Last week was my first trip to Lapland, and it was really special. The nature there is simply stunning, and I'm sure I'll be back there again.
While there, I spent some time reading a thesis someone had found online, written about the Lapland revival that started in about 1845 through a guy called Lars Levi Lestadius (or triple-L to some of his friends), among the native Sami people and also the settlers. It was amazing to read about the transformation that happened in one area and spread right across the Sami people in Finland, Sweden and Norway.
The thesis was fairly epic (60 pages or so), but I also found this shorter summary that gives a pretty good picture of it. http://northwestanglican.blogspot.com/2007/07/apostolic-lutheranism-lars-levi.html
On Wednesday the 16th of February, eight of us again got into cars and drove about 2 hours north from Ylläs to Karesuvanto, where the Lapland revival started. The village is half in Finland and half in Sweden, and the church building is on the Swedish side - my first visit to Sweden, yay! We prayed beforehand for clues from God of people He wanted to bless throughout the day, and the journeys there and back included stopping to meet various different people and to see reindeer and stunning views.
The major focus of this little pilgrimage was to visit the church building (since rebuilt) where the revival began and pray there. We spent about an hour praying in the building - it was pretty awesome. I played piano for a while there and we worshiped, and then we sat in a circle and prayed for Lapland together. It was a really powerful time, and some of us were slightly 'out-of-it' in the Spirit for a while. God gave me something of His heart for Lapland, and it was so amazing to pray for revival to break out once again in the place where the previous revival started.
Today is in fact the 150th anniversary of Lestadius's death, and we're praying that the seeds of revival planted all those years ago would continue to bear fruit today.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Ylläs
Early in the morning of the 12th of February, eight people (three English and five Finnish) set out from Helsinki on a journey that lasted about 14 hours. We were traveling to a place called Ylläs in Lapland, which is well within the Arctic Circle. Ylläs is a fell (a kind of mountain), and is the second largest ski resort in Lapland. We stayed in Ylläsjärvi, a nearby village.
When we finally arrived at our destination, some people were there already, and others came the next day. Some of us knew each other well, while others had never met, and together we stayed in a fairly large wooden cabin.
The week was basically a prayer-focused holiday. We had one room as a dedicated prayer room, and we each took slots (about 2 hours each per day) and filled most of the week with prayer. We also gathered each morning and evening to pray and worship together. This was particularly great, and it really created a rhythm of prayer throughout the week. Some evenings had particular themes of prayer, including praying for Finland, for Lapland, or for each other. Some of us also went on a pilgrimage to the starting place of the Lapland revival (more detail on that in the next blog post).
The week was also a holiday, and most of our group went skiing (either downhill or cross-country) a few times in the week. I personally didn't - balance and sliding aren't really my thing. But I was part of a group of us that went snow-shoe walking down the fell of Ylläs. The views from the top were pretty spectacular, and, in the quietness of Lapland, nature seems to cry out it's praise to God especially loudly. My lack of preparation meant that I wasn't wearing warm enough shoes and socks, so my feet were fairly frozen by the end of it.
We did spend a lot of time just relaxing together, eating really well, having saunas, and playing games. We were able to take time to share our hearts, our dreams and our stories with each other. The community aspect of the week was really cool, especially getting to know each other around prayer, food and fun. It was great to spend the week aware of God's presence with us in whatever we did.
To sum it up, the week was an amazing mix of a relaxing holiday, joyful community and purposeful prayer.
When we finally arrived at our destination, some people were there already, and others came the next day. Some of us knew each other well, while others had never met, and together we stayed in a fairly large wooden cabin.
The week was basically a prayer-focused holiday. We had one room as a dedicated prayer room, and we each took slots (about 2 hours each per day) and filled most of the week with prayer. We also gathered each morning and evening to pray and worship together. This was particularly great, and it really created a rhythm of prayer throughout the week. Some evenings had particular themes of prayer, including praying for Finland, for Lapland, or for each other. Some of us also went on a pilgrimage to the starting place of the Lapland revival (more detail on that in the next blog post).
