John's Travels

2012 so far...

2012-02-13T15:08:00.003+02:00

It's been a while since I wrote anything on here. It seems like a lot has been going on so far this year, but when I really think about it, it's hard to say what. Yeah, there have been conferences and meetings, some really inspiring stuff. Then our community in Jakomäki has been getting into some kind of rhythm of life, and I've been trying to work out what it means to lead this community. That's meant lots of learning so far, and I know there's loads more to come.

But I guess mainly the last 6 weeks or so have been dominated by stuff God's been doing in my heart. On January 1, at GearUp (a young adults conference we had here over New Year's), God told me that a process was beginning. From what He said, I knew that this was gonna be some deep stuff - and so far it certainly has. There are things in my heart that God has showed me that I never expected to find. Questions have cut to the core of me that I thought I already had the answer to. And still in all of it I have known God with me, speaking to me, teaching me and healing me.

So I guess I'm looking forward to what this year will bring, and wondering quite where this process will take me...

A few thoughts from Romania

2011-12-07T14:45:00.002+02:00

I thought I'd share a few thoughts from my trip to Şiria, Romania. I was there for about 6 days, getting to know people who are part of a missions team called Networks, and getting to see some of what they do. There are around 50 people there, some long term staff and others who are part of a missions training program.

Firstly, it was amazing just to spend time with some of these people, who are all so passionate about following Jesus and seeing His Kingdom come - I felt so at home among them. I took part in a couple of classes with people doing missions training, which I really enjoyed. They are very intentional about discipleship, and there seemed to be an atmosphere of real openness and learning. It was great getting to know some people there, and I was pretty inspired and challenged by the way they live.

I spent one day with one group visiting an area called Alfa. The residents of the area are Roma people, and they live in 'huts' made of whatever materials are around, which is pretty crazy considering how cold it was. A few of us went to visit a guy who they'd given a guitar to a few weeks before. He was a really amazing guitarist, but hadn't owned a guitar for some time. I got to spend some time playing music with him, which was really cool. The group also gave out flour to people, and we got to pray for one lady, who had lung problems, and apparently she felt God touch her as we prayed. It was pretty eye-opening to be there, as I've maybe only been in that sort of environment once before (in Macedonia this summer).

During the week there I got to worship with people a number of times, including at their Sunday gathering. I love getting to worship and pray with people - somehow you see their hearts. And getting the chance to inspire people in worship is such a privilege. I also got to go up this mountain (or big hill) nearby, where there's ruins of a 13th century castle, and I prayed and worshiped up there (which was great).

So, overall, I had a wonderful time, and I'm pretty sure I'll be back at some point. It seems God's put something in my heart for the Balkans, we'll see what plans He has for the future...

Off to Romania...

2011-11-25T16:14:00.005+02:00

On Monday I'm flying from Helsinki to Budapest, then getting a train to Arad, Romania. I'll be spending a week there, visiting some friends I met this summer at the 24/7 Balkan gathering in Ohrid, Macedonia. They are part of a charity called Networks that "are involved in helping the poorest of the poor in northwest Romania." For more on the work, visit http://networks.org.ro/

I'm going mainly to connect with people there, find out more about their work, and spend time worshiping and praying with them. This will be my first visit to Romania, and I'm pretty excited about it.

Feel free to pray into the trip - for provision, traveling mercies, and that God plans for the trip would fully come to pass.

To love God with my mind

2011-11-07T16:31:00.003+02:00

I'm currently planning to do a degree in 'biblical and missional theology' - see here for more details on the actual course. My plan is to start the course in January, although I'm trying to sort out some of the practical and funding details at the moment. I would be part of an organisation called ICY, who facilitate this course in Europe.

So why would I want to do this course? Well, firstly I feel that it will give me a lot of skills I will need in the future, in particular in terms of leadership, mission and building communities. Although I don't have a very clear picture of my future, I'm quite sure it will involve these things. I've also realised that I'm quite passionate about getting deeper in my understanding of Who God is, the Bible, mission, and the Church. The idea of doing courses such as "Pioneering Leadership for the Missional Church" seems pretty exciting to me. These subjects are all so linked, and there's so much to explore - as many have said, our Christology should shape our missiology, which should in turn shape our ecclesiology.

I've been reading "What Saint Paul Really Said" by N.T. Wright recently, and it's been challenging my thinking on a range of different subjects, such as Saul's agenda before his conversion, the message of the gospel, who Paul believed Jesus is, the righteousness of God, justification and more. But one line in particular stood out to me a few weeks ago - "The language of theology, properly understood, gives birth to the language of love." Studying theology for me is about going deeper in the knowledge of God, both in my intellect and in my heart. I want to know God, Who is love.

"Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence."
Matt 22:37 (the Message)

Spontaneous trip to Joensuu

2011-10-29T15:14:00.003+03:00

A week ago I was part of a workshop on 24/7 Prayer at a mission-themed conference in Helsinki. While there, I met a guy called Janne from Joensuu (around a 6 hour drive north-east of Helsinki), who is part of a community of young people there. A couple of days later they were starting their first prayer week. I mentioned that it would be cool to visit them some time, and in response Janne offered that I could get a lift with them the next day on their way back to Joensuu. I figured that I could potentially do it, so I asked God if I should go. His response was a pretty clear "Yes". I also asked what day to come back, and God suggested Thursday.

So, on Sunday morning, myself and Jenni (who's also part of our Jakomäki community) went to Joensuu. Jenni stayed until Tuesday morning, and I left on Thursday afternoon. We kinda just joined in with the life of the community there. Essentially, it's a group of friends from a few different parts of the Church in Joensuu. Some are involved with a 'media team', which has a house where they make music, videos and various other stuff (and Janne also lives there). Some of the community are also involved with running a youth cafe for the young people in the city. One room in the youth cafe building was used as the prayer room for the week.

So, we spent time getting to know some people from the community, eating, seeing some of Joensuu and just hanging out there. In addition to all this, we were privileged to take part in their first prayer week. It was so great to be there for the first couple of hours in the prayer room with around 10 others, aware that God is really up to something here. I filled in some open slots, maybe an hour or two each day. It was wonderful to see the room fill up with artwork and written prayers, and to see people really enthusiastic about getting to spend time in the prayer room. It seems quite clear that this won't be the last prayer week they host.

I really enjoyed being there, getting to spend time praying for Joensuu and the community, and getting to connect with people there. I also got to record one of my songs in the Media house's studio with Janne - you can hear it here: http://soundcloud.com/john-allison/john-allison-the-boat-song So all in all it was a great 5 days.

Stand up

2011-10-13T16:13:00.002+03:00

From the sixth to the ninth of October, people from all over Europe gathered in Frankfurt for 24/7 Prayer's Eurogathering, and I was privileged to be there. It was a truly wonderful time of worship, prayer, sharing vision and inspiration, and meeting family.

I arrived in the hall at the beginning of the first meeting, and it was full of people on their knees, silently listening to God. As I quickly joined in, I felt God say that He had brought me here to show me that there is hope for Europe, and that the people in this hall would become family to me.

By the end of the gathering, I'd heard many stories of different communities across Europe who are praying, reaching out, and living to see their cities, nations, continent and world transformed. Truly, I could see that there is still hope for Europe, and that these people, ordinary yet set-apart people, are truly family to me. After meeting many amazing people, and knowing that there were many more I didn't get a chance to talk with, I know that these are people I want to walk with and learn from.

The gathering was called 'Aufstehen' ('stand up' in German), and I was both inspired and challenged by the call to stand up. Hearing from people in places like Greece and Spain, where there is a great deal of pressure right now, was pretty inspiring. I was also very inspired by hearing about various 'Boiler Room communities' across Europe, and also attending a seminar on building communities. There is so much to learn, and I guess most of it really has to be learned in practice. It really challenged my thinking about the developing community here in Jakomäki, and I'm looking forward to how things will develop.

I also had the privilege of being part of the worship team in the main sessions, made up several different nations, most of whom had never played together. The 3 worship leaders were from Macedonia, Spain and Greece, and getting to be part of it all was so much fun. Some of the leaders of 24/7 Prayer in Europe also shared during the main sessions, and it was really inspiring and challenging stuff. I was particularly challenged by Brian Heasley, who's lived and worked and prayed in Ibiza for several years.

Amongst it all, there was time to just chat and get to know people, which was really great. Meeting people who are so real and 'down-to-earth' and yet so passionately following Jesus was wonderful.

Ultimately, I left Frankfurt longing to see change - in myself, in Jakomäki, in Finland, in Europe and across the world. And I pray that this longing will again draw me into prayer and action, into careful listening and wholehearted obedience. We need to stand up.

Svendborg, Denmark

2011-10-13T15:23:00.002+03:00

In the evening of Thursday 29th September, I was flying back from Copenhagen to Helsinki, looking back on the previous 4 days. I'd traveled to Svendborg that Monday to do some teaching at a YWAM DTS, and it was one of my first real experiences of that sort of teaching. In the weeks beforehand I'd taken some time to prepare for the teaching on the subject of worship. It's a subject very close to my heart, and I was aware that more than sharing merely concepts or ideas, I wanted to share my heart.

So, after a brief time of getting to know each other and a bit of an introduction on the first evening, the next morning it dawned on me just how much of a challenge this was. That day I had roughly 6 hours in which to share with the 5 students, and I was pretty daunted. Then I felt God speak to me from Jeremiah 1:5-9 that He would put the words in my mouth, and I simply had to share what He gave me to share.

So, on my journey home, several things were pretty clear in my mind.
Firstly, I loved getting to share my heart with the students, and being able to interact with them around God's Word and various concepts. Getting to share about something I'm passionate about and see it inspire and challenge them was really great.
Secondly, just meeting members of this wonderful family of God was great. I feel like I also learned a lot from just being around the staff and students there, and it was inspiring to see what God is doing in people in our generation.
Finally, I am overwhelmed at the privilege of it all - to share my heart and talk about worship and ultimately God, to speak into people's lives, to be able to bless and encourage and inspire people. I'm really looking forward to the opportunities God has for me in the future.

Imitating Daddy

2011-09-05T12:27:00.005+03:00

God's been talking to me a lot about childlikeness recently, and it has amazed me how it affects so many areas of life. I've recently read a book called "Dangerous Wonder" by Michael Yaconelli, and in the book he addresses many different ways in which we must "become like little children". This book has provoked me to really look into how I can learn to live like this, and I'd really recommend it.

Anyway, today this verse really jumped out at me - "Therefore be imitators of God as dear children." (Eph 5:1) It made me think about how little children naturally imitate their parents, and so much of their learning is done by imitation. Now obviously this takes humility - too easily I think I know how to do everything and that my way is best. So I must become like a little child, humbly observe what my Father does, and simply imitate.

After reading the verse, I pictured in my mind a man digging a hole in the garden, while his small son is crouching down next to him with a small spade digging a little hole too. The man includes his son in digging, and although it's clear to anyone else that the boy isn't moving much soil, that isn't what's really important.

I think this is a pretty similar to how we are to live with our Heavenly Father. Sure the hole we dig may not seem very impressive, but our Father is so proud of our attempts. And as we continue to imitate Him, we will learn to better imitate Him. Jesus, our example, said, "The Son can't independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. The Father loves the Son and includes him in everything he is doing." (John 5:19, MSG)

I read this on my friend Ella's blog today from the Message version of Matt. 11:28-30 (see http://pellavasmith.blogspot.com/ for more)

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

BURN Tour 2011

2011-08-11T18:09:00.002+03:00

Looking back at the 9 days of the tour, I'm pretty amazed at what happened. Before getting on to any of the ministry we did, the team itself, which grew to about 22 people during the trip, was such a living representation of God's family. There was such care, love, forgiveness and unity among the group which had a wide range of ages, personalities and giftings, and God seemed to have placed each person in the right role for them. I believe that this atmosphere of joy, love, freedom and family that we carried as a group had an impact on the places we visited.

The meetings that we held in each place were marked by these things as well. There were people who led worship and did teaching, but beyond that in each meeting different members of the team would step forward with what they sensed God wanted to do. There was such an ebb and flow about team - people could freely move from playing music to prayer ministry to releasing prophetic words.

Personally, the chance to travel around Finland, worshiping God and interceding for the nation, with a family of people with the same heart was simply amazing. This stuff is a big part of what I was made to do. Of course there were challenges involved, and it was also a learning experience. I feel like I'm gonna be involved with these sorts of tours more in the future, so this was an invaluable experience, being surrounded by people who I could learn so much from.

It was also such a privilege to see more of what God is doing in Finland, and I really feel there is so much more to come. Throughout the tour we saw that God is releasing joy, freedom and healing to Finland, restoring men to their place and uniting men and women, and restoring families and the Church as His family. We were able to glimpse something of this, and we look forward with expectancy to what is to come.

For other people's stories from the tour, check out http://burntourfinland.blogspot.com/

Tour starts tomorrow...

2011-07-23T13:31:00.004+03:00

Tomorrow, on 24/7, a group of 18 of us will begin an 8-day tour of five places in Finland, with another team member meeting us in Tampere, our first stop. It seems crazy that it's starting tomorrow - it's been on my list of things coming up for nearly a year now. I'm really excited about the tour - we have an amazing group of people, and the tour is focused on prophetic worship and intercession, which i'm pretty passionate about. It's such a privilege to be part of this tour and to be part of what God is doing here.

