Fragrance of Christ

well, on saturday, i was on my way to Risteyspaikka youth meeting, where i was leading worship in the evening (which involved getting three buses).

So, i got to the second bus stop, and a guy sat on the bench started to talk to me. Obviously, he was talking in Finnish, so i said something along the lines of "Anteksi, olen englantilainen. Puhun vahan suomea."

So then he began to talk to me in his broken english. As i sat next to him and he continued talking, i could smell and hear that he was kinda drunk.
We talked about random stuff for a bit.
Then Jari (the guy) got his phone out and asked me if i knew the song he played on his phone - it was "Turn your eyes upon Jesus" and he told me he believed in Jesus - pretty cool, although not at all what i was expecting. He also played "Silent night" which he also had on his phone. He then asked me to play my guitar (which i had with me). So we sat in the bus shelter, singing what words we could remember of silent night. The other people around were clearly slightly freaked out by what was going on - they probs figured i was drunk too.
We talked about Christmas, God and the Jari's Lutheran background for a bit, and then my bus came.
I'm not sure how much of it he would remember, but i'm pretty sure God sent me there to spend about 20 minutes just talking to Jari.

As it says in 2 Corinthians 2, "Through us, He [God] brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance." (the message)

bless you
john

finally, an update

Well, it’s been ages since I wrote anything on here.

Hmm, I’ve been here for over three months now. Wow, it’s been cool. Basically, life here is good. I’m enjoying being here, and Finland feels like home, which is wonderful. I have some great friends to hang out with, and am meeting lots of new people.

God has been teaching me quite a lot over the past weeks. I was told on a few occasions recently that I was God’s warrior, which is encouraging. I’ve also been reminded of how worship is an attitude and should flow from our whole lives. GearUp this year was great, but pretty different to my previous experiences of GearUp, with me being here to help organise it. It was a real blessing to lead worship with Laura Lassila and Hilla Auren. God (as always) did amazing stuff in people’s lives, and challenged all of us in how we see our relationship with God. It was also great to see Hannah and Chris, and Dave.

God has been using me in all sorts of ways, many of which I have little previous experience in. One such example is the strategic prayer for the Jakomäki area (where I live), which I have joined in with since I arrived, which has involved prophecy and spiritual warfare. Some of this has been kinda new for me, but I’ve learned a lot through it. I really feel like I have grown up a lot in my relationship with God, which is cool.

Please pray that my enthusiasm would continue, and that the ever-decreasing amount of sunlight wouldn’t affect me too much.

well, that’s all for now. I will really try to keep you updated with what’s happening here.

Bless you

john

On my own, or am I?

well, hey there
it's been a while since my first post, so i thought i'd let u know how i'm getting on

Since Chris went 'forward' to England, it's been kinda different here. It feels more like i'm living here now. Having my own flat has been great - i've become quite house-proud. I've cleaned the bathroom and kitchen a couple of times. I swept the whole place last week, re-arranged the furniture and cleaned my balcony. I also defrosted the freezer part of my fridge freezer - it was solid ice! Took about 5 hours, and that included me hacking the ice with a knife every so often. So yeah, i'm a bit obsessed.

I'm about to start working in some schools, and i have meetings with some headmasters soon. I'm kinda helping out with music and english lessons hopefully.

I am currently really enjoying being here. I'm going along to Risteyspaikka church, and i played in their youth worship band last wkend, which was cool. The meetings are in Finnish, but people translate some of it, and i'm starting to recognise certain Christian words. I've been singing in Finnish a bit too, but their words sometimes fit in quite differently to how they do in English.

I have lots of friends here, which is a blessing. I've been hanging out with Julius lots - such a legend! I've been seeing quite a bit of people from the Network4youth 'team' and the Risteyspaikka youth group (where Julius and Julia go, if u know them).

God has been amazing - i've found that I've noticed him a lot more being away from home.
He spoke clearly to me about using music as evangelism through a band that came and spoke at a meeting last week. This was something God put on my heart a few years ago, but i hadn't really thought about it much for a while. I feel like that could be part of the reason for me being here.
God also helped last week when i kinda took the wrong bus and got completely lost - i ended up in Vantaa instead of Jakomäki, which is quite a different area. I got off the bus when i realised how lost i was (at about 11pm), and went to the bus stop across the road to try to go back. There was a guy there about my age who spoke really good english, on his way back to army service. He basically got me back to Jakomäki, which was wonderful. Anyone might thing there was some superior being orchestrating that.

there's so much more i could write, but i think i'll leave it at that for now
God bless you
john xx

For such a time as this

hey there
this is my first post on this blog about my year in Finland

Wow, it's weird finally being here after months of thinking about being here.
It's been great to see some of my Finnish friends and get back to this wonderful country.

I was involved in Urbaani Unelma (Urban Dream), which is somewhat like the Noise - community projects and celebrations from 6-10 August. It was great to be part of an event with 40 churches and organisations involved.

I've been wondering quite why God wanted me to come to Finland, but i've decided that He knows and I don't need to. In the words of Desiderius Erasmus, "To know nothing is the happiest life."
But God has been saying to me on several occasions that He brought me here "For such a time as this." That's really reassuring - to know that God has it all planned and I don't have to strive to accomplish things.
I am looking forward to the challenges that God is bringing my way

well, God bless you
until next time
john xx