The week was also a holiday, and most of our group went skiing (either downhill or cross-country) a few times in the week. I personally didn't - balance and sliding aren't really my thing. But I was part of a group of us that went snow-shoe walking down the fell of Ylläs. The views from the top were pretty spectacular, and, in the quietness of Lapland, nature seems to cry out it's praise to God especially loudly. My lack of preparation meant that I wasn't wearing warm enough shoes and socks, so my feet were fairly frozen by the end of it.
We did spend a lot of time just relaxing together, eating really well, having saunas, and playing games. We were able to take time to share our hearts, our dreams and our stories with each other. The community aspect of the week was really cool, especially getting to know each other around prayer, food and fun. It was great to spend the week aware of God's presence with us in whatever we did.
To sum it up, the week was an amazing mix of a relaxing holiday, joyful community and purposeful prayer.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Random collection of thoughts
Been living over a week in Jakomäki now - getting to know new family, getting over my fear of speaking Finnish, learning about spiritual atmosphere (have to reject the spirit of heaviness and put on garments of praise) ...
I've also been reading some books recently:
- "The Forgotten Ways" by Alan Hirsch (half way through) - really good but challenging (both to actually read and in content), about the dna of missional church, for example how for 1700 years our methods of doing church were based on the idea that everyone in Europe was 'Christian' (hence little need for mission).
- "Praying the Bible" by Wesley and Stacey Campbell (started and finished in the last 2 days, couldn't put it down)- inspiring stuff, examining how people throughout the Bible and Church History have prayed, basically they prayed Scripture (usually aloud) in a regular, disciplined way (seems simple, but somehow I'd pretty much missed this fact)
- "The Bible" - just a couple of random things that I've noticed recently: Joseph learned to be leader first as a slave (Gen 39:3-4), then as a prisoner (39:21-23), and finally as a prime minister (41:39-42) - I'd never noticed that he was given leadership in the prison.
Mark 5:1-20 - just questions really... Why do the demons want to go into the pigs? Why does Jesus agree? Why do the people beg Him to leave without asking for an explanation of the whole bizarre incident? Will write if I get any revelation on this.
Off to Ylläs (in Lapland) on Saturday for a week - prayer, chillaxing, maybe sledging, getting to know new friends ...
Haven't been to Lapland before, so I'm quite excited.
I want to leave you with this truly amazing song (yeah, again by Sufjan Stevens)
The lyrics are pretty genius (and reminiscent of bits of Psalm 139)
I've also been reading some books recently:
- "The Forgotten Ways" by Alan Hirsch (half way through) - really good but challenging (both to actually read and in content), about the dna of missional church, for example how for 1700 years our methods of doing church were based on the idea that everyone in Europe was 'Christian' (hence little need for mission).
- "Praying the Bible" by Wesley and Stacey Campbell (started and finished in the last 2 days, couldn't put it down)- inspiring stuff, examining how people throughout the Bible and Church History have prayed, basically they prayed Scripture (usually aloud) in a regular, disciplined way (seems simple, but somehow I'd pretty much missed this fact)
- "The Bible" - just a couple of random things that I've noticed recently: Joseph learned to be leader first as a slave (Gen 39:3-4), then as a prisoner (39:21-23), and finally as a prime minister (41:39-42) - I'd never noticed that he was given leadership in the prison.
Mark 5:1-20 - just questions really... Why do the demons want to go into the pigs? Why does Jesus agree? Why do the people beg Him to leave without asking for an explanation of the whole bizarre incident? Will write if I get any revelation on this.
Off to Ylläs (in Lapland) on Saturday for a week - prayer, chillaxing, maybe sledging, getting to know new friends ...
Haven't been to Lapland before, so I'm quite excited.
I want to leave you with this truly amazing song (yeah, again by Sufjan Stevens)
The lyrics are pretty genius (and reminiscent of bits of Psalm 139)
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