Work in Greenland is paying off – the church is growing

We had a unique opportunity to participate with Tapani and Suvi Kauppinen in the expansion project of the church in the town of Tasiilaq in Greenland.

In Copenhagen, there was already a one-day delay for our construction trip, and there were more delays in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, altogether four days. The weather conditions there are always unpredictable. Nuuk has a vibrant church, where we attended a meeting. It was a pleasure to get to know the members of the congregation.

There are no road or railway networks between settlements in Greenland. There are only airplanes, helicopters, and boats. In fact, there are more boats than cars there.

Finally, we were able to continue our journey from Nuuk with a 37-seat propeller plane across the glacier to the east side of the island, to Kulusuk. From there, the journey continued by helicopter to Tasiilaq.

There are about 2,000 people in Tasiilaq, so it is hard to call it a town. The prayer house, built five years ago, had become too small, and now it was time to expand it. The lower beams of the crawl space for the extension had been prepared, and we were able to start the construction. The house package had been sent there from Denmark.

Construction work there is a bit different from what we are used to in Finland, because the wind can reach up to 70 meters per second. The buildings need to be extremely sturdy. We managed to get the roof of the extension and almost complete the exterior cladding. The women did the interior insulation, sawed the boards to the right length, cleaned, prepared food, etc. Completing the interior was left to the pastor and the locals.

In Tasiilaq, the pastor is a Dutchman named Peter Degraaf. His family includes his wife Thinka and three children. Thinka was born in Kyrgyzstan because her German parents were living there at the time. They now live in Germany. Peter was involved in the construction the entire time, only briefly checking the nets daily, catching 1-7 salmon each day.

Contrary to beauty, there are many alcoholics in Greenland. Suicide is the cause of every fifth death. Out of a thousand children, six hundred are under child protection services. There is a lot of child abuse. The congregation included a lovely 21-year-old girl, who had a boy at the age of 14. The boy was now 7 years old. On both sides of our workplace there were apartments where beer bottles were carried, and many adults went outside to smoke quite often. In front of the houses were children’s bicycles, suggesting that children need to watch this adult pleasure.

One day, a man, who was probably possessed, came to the building. He was shouting loudly in his own language, asked us for a light for his cigarette, and then started throwing stones at us. Fortunately, none of them hit us, and the man left the area.

We also heard and saw pictures of a very extraordinary miracle of God. A polar bear had attacked a pastor living further north and his dog. The bear had managed to tear out an eye from the dog before the pastor was able to shoot it. Prayers were offered for the dog, and a new eye grew for it! Everything is possible for God. The dog is very important to its owners. Dog sled teams help a lot with getting around in the winter.

Greenland is calling workers. Hopefully, God will also call many. Let us pray that even the approximately 57,000 inhabitants of the world’s largest island could be won for Jesus.

Kati and Pauli Kaatrasalo

All photos by Kati and Pauli Kaatrasalo