Your prayers for the tour would be more than welcome, as we will be leading a number of gatherings and the logistics of moving 19 people around Finland, feeding them and giving them a place to stay are not simple!
We have a blog for the tour - http://burntourfinland.blogspot.com/ and it'll probably have a mixture of Finnish and English posts.

The epic roadtrip

2011-07-12T20:07:00.007+03:00

It's now a few weeks since we returned from our Eastern European journey. The trip was truly amazing - so many sights, sounds, experiences and encounters. I thought I'd just share a few thoughts and stories from the trip.

On the very first day of the trip in Tartu, Estonia, we spent a couple of hours worshiping and praying with some local Christians. At some point we began praying for the city and the nation, and then it suddenly hit me that we'd have to opportunity to do that in every place we would visit. I felt so privileged. And throughout the trip we worshiped and prayed in so many places, including while in the van on the road.

One of my favourite stories was from Kaunas, Lithuania. We were singing and worshiping together in a park, and a lady and her son (called Tomas) came and listened. The lady asked if they could stay and listen, as Tomas (who was blind) loved music. So we continued worshiping, and ended up praying for Tomas and his mum. Then we asked if Tomas would like to play my guitar. So I formed the chord shapes, and Tomas strummed the guitar, and he was so happy. After a while, Tomas began to sing as he played the guitar. It was a truly beautiful moment.

We met so many amazing people on the trip. Despite not sharing a common language with many of them, we were really able to connect with them. This included a group of older people in Hungary at the place we stayed, and kids at a pre-school run for Roma children in Skopje, Macedonia. And at the Balkans Connect gathering in Ohrid, we met loads of people with such similar hearts to ours. It was awesome to stand with them in praying for their nations and for the Balkans region.

Perhaps the best part for me was the community traveling together. It was so great to travel with such an amazing group of people. We spent lots of time praying together (whether for each other or the places we visited) and worshiping together (including ukulele worship in Toivo - our van). And of course we ate together, spent hours and hours in the van together, and went through the odd stressful moment getting lost. It was an intense time, but really good, learning to love each other even when we see each other's weaknesses.

I really loved Eastern Europe, and I hope I'll be back there again soon.

Road-trip anticipation

2011-06-01T15:28:00.003+03:00

This Sunday (5th June), the group of 7 of us will start our road trip to Macedonia. I can't quite believe it's so soon. I've never visited any of the countries we will be visiting, and I'm pretty excited about seeing lots of new places. God seems to have especially placed Europe on my heart, and I feel sure that this trip will be significant.

On our way to Macedonia we will be stopping and staying a couple of days in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary. Our journey back to Finland will include visiting Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovakia, Poland again (probably including visiting Auschwitz), Latvia, and finally back to Finland via the ferry from Estonia.

Between all this traveling we'll be spending a few days in Skopje, Macedonia, and then in Ohrid, where we'll be part of 24/7 Prayer Balkan gathering. There will be people from over 10 countries, and we'll be worshiping, sharing our hearts, and just spending time together.

Psalm 84 seems very relevant at the moment - "Blessed are those whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage." I think a major theme of this Psalm is that God's presence is our home, that we can choose to dwell in His house. His presence is where we belong.

One the things I'm most excited about is the chance to travel together as a group, to worship and pray together, and see what God has planned for us in each place we visit. I'm sure there will be challenging moments, but I know there's a lot God wants to do in each of our hearts through the experience.

We have a blog for the trip, so you can follow what's going on along the way - http://joyinthevan.blogspot.com/

Bring it on!

A future shaped by the hands that formed the universe...

2011-05-22T16:37:00.002+03:00

Recently, while praying with someone, God showed me this picture. I thought it summed things up so well that I'd share it with you.

There was a lump of clay on a wheel that God was shaping. As I was watching, I suddenly thought I'd figured out what God was making. Hastily I pushed in front of Him and tried to form what I thought He was making. Pretty soon, however, I was just left with a bit of a mess.

Two things became very clear (1) I have a very poor understanding of exactly what God is making and (2) even if I knew exactly what God is forming, I am completely incapable of producing that result.

This really highlighted for me that trying to plan the future and make things happen in my strength is really pretty futile. God's plans are so much more beautiful than what I can imagine, and full of so many intricate details that I could never come up with.

I guess, as with so many things, it comes down to trust. Am I willing to leave the clay in God's infinitely skillful hands and amazingly creative imagination? Do I really trust that His plans for me are really perfect, designed with total knowledge of what I really need? Am I ready to let go of control, and allow the Creator to form my life into what He has always dreamed it could be?

Dancing

2011-05-07T15:31:00.004+03:00

A few weeks ago someone told me that God wants me to know that He loves it when I dance for Him. While I probably kinda knew that deep down, it was still pretty amazing to hear. Now to be clear, I'm pretty sure I don't have a lot of natural talent for dancing. But I do really enjoy worshiping God with dance, although that hasn't always been the case.

It all really started about a year and a half ago while I was in Oklahoma. I was at a 24-hour BURN in - essentially 24 hours of worship. After about 4 or 5 hours of just worshiping, I felt God tell me to dance, and I knew He meant 'floaty' dancing, that kinda 'un-cool' sort of dancing. I had little intention of doing that, so I tried to dismiss the thought. The thought just kept coming though, along with reminders of times I'd told God I'd do anything for Him and even one time I'd told God He could even take my dignity! I was at the front of the church building, and I knew I was about to look like an idiot.

Eventually I saw I was fighting a losing battle, so I gave in and made up about 10 seconds of generic 'floaty' dancing, finishing nicely on my knees. God then told me to dance some more, so I got up and danced again for maybe 30 seconds. One more time God said the same thing, so I then just completely surrendered and danced freely for about 5 minutes or so. I've rarely felt that free, it was an amazing feeling. So since then every so often I've had the opportunity to dance in worship, and sometimes I've lost the battle with my self-consciousness, and other times won.

Now clearly I love to worship with music - it's probably how I express myself best, and it can be so much fun to play and sing. But there's something about dancing for me that is a little bit different. I guess it could be because when I dance, it's completely for God, I really don't dance apart from to worship Him. And when I play music, others may enjoy that, but I'm fairly sure my dancing isn't great to watch. David's example in 2 Samuel 6 inspires me, where he said “It was before the LORD". He simply didn't care what anyone else was thinking of him.

So now sometimes in the prayer room here in Jakomäki I put on a cd and dance before God, knowing that He loves it when I dance for Him. Recently I've been dancing along to 'JOY' from IHOP Awakenings, and yes, it is great fun. But I'm dancing in adoration for the Eternal King who delights in me, why shouldn't that be fun?

This is the first song from that album

Week in Ruurikkala

2011-05-03T15:56:00.004+03:00

A couple of weeks ago I was at Ruurikkala, a YWAM base in Evijärvi, which is about 5 or 6 hours north of Helsinki. I was there for a 5-day conference over the Easter weekend called 'Going Deeper', having been invited by my friends up there who run the YWAM base. I arrived a couple of days early just to spend some time there and find out about the plan for the gathering. Ruurikkala is a guest house set in pretty beautiful surroundings, right next to a lake, and it's one of those places where God seems to speak very clearly through His creation.

The conference itself was pretty awesome. There were about 90 people there, pretty much all aged between 20 and 30, and from all over Finland. The 5 days consisted of worship, some really great teaching, great food and time getting to know each other. I was helping to facilitate our times of corporate worship (in a combination of Finnish and English), which was really great. It was amazing to see how people became so much more free in worship over the course of the 5 days, some of whom clearly weren't familiar with a more 'free-flow' approach to worship.

We had some wonderful teaching, on stuff like identity in Christ and living in the rest of faith. Over the five days God did so much in people's lives, especially inner healing. Many people shared stories at the end of the gathering of how God had brought healing to some area of their heart. God's really given me a love for Finnish people, so seeing what God was doing in these people's lives was really amazing.

Another highlight of the time for me was getting to meet and get to know a number of really cool people. I've found that Finns, once they open up to you, will be completely open, which makes it quite easy to connect on a deeper level with them. I also enjoyed to talking to people who didn't speak much English, forcing me to use my Finnish. It seems I've got to the point where I don't worry too much about making mistakes and just try to talk, which obviously is quite important in learning a language.

So yeah, I had a great week there, and can't wait to see more of what God is clearly doing in this nation.

Media and discernment

2011-04-26T12:24:00.002+03:00

Over the past week a lot has been made of Finland's election results, given its possible implications for Portugal's bail out by the E.U. The 'True Finns' party, who oppose EU membership and mass-migration, made pretty huge gains. Much of the media has over-emphasized the 'anti-imigration' stance and written them off as racists (although anyone who even discusses immigration seems to be labelled the same way). To be honest it was hard before the elections to get much media coverage of it in English. And due to the media portrayal I absorbed, I wasn't a big fan of the party.

However, many Christians I met seemed to see them in a slightly different light, which interested me. After the elections I some time with some people praying for Finland who clearly weren't against 'True Finns'. They began to explain to me why they believed the election results could be a positive thing, and it gave me more light on the subject. Then we spent time praying for the new parliament and the nation.

While praying, it dawned on me that I'd simply accepted the media's views without asking God about the situation. I know that there's a lot of stuff in the media that you really can't take at face value (the whole Middle East subject being one of them). I had to repent to God for my pride and thinking that by being 'well-informed' I therefore understand things (although it turns out I'd only got half the picture).

I'm still not a fan of some of True Finns' policies, but my eyes were opened again to the fact that politics and the media are governed by a different system. We need discernment from God to really find out what's really going on and what His purposes are for our nations. I believe there is so much more going on in our world under the surface than what the media is telling us. We need our spiritual eyes to be open and to be listening to what the Spirit is saying in these days.

Jealous Love

2011-04-18T12:37:00.005+03:00

I've sung the song "How He Loves" so many times, in England, Finland, America and Israel, and also at my sister's wedding. I've heard the Jesus Culture recording, the David Crowder Band recording, the Glorious Unseen recording, John Mark McMillan's original recording of the song, and many other worship leaders' versions. The song has something powerful in it that our generation (and every generation) needs to know. It tells of the jealousy in God's love, the deep, unrelenting passion in God's heart for us.

He wants me, all of me - my weakness, my brokenness, my gifts, my talents, my time, my trust, my wholehearted devotion. I am Jesus' inheritance, His purchased possession, and there is something in me that longs to be completely, wholeheartedly His. Now I know this is a process will take my whole life, but what a life that will be. Yes, there will be many times of testing, times of weakness and times of sheer frustration. But I am determined that Jesus will receive the fullness of His inheritance in me.

So, I saw this video last week, and it's basically John Mark McMillan telling the story behind this song. I've watched it a few times already, and it is truly amazing. I think it also gives some idea of why the song has captured the heart of people around the world.

24/7 Prayer Finland 'Yhteyspäivä'

2011-04-13T14:59:00.014+03:00

A couple of weeks ago, we had a 24/7 Prayer Finland gathering in Helsinki. About 50 people came along, some more directly involved with 24/7 in Finland and others keen to find out more. Despite the range of different people there, the overall feeling of the day was one of togetherness and family.

During the morning, various people involved with 24/7 in Finland shared something of what God has been doing where they are. It was really amazing to hear about prayer going on in prayer rooms, schools, day care centres, and Lutheran churches, in different places across this nation. Seeing people of different ages and from different church backgrounds share was pretty great, and helped me see that what God is doing here is so much bigger than the boxes we put ourselves in.

Both Susanna Rychiger, who heads up 24/7 in Switzerland, and Ian Nicholson, who is part of 24-7 Prayer's International Leadership Team, came to Finland for the weekend, and they both taught and shared with us some stories from their lives related to prayer.

These stories inspired, encouraged and challenged me, and throughout the day I got more and more passion to see prayer raised up across Finland. Our simple prayers, spoken and lived out in our everyday lives, can really change things.

One other highlight for me was towards the end of the day, when we spent some time praying all together for the relationship between the generations. There was repentance and humility on all sides, as well as love and reconciliation. It was really amazing to see God bringing unity between the different generations, which goes so much against today's Western culture, and i think particularly today's Finnish culture.

So overall, it was a pretty great day, and I'm excited to see more of what God is doing in Finland and the part 24/7 has to play in that.

Come&Live!

2011-04-12T20:27:00.004+03:00

A friend sent this video to me recently, and it is just so amazingly inspiring. It's done by an amazing bunch of people called Come&Live!, I'd recommend you check it out.

I'm helping to organise a nine-day-long 'worship and prayer tour' in Finland this July, visiting five different places. Our heart is very similar to the video below, and I've started to get a bit excited about it having just seen the video.

Enjoy

NEW ZEALAND {Our Story} | A Come&Live! Documentary from Come&Live! on Vimeo.

Not only meek and mild...

2011-04-05T12:20:00.014+03:00

In C.S. Lewis' 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe', Mr Beaver, talking about Aslan, says to Lucy, ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king I tell you’.

We often have a pretty clear picture of Jesus' gentleness, humility and servant heart; we see pretty clearly the 'Lamb' aspect of Jesus' nature. But as my friend Aki said on Saturday, we in the Church have often emphasised this, leaving another side of Jesus' character overlooked. Jesus is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

What I'm referring to isn't only important in terms of rediscovering what it is for us to be a man and follower of Jesus. This has been the focus of a number of books and teaching series, and is very important. But our understanding of 'Who Jesus truly is' must be central to everything.

I've recently been kinda fascinated by Jesus as presented in Revelation. In chapter 1, verses 12 to 18, we get a picture of the ascended Jesus, glorious and powerful. Eyes like a flame of fire, voice like the sound of rushing waters, out of his mouth goes a sharp two-edged sword, etc. This picture of Jesus is fascinating and awesome, and I really feel that it is something we really need to re-discover.

