We’ve been busy here in Helsinki! Thanks to Tata and Johanna, we’ve had many ministry opportunities opened up. We’ve also met many other great christians who want to see change in their city and we will be partnering with them in ministries. Here’s a few activities we’ve been up to while in Finland:
Youth Group Night – We went sledding with the youth group and then had a time of fellowship and a message from Aria about the Holy Spirit. We ate these things called Sledding Buns because this weekend in Finland everyone goes sledding as a tradition. I wouldn’t be opposed to making it a daily ritual haha. The buns tasted a bit like Nissu.
Homeless food & fellowship – We helped serve food to the homeless and elderly and hang out with them at the church. We were able to talk with them and pray if needed. Candice gave a great message on the love of God and I could tell the people were really engaged in what she was saying.
College-age night – We had a fun time worshipping and talking with this group. Tata, Petra and Renee all spoke with great authority on purity. Many that came were our age and a few were married. Camille and I had a good talk with this couple and plan on hanging out with them more!
Middle school religion classes – We got the opportunity to spend the day in Middle School religion and english classes. Almost all of us got to give a message and testimony to the religion classes. I feel like it touched the students hearts because what was said touched mine and I really felt the presence of God as my teammates spoke.
Beginnings of a prayer night – The Lord put it on my heart to start a prayer night among the Christians here that we have befriended. We really saw a great picture of what it can look like for a community of christians to come together in prayer, worship and brotherly love in Malmo and just want the same for Helsinki. Our first prayer and worship night will be tomorrow and we hope that this night will be continued after our team leaves Helsinki and expanded!
Evangelize Helsinki – A group of churches go out and evangelize. We haven’t done this but just found out about this ministry. Its similar to our “treasure hunts” so we are of course excited to partner with this group.
We also plan on looking into opportunities to partner with Anumari Ylesmaki (some of you may know her) and the church she goes to in Espoo. We attended her church last Sunday and it happened to be Missions Sunday and the first slide that came up onto the screen was “Transforming Lives and Communities” but the Lives were too light to see on screen so it said, “transforming communities” haha! (similar to our DTS, Community Transformations). Needless to say, I think God planned for us to be there on that Sunday. Aria told a little about what we were doing and then we heard from some people from Operation Mobilization Finland. We’re open to whatever God has planned for these next 3 weeks left in Finland.
On our free day, we decided to go to Talinn, Estonia and had an amazing time in the Old Town area. We took a nice ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn at an affordable price since our friend knew someone from the ferry company. I highly recommend visiting this city! It makes you feel like you are back in medeival times! Its a meshing of Russian, Finn, and European culture. They have very impressive churches, fortress walls and a cool town square. The people are really friendly as well. I had a blast taking photos of all the doors and architecture (You can see some on Facebook soon Im sure)! On the ferry ride back it took an hour longer because of the ice build up in the Helsinki Harbor area! Luckily we didn’t get much cabin fever!
My wife and I are currently staffing a Discipleship Training School (DTS) through Youth with a Mission (YWAM). We both love God and are committed to following his will. I enjoys taking photographs of my travels as well as blogging about awesome things God does. To see more photos, visit our gallery. More about Calvin and Camille
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3 Comments
Wow, you guys are busy! Jeds coming your way, be prepared!!!
Melodie
2/16/2010
Hi!! Ohh, it is so good to read about your time in Finland, sound like you have an awesome time, I’m really happy and exaited for you!! Miss you all alot, you are in my prayers. bless you. **stina
Stina
2/17/2010
We are prepared! Bring it Jed and jeff bring it! haha.
Thanks for the prayers Stina! We miss you too! I hope your prayer and worship leading is going great at the Linkoping YWAM base
Calvin Hanson
2/18/2010
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