SOWers in Scandinavia

The theme for this outreach was to empower the local church by serving along with their ministry, to stir up hope in the hearts of the people by sharing what God has been doing in our lives during the last three months (during the lecture phase); most importantly to lift up the Name of Jesus wherever we went.

Here's some highlights or a few random events during the outreach...

I almost thought there was a hidden Hobbiton in Suomenlinna

29th - 07th June, Helsinki
         
One of the favourite times was probably worship at the park downtown. We just sat down on the grass just like sitting in the living room, singing praises to God, and some people dropped by to listen. Some of us who weren't playing had good conversations with people. It was also great sharing with the worship team of the Lighthouse Christian Center, even just for a day. I personally felt very proud of the team, teaching what they've learned.

07th - 17th June, Savo Area

Jef´s 20th b-day

          We stayed at my home base, YWAM Koivumäki, and the challenge was to drive into the nearby towns (Keittele, Pielavesi, Kuopio, and Juankoski). It was very tiring but we had a great time praying and worshipping with the people from these places. The 24-hour prayer was very significant too! Some people came to join us including the Korean DTS outreach team from YWAM Restenäs. We had a lot of treats in this trip but the most special probably was Mark Erickson´s famous milkshakes! YUM!!!

17th - 23rd June, Evijärvi

          Three things: students teaching on worship to the DTS (YWAM Ruurikkala), Youth Night in Seinäjoki (nearby city) and I got to see two of my friends there; and we got to do some tubing and wakeboarding as the base was next to a real nice lake. One thing that stood out was, to see the students speak into the lives of people, serve in any way they could, and our only guy in the team socialising with the guys. It must have been a real challenge for him being surrounded by girls for the rest of the trip.

              23rd June - 05th July, North Finland        

            In Kemi, one afternoon at a small beach, we encountered three youngsters drinking (not so drunk). One of the girls, who loved sharing her passion about Jesus, started a conversation that led this one guy to pour his heart out. "It would be cool if God is cool with me. It would be really cool if I could hear His voice despite the fact that He is up there and I am on earth." That, I thought was so touching. I can just imagine how many youngsters in this town, in this nation are longing to have that kind of relationship but they look elsewhere just to satisfy the empty soul.

          In Tornio, we were at a youth meeting where we had the biggest pizza ever! And in Rovaniemi, we got to visit the BCC students (YWAM Lapland) finishing up their course. And just for fun, we took the team to see Santa Claus, unfortunately his reindeer were on summer holiday. A bit disappointing but we got to see the arctic circle.

05th - 11th July, Umeå

kids at the playground

          Umeå is a center of education, technical and medical research in Sweden, with two universities and over 30,000 students. The city is elected European Capital of Culture of 2014. I thought it´s worth mentioning this because we felt it was a great priviledge to be praying into what´s on God´s heart for this city. A night of street evangelism with some elderlies in the center town was so encouraging. The oldest woman in the group was about 80 years old and it was really neat to see even the youngsters were very open to talk about God.

11th - 17th July, Dalarna
         Personally, I thought the van incident was quite a story. We were about 4 or 5 kms to our destination and the van has decided to take a break on top of a hilly road. It was so hot that day and we thought the van stopped because of overheating and probably insufficient petrol. We waited and have cooled down for about half an hour, prayed too and for the 2nd or 3rd time of starting the engine, we managed to get to our accommodation. The van got worse - clutch and the door was falling apart so we had an option of leaving it in Sweden, however, that would mean dragging our stuff into the boat in Stockholm, taking the public transport from Helsinki to the airport. I didn´t feel at peace leaving the van so I sought the Lord for wisdom, talked with my co-leader, and during one of my prayer time, I was prompted to "open the stinky can". The day before we left for Stockholm, I shared how I felt, what I sensed the Lord was trying to teach us through the van situation. After I prayed, people started sharing their frustrations, unspoken conflicts were exposed, forgiveness was released, and we sealed them in prayers believing that God would do a miracle for the van. True enough, we made it to Stockholm, to Helsinki, then to the airport.
For some pictures in Dalarna, click on this link: http://www.facebook.com/onewhomJesusloves#!/photo.php?pid=4660174&op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=745277284&id=617687156&fbid=410552787156

After the team left, I stayed in Helsinki for a few days to rest, without computer nor TV. Now, am back in Koivumäki preparing for the next SOW.

Thank you for all your support and blessings to you all!

For more pictures, please check this link: http://ywamworship.ning.com/photo/albums/sow-budapest