As we began talking it was clear that he had no idea about “being born again” i. e. what it meant. Thankfully he ended up praying to receive the Lord and get filled with the Holy Spirit. * When witnessing to four young people we got into talking about a lot of foundational, yet to many unknown truths, of the Word. We talked about how Jesus did not come to deal with the individual sins, but rather the sin nature, and why we need to be born again, etc. They  were all very interested and seemed to be drinking it all in . We later realized that one of them was Muslim. We left them all with a tract. *  We met V. at the tram stop and handed him a tract. He was immediately very interested. He also signed up for our daily devotionals and after receiving the first message asked if he could come visit. We have invited him to our next Bible study and look forward to including him and ministering to him further. THE VINEYARD: This month the pastor of the church and his wife, who had been on a 3 months leave after 12 years of active service, returned to carry on their responsibilities at the church. The couple that had carried on in their absence (seen in the center) were shown appreciation and were prayed over. At the end of every service lunch is served for a minimal fee. This gives us a wonderful opportunity to sit and eat with and get to know each other better. It usually leads to some very interesting conversations. And it paves the way for building community as we have already formed a more intimate connection by spending this time together. We are now also serving more actively in the church. I help on the translation team, and from time to time step in to cover an extra slot when someone is not available. As mentioned previously Philip was asked to be the “producer” which basically means that he helps make the needed practical preparations for the service ahead of time. On these days we get in earlier, set up the hall , prepare the communion, organize the light and heating, etc. and make sure the staff gets together for prayer and that everything is ready in time. Here Philip and a precious helper have just been serving communion. Philip also often serves behind the bar where he sells soft drinks, receives payment for the meals, and at the end of the day helps clean up after everyone. Here I am helping to set up the table where we serve the tea and coffee for all the visitors. THE SPARK: Once a month the church has an evening meeting called “The Spark”, or as said in Danish “The Gnist”. It’s a prayer meeting where we get together to pray for the city, our church church, the salvation of souls, outreach, etc. IRANIAN NEW YEAR: We were invited to celebrate the Iranian New Year with some precious friends. We had some very interesting conversations and ended up making new friends as well. The Iranian community here seems very open to the Gospel. PRAYER REQUESTS: VEHICLE: We would like to ask you to please join us in prayer for the Lord’s supernatural provision of a good vehicle for us. Having a vehicle would enable us to do more for the ministry, and to move about more freely. Thank you! THE MINISTRY: Please keep the fruitfulness of our ministry here and for us to be able to make disciples of all nations as Jesus told us to do. (Matthew 28:18-20) Please also pray for more open doors for teaching  the Word . There are many young people searching without realizing that the answer is Jesus! Please remember our new details are as follows: PayPal: force4good.fvs@gmail.com NordFyn's Bank Rita Olsen Reg. #: 6869 Account #: 0001058710 BIC/SWIFT Code: NSBKDK21 IBAN DK2168690001058710 PS: If you are in the European union you can transfer funds vis SEPA with very minimum or no fees. For another easy and simple way to transfer money internationally please visit: https://wise.com/

The Amazing News for the month of February

 

Dear Loved Ones, we want to thank you very much for your love, support, and prayers. We welcome to our news in brief for the month of February. We had a fruitful month and we are excited about telling you about it. But before we do we would like to encourage you with some faith building, strengthening and encouraging words. From now on we will try to include some “Feeding Reading” in each of our letters. We trust it will be a source of faith and inspiration to you as it has to us. If you have any questions and or suggestions please do not hesitate to let us know. We love hearing from Romans 8:1 (KJV) 1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. I believe the use of the words “in” and “after” in this chapter are significant. “In” denotes a fixed place or position. “After” denotes a lifestyle. So, Christians are “in” Christ and should walk “after” Christ. However, it is possible for a person who is “in” Christ to walk “after” the flesh, but a true Christian cannot be “in” the flesh. We are now new creatures in Christ and have new identities, which is our spiritual selves, not the flesh. Likewise, unbelievers might try to walk “after” Christ, but the truth is they will always be “in” the flesh until they put their faith in Christ alone. Out of sixteen translations I checked, eleven left out the phrase “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” The point is that there is NO condemnation from the Lord to those who are in Him–PERIOD. However, if believers walk “after” the flesh, there can be condemnation against them from other sources. Christians who break the law will be condemned by the legal authorities. Christians who walk “after” the flesh can be condemned by their own consciences and the devil’s accusations, but that condemnation isn’t from the Lord. Note 1 at Romans 8:1: The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word “therefore” as “for that reason; consequently.” This word ties Paul’s statement here in this verse to the previous verses. Paul was giving us the answer to the hopeless situation he described in Romans 7:14-24. Continued on the last page! THE NEWSLETTER CONTENTS: 1. BIBLE STUDIES 2. OUTREACH 3. OUTREACH MEETING 4. STOP FOOD WASTE 5. HEALTH AND EXERCISE 6. THE VINEYARD 7. PERSONAL

