The early story of the Gospel Ship Ebeneser
The vision that dad had had for many years was being fulfilled.
It was his highest desire to bring a whole group of people with the same vision and eagerness to take the message of the Savior of the world to other countries.
This time he did not have to travel alone as he had done in November 1929.
He was only twenty years old when he went to China.
In 1935, after six months in Finland, he brought ten new missionaries to China. Within three years four of them died tragically of typhoid and dysentery.
Dad also fell ill with typhoid in 1937 at the time his firstborn son Usko was a few days old.
Two Finnish lady colleagues just had died of typhoid in the same hospital.
The doctors gave Mom no hope of dad's recovery.
Suddenly he sat up from his deathbed and asked for a pencil and some paper.
He designed a ship that he could use as a floating mission station.
There he would train future missionaries,
pastors, and evangelists through practical work and teaching.
He would use the ship as a church, floating Bible school and means of transport.
Sixteen years later, he saw the hull of an old minesweeper. It became the ship of his dreams.
The boat was named Ebeneser which means "“Up to this point the Lord has helped us!"
Despite the joy of seeing his vision of the missionary ship realized, he was still a little wistful as he saw the islands slip by. Would he ever see them again? Older sailors predicted that storms would swallow the ship and the whole crew. They said he was crazy to go on such a journey exposing so many people, including his own family to such great risks.
Despite the joy of seeing his vision of the missionary ship realized, he was still a little wistful as he saw the islands slip by. Would he ever see them again? Older sailors predicted that storms would swallow the ship and the whole crew. They said he was crazy to go on such a journey exposing so many people, including his own family to such great risks.
Dad was born in 1909 on the Haapasaari island far out in the Gulf of Finland.
He had respect for storms since his childhood.
His father had piloted many ships into the Kotka harbor. The raging waves of autumn storms had hit the kitchen window of his childhood home. He knew several people from his home island that had drowned in the sea. The wrath of the stormy sea should not be taken lightly. If it had been just his own idea, he would never have dared to take such a large crowd of people on the journey. He knew that he obeyed a higher power, a power which he called the love of God, and which was mightier than the waves of the sea.
The trip would succeed, and we would reach our goal, Ceylon.
Dad’s character was formed by the environment he grew up in.
Despite all the storms that hit the rocks at his childhood home, they remained immovable.
In the same way, dad held to the promises and task he had received from God.
No storms in life would make him give way.
He stood as steadily as the rocks on Haapasaari.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfcAYUT8aK8
Comments