If you want some stuff on this passage in more detail, Mike Bickle's notes on Revelation 1 are pretty amazing, see them here

Only to sit and think of God

2011-03-29T15:56:00.011+03:00

A while ago while reading "Celebration of Discipline", one particular passage really struck me. In the chapter on meditation, Richard Foster quotes this verse from a hymn by Frederick W. Faber:

"Only to sit and think of God,
Oh, what a joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the Name,
Earth has no higher bliss."

This idea is something I've been trying to work into times of corporate worship, particularly at the beginning. Many people have said that we must begin with 'seeing' God, and then worship is a natural response to that revelation. So what I've done is simply to leave space at the beginning of a time of corporate worship for people to give their thoughts, the stresses and worries of life to God, and simply to meditate on Who God is.

It's very easy to rush into worship with lots of words, and at times that may mean that people aren't really 'engaged' in worship until the second or third song. For myself there are times when I remember half-way through the first song Who it is I'm singing to. The unfortunate reality is that our lives are lived often without a constant awareness of God. So we need to take the time to really focus on Him, and yes, that may mean we don't get through all the songs on our list (if any of them). But I would question whether our priority is to get through a song list, or simply to encounter the living God.

Spending time simply meditating on God's character and qualities causes praise and adoration to flow out. This may simply mean silently encountering God within us, or it may involve meditating on Scripture which tells of Who God is. Then we may be ready to sing together, knowing clearly Who it is we are worshiping.

A recent adventure in central Helsinki

2011-03-22T14:39:00.007+02:00

A few weeks ago, I was making my way to a meeting about an upcoming trip to Macedonia. I'd just come from a prayer weekend where I'd helped lead worship. As I was walking through Sörnäinen metro station (in Helsinki), I saw a man right in front of me who was stood there asking people something. As I got closer to him I asked him to repeat what he was saying. It turned he wanted 1 euro so he could go and get some lunch. The man had a crutch in one hand and his other arm was in a sling. So I gave him 2 euros, and then asked if I could pray for him. He said it was ok, so I prayed for him. Afterwards I asked if I could go and eat lunch with him, which he again agreed to. He was going to a particular place, where people in need can get cheap meals.

So we waited for tram, and then took the tram to this place. It turned out this man had visited England years ago, and spoke fairly good English. So on the journey I asked him lots of questions and got to know him a bit. We talked about everything from places he'd been to in England, to his favourite books, to his family and even at some point about Disney films. We then got off the tram and he lead me to our destination. When I walked in the place, I was pretty shocked. There were lots of people just sitting or lying down, all of them looking completely without hope. There were some in wheelchairs, and others who clearly had mental illnesses.

So I walked into the cafeteria with my new friend and he bought food for himself and me (he insisted on spending the extra euro I'd given him on me). We sat down and continued talking while we ate. Then at some point, the man kinda just wandered off, and apparently went to the smoking room. After that I didn't see him again there.

So there I was, sat in this place not quite sure what to do next. Pretty soon I overheard some guys speaking in English, so I got up, went over to the table where they were sat and started talking to them. There was one guy from Tunisia, another guy from Bosnia and then a Finnish guy. They were very friendly, and I spent a while getting to know them a bit and hear how they'd ended up here. The guy from Bosnia had left at the end of the war there. His words stayed with me: "I came to Finland for a better life - I don't think I found it."

After a while of talking to them, I asked if I could play them some of my songs (I had my guitar with me). They agreed, although one guy was very clear that he was a Muslim and I couldn't sing songs about Jesus (I had mentioned I was a Christian). Pretty much all of my songs are about God, so I sang a couple of songs that didn't mention Jesus by name. Then I just continued playing guitar for a while, and at times just sang melodies. I could feel God's presence in that place, and the whole room was silent while I played. I could see tears in the eyes of some of the people there.

At some point soon after this I left, and said I wanted to come back and visit again. While I was there I began to dream about what the Kingdom of God would look like in that place. I could see how the community that existed there could be transformed by Jesus. The whole experience was pretty challenging, being surrounded by people with very little to live for, knowing that Jesus in me is the only thing I have to offer them.
Somehow it's already been a few weeks since I was there, and I managed to forget their names. But I'm planning on going back there tomorrow and visiting more regularly.

Trust and childlikeness

2011-03-15T14:38:00.006+02:00

So, to finish off writing about trust for a while, I wanted to just mention a bit about 'childlikeness'.

God has been speaking to me about learning to trust like a child. Now first off, I think it's pretty clear that in many families today, children don't grow up in a safe, stable environment, and thus their ability to trust is damaged. However, when I'm referring to childlike trust, I'm referring to a child in a family who is secure in the knowledge that he is loved and safe.

So what does this kind of trust look like? Well, a child trusts his parents to provide. He doesn't need to know how his parents will provide, but he simply believes they will. A child realises that he doesn't know everything, and doesn't pretend that he has it all figured out. A child believes that his parents will protect him and look after him. And of course, there are so many other ways in which trust plays out in a child's life.

I think the key here is simplicity. The child's actions reveal a deep trust that his parents are good. In the same way, as we grow deeper in the belief that our Father is good, our lives will display that trust.

Jesus spoke pretty clearly about us needing to become like children to embrace the kingdom of God. Now, I don't think this is so much about throwing out wisdom or even intellect, but rather that we put them in the right place. As Psalm 37:5 says, we aren't meant to lean on our own understanding. In fact, when I try to, I usually find that there are things I don't understand.

Childlikeness isn't always considered a good thing in our culture. But it's a big part of Christianity, especially in terms of mystery. I can accept that I don't fully grasp how the Trinity works, or what God is really like. But "is my god really God if he fits inside my head?" God is a lovely mystery, and I want to search Him out.

Youth culture especially seems to mock the joyful innocence and simple amazement of children. But recently I've been seeing that I really must become like a little child in many ways. There is such joy in being set free from fear and doubt and trusting like a child, and I really want to taste more of that joy.

I've also been discovering the power of being amazed, especially by creation. There are so many amazing things around us, but so often I just accept them as normal. Something that's been messing with my head is the tree. Now, here in Finland there are lots of trees. But the idea came to me that God, during creation, came up with the idea of a tree - there had never been one, and He thought it up. A tree is made up of various parts, each with different textures and colours. And then contained within a tree is the power to make a whole forest - trees are amazing!

I guess it's all to do with perspective. Birds too have been amazing me recently. They can sing (birds are probably my favourite worship leaders at the moment), they can fly, and then so much more. But of course you can accept them as normal, and see them with that cynicism that comes all too easily.

A few weeks ago I read this blog post about childlikeness, and that God is restoring it to the Church in these days - you can read the whole thing here: http://burn24-7.com/2011/childlikeness-is-upon-us/

One verse that he talks about is Psalm 89:15-16 (in NASB):
“How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of your countenance, In your name they rejoice all the day, And by your righteousness they are exalted.”

I thought that was pretty great.

Bless you, and hope you were inspired by these posts on trust.

Trust - part 2

2011-03-08T19:01:00.000+02:00

I recently saw a good illustration of how we often act, in Genesis chapter 50. Jacob has just died, and Joseph's brothers begin to panic - maybe Joseph hadn't forgiven them, but was just waiting for their dad to die before he got his revenge. They still can't fully trust him and they still haven't fully dealt with their guilt, even though Joseph had repeatedly told them that God had used their betrayal to save many lives, including their own, and that he forgave them.
When the message begging for forgiveness arrives to Joseph, he begins to weep. He goes to them and reassures them again that he has forgiven them, and 'speaks kindly to them'.

As Rob Bell says in 'Velvet Elvis' the amazing thing is that not only did the the stories of the Bible really happen, but they also still happen. This same situation has happened in our lives. Something happens, maybe a tragedy or disappointment, and we think that maybe God has changed His mind. Our fear and guilt over past sins resurface, and we plead with God to have mercy. This surely makes God weep, that despite all He's done for us, that despite His great demonstration of love in the cross, we still don't trust Him. Yet He continues to gently reassure us that His love hasn't changed, and that He is still good.

The cross clearly has a lot to teach us about God's love. Jesus took on Himself our sin, and took the punishment for that sin - it's pretty easy to say it, but that is pretty full on. The cross is truly love in action.

Recently, while reading 'He Loves Me' by Wayne Jacobsen, a few things jumped out at me related to the cross and trust. The first thing was about the sentence, "Father,into Your hands I commit my spirit." Now I'm sure we've all read the phrase, and know that Jesus said it before He died on the cross. But I'd never really appreciated the power of that verse. Here is Jesus on the cross, with the full weight of sin upon Him. He has previously prayed (from Psalm 22) "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" Many theologians have given their views of this question. But in this book, the author suggests that perhaps there is a difference here between reality and Jesus' perception. Perhaps, under the weight of sin, Jesus was unable to feel His Father's presence with Him. In this context then, Jesus' choice to commit His spirit into His Father's hands is an amazing picture of trust. He knows so deeply that His Father is always good and always knows best. In the darkest moment, feeling completely separated from His Father, Jesus chooses to places His life in His Father's hands.

So how does this apply to us? Well, later in the same chapter of this book, the author takes us to Galatians 2:20, particularly the end of the verse. The majority of translations say "The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God." However, according to the author and some more 'literal' translations, it should be "I live by the faith of the Son of God." Here, the key is that it is not my faith that I make happen, but rather I allow Jesus' faith to flow through me. In those times when I can't feel God's presence and I'm completely overwhelmed, I can ask Jesus to fill me with the trust He has in the Father. And Jesus was able to trust the Father in the very darkest moment.

Jesus, empower us by Your Holy Spirit to trust Father like You trust Father, that in those moments when we feel alone and confused, we would choose to trust. May we be so rooted and grounded in Your love that nothing can shake our trust. May we know so deeply that You are always good, and your love never ends. Amen

Trust - part 1

2011-03-01T13:07:00.011+02:00

This idea came into my head today: Choosing to trust God in my daily life is an act of worship - it is my response to revelation of God's goodness and faithfulness. I kinda like that.

Recently God has been speaking to me a lot about trust. I thought I'd try to write a few blog posts on the subject. This is such a vast subject, and I don't pretend to be any kind of expert on this. But I thought I'd share some ideas, feel free to comment with thoughts, questions, etc. In fact I'd love this to be more of a conversation than a monologue.

So, lets begin. Firstly, i guess you could replace the word trust with faith, because trust and faith are pretty synonymous (the same thing). But in a recent conversation with some friends in a sauna in Lapland, one guy said that he liked to use the word 'trust' rather than 'faith'. His reasons were partly related to the way 'faith' has become part of our spiritual jargon. 'Faith' has been used by some as a kind of magical substance, and if you somehow get enough of it, then God will grant you your 'wishes'. 'Faith' has also been used as a term for religion or beliefs, and therefore your 'faith' can be an abstract collection of strongly held opinions. Finally, the word 'trust' seems to suggest more clearly that there is some kind of relationship involved. I'm not saying we can't use the word 'faith' and I will continue to use it; however, I feel 'trust' communicates the idea better, and is also easier to understand for those who aren't insiders on our religious terms.

So, on to my actual subject. Trust is a pretty foundational part of what it is to follow Jesus. It is not really possible to walk through the ups and downs of following Him without some level of trust. On my journey with Jesus I've had some pretty full on experiences of having to trust God. When I lost my suitcase, got stuck in Israeli security, and then spent the night on a bench in Jerusalem I had to choose several times to trust that God would look after me (for more on that see http://john-allison.blogspot.com/2010/02/getting-to-israel.html).
Matt 6:25-34 and Philippians 4:6-7 both talk about choosing not to worry, but instead pray and trust God. Psalm 37:5-8 also talks about the same thing. But this isn't always easy, especially for those of you who aren't so 'laid back'.

So, how do we grow in trust? This was a question I was asking before I went to America, with no idea how I'd get there. I was finding it hard to trust that God could make it happen. Then this idea came into my head: you can't really trust someone you don't know. So, if I wanted to trust God, I'd have to get to know God better.

As with so many areas, intimacy with God is the key. When we really know that God is always good and that His love never ends, it's a whole lot easier to trust Him. But it does involve a long (probably life-long) process.

Recently I was looking out of the window at a tree while praying. It occurred to me that a huge amount of the tree you can't see, and in fact this is the part that gives life, sustenance, strength and stability. The phrase 'rooted and grounded in love' (Eph 3:17) has been a recurrent theme recently, and it says it so perfectly. We must be rooted and grounded in the Father's love - that will give us life, sustenance, strength and stability throughout whatever comes. This love from God will then stir up love for God and then for others (a phrase borrowed from Mike Bickle).

Roots take their time growing into the ground. Also, in a storm, a tree is either pulled out, or its roots are strengthened by the process. So in those tough times, our roots are strengthened as we are forced to press into God.

The journey of learning to trust God isn't always easy, but I'm certain that it is well worth the struggle.

Here's a song that sums it up pretty well

Lapland pilgrimage and prayer for revival

2011-02-21T14:57:00.004+02:00

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.

Ylläs

2011-02-21T13:20:00.007+02:00

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.

Random collection of thoughts

2011-02-10T19:54:00.002+02:00

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)

The whole earth is full of His glory

2011-01-25T19:52:00.008+02:00

Now, to be honest, I've often struggled to see how the environment is an important issue. With all the other justice issues involving people in suffering, I've been pretty cynical about people who devote years to saving endangered species. There are so many injustices in our world, so surely we have to choose where to focus our efforts?