BIBLE STUDIES: We are making good progress through our Bible school curriculum and we are happy to say that our students are getting more and more eager having realized the amazing content of the program. One person missed one of the meetings and has been quite concerned to find a way to catch up! Praise the Lord! We are also happy to say that a young student from the Ukraine has joined our Bible studies and was very inspired to keep coming. A couple from our church also inquired about attending and will be coming back to us about it soon. We hope and ray that the Lord will add many new students to the group. And when He does we will seek a different set up that will more easily accommodate everyone. But where the Lord guides He provides and He will make a way. We are happy and excited about what the future holds. Thank you for your prayers and the active part you play in making this all possible. OUTREACH: When we were out last we met a group of demonstrators demonstrating against their union. We were able to give them some tracts. Later on we were able to lead two young men to the Lord. One of them, after praying with us exclaimed wide-eyed: “Wow, He is real!” That was a wonderful reaction and these are the type of experiences that make out hearts jump for joy and makes us eager to get out there soon again. Yes, He is real, and our aim when reaching these lost souls is to also invite them to our daily devotionals in order that they may grow in their new-found faith. OUTREACH MEETING: As the main outreach people of our church we were invited to attend a meting of several churches as joint effort in reaching the city. Sadly most have not been out the past year except for one person that had been out in September last year. We believe that part of the reason may be that they have been aiming for big set-up i.e. bringing couches and hot cocoa and coffee to the walking street. Or tents and a Healing is Here set up. Someone also is dreaming of bringing a caravan. These may all be interesting ideas and may draw attention. We shared however how we simply GO and the Lord has been faithful to lead us to people that not only received Him but also presently are being followed up on. We would like to work with others, but at the same time we are concerned that over complicating things may hinder it from happening. HEALTH AND EXERCISE: This month we also attended a meeting called: Health and Exercise. The aim was to inform esp. the elderly about the importance of exercising and staying fit. Four people from the commune visited for this occasion. Afterwards we all ate an Afghanistan  meal prepared by some of the ladies from Afghanistan. At these times we usually contribute a minimum amount of DKK 10 per person. It is an excellent time to get to meet some of the foreigners and practice our language skills! Arabic, which I, Rita, am slowly learning! Praise the Lord! THE VINEYARD: Philip has been asked to be one of the “producers”. This means that he simply has to come in early, make sure the heaters are on, prepare for the communion, call the staff together for prayer, stay behind and make sure all tables and chairs are cleaned and put back in place etc. And this also includes helping to serve the communion on a regular basis. And I continue to help with the translations as needed. We also had an opportunity to talk with some of the leadership about some subject we felt needed to be taught in the church. We are still waiting for feedback, but are praying for a good and positive outcome as we believe it will strengthen the individual and thereby the work. At the Vineyard we like to regularly share about the Lord’s faithfulness. Here I was invited to share about the Lord’s miraculous provision when we unexcitedly had to leave Japan years ago. We were expecting to get our visas renewed but we were told to be out of the country within 2 weeks. We had no money for ticket for our small family of four. So we hit the streets fundraising. After one week of doing our very best, we have only one quarter of the needed amount. We stopped for a day, fasted and prayed and committed it all to the Lord. When the time for us to leave arrived we not only had enough money for the tickets, but even plenty to spare. We got a couple of big unexpected donations from friends, and the fundraising went much better than ever. It was a testimony of our ability versus His. When we stopped leaning on our own strength and instead leaned on His He worked marvellously on our behalf. Praise the Lord! He has never failed us. STOP FOOD WASTE: We are happy to continue to volunteer weekly to help with the sorting, and distribution of food to he poor. This month I also took a course in connection with this work.  There will be one more before we get certified! WHATS APP MINISTRY: “We are still serving the community. Thanks to God, you and Philip” (From: F.) We received the above today. We know though that if it were not for the help and guidance of some of you (you know who you are) this food contact that is still helping,  would not have been established! Thank you! We received the above today. We know though that if it were not for the help and guidance of some of you (you know who you are) this food contact that is still helping,  would not have been established! Thank you! Years ago we ministered to and prayed for someone who had just received a devastating cancer diagnosis. We are happy to report that we have just received a report that she is completely cancer free, and has been for the past three years. Praise the Lord! Others are regularly thanking us for the feeding messages and letting us know that it is making a big difference in their lives — as we must admit it did in ours as well when we first learned the truth. John 8:32 says that only coming to a knowledge of the truth will set us free! And Jesus said in John 17, to the Father: Your Word is truth. This is also why we would like to aim to make our newsletters more feeding. We have started this month by sharing Romans 8:1. With the commentary from Andrew Wommack’s Living Commentary Bible. We hope and trust it will be a blessing to you. