Dave and Donna .ca

Dear Friends;

We have had a wonderful summer in Canada.  We started in Guelph and quickly added trips to Muskoka and Montreal.  Our two weeks in Ontario were followed by two weeks with our family in Calgary and also included 3 days in Victoria as we met with the leadership of Central Baptist Church.  The next two weeks were spent in the BC interior reporting to Churches and meeting with individual supporters.  Our final two weeks of August were spent on Vancouver Island reporting to Churches and individuals and culminating in preaching for a call to Central Baptist Victoria.

We feel humbled and incredibly encouraged by the overwhelming call from Central.  We have agreed to be their senior pastor on a ¾ time basis and continue as Coordinators of Field Personnel Care for FEBInternational for ¼ time.  We see the Lord weaving these two ministries together and we are thankful to Him for the privilege of serving Him in a local Church as well as in international settings.

Many of you contacted us since our last prayer letter and have assured us of your prayers and interest.  We remain dependent on prayer in every way, particularly as we give ourselves anew to ministry in Canada and abroad.

We are to start our new duties at Central on January 1, 2006.  However, we have not slackened our pace with our mission and leave tomorrow for our whirlwind tour of 6 European countries followed by Pakistan, Indonesia (a potentially new field for us) and the Philippines.

Our time at Muskoka among our missionaries cemented existing bonds while it enabled us to develop new relationships with several of our personnel that we had not yet met.  We feel incredibly privileged to be traveling through our European fields at this time.  We have planned both marriage enrichment and grief seminars in addition to a ministry of prayer and encouragement.  September and October will be devoted to the six of the countries in this field.  We view our time in Pakistan at our mission field conference as particularly strategic given the advances some of our staff have been making in what remains a very challenging context.  We have a week in Indonesia with a potentially new partnering group of Churches, and then a week with Joe and Lourdes De Guzman in the Philippines.

We conclude this email with our general itinerary.  We lean on your prayers and ask you to join us as we pray for wide doors of opportunity.  We want to enrich our missionaries in every way and see them and their families fully resourced so that they can fulfill their ministries.

We enjoyed seeing many of you this summer.  For those that we were not able to include in our whirlwind home assignment, we anticipate seeing you on another occasion.

We are grateful to all of you for your partnership with us.  Donna and I believe that prayer is the means of opening doors and we see ourselves as standing at the threshold of opportunity in these next few months.

Together with you in the grip of His grace,
Dave and Donna Marttunen

Our Travel itinerary is as follows:

September 7-11 Amsterdam  (Carl and Wilma DeBoer serving Japanese-Dutch Churches)
September 12-18 La Gariga, Spain (Liz and Eugene Ciria)
September 19-26 Rome, Italy (Rosa and Mario Bruno and partners)
September 26-October 7 France ( Carole Allard, McTair and Suzanne Wall, and partners)
October 8-17 Belgium (Greths, Bolducs, Bunns and partners)
October 18-26 Poland (Jutras, Krista Davis and partners)
October 27-28 to return to Amsterdam
October 29 fly to Karachi
October 30- November 24 Pakistan (Wileys, Gonskes, Anita Hayes, Elaine Eby and partners)
November 25-Dec 1 Jakarta (new partners)
December 2-9 Philippines (Jo and Lourdes De Guzman)
December 10 Calgary (40 hours of travel)

Our director, Richard Flemming has sent out the following letter on our behalf.  We are grateful for his support and encouragement in our ministry for FEBInternational and for our new position at Central Baptist, Victoria

FEBInternational
Suite 100, 679 Southgate Dr.
Guelph, ON   N1G 4S2          ___

September 2, 2005

Dear Supporters of Dave and Donna Marttunen,

I am happy to inform you about the latest ministry development for Dave and Donna.  Their first assignment with us was completed when they established a working relationship for our mission with the Baptist Union of South Africa.  They returned to Canada this summer and we have been working on their next international placement.  As we worked on several options a congregation in Canada approached them directly and asked them to consider serving as their senior pastor.  The difficulties we were encountering with an international placement that would suit their and our needs seemed to be met in a partnership with a local church in Canada.  I told the Marttunens that this would be a win/win for FEBInternational, the church and themselves if we could keep them working internationally at quarter time and have them serve in a local congregation at three-quarter time.

This past week, Central Baptist Church, in Victoria, BC voted overwhelmingly (99.4%) to call them to the role of senior pastor on three-quarter time basis.  The Marttunens and FEBInternational are excited about this unique partnership.  We can see that both ministries (coordinating member care for our international personnel and leading in a mission minded local congregation) will be mutually enhanced through this relationship.  The quarter time that Dave and Donna spend in member care with FEBInternational will be spread throughout the year and will be coordinated with the church and our offices here in Guelph. Most of this time will be dedicated to overseas travel.

Dave and Donna start their Victoria ministry in January 2006.  Prior to this they depart on September 7th for their ‘member care tour’ of several of our mission fields. They are flying to Europe for two months, followed by a month in Pakistan and then visits to our field in the Philippines and a potentially new field for us in Indonesia.  They arrive back in Canada in December.

Dave and Donna write;

“We are enthusiastic about this unique opportunity to give leadership to a local congregation as well as coordinate the ongoing member care of international leaders (missionaries) and their families.  We see that each of these ministries stimulates the other.  We believe that God has gone ahead of us and woven together two ministries that use our gifts and passion for His glory.

The new ministry partnership that blends their employment of time also blends their support requirements.  We estimate that Dave and Donna will require 40% of their current FEBInternational support to ensure that their international travel expense component is not reduced. We are grateful to all of you, churches and individuals, who have backed the Marttunens financially and with prayer.  We commend them to you and anticipate that many of you will continue to underwrite their work as you have in the past.  Neither the Marttunens nor FEBInternational has lessened their commitment to care for our field personnel.

We are sure that you will be rejoicing with Dave and Donna, Central Baptist and ourselves in this unique ministry placement.

Serving together for His glory,

Richard Flemming
Director, FEBInternational

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