Last week at our Justice prayer week, i was at a talk some people were doing on the environment and why we should care and pray about it. The talk got me thinking, and I've since read a book on the subject which has challenged me greatly. The book is called 'Planet Wise - Dare to care for God's world' and it's written by Dave Bookless (pretty ironic name for an author), and I'd highly recommend it if you want a Biblical study of environmentalism.

As I began to look at this subject, I realised that a large part of my thinking was based on the idea that the spiritual world is the important one, and therefore the physical world is fairly irrelevant. However, as I read chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, I began to see that I've often only really focused on the point when humans enter the scene. Then as I saw in Genesis 3 the curse placed on humanity and the earth after the entry of sin, it became clear that there is a certain level of interdependence between us and the earth.

God was interested in saving animals from the Flood, not just humans. The Law given to Israel is full of instructions that concern the land and the animals. The Psalms are full of references to creation and how, even in a fallen world, creation declares the glory of God. God's response to Job in Job 38 - 41 is completely full of references to creation. Many of Jesus' parables refer to the creation that He was an integral part of designing, and creation obeyed Him. At the time of Jesus' death there was an earthquake and the rocks were split.

And then to salvation - could it be that Jesus wants to bring redemption to the earth He created?
Romans 8:19-21 - "For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."

Obviously, there's loads more to this subject, and many other people could say a whole lot more than me.
I know that I'm only beginning a process of discovery, but God has already begun speaking to me through things I've seen in creation. There's so much God wants to teach us through what He's made.

If I am alive this time next year,
will I have arrived in time to share?
And mine is about as good this far.
And I'm still applied to what you are.
And I am joining all my thoughts to you.
And I'm preparing every part for you.

And I heard from the trees a great parade.
And I heard from the hills a band was made.
And will I be invited to the sound?
And will I be a part of what you've made?
And I am throwing all my thoughts away.
And I'm destroying every bet I've made.
And I am joining all my thoughts to you.
And I'm preparing every part for you

Justice prayer room

2011-01-23T15:19:00.006+02:00

Eight days ago in downtown Helsinki, a group of us gathered together to decorate/re-arrange the meeting hall of a Christian student organisation with material, rugs, paper, books, and lots of other stuff. We were preparing the place for a 24/7 Prayer week on the theme of Justice. For a few hours the room was a blur of chaos and creativity as people were hard at work. But when the time came for the first prayer slot at midnight, the place was transformed.

The first area was focused on the question "What is justice?", and written below that question were many parts of the Bible that deal with the subject. You don't have search very hard in the Bible to find out that God is passionate about justice, and seeing these verses written on the walls helped me see that this is something we can't ignore. We had several different areas in the room which focused on a variety of subjects.

One section focused on praying for the nations with a world map and facts about different injustices that plague our world. Written about this was the line - Jesus, Hope of the Nations. As you hear more about the injustices in the world, you can very easily end up depressed and hopeless. But Jesus is the hope that never fades; He is the only complete solution. I have been learning that these heartbreaking stories of injustice must not paralyze us, but must drive us into prayer, into crying out for God to intervene.

Other areas included: prayer for children (who are so often the innocent victims of injustice), prayer for our cities and areas in particular need, a wall of fame with the names of heroes of the faith who inspire us (especially in justice issues), praying for those who cause injustice (human traffickers, dictators, etc), that God would bring his love and transformation to them, and then prayer for the environment. On a few evenings we also had people sharing about some justice issues, such as abortion, immigration and emigration, human trafficking, and the environment, and one evening we had a worship and intercession gathering.

Yesterday, while taking taking down paper from the walls and returning the room to something like its original state, I was reflecting on a week well spent. The whole week was filled with people praying, and, looking through the paintings and phrases written on the walls, you could see that many people had been impacted by the time. I know God has also challenged and encouraged me through the week. The challenge now is not to leave these as simply memories, but to allow them to change our hearts and actions as we continue our daily lives.

At this point I'd like to direct you to my Myspace page, where I recently put a basic recording of a song I wrote based on Isaiah 61. I wrote it a few months ago, and I figure it fits pretty well with this theme of justice.
Listen to it at: http://www.myspace.com/bonoa

What I'm doing these days

2011-01-19T13:16:00.003+02:00

This is basically an update to let you know what I'm doing these days. I realise it's pretty long, but hopefully it is fairly informative.

So firstly, things seem to be moving towards Jakomäki. This is the area that I lived in for a year, and it's very much on my heart. Silmu (the housechurch I'm part of) has a base in Jakomäki, a pretty small place which serves as a prayer room and an office. Since August people (including myself) have been praying there on and off, but we've felt that now is the time to take it up a level. So we're starting to organise much more regular worship and prayer there, and from this week I'll be taking at least 8 hours a week there.
About a month ago the business in a building very close to us moved. Some of us have visited that place, and we're praying into God's plans for that place. We feel that it could be God's plan for us to have it. It's lots bigger than our current place, and could be used as some kind of 'community living room'.
Also, a family in Jakomäki have offered me a room to rent in their apartment. They were part of the Alpha course in Jakomäki that I helped at in the autumn, and their son was one of the boys I played football with each week during the discussion part of the Alpha course. So, I've agreed to move there at the beginning of February, and I guess it could be fairly long term. Their apartment building is actually right next to the building I was living in when I lived in Jakomäki before. It's a real blessing to find somewhere to stay in Jakomäki, and it will hopefully be good for my Finnish language skills (their son doesn't speak English). Plus it's only a 5 minute walk to the prayer room. It is a bit of a leap of faith, as I've been living mainly on people's generosity so far. But I feel pretty sure that God orchestrated this opportunity, and He is more than able to provide, whether that's a job or some other means.
For more on Jakomäki, see this blog post from August: http://john-allison.blogspot.com/2010/08/you-make-beautiul-things.html

Another part of what I'm doing is stuff with Network4youth. I've been involved with Network4youth since 2004, the first time I came to Finland. For the past 9 years Network4youth has organised annual youth gatherings, called GearUp. This year's GearUp happened over New Year's, from 30th December to 2nd January. I was part of the planning team for it, and organised the worship. It was an amazing time; God was really at work. He spoke to me about being part of raising up communities of young people in Finland, and how my life since I first came in 2004 had been leading up to this point. To read more about this year's GearUp, see my blog post:http://john-allison.blogspot.com/2011/01/gearup.html or see the website: http://network4youth.net/cms/english/about/
On Saturday, a group of us young people (connected to Network4youth) from the Helsinki area met together to eat, worship, pray and discuss about regularly gathering in a similar way. What came out of that was the idea to have a weekly 'Sabbath Meal' on Friday evenings. This is something that our friends in Guildford have been doing for a while, and the basic idea is to remember what God has done the previous week, celebrate His goodness, and dedicate the coming week to Him, all around a meal. The first of these will be on 28th January, and we're all pretty excited about it.

Another part of what I'm doing here is working with 24/7 Prayer, as part of the group of people who want to see 24/7 prayer rooms happen in Finland. This week we are running a 24/7 Prayer week on the theme of 'Justice' close to downtown Helsinki. I'm taking a few slots, including an open evening of worship and intercession, and it's been amazing to see the week fill up with people wanting to pray. In a couple of weeks, some of us from the 24/7 team are going to a youth event to talk about prayer, and hopefully more opportunities like this will open up.
In mid-February, I'm going to Ylläs (in Lapland) for a week with some friends from the 24/7 team and others. The basic aim is to pray together, eat together, and just spend time together. I'm really looking forward to it, as I haven't been to Lapland before.

I'm also planning to go to a conference in Sweden in March with Eva Sarsa (who is a spiritual mother to me, and is also involved in pretty much all the things I've written about so far). It's run by International Christian Youthworks (http://www.icy.org.uk/), who sent me to Finland to do voluntary work in August '08. We're going to re-connect and to explore the possibility of me working and studying with them in the future. Beyond March, I'm responsible for planning a worship and prayer tour of Finland with Burn 24/7 at some point this summer, currently trying to find the best time for it.

Thank you to all of you who have prayed for me over the past years, it is very much appreciated.
So, a few things to pray for:
- General guidance as to the next steps in being here and where to focus my efforts and time
- Jakomäki - that God would change the area, and give us more opportunities for contact with people there
- That God would really form a missional community out of the group of young people that are beginning to meet regularly
- Provision of a job/finances - for rent for the room in Jakomäki, transport and travel, and other things
- Help with learning more Finnish - that I'd be able to learn the language fairly quickly
- Longer term idea of studying and working with ICY - that I'd have clear guidance about that

Bless you
John

GearUp

2011-01-11T13:59:00.004+02:00

So i thought i'd just write a bit about the youth gathering (called GearUp) held over New Year's in Greater Helsinki. I was part of the planning team, which was good, although slightly stressful at times, as some of the stuff we made up (or rather felt God leading) as we went along. But I think I learned quite a bit from the experience.

The gathering involved 40(ish) team members from Finland, England and Holland, and then another 40(ish) people from Finland. It was an amazing bunch of people, and by the end we really did feel like a big family. We spent time worshiping and praying, eating, doing practical work and just being together. There was little or no division between the 'leaders' and everyone else, which was truly wonderful.

One of my favourite things about the gathering was that we spent lots of time praying for each other. At many points during the morning and evening sessions we listened to God for each other and prayed into each other's lives. But what really struck me was that whatever was going on, there usually seemed to be people praying for each other. In the prayer room, every night people were praying and prophesying over each other, and God was bringing healing to hearts and transforming people. The Holy Spirit seemed particularly keen on us experiencing His joy and freedom.

One night i was up until about 4am praying with people. Sometimes I've found praying for people a bit daunting, having to hear from God and be bold enough to say what He says to me. But more and more I'm finding that it's a joy, and I can be at peace while I pray and not striving to hear God. It's amazing to see God do deep work in people's lives, and to be able to serve my brothers and sisters in this way is really great.

New Year's Eve was another big highlight for me. Going into GearUp, we'd had lots of prayer and discussion about what the night of New Year's Eve should look like, as we wanted to be sure to make the right statement and not just go with what our cultures tell us to do. So the planning for it wasn't finished until the lunchtime of New Year's Eve. But what resulted was truly amazing.

We took as a basis for the evening: remembering the last year (wow, my 2010 was pretty crazy), celebrating God and what He did last year, and dedicating the new year to Him.
The evening involved a whole series of things, including a meal, sharing testimonies, amazing music and dancing in God's presence, symbolically leaving things from the last year at the foot of the cross, writing a letter to Jesus about our hopes and dreams for the next year, a prayer tunnel, communion, prayer for each other, and lots more.
It was far better than we'd even hoped, and a perfect way to end one year and begin the next.

Intercession Seminar

2010-12-07T17:09:00.002+02:00

So a couple of weeks ago I spent 12 days in Ruurikkala, at a place that used to be a hotel but is now a YWAM base. It is a beautiful place, right next to a lake.

My stay there was really great. I got to get to know some really amazing people, some who were staff at the base and then others who were there for the seminar. We spent lots of time together in worship and prayer, in teaching sessions, eating and then just relaxing. We had sauna a number of times, including once a smoke sauna, which is more traditional. I also got to do the whole 'rolling in the snow' thing, and also 'avanto', which is basically a hole cut in the ice. Going from sauna to avanto made me feel pretty alive, although i was back in the sauna pretty quick.

We had lots of teaching, several hours of it most days. It was really great stuff. A South African couple who are YWAM missionaries in Estonia did most of the teaching. A YWAM Finland leader and a pastor and intercessor from Greater Helsinki also came and did some teaching for some of it. They all told amazing stories of how God has taught them and done amazing things. It really builds up your faith to see that prayer can really change cities and nations.

I have a notebook full of notes from there, and it'll take a while to process it all.
Here's a few thoughts that especially spoke to me:

- We need to take time to listen to the Holy Spirit, and get revelation directly from God. He has strategies specific to our situation and ministry, and He wants to share them with us.
- We need a solid foundation to what we do - our relationship with God and our heart attitudes need to be right. Our secret life in God is what fuels everything. God looks at the heart.
- The fear of God is very important, it keeps us in humility and also frees us from the fear of man.
- Picture of a pan with mud and small pieces of gold (which are at first hard to see) in it. We must see and point out the gold (in people, situations, etc.) and pray about the mud. God gives us revelation and discernment - we musn't use this to criticise, but rather to pray.
- In order to intercede, we must get God's perspective and pray from that, not our own ideas or perspective. We must listen to God and pray His prayers. We must know God's Word in order to know more of what His will is.
- It takes discipline and commitment to climb the mountain of prayer - learning to pray is a journey.
- God knows how to change a place - we have to get strategies from Him. When the Israelites took the promised land, God had a different strategy for each battle.

A few days in Tampere

2010-11-29T17:01:00.002+02:00

So a few weeks ago, I went to Tampere (about 2 hours from Helsinki by car) for about 4 days, the first two of those with Eva. It was great to see Antti and Anni, Aki and Maria and their families, who I've known for a few years. We got to spend time with them and pray for them, which was cool. Their hospitality and generosity was a real blessing.

On the second day we visited a nearby cafe, which is run by local Christians. It has an area for people to come and worship and pray, and also sells tasty waffles. We spent some time just worshiping Jesus there and praying for the area, and also prayed for two of the staff there. We did eat waffles too - they were good.