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask. If we can we will be happy to clarify anything that may need to be. Since coming to Denmark we have added 23 new subscribers to the daily devotionals. It is maybe not a lot but it is 23 people who are now being impacted in a greater way by the Word than they were before. And we often receive prayer requests for friends and loved ones and have heard of outstanding answers to our prayers. Prayer is not the least we can do...it is the MOST because ot let’s God into the situation to work in ways that only He can. We are blessed to be His children and we would like to help share the benefits that entails. PERSONAL: Another wonderful victory is that Philip successfully completed his Danish courser here. From the month of August he will be attending the official school so to speak. This is what was considered a preparatory course, although it also included level one. When he starts is August his course is called level 1 and 2. We are very happy with the progress he has made and that he has had a perfect attendance record. Praise the Lord! This month we celebrated my birthday —74 years young and ready and eager to carry on for Jesus. Coming here is like a brand new start with much to do and very few to do it. In closing we want to thank each and everyone of you for the integral part you are of our ministry here. Without you love, prayers, encouragement and financial support we would not be able to carry out the ministry here. It is our joint efforts that make it possible and it is an honor for us to be partnering with you in this. We are still trusting the Lord for the vehicle mentioned last month and are hppy to let you know that Philip’s driving license arrived after ony 3 weeks and is valid for the next 15 years, till 2040. Such a wonderful answer to prayer! With love and much appreciation. Philip and Rita Please remember our new details are as follows: PayPal: force4good.fvs@gmail.com NordFyn's Bank Rita Olsen Reg. #: 6869 Account #: 0001058710 BIC/SWIFT Code: NSBKDK21 IBAN DK2168690001058710 PS: If you are in the European union you can transfer funds via SEPA with very minimum or no fees. For another easy and simple way to transfer money internationally please visit: https://wise.com/ Continued from page 1. Prior to Romans 8, the Holy Spirit was only mentioned once in this epistle (Romans 5:5 - Holy Ghost). In this chapter alone, the Holy Spirit is referred to nineteen times. Paul was making the point that the only way to overcome the effects of sin in our lives is through the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Note 2 at Romans 8:1: Nine Greek words are used in the New Testament that were translated “now.” Some of these words simply provide a transition between thoughts. However, the Greek word translated “now” in this verse is “NUN,” and it is “a primary particle of present time; ‘now’” (Strong’s Concordance), “the immediate present” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary). Thus, Paul’s use of this word makes it very clear that living with no condemnation is a present-tense experience of the believer, not something reserved for the future. Note 3 at Romans 8:1: The Greek word that was translated “no” in this verse is “OUDEIS.” This is an emphatic term meaning “not even one...i.e. none” (Strong’s Concordance). Wuest translated this as “There is not even one bit of condemnation” (“The New Testament: An Expanded Translation” by Kenneth S. Wuest). Note 4 at Romans 8:1: The Greek word translated “condemnation” here is “KATAKRIMA,” and it means “an adverse sentence (the verdict)” (Strong’s Concordance). Paul was stating that God has no adverse sentence against us once we accept Him. All our punishment has been placed on Jesus, and we don’t bear it. Those of us who still walk in condemnation are being condemned by the devil or are condemning ourselves. It’s not God who condemns us (Romans 8:34). 2 Corinthians 3:9 called the Law a “ministration of condemnation.” It was the Law that brought God’s adverse sentence against us. Romans 3:19 says the Law was given to make us guilty before God. Guilt is the emotional response to condemnation. This can be illustrated by the way a building is condemned. When the government condemns a building, it is declared unfit for use and must be destroyed. Likewise, when Satan condemns us, he makes us feel unfit for use and ready to be destroyed. Since we as Christians are no longer under the Law (see note 3 at Romans 4:15), we should no longer be condemned or feel unfit for use. We have been accepted by the Father through Jesus (Ephesians 1:6). Note 5 at Romans 8:1: God placed the judgment that the Law prescribed against us upon His Son. Therefore, those of us who accept Jesus as our Savior will not be condemned, because Jesus was condemned for us (Romans 8:3). This truth, and the fact that this phrase, “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,” is not in some of the old Greek manuscripts, has led many scholars to believe that this phrase does not belong here. They say it was borrowed from Romans 8:4 by some scribe who was copying out the scriptures. Condemnation still exists, as any Christian knows. This verse has rightly portrayed that only those who are living in the power of the Holy Spirit escape that condemnation. Compare this to the law of gravity. Gravity is a law that never quits exerting its power, but it can be overcome. Through the laws of aerodynamics, man can actually fly and send space ships beyond Earth’s gravity. But it takes power to do this. If the power is shut off, the law of gravity is still at work and will cause the vehicle to fall. Likewise, the law of sin and death still exists. If Christians shut off the power of the Spirit of life and begin to start walking in the power of their own flesh, Satan will use this law of sin and death to make sure they crash and are condemned. God convicts of sin, but He doesn’t condemn (Romans 8:34). Conviction is solely for our profit and is free of malice, while condemnation includes punishment (see note 4 at this verse). Satan is the one who condemns us, but the Holy Spirit has given us the power to escape that condemnation. Andrew Wommack's Living Commentary.