Proclaiming Jesus. in Finland. Focus: Finland

Transcription

1 Focus: Finland DECEMBER 2014 Proclaiming Jesus in Finland Next year Logos Ministries in Finland will be celebrating her 70th anniversary. In 1945, when the work started, the nation was just recovering from World War II, which had taken a heavy toll on us. The hardships had united the nation to seek God, and it was a time of spiritual revival. Much has changed in Finland since that time. In many ways we are better off than ever before. At the same time, it seems that in many respects we are far worse than ever. The Lutheran Church is losing members at an accelerating rate, and the Christian faith is no longer followed and honored as the source of life and Anu and Jukka Mattsson, leaders of our Marriage Ministry produced a series of nine programs on Christian tv on marriage this autumn and were very well received. A handy tool to relate to marriage is this house, depicting the elements making up a marriage relationship: Commitment, Sexuality, Emotions, Quarrels, Deeds, Words, Trust, Forgiveness and Love. This house was designed as a joint effort by Christian marriage ministries working in Finland. It is applied also when discussing parenthood and family matters. values as before. At the end of the 1950s, one of our evangelists said: This world is ruled by evil, but this is the world that God loves. In the world there is a spirit of hatred and murder, but this is the world that God wants to save. This is an important reminder also for us in our day. We cannot isolate ourselves from this world; God is not doing so either. Continued on Page 2 The leadership team: from right Ulla Saunaluoma, Director; Kalle Virta, her deputy; Terhi Rajala, Hannu Nyman (standing), Tarja Pohjolan-Pirhonen and Marjatta Viirto (not pictured).

2 Monday, 1 December Pray for the ministry board meeting today - for God s wisdom, guidance and faith in finalizing the plans and the budget for the upcoming year. Tuesday, 2 December Pray for our new training initiative to equip and encourage believers and churches in personal evangelism, for guidance and open doors. Wednesday, 3 December Pray for the MyStory.me website in Finnish that many believers will get the vision for using it to share the gospel with friends and family. Thursday, 4 December Thank God the 4points website is being translated into Finnish and will be operating next spring; may many people enter His Kingdom! Friday, 5 December Pray for celebration next year of God s faithfulness through this ministry for 70+ years! May even the special events bear more gospel fruit. Saturday, 6 December On this, our Independence Day, please pray for many in every part of Finland to turn to God and serve Him with all that He has given us. Sunday, 7 December Pray for very good audience response as Vivamo Bible Village Christian theatre presents the familiar Christmas story in a new way, Dec Monday, 8 December May churches nationwide join with Christian artists in their area, to express faith by various means on Night of Faith 2015, Sept. 19, Tuesday, 9 December Please join us in asking God to enable us to discover additional contacts for the wonderful Crescendo music ministry He is developing in Finland. Wednesday, 10 December Praise God for people reached on campuses this autumn! May many new volunteers who cannot keep silent about Jesus join local student ministry teams. 2

3 Continued from Page 1 The theme of our anniversary year is Closeness (or Nearness) (Lähellä). It reminds us of two important things. In Christ God came near to us. He became one of us. Jesus listened to people. He met with people, and He touched, blessed and healed. He kept his distance only from those Pharisees that wanted to exclude and limit people from God s love. As disciples of Jesus we have been called to go and be close to people, where they are. We have not been called to criticize or just to bemoan this world but to live out the gospel in this world, to share God s love and grace with people. To live close to God so that it will draw more and more people to Jesus. During our anniversary we will emphasize personal evangelism. We want to encourage and equip people to share the gospel in their everyday lives. The MyStory.me website is one of the tools we will use to introduce this, also in Finnish. In all this we desire to continue fulfilling the motto of our ministry Living by grace, proclaiming Jesus. Ulla Saunaluoma Director, pastor Student Ministry team Some of our staff members at a gathering last summer. 3

4 Houses of Prayer In 2006, Maikku Saarinen, the leader of our prayer team, had a strong sense that it was time for something new in our prayer ministry. She felt God impress on her the vision to start a place, a House of Prayer, where people would come together to pray, to learn more about praying and to pray for others. Initially in co-operation with the youth work of her local Lutheran Church in Tampere, Maikku started to gather young people to pray together and to teach them about prayer. At the same time she invited others as well to come together to pray daily, and they began to pray especially for the young people and the youth workers. After a while there was a noticeable change in the youth work. Tired and frustrated youth workers were renewed and saw significant spiritual breakthroughs. Young people found a closer walk with God through prayer. Instead of games and just spending time together, they now wanted to meet with God and learn more about prayer. Then God began to speak about expanding the work. For that, a training was offered in 2008 to share practical ideas about how to start a House of Prayer. As a result, similar work On the very first morning a year ago in December, when the House was opened in Helsinki, two men entered, Päivi shares about a special encouragement. The men had come from Switzerland to pray for Finland for a week but were now on their way to the airport for their return has been started in different parts of the country, in most cases by lay people in co-operation with local churches. There are now some 20 such houses, committed to pray for their area and the local churches. Each one has its own emphasis. In Helsinki, a House of Prayer was opened in December Situated in the heart of the city--on the street level in an easily accessible location--the House offers a place where people can easily drop in to pray. There are always trained volunteers available to pray with people. We have seen God answer prayer in many ways, explains Päivi Peittola. who co-ordinates the work in Helsinki. Please, pray with us that more people, including non- Christians, would find their way here and be touched by God. In Helsinki the House is open on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. In the evenings the room serves as a meeting place for different groups, focusing on prayer for the government, Christian artists, the persecuted Church, and for other needs as they arise. flight. Although they had often passed by the House, only that morning they noticed the sign in the window. They related they were involved with the prayer houses in Switzerland and were so encouraged to see our place. Needless to say, their visit was a great encouragement to us on the first day our house was open. 4