The third day was Saturday, and I was at a 'housechurch day' for people from different parts of Finland. I helped lead some worship there, which was good - always fun singing in finnish. I'm starting to try to be adventurous and sing 'free-flow' in finnish - usually only very basic phrases, but hey. The day was really good - we shared in small groups about our experiences of housechurch, and inpsired and challenged each other. Thankfully the people in my small group were all able to speak english well.

The next day I took a train to Kauhava, about 2 hours north by train, and then got a lift from there to Evijärvi, where I was at a 12-day-long Intercession Seminar (will write about that soonish)

So, after the 'housechurch day' I felt really encouraged to keep pursuing this vision of small communities, focused around worship and prayer, and relationship with one another. It was good to be challenged again on being 'missional' communities, because our small communities can quite easily remain inward-focused. It is personally a challenge as I'm not particularly a natural evangelist, but I know God wants to bring His life to people around me and I'm a channel for His life. Sometimes we think we have nothing to give, but when we look at some of the truly broken people around us, we see that we have so much to share. The same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in us, but it is so easy for me to forget this.

I really want to see these communities among young people here. We've been having gatherings with some people here recently, and it's been great to worship together, to cry out to God for our city and nation (and other things), and pray and prophesy into each other's lives.

Yesterday afternoon we spent about 4 hours doing these things, and it was wonderful. I'm hoping and praying that in the new year we will be able to keep these gatherings going and perhaps make them more regular.
I pray that we as young people would have a clear vision of Who God is, of what He wants to do (so we may intercede, and be part of the answer to our prayers), and that God would continue to heal us and transform us from glory into glory.

Taste and See

2010-11-08T17:32:00.004+02:00

A thought I've been having recently is that the act of remembering is one of the keys to life with God. Throughout the Psalms, there are exhortations to remember who God is and what He's done. It is so easy to forget how good God is.

But we have all tasted and seen that God is good. Throughout the last year I've tasted so much of God's goodness, yet at many times I doubted his goodness. We need to choose to remember God's love and goodness. As it says in Song of Songs 1:4 "We will remember Your love"(NKJV) and Psalm 103:2 "May I never forget the good things He does for me."(NLT)

So, this weekend was pretty amazing, and I definitely experienced God's goodness. I was at a conference called 'Radical Love', organised by Gospel Boarders and some other groups, on Friday eve, Satuday morning and eve and then Sunday afternoon. We worshiped, had teaching, heard testimonies, and had 'fire tunnels'. It was great time of encountering God's love for us.

There were people there from the Nordic School of Supernatural Ministry in Norway, a bunch of people who've planted a church amongst the winter sports community in Sweden, and people from some other places. It was great to meet them, get to know some of them a bit and pray with them. These guys were really filled with God's love, and you could see it by the way the loved each other. It was pretty infectious; I couldn't help but love them.

On the Saturday morning, before going to the gathering, I'd been asking God about an Intercession Seminar I'm going to next Sunday at a YWAM base several hours north of Helsinki. I really felt I was meant to go, but I didn't have all the money for it. So I gave these feelings of uncertainty to God, and resisted the temptation to worry. At the meeting that morning, the guy leading it took a money collection, but he didn't say what for. He then asked us to all take some of the money that had just been collected, and to ask God who to give the money to. It was really cool just to bless each other. Then He asked if anyone had any particular financial needs. I had totally forgotten that I did, but then Eva (a spiritual mother to me here) pointed me out. Then a whole bunch of people gave me money they'd been given. After giving some of it away, the meeting ended. When I got home, I counted the money, and realised that it covered the whole price of the seminar next week! I was pretty overwhelmed by that.

Also this weekend there was a weekend of prayer happening in Helsinki (24/3). I booked a slot in the night on saturday/sunday - midnight to 5am. It was pretty great really. When i got there, the person doing the slot before me gave me some money and a card to encourage me that "worshiping is as good a job as any". Again, I was pretty speechless.
The 5 hours in the prayer room went amazingly quickly. There's something great about spending time alone with God at night, worshiping, crying out to Him for this nation, and just being with Him. It was well worth the tiredness I feel now.

And on Saturday afternoon I sat down and wrote a song about God's love. I'll probably do a basic recording of it pretty soon, and when i do it'll be here: http://www.myspace.com/bonoa

On Thursday I'm going to Tampere, and on Saturday I'm helping facilitate worship at a 'Housechurch day' for people involved in housechurch to network and be encouraged. Then on Sunday I'm going on to a YWAM base in Ruurikkala (where I had a pretty crazy encounter with God on the Burn tour in August). I'm going to a 12-day-long seminar on intercession - should be a pretty great time of learning, meeting new people and being inspired.

So be blessed and remember God's love and goodness.

Passionate love for Jesus

2010-11-04T19:01:00.005+02:00

So, over the past weeks I've been going through Mike Bickle's series on the Song of Songs. (you can get mp3s, videos, and notes at http://mikebickle.org/resources/series/song-of-songs)

Now, obviously the book is a natural love song, but this teaching is focusing on the spiritual interpretation. I can honestly say it's changed my relationship with God, and many times now when I worship words from the Song come into my mind and I whisper, speak or sing them out.

Honestly, in the past I've often ignored this book of the Bible; it does seem pretty random at times. But as I've begun to really look at it, it's really changed the way I view God. It's made me see that a passionate, fiery love for Jesus is something we can all have and must all set our lives on. God is raising up a Bride in these days that is passsionately in love with Jesus and will endure anything for Him.

Now, a lot of the church, myself included, is not walking in this passionate love for Jesus. Sure, we love Him and serve Him, but we've settled for what seems 'normal'. We desperately need to encounter God's heart, His jealous passion for us. We need pursue Him violently and tenaciously.

So, here's the notes I made from the teaching session based on Song 1:2 (a lot of this is direct quotes from the teaching). It's pretty epic, but definitely worth reading.

"Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth - for Your love is better than wine." (Song 1:2)

- We cry out to the Father, "Let Him (Jesus) kiss me with the kisses of His mouth (Word)." We are asking for the grace to love Jesus with all our heart. (Matt 22:37-38) The first commandment must be the first priority in our lives.

- The theme of the Song is the Bride's cry for the kiss of God's Word to touch the deepest place in her heart - the Word as it reveals the King's emotions for His bride and awakens our heart in the 3-fold love of God (love from God, then love for God which overflows to others).

- Why does she want the kisses of the Word? She says directly to Jesus "For (because) Your love is better than wine." Wine here speaks of the drink of earthly celebration, the intoxicating things of this world, both good and bad.

- As woderful as God's blessings are, they are not to be the primary focus of our hearts. The Bride sees that superior pleasures come from growing in revelation of God's heart (affection).

- God has placed longings in us to woo us into His presence (see Mike's book The Seven Longings of the Human Heart, which you can download free in pdf form at http://mikebickle.org/books
There is a 'God-shaped vacuum' in us that can only be filled by God.

- The greatest 'pleasures' are spiritual ones, experienced by encountering Jesus as the Bridegroom God (Phil 3:8). God frees us from the dominion of the inferior pleasures of sin by allowing us to experience superior spiritual pleasures that are more powerful.

- The reward of a lover is the power to love. A lover does twice as much as a worker and does not care for any reward but the power to love.

- Motivation for Obedience
- "Affection-based obedience" flows from experiencing God's love. It results in the deepest and most consistent obedience - a lovesick person will embrace and endure anything for the sake of love
- "Obedience by faith", or without feeling God's presence, is still required in God's Word. When we don't feel like it we must obey.
- "Fear or shame-based obedience" is Biblical too, but it is not enough to motivate us to consistently resist the pleasures of sin for years.

- Experiencing God is more effective in motivating us to resist sin than the fear of consequences. The fear of sin's consequences does not overpower the tendency in our hearts to sin, but will instead cause us to sin secret, in more creative ways.

- We sin when our heart is hungry and unsatisfied with God. Our struggle for holiness must be set in context to our pursuit to live satisfied in God.

- God loves us in the same way that God loves God.(John 15:9, 17:23, 26) This gives every believer the right to view themselves as 'God's favourite.' This tells of our worth and value.

- The way that the Father loves Jesus is the only accurate measure in which we can understand how Jesus feels about us. God's love is a powerful reality that includes deep desire, enjoyment, pleasure and longing. The Gospel is a call to live in that vast ocean of divine love. (Eph 3:17-19)

- The disciples were sincere but yet still spiritually immature. Jesus' affirmations of love were spoken to weak believers He knew would betray Him that night. Jesus knew that the only thing that would stabilise them was knowing how God felt about them.

- We must make it a priority to meditate on the truths about God's emotions for us. We are transformed most as we understand how God feels about us, especially in our weakness. This revelation causes us to run to Him instead of from Him.

- When God wants to empower us to love Him, He reveals Himself as One Who loves us. We love, enjoy and pursue Him because we understand that He first loved, enjoyed and pursued us. (1 Jn 4:19)

Worship evening

2010-10-29T22:59:00.003+03:00

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

2010-10-12T16:55:00.006+03:00

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!

2010-10-07T21:32:00.004+03:00

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.

What's happening?

2010-09-29T12:59:00.011+03:00

Here's a general summary of what's been happening here in the last few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago I took a train 3 hours north(ish) to Jämsä, to visit a friend of mine called Luke. He's an english guy who's lived in Finland for about 13 years, and I met him when i lived in Finland before. I spent a week in Jämsä, mainly talking to Luke and leading worship at some worship gatherings. God seems to be doing stuff in Jämsä, and it was great to be able to support Luke in the work God has him doing there. It was cool to be able to talk through what I'm doing here with Luke, and get his advice on adjusting to life here.

When I got back to Helsinki, I knew I need to sort out the question of my residency status here. I'd lost whatever paper I'd been given when I moved here two years ago, and I wasn't sure whether I'd need to apply again as what I'm doing has changed. So, I finally went to the local police immigration office to find some answers to my questions. Walking in there and seeing all the forms that people were filling out kinda freaked me out. I guess my recent experiences with 'official' things haven't been great (denied visa at U.S. Embassy, 5 hours in Israeli security, denied entry to the U.S. in Chicago). After waiting for a while, I was able to talk to one of the immigration officials. He found me on their database, and simply printed out a new copy of the paper I'd been given 2 years ago. My residency hadn't expired, and I am officialy a resident of Helsinki. This was a great relief, and makes the practicalities of staying here a whole lot easier.

So what else have I been doing in Helsinki? Well, last weekend I was able to be part of two events in the greater Helsinki. On Friday evening I was at a worship evening organised by Verkosto church. I led worship for the first 2 hours, using Finnish songs and then flowing in between in English. God led us to intercede for His Church - that the Bride would come together and sing as one "Come, Lord Jesus". It was pretty great. Two other people led worship after me, and it was great just to be in that place of worship and to pray for whatever God put on our hearts. After about 5 hours we ended, but I'm sure we could have kept going for hours more.

The other event, on the next day, was a worship and intercession day organised by an American guy in Espoo (part of greater Helsinki area). It was great to be there; we worshiped for hours again, and interceded for the church, the area and the nation. We also prayed for one another, and just spent time getting to know each other. Luke came from Jämsä to lead worship and share, which was great. The day lasted about 10 hours in all, so i was pretty exhausted by the end of it. But it was great just to support people with vision for worship and prayer in this area.

I'm also now a member of Silmu, which is a housechurch here in Helsinki. Most of the people involved I know pretty well, and I felt that I could share life with them. There is so much that I could learn from them, and to have their support is a real blessing. I'm sure there are also things God has given me to share with them. Silmu is also very involved in reaching out to Jakomäki (see last post for more), which currently includes running an Alpha course there, which I'm involved in.

So, my life here is developing, and I'm more sure than ever that God wants me to be here. There's still plenty of uncertainty about exactly what I'm going to do here, but that's just part of the fun of adventure.

You make beautiul things

2010-08-31T13:12:00.007+03:00

For about 3 weeks now, there's been 2 hours of worship and prayer going on each day in Jakomäki, at a prayer room which is also a church office. Various different people, including myself, have taken two hour slots there to worship God and pray for the area, as well as whatever God puts on our hearts to pray for.

It has been really great to be back in Jakomäki. This was where I lived for the year I was in Finland before, and God has definitely given me a heart for the area. Jakomäki is an area in Helsinki with something of a reputation across Finland for being a bit rough. There are many alcoholics, many immigrants,and many of the poorer people in Helsinki there. Every time I've told someone anywhere in Finland that I had lived there, I could see the reaction on their faces.

But there are people who God has given a heart to see Jakomäki changed. A prayer room and office is being rented in Jakomäki, right next door to one of the many pubs in the area. Last week a group of us rearranged the place, so that now half the place is the office and kitchen area, and the other half is the prayer room. We felt it was important that the prayer room could function while the office is in use, and that there was a dedicated area for worship and prayer.

Worshiping and praying there has been great. Starting from the place of exalting Jesus and worshiping Him, God has given us revelation of His heart for the area, which fuels the fire of worship and prayer. Jakomäki is His garden; He is breathing on the area and bringing life to it, much like Aslan does when he breathes on people turned to stone and makes them alive again.
Also I felt God gave me Isaiah 62 as a word for the area, especially verse 4:
"You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the LORD delights in you, And your land shall be married."

God delights in Jakomäki and has chosen it, although from a human perspective it may not seem desirable. I believe what God is doing in Jakomäki will be a sign and a wonder to the nation of Finland.

