News from Alan and Alice Osborn

October 2024

Autumn Arrives

Short vacation break
in Vihula Manor House

As autumn arrives here in Estonia, we have so much to be thankful for. God has done some amazing things as we stepped out in new areas of faith and ministry.

We have run a missions conference for the EKNK churches, hosted a team of 10 UK Pastors and had friends visit from the UK for a long weekend. We also preached and ministered in EKNK churches located in Parnu, Kabli, Lihula, Turba and Abja.

In the short time that we managed to have back in the UK, we visited friends from the Leigh-on-Sea church. Then we shared our journey and missionary work as well as preaching in both the Elim Rayleigh and Ashingdon churches; speaking about the times in the Bible when Jesus is amazed. It was such an enjoyable time and great to meet so many wonderful new friends and to be hosted by David and Maureen Redbond. But more importantly we saw physical healing from a distance take place!

Family News

Macrolepiota procera - tastes like beef

In the second part of the summer we were able to visit with family from the USA who were over in England. It is not often that we get to be with all 4 granddaughters at the same time, so some moments to treasure. Alan also managed to sneak in a couple of football matches in England at Oxford United and in Estonia at Parnu Vaprus; and we ate what must be one of the biggest mushroom ever seen, found in the local Estonian forest.

Much of our home here needed re-painting, which really needs to be done late spring and in summer, so paint we did. It felt at times that every spare moment was filled with painting, but we managed to complete the major parts needed this year. Next year we have to paint the whole of the house’s exterior.

Alice’s grandfather, who had lived a good and decent innings, sadly died aged 88. Alice turned 45 and we also celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. As you can see, life as a missionary continues to be a rollercoaster, but even so, we remain on solid ground.

Met Region Pastors Team

The Gang!

A really fabulous team of 10 great pastors from churches right across the Met Region arrived for a short but action packed 5 days of mission. They were wonderfully led by Carl Johnston from Letchworth.

We put together a varied itinerary, that was designed to stretch and challenge them, whilst having a lasting impact on those here in Estonia. Their trip included a brief tour of the city of Tallinn, after arriving from a sleepless night of travel. The next morning we headed off to have some fun and try out glass blowing, which will have provided many new sermon illustrations, as well as underpinning the huge need of salvation here (at present many may not escape the fiery furnace) with less than 1% Christian.

We were able to spend time in the Village of Hope rehab centre with a site tour and history, followed by an evening of ministry for those on the programme. The next day was hard graft side by side with them, whether in the kitchen peeling a small mountain of carrots or swinging axes chopping firewood. In the evening our men joined their men’s sauna time, whilst our ladies had time to talk, pray and minister to their ladies. All in all, a special time in a special place.

On the Saturday we headed to Parnu to hold a days conference to impart wisdom but also to allow the Holy Spirit to minister. All who taught the various sessions were well received by all – even the Q&A panel. Perhaps more importantly, one lady brought in off the streets, gave her life to Jesus. We saw healing and a deliverance also. Then there were really accurate words of prophecy given. One of these was a person who wanted our pastor prophesying to tell them of their particular situation and what will come from that – without giving them any information so that they would know if it was truly from God. God showed up powerfully and the answer was spot on! The Holy Spirit moved powerfully and impacted many lives on this day.

On the Sunday we sent them off 2 by2 into 5 local EKNK churches. These varied in size but would all have been smaller than their respective UK churches back home. Some with no stage, no lights, no sound system – just a small hall and 10-15 people. While this may have helped in humility, the impact of having 2 guest pastors over from England in their small gathering was so enormously encouraging. Good reports continue to come in. We even tried to marry off the single pastor on the team to one of the locals - I think he might be back!

The desire was to provide a great mission experience and to potentially unlock regular teams from these churches, as well as encourage any others who might be interested, to build a real partnership with EKNK going forwards, The impact that this team had on people here is more than they perhaps will realise.

“These powerhouses were not here for long enough” was a quote from one local Pastor, and invites for them to come back are already flowing!

So all in all, I’d say, initial missions accomplished!

International Mission Reaching Nations

The way forwards

The Why Mission? conference, aimed at gathering mission minded people from all across EKNK went really well. The concept was not only for those attending to learn, but moreover, to discuss and bring their ideas towards kick-starting EKNK International Missions. Both of the EKNK Bishops attended and they deemed a great success. Thank you to all who prayed for us and this important day.

We gave presentations on the reasons for missions work, how to receive international teams well, how to send EKNK teams well and also considerations around administration and future training needs. These were followed by fruitful workshops and discussions, with extensive notes taken in each group. Using all of this feedback we will now begin to shape new simple and easy to follow processes and training videos to make engaging with missions exciting and simple.

It also seems that Alice and I have become the EKNK International Missions Leaders! Not entirely sure if or when this might become official – but an exciting and unexpected twist!

Making Disciples

Russian course will soon ready

Two churches are currently running the Freedom in Christ course themselves this autumn and we will help support and pray for them. We are also running an interdenominational online course for around 20 people, which is going really well.

Behind the scenes we are working on a new website to be an enhancement for our current landing page (freedominchrist.org/estonia or vabaduskristuses.ee).

On the Russian course translation, the 2 course books and covers have been completed and we now have a stock of these ready to go. But before we can release the course to the Russian speaking churches the video subtitles need to be completed as well, so please pray for this to be completed quickly and accurately. It’s about 90% done and so tantalisingly close.

Resources

Learn and support together

We are keen to make disciples and have written books on what we believe is the single most important aspect of Jesus’ teaching – his Kingdom.

Buying these resources will help to support us while you learn more about this either by yourself or with others in a group setting.

Coming Soon!

We are excited to announce that the next book in the Kingdom Perspective Series is now available!

Worldwide at https://kingdomperspective.net
USA at https://amazon.com/author/alanjosborn
UK at https://amazon.co.uk

Partnering with us

How to help us to spread the gospel

We would love for you to partner with us in our calling and gospel mission to Estonia. Could you perhaps consider being part of a short-term mission team into this nation, or even lead a team from your church or region? Either way, we would be excited to help host and be part of arranging your trip. Do please contact us at alan.osborn@elim.org.uk for further details.

Prayer needs

Your prayers are needed! Estonia is one of the top ten most atheistic countries in the world, with both high alcoholism and suicide rates. Please pray for:

• For God’s protection over us as we break new ground in many ways here in Estonia
• For the Elim Met Region Pastors team and that the impact will be felt both in Estonia and the UK and growing healthy relationships with UK Churches.
• For our role in shaping and moving forward EKNK International Missions and that we will hear God’s wisdom and direction in forging together lasting partnerships
• For the Freedom in Christ courses currently running and the Russian language video subtitles to be completed
• For the Laws of the Kingdom book to be a blessing to its readers
• For the regular giving of finances that we need