China Mission School in Apatity. For a long time we have felt the call of taking the gospel further to China. We also believe that God will use Russia to reach the world with the gospel but also China. Therefore we held a mission school in Apatity in the fall 2002. We wanted to encourage the churches the importance of world mission but also to have reach the people at home. On the trip were, Jan Zetterlund, Gustaf Lander, Tord Renkel and others. It was an extraordinary presence of God on these meetings and especially one day when the Spirit of God came over us with a compassion for the Uygurs (a Muslim people group which are located in China and Central Asia). We believe that many of the participants received a new compassion for the lost. New stepsIn 2001 God told us that Team in the North must take new steps in the calling. In the midst of -90s Jan Zetterlund wrote in one of the newsletters that ”soon we will send out mixed Swedish-Russian teams to China.”

Patrik and Olga Öhlund had been working with Team in the North since 1992 with a short break 1997-99. For a long time they had felt the call to China. In the summer of 2001 Jan came to them and said ”now it is time for you to take new steps in the calling God has for you about China.”The Mission Organization the ”Sowers Ministry” had asked them to come to Hong Kong to work with them with the concentration on China. They had asked them to be the coordinators because those that worked there had decided to go to Australia. Patrik and Olga went to Hong Kong to seek God and to see the work. The work was really great and it should be a challenge but when they came God started to speak about the northern China and Russia. (If you look at Chinese mission today, most of the missionaries work in the south. But almost no one from the north.)

They also met with pastor Dennis Balcombe, (he has been working in China for many years). He told them that he had visit Primorskiy Kray once. There he was preaching in the city Ussuriysk. He gave them some names of pastors that he met on this trip. Primorskiy Kray

When Patrik and Olga came home to Sweden they wrote to Pavel Timchenko, who at that time was bishop for a union of churches in Vladivostok (ECCNEU) and Dmitriy Teplyakov, pastor in the church “Christian Life”. They were invited to come and visit them in Vladivostok to speak about mission to China.

In September immediately after the mission school in Apatity they went to Vladivostok together with Alexei Zorkov who at that time was working as youth pastor in the church in Polyarnye Zori.

In Vladivostok they met with the Bishop Pavel Y Timchenko who told them that they had a vision to have China Mission but they had no one who could be responsible for this mission. He offered Patrik and Olga to be responsible for this mission.

Pastor Dmitriy Teplyakov hade moved from the city of Krasnoyarsk to Vladivostok because he felt that God has called him to China. Dmitriy took them to the city of Ussuriysk which is located 110 kilometer north of Vladivostok.  Ussuriysk is a city that is very strategically located for those who wants to work with China. By bus it is only 2 hours away from China. It has approximately 160 000 inhabitants. Since 1990, many Russian Koreans have been moving here from Central Asia. During the Communistic times Stalin deported the Koreans from Primorskiy Kray to Central Asia because he was afraid that they would be against him if it would be war.  Now, many of these Koreans are moving back to where they came from. Except the Koreans and Russians there are many Chinese working here with construction, selling things at the market and illegal clothes fabrics.

Patrik and Olga felt God saying, “This is the place I want you to move to.”

September 2003

In September 2003 they left Sweden to move to Ussuriysk in Primorskiy Kray. In October the church “Christian Life” held a mission conference with the focus on China. Two missionaries working in China were invited to speak at the conference.

It was a very strong conference where we prayed a lot for China and many felt that God spoke of the urgency to work in China. At the conference a team was started who would be focused on China, in the team were; Pavel Timchenko, Dmitriy Teplyakov, Sergei Tkatchuk and responsible for the coordination for the work they appointed Patrik and Olga Öhlund.

At the conference we also established the contacts with those China missionaries and the task they are fulfilling by distributing a Study Bible to the Chinese House Church leaders and pastors. They wanted Patrik and Olga to be their coordinators for the work from the Russian side.

This was something that underlined the fact that God certainly had spoken to Team in the North. It is so important to be obedient when God is speaking and to go immediately at the moment when He calls. Or else one can lose the chance to fulfill what He wants one to do. Paul said in Colossians 4:17 ”Tell Archippus: See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord.”  This was exactly the same when Team in the North started the work in Kola Peninsula. If Jan and the others hadn’t been obedient to the calling of God, what would have happened with all those people that God has saved on these places?

The Vision

God gave Patrik and Olga a vision that can be divided into 5 sections:

1. To train and send Russian Missionaries.

2. To encourage and develop the mission mentality in the Russian Churches.

3. To help the Chinese House Church with Bibles/literature.

4. To help the Chinese House Church with leaders training.

5. To plant churches among the Chinese in Russia. We have given the mission the name "the Northern Gates." This name came because we believe that God will raise up many Russian missionaries which will go through this gate to different parts of the world. It is still Team in the North but we have understood that this name is better because of our geographical location.