Last Saturday, we were involved in part of 'Urbaani Unelma' (a few days where the Church across Helsinki shared God's love in practical ways), again in Jakomäki. About 12 of us spent a few hours in the main central square of Jakomäki, giving out free coffee, pulla, and sandwiches and talking to people who passed by. We had good conversations with people and were able to pray with some, and we were able to share God's love with people. Others also picked up litter from the surrounding area.
I spent much of the time playing guitar and worshiping God there - it was great, declaring Jesus as Lord and singing over Jakmäki that "God is your Shield, your Strength, your Portion, your Deliverer, your Shelter, Strong Tower, your very present Help in time of need".

Finally, I was also inspired to sing the song 'Beautiful Things' by Gungor (video at the end of this). The lines "Could all that is lost ever be found? Could a garden come up from this ground at all?" expressed perfectly what in the flesh I've often felt about this place. As I was singing this, I could see people sat outside the pub drinking who've been there every day for years, the faces of people walking past who've lived pretty difficult lives, and then there's the thought that all the rubbish we'd been picking up would be back again within days. Could a garden really come up from this ground?

But then came the response: "You make beautiful things out of the dust", and with that hope began to rise. As I repeated it, faith was stirred up in me, a faith that sees things not as they are now but as they will be. God is making something truly beautiful out of Jakomäki.

24-7 Prayer Finland gathering

2010-08-25T15:50:00.007+03:00

On Saturday I was part of the 24-7 Prayer Finland gathering, and it was a realy good day. We spent some time getting to know each other and sharing stories of prayer rooms and what God's been doing in our lives. Myself and another member of the team helped lead two times of free-flow worship, the second more focused on intercession for the nation and prayer for each other. The afternoon also contained workshops with themes something like: 'how to organise a prayer room in your church, school, etc', 'prayer and mission', 'prayer-centered communities' and 'permanent houses of prayer and worship'. I was part of the last of these, and although it was all in Finnish and I struggled to understand at times, my spirit was stirred up to see these houses of prayer and worship raised up in Finland. The people sharing in this workshop voiced the longing in my heart to see 'Levites' raised up in this nation who will worship and intercede before God day and night. So yeah, it was a great day.

It seems like quite a while since the tour finished, although it was only 2 weeks ago. Life's been a lot more relaxed, but it's been good. Have been reading some good books. I'm half way through "He Loves Me" by Wayne Jacobson, which is really great, it deals with a lot of pretty vital stuff in our relationship with God. And then I'm nearing the end of Bonhoeffer's "Cost of Discipleship" - brilliant, completely uncompromising book. I've also been listening to Mike Bickle's series on Song of Songs - a few people had told me it was good, but it's blown me away how much you can get out of that book. Nearly every time of worship recently has involved me ending up singing from Song of Songs, there's so much good stuff there. Here's a link to the series, you can get mp3s and notes for free: http://mikebickle.org/resources/series/song-of-songs

oh yeah, and i went to see U2 in the Olympic stadium in Helsinki on Friday. It was epic, there were something like 100,000 people there. So crazy that we actually saw Bono. So yeah, life is good.

Burn Finland tour (August '10)

2010-08-12T17:53:00.007+03:00

Just to warn you, this is pretty epic, but i hope it's worth reading - the end is probs the most interesting bit.

On 30th July, I got on my first flight since the whole 'being-refused-entry-into-America thing', sat next to Ben and Steve (who i'd never met before, but now feel like family), and waited with anticipation for arrival in Helsinki.
It had been 11 months since I was last in Finland, although it felt a lot longer ago than that. When we got to Helsinki, it felt like coming home - so many familiar faces and sights.

So, the tour - well, I i figured it would be great, but it was so much better than I expected. God showed up in amazing ways in each place we went to, and I believe what He did will have quite an impact on this nation. We had a great team, with us 3 guys from England, and 6 Finns - by the end of the tour we felt like a family. Despite having never played together as a band, we flowed well as a group.

In Helsinki, it was great to see that many people here have vision for houses of worship and prayer. As different people shared, and we later interceded for the nation, expectation at what God is going to do here rose in my heart.

After two days in Helsinki, we then spent one day in each of the other places (other than Pietasaari/Jakobstad). This meant lots of travelling (4 hours was the longest journey), which was tiring, but it was great to visit so many places.
Renko was our next stop. I spent a week in Renko about a year ago, so it was great to be back with those guys. We had 3 awesome times of prophetic worship there. In the last one, i just started playing some kind of winding solo stuff on the acoustic guitar. Pretty soon i was in some kind of Holy Spirit trance, all i could do was play guitar for ages, maybe about an hour. Crazy stuff.

Next stop about 2 hrs away was Jämsä, where we met Luke Jeffrey (who i knew from my time in Finland before). Here we led a time in the afternoon for worship leaders, with prophetic worship and teaching, and then the evening was a more general gathering. This included lots of worship and teaching, and ended with a time of passionate intercession for Jämsä and Finland - it was pretty awesome. Luke has since started regular gatherings for prophetic worship and intercession in Jämsä, and I hope to visit him again in a few weeks' time maybe. We three english guys got to stay with a lovely couple in their nearby summer cottage, and had sauna and swam in their lake - so great.

The next stop was a YWAM base near Siilinjärvi. It was great to get to know people there, and the evening of prophetic worship and teaching was great. It was great to bless and encourage the base leaders in their vision for a house of worship and prayer.

We then had a 4 hour drive to Pietasaari/Jakobstad, where we stayed two nights. This was in a mainly Swedish-speaking area, which was cool. Both evenings we had great times of worship and teaching. Also, on both evenings an indigenous sound of Finland was released - two ladies played violins, in a very folky and mournful style. It was amazing, and God was definitely at work there. We also got to chillax for the day in between the meetings. Ben, Sonja and myself spent a while playing each other our songs, and then having sauna and swimming in the Baltic Sea (which wasn't that warm, even in summer).

Our next stop was Vaasa. We had an afternoon and an evening session here, and it was quite tough ground. Our freeflow style was clearly quite challenging to some of the local christians, as was some of Steve's teaching on prophetic worship. But I feel like there was some breakthrough there, and at one point everyone sang the Finnish national anthem and prayed for the nation, which was cool.

By this stage, we had led worship for hours each day for several days, and were all pretty tired. I definitely felt pretty empty, like I didn't have much left to give. I felt kinda frustrated, both in Jakobstad and then in Vaasa especially (part of that was probably the atmosphere). I was struggling to really press in and to hear God's voice, which is pretty vital to prophetic worship. This brought out all sorts of feelings, and at one point in the evening in Vaasa I had to leave the building. I wandered around and voiced my frustrations to God.
That evening and the next day i was able to talk it through with a couple of people in the team, and I realised that there were lies that i was believing (such as that I have nothing to give, not only in worship, but more generally to Finland), and some pride/performance mentality/striving kinda stuff was exposed.

So, after Vaasa we went to a YWAM base in Ruurikkala. I decided it was best that I have a break from playing guitar and singing with the band at first. It was good just to have space to be alone with God. Steve and Ben then did some teaching, Ben on honest intimacy - being truly open and broken before God - which was really good.
We went back into worship, and i felt i should play piano, which no-one else was playing at that time. God really moved, and it ended up with just me playing and nearly everyone else lying down or praying for people. Ben then came and encouraged me to really pour out my soul to God, which i then did. It was probably the most raw, desperate worship time i've ever had. I was pursuing God and i wasn't gonna give up. Later, other members of the team came and joined in with me crying out to God. It was so amazing.

When i was finally out of energy, the whole team prayed for me and prophecied over me for a while. What followed was really crazy. I was shaking pretty crazily in the Spirit and felt kinda like i was birthing something (stomach cramps, and pretty full on groans). The groans ended up with me basically roaring like a lion. I've had simiar experiences before, but not with that intensity probably. By the end of this i was exhausted and just lay on the floor for a while. Pretty soon i was completely drunk in the Spirit, like properly wasted. Several other members of the team were too, and we spent at least an hour on the floor laughing. Eventually i got to bed, and a while after that sobered up enough to sleep. It was the most amazing feeling.

The next day was our last day of travelling on the tour. We went to Tampere, and had an afternoon of worship and teaching. After the first worship time, i was pretty drunk again, so i went out of the hall with Ben and Sonja. After praying for each other, we decided to dance, which ended up with us going outside and dancing in the rain - so awesome. We kinda missed the teaching bit, and soon after we had another worship time. At one point we were declaring freedom over the church and the nation, and I felt that i had to dance - was pretty crazy, the Holy Spirit kinda took control of my body. We were crying out for freedom, especially for Finnish men - it was really powerful.
The worship ended with us praying for people, and then with a bunch of us on the floor, drunk in the Spirit again. Took quite a while to sober up again.

After driving back to Helsinki, we had a relaxed next day, until the evening when we prayed and worshiped in Jakomäki. It was amazing to be back in the area I lived in for a year, i really love that place. We declared Jesus as Lord over the area and also danced on the hill. Our time there ended with Sonja and I both drunk in the Spirit again, this time on the hill in Jakomäki. kinda crazy. All this drunkenness makes me think there's a whole lot more to joy than we often experience.

The next day Ben and Steve flew back to England, was sad to say goodbye. It was also a bit of a wake up call to the fact that I was staying here in Finland. I still don't know how long I'll be here, but I feel that I have some role to play in encouraging prophetic worship and intercession here. I also feel that I need to be part of seeing the men of Finland rise up and be the men of God they're called to be.
God is definitely stirring up the church here to worship and intercession. He is bringing freedom - from religion, from passivity, and many other things. He is bringing his joy and life to this nation.

All things new

2010-07-12T22:38:00.003+03:00

I fly to Finland on July 30th. For the first two weeks or so I'll be traveling around Finland with Steve Lincoln (from Burn 24-7 UK) and a group of Finns, many of whom I know well. I'm really excited about this trip - it will be great to see what God is doing around Finland and be a part of some of it.

After that, I've arranged to stay at a prayer house in Varisto (an area in greater Helsinki). My plan is to stay until at least the end of September, and see whether God wants me to be there longer term. At the moment I'm not exactly sure what I'd do there, and how it would work practically is again a bit of a mystery.

My life seems once again to be a lump of clay or dust, ready to be molded into something new. I've realised once again that my life is pointless without God.
I'm sure God will make something beautiful out of the dust.

A News Update

2010-05-26T20:40:00.002+03:00

Well, i haven't written here in a while.
I've been based in Gloucester for nearly 4 months now, and haven't done loads except some leaflet delivering for Quoakle (www.quoakle.com) and random other stuff.

It hasn't been a particularly easy time, but I am learning to walk with God in dull everyday life. This has it's challenges, and some days are better than others. But God is good, and I've been learning that Jesus needs to be my vision. I guess it comes back to learning to 'be' and not just do stuff.

During this time I've done a lot of thinking and praying about Rachel and myself. This process led to some realizations, and I came to the conclusion that it wasn't right to continue the relationship. This was a hard decision to make, but I'm certain that it was the right thing to do.

So, what next? Well, in 10 days my sister is getting married, which will be great.
I'm going with a friend to a 'Healing and Impartation conference' led by Randy Clark and John Arnott in Southampton in the middle of June.
Beyond that I'm planning on being involved with a Burn 24-7 team from the US on their visit to the UK in July.

I'm also quite sure I'll be part of a Burn 24-7 UK team going to Finland in early August. I've felt for a while that returning to Finland is my next step. So my plan at the moment is to get a one-way flight to Finland, and then explore what God might have for me to do there. It may be only for a few months, but I'm quite open to whatever God wants to do there.

So, the journey continues...

Vision

2010-04-12T17:12:00.003+03:00

The past few weeks haven't been great. Quite honestly, I've dropped the ball. I've let doubt and fear rule, and given in to apathy and hopelessness. With being at home, and doing nothing all day, that becomes set in quite easily unless you fight it. And that's the thing, I haven't been fighting, I've been passively accepting it.
"Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18)

And the worst thing is that I let this keep me from going to God. I began doubting that I can pray, that I can hear God, that my relationship with God was ever more than purely superficial. This is not true, but by not listening to God, I gave the enemy freedom to say whatever he wanted. I felt so distant from God. All that I long for is found in Jesus, and so not focusing on Him left me more frustrated.

Thankfully, having talked to some people, especially Rachel, I've become more aware of what I was allowing to happen. And by God's grace, the burden is lifting and I'm finding hope and love and satisfaction in Him. There are still plenty of questions about the future, but I know that being with Jesus is all that I need; He is my portion and my vision.

Questions

2010-03-13T15:51:00.002+02:00

So, a week ago, i set off to Heathrow airport to fly back to the U.S. for the last 3 months of the Burning Ones Internship. After about 5 weeks in England, I couldn't wait to be back in Oklahoma with my internship family, and of course my beautiful fiancee.
So, after my 6/7 hour flight from London to Chicago, I headed to border control. I was going back on the visa waiver programme, for 3 months, which is the longest it can last for. The intial border control guy took me to the secondary check room. This was a bit worrying, but having spent 5 hours in Israeli airport security, I wasn't freaking out. I spent quite a bit of time praying and reading my Bible. After 3 hours there and lots of questions from one of the border security police, I was told they were sending me back to England on the next flight, mainly because i had been denied a visa before (in december). Border police escorted me onto the airfield, and drove me to the plane. I then had another 7 hour flight back to England.

It was probably the hardest experience of my life. To get that close and then be sent back, it was pretty tough, and quite surreal at first. I'd been waiting 5 weeks to get back to the internship, and to see Rachel, so to not get there was pretty disappointing.
Loads of questions have been going around in my head, some not very helpful - like what i could have said or done differently.

