What I'm doing these days

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