The Challenges of the Grace Montagnard Alliance Church in Finland

Forty years ago, the first Vietnamese refugee arrived in Finland and now there are more than ten thousand. The Grace Montagnard Alliance Church, led by Reverend Y Lem Rahlan, started in 2007 and their vision is to reach the Montagnards who belong to the Jorai tribe.

In 2018, the Grace Montagnard Alliance Church in Finland got the official recognition from the Finnish government. They celebrated this event with a special service. In the last two years, the church has been working to reach more Vietnamese people in Finland with the gospel. The church now has 91 active members and many of them are living in different cities. So, in 2019, the church rented three spaces in three cities for worship every Sunday. Every Wednesday and Friday evening they have prayer meetings to strengthen each other. Also in 2019, the church celebrated the graduation of seven students who had finished a three-year theology online training course through the Montagnard Alliance Association in the United States.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 the church decided to hold all meetings through Zoom, including the worship services on Sunday and the weekly prayer meetings.

The Grace Montagnard Alliance Church in Finland reached out to several churches in Vietnam and Cambodia to assist them, and they distributed Jorai Bibles to Jorai believers who were not able to afford Bibles of their own in Vietnam and Cambodia. They also joined churches in North Carolina, in the United States, to assist the believers who were in need in Cambodia.

Reverend Y Lem Rahlan asks us to pray for:

• The church to spread the gospel of the Lord to others in Finland and other countries.
• God to raise more people to take care of the spiritual life of those who live in the south, near Helsinki, which is 600 km from the church.
• The challenges during the pandemic, because many of the members, especially youth and children, are not used to meeting on Zoom.