“new” support address: Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, P.O. Box 1071, Laurel, MS 39441

temporary field address: Keskutie 18, 03850 Pusula, Finland (phone: 358-040-3688035)

The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. (Psalm 126:3)

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:19)

 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

10 April 2010

Dear praying brethren,

Our first few months in Finland coincided with one of the coldest and snowiest winters the nation experienced. Most cities and villages set records for the number of days in a row that the temperature never rose above freezing—and there still remains much unmelted snow as I type these words. But the marvelous grace of God delivered six Mississippians through such a winter, and gave my family and me possibly been the healthiest winter we’ve ever had. Amen! Thank you, Heavenly Father!

Patience and I resumed language classes in late February. Unlike in our first term in language school, most of our classmates for second term came to Finland from Islamic countries. All of them appeared to be nominal Muslims at best: the way they dressed, the things they did (including eating ham pizzas and sausages, drinking beer, and owning dogs), and the things they said suggested that they embraced the “secular freedom” of the west instead of the true freedom found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has given us many opportunities to witness to them, and Patience regularly communicates with two Turkish women via Facebook. But language barriers are a major problem, and we never quite succeeded in explaining why we would come to a “Christian nation” to serve as missionaries. Two things that God has taught us through all of this is an appreciation of just how thorough a job He did at the tower of Babel and a greater realization of (and sadness about) the need for missionaries and sound Bibles for the world’s Muslims. We were saddened to learn how difficult it is, say, to find middle-eastern language Bibles that aren’t corrupt translations of the Westcott-Hort critical text.

Second term classes were more difficult than those for first term, and most of our classmates had quit coming to class by late March. Patience and I were in the awkward situation of having the highest grades in class but nevertheless feeling very proficient in speaking and understanding Finnish! Part of this is the fact that Finns tend to speak very softly (and the sounds of spoken Finnish are usually very low)—part of this is the fact that I have only scratched the surface of Finnish grammar and still have a VERY small Finnish vocabulary—but mostly this is impatience on my part. Even though I can recognize and rejoice over the obvious increase in my understanding of the language, I am impatient (not just eager) about becoming fluent.

While we learn Finnish, God continues to give us opportunities to minister in English: we still meet from time to time with Sean, the American whom I mentioned in the last letter;

Since my last letter, I have met five times with Finns in Helsinki;

We have also had “random encounters,” including one with an elderly German man (who approached Patience one afternoon during school and asked her, “Do you speak English?”), one with a South African, and one with an American. (This last encounter pointed out something that I had not noticed before: a sizeable portion of foreigner who live in Finland do so because they married or intend to marry a Finn. I have gotten several interesting reactions when I explain that my wife is NOT Finnish and that she had never been out of the U.S. before we left to come over here!);

In addition to calling him four or five times a week and going to his home in Vantaa once a month, I have started teaching a New Testament survey class to Pekka via Skype;

My wife Victoria has been given additional opportunities to minister by telephone; at least once a week she now calls an American woman who lives in Lahti;

We continue to have prayer and Bible-reading twice a week with our landlords; and

We continue to open our home for church services and Bible study on Sundays (and occasionally on Saturday as well).

Daniel, Michael, and Mary have begun piano lessons. Their teacher knows just enough English—and we know just enough Finnish—to make the lessons not only possible but profitable. After the first few lessons, their instructor asked if she could increase their lesson times from 30 minutes to 45 minutes—at no additional charge. Wow!

Last month I went with some of the Finns to see about renting a meeting room in which to hold an evangelistic outreach meeting. The woman with whom we spoke about renting a room became very “new age-ish” when she learned why we wanted to rent it and quickly claimed that there were no dates on which a room could be rented for that purpose. God willing, I hope next week to see if I can acquire a room in which to hold weekly Bible studies for Finns in the Helsinki region. Prayers as I complete requested paperwork are greatly appreciated.

A “funny” for you: on an trip to Helsinki last month, my family and I we somehow came upon approximately 300 people—several of them Russian Orthodox priests—who marching for some reason. When I noted the presence of Russian Orthodox priests among the demonstrators, Mary in all seriousness asked me, “Are they the ones wearing the dresses?”

Please continue praying regarding our residency papers. Last month an immigration official sent me two emails requesting a further clarifications/explanations regarding the additional paperwork that I had submitted a week earlier.

Pray also for a young woman named Noora. She says that she now understands that salvation is entirely of the Lord and that she should trust the Bible and not her “feelings.” She also says that she has asked Christ to save her. But she still has questions and doubts. Two weeks ago I did a brief Bible study with her and Pekka.

Two more prayer requests, this time for my family: (1) God willing, Patience will return to the U.S. next month so that she can go to school. Right now she thinks that God is directing her to West Coast Baptist College in California. She is scared/nervous/confused and has twice asked me to ask you to pray for her. (2) Last week my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Two days ago she had a mastectomy and has already returned to her home. I certainly would be grateful for any prayers offered on her behalf.

Thank you for your prayers, support, emails, and letters. They all mean very much to us.

“Looking for that blessed hope,”

Bro. Daryl Coats (Titus 2:11-14)

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,” (Titus 2:11)

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