Worship evening

I just got home from a wonderful evening of worshiping Jesus and praying for Finland. This is the second one of these evenings we've had, and they've both been pretty great. I guess I've kinda been organising them, with help from some others. Some people from the 24/7 Prayer team have been there, some from our Burn tour in August, and then others who hear about it.

Our first gathering was in an apartment, which was cool in terms of the informal style, but probably not great in terms of the noise level for the neighbours. This evening we gathered in the basement of a church building pretty near central Helsinki, which was cool.

The basic idea behind it is basically to meet with God. So I bring a guitar, others are free to bring other instruments (such as a violin today), and we begin by focusing on God. The style is pretty free-flow, I don't really start with a list of songs. Sometimes songs come up spontaneously, and a lot of the time we just sing what's on our hearts or wait on God. So we worship, and give God lots of space to speak. Sometimes we sing in tongues, and sometimes we just sing without any words (this is something I've only recently started, but sometimes there is a cry in my spirit that just has to be released through singing). The idea is that everyone can be part of it - everyone can pray out, or sing out. The Holy Spirit leads the worship through all of us.

As we encounter God, often He speaks to us. This evening, for example, as I was just singing without any words, I had the impression of God singing His passionate song of love over us. And then He gave me words to speak related to this. Now, I'm definitely not an expert at this, and it took a while for me to get over myself and actually say what I felt God was saying. I also listen to when others are singing or saying something, and then maybe join in with their song. It seems to me that this could be part of what corporate worship really is, we can all contribute.

And God really does lead the worship - we started in worshiping Him, then He revealed something of His love as a Father, wanting us just to be still and receive His love. Then He drew our attention to the cross and what His love looks like, that we are His inheritance and in view of such love we offered our all to Him. Then we became aware of how we need His love to empower us to love in the same way, and to carry His love to a broken world. Then we were led to cry out to God for Finland, that His kingdom would break out in this land, that His freedom and hope and joy would be released.

So yeah, there wasn't really a plan at the beginning, but I'm finding that as we give God space, He is more than able to lead us. As we come to Him without an agenda, His agenda becomes central.

From fibreglass bears to prayer for the nations

Yesterday I was meant to meet a friend in central Helsinki. Due to some miscommunication I got there an hour earlier than my friend. So, with an hour to waste, I first went to my usual plan when downtown - clothes shopping. After wandering into a shopping centre and through a couple of shops, I then left to wander down another main street full of shops. Strangely, I didn't feel compelled to go into any of the shops - maybe because I don't have loads of money to spend on clothes. As i continued walking down the street I had the thought that maybe God had a plan for this hour i was wasting.

I felt that I should keep walking along this same street. As I continued I remembered that ahead was a major square where the Helsinki Cathedral, original University of Helsinki building, and offices of the Prime Minister and cabinet of Finland are. So I got the impression that maybe I was meant to pray for Finland here.

When I got to the square I couldn't help but notice that the square was full of 2-metre tall fibreglass bears. I was intrigued, so i went to have a look. It turns out this was an international art exhibition with the motto:"We have to get to know each other better, it makes us understand one another better, trust each other more, and live together more peacefully". It's called the United Buddy Bears (great name), with painted bears representing over 140 nations of the world.

So, generally I'm pretty sceptical about these type of things; I mean, statues of bears from different nations holding hands are really gonna bring peace and harmony to the world?!! In fact, the idea that mankind coming together in peace and tolerance and unity can fix the world seems to me both unrealistic and very humanistic.

So anyway, while i was thinking these sort of things, it dawned on me that maybe i ended up here to do more than just rehearse my thoughts on world peace, etc. So, I decided to pause for a short while in front of each bear and pray for the nation represented. Sometimes the prayers were short, "Let your kingdom come in this nation" prayers, and other times there was more that i felt led to pray. As I slowly made my way around the circle, I was amazed at the thought that God has an great plan of what He wants to do in each different nation.

Psalm 86:9 "All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name."

I have a guitar! Yay!

So, I haven't owned a guitar for a while now. I left my old guitar in Oklahoma, thinking I'd get back there again. That never happened, and now one of my friends there who didn't have a guitar has my old guitar. So pretty much wherever I've gone to lead worship since then I've borrowed other people's guitars. That was good, but since being in Finland I've been realising that having my own guitar would make things easier.

Then last week, someone very generously gave me 260 euros towards buying a guitar. I was pretty blown away by it. So, since then I've been looking for a guitar. I didn't have loads of money to add to that, so I was looking for something fairly cheap but good. I searched websites that sell guitars (although buying a guitar without ever trying it seems like a bad idea to me).

Yesterday I went to central Helsinki to try out guitars in the music shops. At one of the shops I asked if they knew any shops that sold second hand guitars. They only knew one, and printed out a map for me to get there. I saw a guitar there that I like the look of. It didn't have a price label on it, but I figured it would probably be way out of my price range. I played it and really liked it, it had a really nice sound and it just felt right. Then I tried a few other guitars, but that first guitar was still in the back of my mind. It was love at first sight.

So eventually asked the shop owner how expensive the guitar was, and I expected something 600 euros or more, but it was only 290 euros. It's 10 years old (10 years to the month younger than me) and it's a 'Peders' guitar, made by Landola, a Finnish guitar manufacturer. All their guitars are handmade. They guy said they don't make them any more, but it would cost around 500 euros new.

I got the guy to reserve the guitar for me, so I had time to think about it and find out more about what to check with older guitars to make sure they're in good condition. So I went back to the shop today, with 290 euros cash and a list of things to check on the guitar. The guitar passed all the tests, and after trying it out again, I knew this was my guitar. They also gave me a good padded gig bag, guitar strap and new set of strings.

I walked out of the shop with the guitar on my back and a smile on my face. I'm so thankful to God for providing the money and the guitar. He is so good.