All i know to do is to wait on God. I've been asking what He wants me to do next, and i know He'll tell me at some point. But i'm doing my best to yield to what God wants to do in me. I want to know Him in this situation. I want Him to deal with my self, to change me and mould me through this.

In the Promised Land

2010-02-16T18:05:00.002+02:00

Well, after the adventure of getting to Israel, the 3 weeks there were really amazing. We stayed most of our time at Living Bread Ministry house in east Jerusalem, which is run by a lady called Karen Dunham. She took us to lots of places around Jerusalem and other cities in Israel.

On our second day there, we went to the Jordan River. We didn't go to the tourist place though - we went to the place that both Jordan and Israel believe is where Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land. This involved being escorted by the Israeli Army through minefields to the river. Once there, we had a time of praise and worship right next to the river. We were there with arabs from Jericho who had become Christians, and it was amazing to see them get baptised in the Jordan River. We also got baptised in the river, which was great.

The next few days we had morning worship and teaching on healing, which was great. During the afternoons we visited the room of the last supper, the pool of Bethesda, and other places in the old city of Jerusalem.
On the Sunday we went to Abraham's well in Beersheba and to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's tombs in Hebron.
The next week we again had worship and teaching each morning, and then visited places in the afternoons. We went to Jericho to meet with Palestinian Christians there, and to the prayer tower at King of Kings Church in Jerusalem. Wednesday we spent all day visiting places - En Gedi (waterfalls in the wilderness), the Dead Sea (where we floated for a while) and the Mount of Temptations.

On Thursday, we visited what is believed to be the Garden Tomb, and I'm pretty convinced that's where Jesus was crucified and buried. God's peace was definitely in that place.
On Friday night we went to Jerusalem House of Prayer For All Nations on the Mount of Olives, run by Tom Hess. Us twelve interns and leaders took the slots for 24 hours, eaching leading for 2 hours. It was awesome to worship God there, and so amazing to cry out for Jesus' return on the Mount He's returning to.

The next week was more prayer and worship each morning, and in the afternoons visiting more places. We went to Solomon's quarry under the old city of Jerusalem, which is where it's believed Solomon got the stone to build the Temple. It was really great to pray underneath the old city and to cry out to God for Israel.
We also visited Succat Hallal house of prayer, and also a house of prayer right by where they're excavating David's palace and tabernacle.

On the Thursday we went up to Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee. It was awesome to see these places where Jesus spent a lot of His ministry. We then went to Nazareth, and then up to Mount Carmel.
We spend a few days on Mount Carmel, staying at the Carmel Assembly, where David and Karen Davis minister. We were part of a night of prayer and worship there, which started in Hebrew, then Arabic, then Russian, and then we led in English. It was amazing to hear and see what is happening in Israel, and I learned more of Israel's importance to us and in the end times.

After that we had a few days in Jerusalem before we left. In that time we went to the Garden of Gethsemane, under the Temple Mount, and then actually on the Temple Mount, where the dome of the rock is.

Overall, we spent a lot of time worshiping and praying. This was really good, and it was amazing to intercede for Israel in Jerusalem. It felt intense at times, especially the spiritual atmosphere. But we were there to give of ourselves, and God taught us all a lot through the trip. It definitely taught me to press in to God more.

Oh, and leaving was loads easier than getting there, praise the Lord.

Getting to Israel

2010-02-05T17:39:00.005+02:00

I got back from Israel a few days ago - it was amazing!

The adventure started in Roanoke, Virginia. I flew from there, but the rest of the group was flying from Washington, D.C. because i had to fly back to England after Israel. So, i had to move my suitcase from our trailer to someone's car. Unfortunately, it got put in the wrong car, which belonged to some random person. We then went to eat breakfast, and when we left, the car with my stuff in was gone. So my suitcase is somewhere in Virginia i guess, with none of my contact details on it. So it's pretty much gone. This was a couple of hours before I was gonna fly.

I was pretty down about that - I was very attached to my clothes, especially my cardigans. I had to spend some time with God processing it, but I remembered this from Matthew 6,
"Do not worry, saying ... 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

So yeah, i had to borrow clothes the whole trip, and i don't really have many clothes. But i know God is lifting my eyes from the things of this world to the things of His kingdom.

So i got on my flight from Roanoke to D.C. with just hand luggage (my wallet, passport, Bible, books, mp3 player, scarf, sunglasses, mittens and not much else). And then flew from D.C. to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Tel Aviv. All three flights were fine, didn't get much sleep on the overnight from D.C. to Frankfurt.

So, I arrived in Tel Aviv, a guy on my own without a suitcase. The security people obviously didn't like this, so I spent 5 hours in security in the airport. I was pretty worried that I might get sent back to England. So I put some worship music on my mp3 player, and cried out to God (silently). I was desperate to get into Israel, but i knew it was in God's hands. And, after waiting for ages, they let me out of the airport. By this time the rest of the group had left the airport, after waiting for me for 2 hours, as i had no way of contacting them.

I tried to call the contact number i had for Karen Dunham's ministry house (where my group were going to stay), but i couldn't get through. So i got a minibus from the airport to Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, which was near where we were going to stay. When i got there, i tried to find the address i'd been given, but no-one around had ever heard of the street (It turned out to be a small side street). So, after two hours of wandering (including asking at the police station, which didn't help at all) i asked in a hotel if I could sleep in the lobby area. They told me I'd have to get a room, which would cost 100 dollars.
Having tried to call the ministry house several times, i gave up looking. So, at 2am, i found a bench outside Damascus Gate, and lay there for a few hours. I was pretty cold, so i couldn't sleep, but i was so excited to finally be in Jerusalem. I prayed for quite a while, which was gd. Then at about 5 i got up and wandered around the old city.

Once it got to 7am i went back to the hotel and used their phone. This time i got through to the ministry house, and they gave me directions. So after two nights of little/no sleep and the biggest emotional rollercoaster i've ever been on, I arrived at the place where we were staying. It was so good to see all the other interns, especially Rachel. They'd also been worried, as they didn't know where i was, and had no way of contacting me.

So, all in all, it was a pretty crazy experience. God gave me peace and grace for all that, and my trust in Him is a lot stronger now.

North-east Travels

2010-01-07T19:13:00.003+02:00

it seems like ages since i was in england, even though it was about 10 days ago. it's been super intense, but amazing. we were in new jersey for about 4 days at the 100 hour Burn, which was incredible. one day us interns took the slots from 2am to 8am, and it was amazing. We went to NYC one day to the subway tunnels to worship and pray for people, which was real cool. then we did some sightseeing - Times Square, Central Park, etc.

After New Jersey/new york, we drove 8 hours to Virginia Beach. we got there saturday night, and we did a church service on the sunday morning, i led worship. It was really great, God gave us words to share with the church and we got to pray for people. in the evening we went to another church which was basically just free prophetic worship - awesome.

Then monday morning we drove 4 hours to Washington, D.C. We met people there who run a 'Justice House of Prayer' right in the centre of D.C. They really focus on praying for the government and issues like abortion and homosexual marriage. On tuesday morning we got to spend a few hours crying out to God for the nation, which is in desperate need of prayer. We got to do some sightseeing in D.C. - saw the Lincoln memorial, Washington monument, the White House, etc. That evening we led a meeting of a youth group at a church near D.C. Again God gave us all prophetic words for the young people. At one point i got up to read a passage (Titus 2:11-14) that God gave me to share, and I ended up preaching for 5 or 10 minutes. It was awesome to see God at work in their lives.

On wednesday morning we drove 4 hours to Roanoke, Virginia, where i currently am. Today i'm gonna spend some time with Rachel and her family (who live here), should be gd.

This saturday we fly to Israel, where we'll be for about 4 weeks. It's gonna be life-changing, I can't wait!

the last month

2009-12-27T22:23:00.003+02:00

Apparently i haven't written on here for a month - it's been a pretty busy month.
I've had 3 weeks in Shawnee, and then the last 2 weeks in Gloucester.

I had a good last 3 weeks in Oklahoma - God challenged me quite a bit on really seeking Him above everything else, and about coming to Him when I'm stressed and worried - not just one of those 'Help me' prayers, but really reminding myself of Who He is and letting that put things in perspective.

That's been a recurrent theme it seems. The day after I got back to England I went to the US Embassy in central London to apply for my visa. I didn't get the visa, which would have sorted all that out until the end of the internship in Shawnee. However, despite the initial shock/anger/disappointment, I knew i should just worship God. As I fixed my gaze on the eternal King of all, I saw that Has all things in His hands; I was able to say "the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord".

So I'm having to trust God for each step, which isn't as easy, but I know I'll learn more this way. So, I'm off to New York on Tuesday 29th December (pretty soon) to meet up with the other interns for 100 hours of prayer and worship in NYC over New year's. Then we'll be going to Washington D.C. and Virginia. Then on Jan 9 we're flying from D.C. to Israel, where we'll be until Feb 6. I shall try to blog while in Israel to keep you up to date.

One major piece of news is that I have a girlfriend - the wonderful Rachel Williams, who is one of the interns. She is from Roanoke, Virginia (which we'll be visiting in early january). I can't wait to see her again when i get back to the US.

It's been lovely to be back in Gloucester for the last 10 days or so. It's been great to catch up with friends here and spend time with my family. It does always feel kinda weird coming back to Gloucester, I'm kinda used to being in other countries now.

hopefully i shall write again soon
be blessed

Prayer Retreat

2009-11-24T03:52:00.005+02:00

This weekend we (all the interns and leaders) went away for the weekend for a prayer retreat in rural Oklahoma. It was led by a couple, Phil and Melissa, from Dallas who are part of the Burn 24-7. I was really looking forward to getting away and slowing down for the weekend; the past few weeks have felt quite busy and tiring.

On Friday evening we got there and ate together. Then we had a time of creative interactive worship - basically, no-one led. We sat and waited upon the Lord and people picked up instruments as they felt led by the Holy Spirit. Apparently nearly everyone had pretty awesome encounters with God, except me. I couldn't really focus on God, I felt really weird. It kinda made me angry and jealous of everyone else - God's beginning to bring stuff to the surface that's deep in me. It was hard seeing my weaknesses while everyone else was experiencing the wonders of God.

The next morning we had a similar worship time, and again i couldn't really feel anything, so i just tried to focus my mind on worshiping. It was a bit frustrating still. Then we were told that for the rest of the day (from 12pm til 6pm) we couldn't talk to anyone else apart from God. We just had alone time with God all afternoon - it was very quiet. So i walked around the nearby lake and spent time with God. It was really good just to be quiet and focus on Him - living in community with 11 other people, i find i crave silence every so often. Later I interacted with God around the Bible, and I also read a fair amount of "Intercessory Prayer" by Dutch Sheets - excellent book.
Later in the afternoon i got chance to talk 2-on-1 with Phil and Melissa. It was really awesome to be able to just bare my soul to them. They are really amazing, peaceful people.

During the weekend, I was reminded of what God had told me earlier in the week that God is taking me into a season of winter, of being barren and dying. For this season I won't feel emotion in worship - God wants me to learn to be led by Him leading my spirit. I'm gonna have to learn to trust God, and not my emotions. My flesh is being crushed, and I'm not gonna feel comfortable.

One prayer request i have is my visa situation. It currently doesn't look very easy for me to come back here, and i'm gonna have to be wise and also trust God as far as flights, etc are concerned. So, if you could pray for me, that would be wonderful.

Sacrifice, etc

2009-11-20T01:15:00.002+02:00

it's been a while since i wrote - we've been pretty busy i guess.

We had Burn Shawnee a couple of weeks ago - it was real cool. It started with a group of people from YWAM in Hawaii who are raising awareness about sex trafficking. They told us a whole bunch of stuff about what's going on around the world, including in the US. It was pretty shocking. Then we prayed and cried out to God about the issue. God broke my heart for the people, especially children, who are bought and sold as sex slaves. While hearing this stuff i had to cry out to Him to bring justice.

Later in the evening i led a two-hour set of worship and prayer (from 1-3am). It was really good - i hardly sang any actual songs, but just sang out my heart to God and sang out Scripture and words He gave me. At the end of the 26 hours we had a youth rally, which was really great. We collectively entered the throne room and each saw something of the throne room. I saw a sea of diamonds, rubies and precious stones, with a rainbow over it. It was beautiful.

We've been doing some fundraising recently for our trip to Israel. We did a dinner at our church for people to come and find out about what we're doing so they could pray and donate. We also did a concert last weekend with nearly all original songs written by us interns. It was great fun, and we were able to tell more people about our trip. At the end we started praying and interceding for Israel - it was really powerful, and made me even more excited about going to Israel.

God has been speaking to me about sacrifice recently. Sure, i've sacrificed some to be here, but I know God has me here to weed out some stuff from me. God showed me that Jesus chose death with every step, and that's what we're called to - death to ourselves each day. I guess that means i should be ready for some not-so-easy stuff.
But i know this is important - i don't want to be able to prophecy and see signs and wonders without my character being formed.

I'm really grateful to be here - i have an amazing family here, which adds to my family around the world. I do miss my family in various places, but I'm glad i'm here

Israel trip and Burn Austin

2009-11-05T23:37:00.004+02:00

Hey
firstly, i want to let you know that i'm going with the internship to Israel from January 8 to February 6. We will be spending some time in a Palestinian refugee camp with a lady called Karen Dunham, who works there. Not only will we help serve their practical needs, we will get to share the powerful message of the Kingdom of God and believe for salvation, healing, and deliverance!
We will also be going into the training grounds for future terrorists. We have the opportunity to go into the schools where these children’s future is hanging in the balance, and take the Gospel to them.
We will also be visting prayer houses and praying and interceding for the Middle East.

I'm believing that God can provide the money for me to go - i need about $2200. He has provided for me before, and I'm sure He will again. I'd appreciate your prayers for this.

Last weekend, we drove down to Austin, Texas (about 7 hrs away from Shawnee). We went down there to join in with their Burn. We had an awesome time of worship and intercession for the city. I also had an amazing experience of God's holiness. I was lying facedown and couldn't say anything other than "Holy" for about 30 mins! It was crazy. We then prayed over each other. We then went out and prayed on the streets of downtown Austin. It was Halloween, so the streets were packed with people dressed up. We prayed for people, and did a prayer 'fire tunnel' - people didn't really know what it was, but we got to pray over loads of people as they ran through.
God really gave me a heart for the city and the people. They all seemed so hopeless, so numb.
It was a pretty awesome trip, and i was able to read over half of "Mere Christianity" on the journey there and back - it is an amazing book.

Life continues to be good. I started giving guitar lessons at the church i help at, which is fun. Tomorrow night Burn Shawnee begins - should be awesome, and we have some people from YWAM's Human Trafficking Awareness Tour coming, which will probably break our hearts again.

God's doing so much, I hope reading this encourages you

Seraphim - Burning Ones

2009-10-25T20:56:00.005+02:00

Well, a couple of weeks have gone by, and life here continues to be good. I'm really enjoying living with the people here and they truly feel like family. Spending lots of time praying and worshiping together really binds you together, and the sharing the everyday stuff of cooking, cleaning and working together does also.

A couple of weeks ago we had Burn Shawnee, 24 hours of continual worship and prayer. It was really awesome to be there - the first six hours i just stayed and worshiped and prayed. I played lead guitar in a couple of sets (2-hour slots), and it was great. I've been involved with organising the next month's Burn Shawnee, and it's amazing to see the range of different church congregations involved. Church unity was a major focus of last month's Burn, and God really laid on my heart the need for us to let go of our pride so we can be one. Jesus is coming back for a bride, not a harem (that is a quote from a book, but I can't think which book).

Last weekend we helped organise a youth retreat for a few church youth groups in the area. It was called Violent Pursuit - God is violently pursuing us, and we are called to pursue Him violently. It was great to pray over young people and see God working in their lives. It was also great to meet new people; there were people who are part of Burn 24-7 who came from Corpus Cristi, Texas and Little Rock, Arkansas. It was like meeting my extended family.

While I was at Burn Shawnee, God reminded me that He brought me here, and I shouldn't let anything other than Him be my focus, or else i shouldn't be here. That might sound kinda full on, but I really believe these 9 months are meant to change me completely.

Every Tuesday night, we have a class called "The Excellencies of Christ" by Allen Hood on dvd from the IHOP school. It's been amazing stuff; we've been getting lots of revelation on who Jesus is. This week He spoke about the seraphim, which translates as burning ones (the name of the internship). In Revelation 4, the seraphim are covered with eyes and are gazing upon God. As they scout out the mysteries of God, all they can report back to each other is "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty." Even with their many eyes, they can only begin to grasp Who God is. We also have that privilege, but we are able to gaze into the very heart of God. So I'm giving my life to gaze upon God, to delve into His endless mysteries. After all, we'll be spending all eternity trying to grasp Who God is, and we'll continue to be amazed and overwhelmed by Him.

this is an amazing song we sang at the youth retreat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj2T6_MU5oA

p.s. i went to a concert last week - Barcelona, Copeland, and Relient K played - it was amazing, i absolutely loved it. Barcelona were so good i nearly stopped breathing it made me so happy. Copeland were amazing, and Relient K were great.

Next weekend we're off to Austin, Texas to do a Burn and then go out on the streets and minister to people on Halloween. Should be great

Settling down into routine

2009-10-07T22:01:00.002+03:00

After the beginning week, life's become more like it will be for most of this internship. Each weekday morning we have prayer from 9am til about 11 or 12. This sometimes includes teaching or discussions. We have started to study one Psalm a day, looking at what we can learn about God's character and emotions, and asking Him for fresh revelation. One of our leaders said the other day that worship from information is good, but worship from revelation is what really has power to transform.

Amos 9:11-12 is a major focus of Burn 24-7 - God restoring the tabernacle of David, which had no veil and was filled with musicians, prophets and intercessors. So we've been looking at how worship leads to the prophetic, which leads to intercession. This has been great to do every morning, and it's really raised my expectation for God to speak to me. We also started a dvd course from IHOP called the Excellencies of Christ, which is really gd stuff - to know and understand God, we must look at Christ.

Each weekday afternoon we do work for a couple of hours. so far this has been mainly moving in furniture that God has provided, but will also involve helping with admin, and organising local 'Burns' each month (24 hours or more of continuous worship and prayer), and helping spread the vision to churches locally. the evenings sometimes involve just spending time together, classes (including vocals, piano, guitar) and outreach.
We had a Burn last weekend which was based at a housechurch. We had sound equipment set up outside, and was awesome to worship surrounded by God's creation. I played electric guitar for 4 hours straight, which was great. These guys have developed a culture of prophetic worship, and it was great to cry out to God together.

We have all been assigned to local congregation to help with their youth meetings and church meetings. I'm looking forward to this, and I'm sure i can learn a lot, having not been involved much with slightly bigger expressions of church in a while.

God has also been uniting us as a group of interns, or, as Karen Dunham called us, a company of prophets. Seeing these people seeking God so passionately is really inspiring, and it does feel like a family.
Last week we went camping and hiking for a couple of days, and each shared in-depth testimonies, which really helped us get to know each other.

I know I'm where God wants me to be, God even told me that I have a part to play in changing America. He is giving me His heart for America so i can truly intercede for it. We are all believing that the city of Shawnee (where we're based) will be transformed over the next 9 months.

Arrived in Oklahoma

2009-09-26T01:35:00.002+03:00

Well, it's been a while since i wrote.
I'm currently sat in the house connected to our community house here in Shawnee, Oklahoma. I've been here a week, and it has been awesome.

The interns and leaders here feel like family already. They love my accent, and keep getting me to say "for Narnia". I've been to Taco Bell, IHOP (the pancake one) and the local mall, and actually shot a shotgun - crazy!

God has been doing amazing stuff here. Everyone is so passionate for God, pretty much every worship time has gone from worship to the prophetic to intercession. I've already had several full-on encounters with God. He's been giving me His heart for the lost and broken, America, and the Muslims.

From Sunday to Tuesday we had a lady called Karen Dunham teaching. She is an amazing lady who works in Israel in Palestinian refugee camps in Jerusalem. She's had her house set on fire 7 times, but continues to love Palestinians, and has a church of 300, some former Hamas members. God willing, we're going to visit her in Israel for 4 weeks in January/Febrary.
She taught us amazing stuff about encountering the Father, and about us being a group of prophets. We spent a couple of hours prophecying over each other one day - it was really powerful.

From wednesday til today we had Roger Joyner with us. He's an amazingly passionate intercessor, and he taught us great stuff about intercession. God has led us into times of intercession for this city, and the USA. Today we prayed for Muslims, as there was a gathering planned of 50,000 Muslims in Washington, D.C., and ended up interceding for Europe.

So, it's been a really intense beginning week, really amazing, and God's gonna change us all radically in these 9 months

Time in Pyhäranta

2009-06-29T16:57:00.004+03:00

Arrived back in Jakomäki today having spent 2 weeks in Pyhäranta (Holy beach). I had a great time. The place was beautiful, particularly in the second week which was sunny and warm (25C+) most of the time. It was great to be able to spend lots of time with some of the Network4youth family - working, playing, and resting.

The second week was pretty intense - i was helping run the children's programme at a family camp run by Deep Healing Finland. The camp was about inner healing, spiritual warfare, and that whole area - pretty interesting. It was great to see God working in the kids' lives, and the whole camp had a family atmosphere.

God taught me quite a lot about the importance of spiritual warfare, and also about how He is working in our lives all the time. We had some great times of worship, and learned a lot from the amazing people i was with.

It seems quite likely that i'll be going to Oklahoma in September for a 'Burning Ones' internship. I felt like God said to me last week while i was leading worship "this is what i created you for". I'm leaving it open before Him, but it seems that He is leading me to go.
I've been reading PunkMonk recently, and the idea that we are pilgrims here on the earth really spoke to me. I'm not in this for the end result; i'm in this for the journey with God.

An interesting weekend

2009-05-11T17:14:00.002+03:00

on friday evening, a 24-3 prayer weekend began in Helsingin Kristillinen Koulu, Jakomäki (where such events as 'GearUp' have taken place). I spent about 11 hours there in total, including a shift from 4am til 8am early saturday morning.

It was really cool, and God is definitely at work in Jakomäki. I heard, from people who were there at some point on Sunday, that three local boys asked to come into the prayer room, shared all that was in their hearts and gave their lives to Jesus! Praise the Lord! It has been great to be part of what God is doing here.

I also went to the meeting of a Latin American church that meets in Malmi with Mikko Lassila. It was kinda funny being there, with Spanish, translated into Finnish at the front, with mikko translating to English for me for some of it. The preach was by an Indian man speaking in English, which was cool.
Having spent about 10 days in Holland, and most of the last 9 months in Finland, I'm getting pretty used to not understanding stuff. I actually quite enjoy it. It's funny to think how international i'm becoming.

One more experience from the weekend: I was walking from my place to the office (3 minute walk, so convenient) and i saw an old lady doing gardening next to the office. I walked inside the office, and was listening to worship music at the time. In my mind, i just said "John, you have to go and offer to help her." So i did; it took a while as all my Finnish just flew out of my memory. It turned out she was just finishing. Then I asked if i could pray for her (totally forgot the verb to pray - rukoilla - so it involved putting my hands together and pointing to the sky). I understood that she wanted prayer for her sight and hearing, so i prayed for her. I then found out that she lives in the building next to where i live.

all in all, a pretty gd wkend

Soul Survivor Holland

2009-05-07T16:16:00.002+03:00

Hei

I got back from Holland on Monday afternoon (should have been Sunday eve, but missed plane). it was a pretty amazing time.

Soul Survivor Holland was great. We met loads of amazing people and saw God doing so much. it was wonderful to be part of the ministry team. I got to pray for lots of people, which was really cool, and the ministry team meetings were awesome - God did so much in us all. It was a privilege to be part of it.

God spoke a lot to me about letting go of my life, and about prophetic worship and intercession. I feel like that could be the general direction i'm heading in. I had some crazy experiences of the Holy Spirit, and God is beginning to give me more of the burden of His heart. I have been asking Him for this, as i see that in my strength i can't love people as He does.

i realise that i now have less than 3 months left of my EU project left - crazy. i still don't really know what God wants my next step to be, but i'm not too worried about that. As i seek Him, He will sort everything out.

bless you
i will try to write here more often

john

a few thoughts

2009-03-23T14:53:00.003+02:00

moi

i thought i'd just write a bit about stuff i've been thinking about recently.

i've been reading a book called "Desire" by John Eldredge. it's dealing a lot with the heart, which is something God's been talking about recently. Foundational to it is the idea that we were created for Eden, and that the desires of our heart arise from that.
It has really encouraged me to live with the hope of eternity in my heart, and taught me not to try to arrange for my 'perfect life' in this lifetime. It has shown me that my deepest desires are God-given, and He loves to fulfill them. Psalm 37:5 "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Also, i just read Chris Mooney's most recent blog (on suffering), and i thought i'd write a little on the subject.
Now firstly, i can't say i've ever truly suffered like, for example, David suffered.
But from what i can see in the Bible, God allows suffering. God wants to deal with our hearts, and this isn't usually a comfortable experience. As a Father who loves us, He wants us to grow and become all we can be. If my life is aways easy, then I may become complacent and lose my focus on God.

For example, as i read this morning in Revelation 2:10, God tells the church in Smyrna "Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life."

blessings
john

my heart

2009-02-16T14:44:00.003+02:00

hey there

God's been doing some amazing stuff in my life recently. I'm beginning to see more and more that my life without Him is nothing, and that He deserves everything I am and have.

I've had loads of cool experiences of God recently. On a couple of occasions this was an experience of Him loving me as a Daddy, which was awesome. Also, recently in meetings where a guy from Denmark has been preaching, God has been doing amazing stuff. This weekend i was in three of these gatherings, and God touched me with His power and left me shaking on the floor for about 10 mins. This happened on two occasions.
He has really been freeing me and dealing with my heart. A couple of weeks ago i found myself asking to take out my heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. He was listening, and has proceeded to deal with issues in my heart, such as pride and cynicism. It's not that nice to realise that you need to change, but it's wonderful when you feel God doing that work in you.

So yeah, i feel more in love with God than ever before, and it's wonderful.
I know that i don't need to worry about my future or whatever, but simply seek God's kingdom and run after Him.

here's a couple of quotes:
"Father, hide our hearts in you, lest we steal them back, and lay them at the feet of men." from a song called Love Jealous One, Love by As Cities Burn

"what does this world need: gifted men and women, outwardly empowered? Or individuals who are broken, inwardly transformed?" from A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards

blessings
john

Fragrance of Christ

2008-12-01T13:50:00.004+02:00

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

2008-11-11T17:04:00.005+02:00

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?

2008-08-29T12:22:00.002+03:00

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

2008-08-12T12:23:00.003+03:00

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