5 Encouragement for Personal Evangelism Finnish society is becoming more and more secular and even anti-christian. There have been many evangelistic campaigns with little obvious fruit. The answer in reaching people for Christ lays in encouraging and equipping ordinary Christians to share their faith more boldly in their everyday life. For this purpose we are launching a new training, as well as the MyStory.me and The 4POINTS websites in Finnish. Luke 10 Transformation is a course to help Christians adopt a new lifestyle of reaching out to others with God s love in their Thursday, 11 December Pray for the student ministry in Jyväskylä in Central Finland. Coffee Church at the campus has become a good way to contact new people! everyday life and to teach how to actually lead people to Christ. The pilot training was held in November and--based on that feedback--we are editing it. We are grateful for prayer in this process and on how to make it available. The MyStory.me and 4POINTS websites go together perfectly with this training, as they offer good tools for sharing the gospel. Our goal is to have these websites available in Finnish in the near future. Pray for a breakthrough in this initiative, for people to overcome shyness and the culture of not speaking about faith with others. We need to understand our responsibility as individual Christians to share the gospel with others. Vivamo Bible Village Christmas Friday, 12 December Pray for students in Turku reaching out to those in need by organizing Food & Hope evenings where they cook together and invite people for meals. Saturday, 13 December Pray for growing interest in missions among young adults. Praise God for those committed to serving and raising needed support as they are sent. Sunday, 14 December Praise God with the youth ministry team for all the teens who came to confirmation camps last summer. Pray for those who came to Christ. 5

6 Monday, 15 December Pray for a growing JESUS DVD distribution among transit truck drivers from Russia and other E. European countries, especially before Christmas. Tuesday, 16 December Pray that even more people would find their way to the House of Prayer in Helsinki and be touched by God. Thank Him for the volunteers serving there. Wednesday, 17 December Praise God for Houses of Prayer serving their communities. Pray for encouragement for those involved and for new people to be called to intercession. Thursday, 18 December Lift up our marriage ministry team as they prepare camps and weekends for next year. Praise God for couples involved and ask Him to call more to the team. Friday, 19 December Praise God for open doors to give concerts at schools. Through music we can share the message of God s love with many children and teachers. Saturday, 20 December Praise God that some 11,000 annually view our puppet theater performing Bible stories for children, adults and senior citizens. May they reach even more! Sunday, 21 December At schools and churches we give The Story of Jesus for Children DVD to teachers and others working with children. Pray for it to be used even more! Monday, 22 December Kairosmaja, a popular holiday center in Lapland, also reaches out to tourists. Pray for staff as they minister and that we could build more accommodations. Tuesday, 23 December Alpha course in Tampere at a local gym combined exercise with outreach. In Turku we offered a special after-work course in a café and plan to continue. Wednesday, 24 December Christmas Eve Pray for work in three other towns, done by volunteer teams. Praise God for those willing to serve and for guidance in their outreach in various ways. 6

7 Thursday, 25 December Christmas Day Pray for the circulation and editorial staff transitions of Sana, the Christian weekly we publish. Our current editor-in-chief will be retiring next summer. Friday, 26 December Our staff joined together to write a book of daily devotions for a year. It was published in November. Pray that it will be a blessing to those who read. Saturday, 27 December Ask God s blessing on all who faithfully support our work in prayer and financially. Pray for new people to join us in our work as supporters. Sunday, 28 December Helping street children and families, St. Petersburg, Russia: Pray for wisdom, strength and growth of local staff and sharing the gospel with families. At right, Puppet Theater performance of The Good Shepherd. Monday, 29 December Co-operation in India with pastors and Mother Theresa Welfare Society: Pray for construction of Home of Grace Orphanage and work in villages. Below, The Puppet Theater performs for children and their mothers. 7

8 Tuesday, 30 December Pray for young adults New Year camp at Kairosmaja, Lapland from 28 Dec. 2 Jan. Pray for a refreshing but spiritual, challenging time together. Wednesday, 31 December New Years Eve Our annual staff conference will take place from 7-12 January Please ask God to prepare each of our hearts for this time together and refresh us. Called to a movement. Called to pray. Personal needs... Requests to share... Team needs... Answers to share... God works through the prayers of His people to ignite spiritual movements. As Spiritfilled disciples pray without ceasing, the Lord increases faith, causes growth and brings about fruitfulness to glorify Himself (John 15:1-17). Stories are the building blocks of all movements. The early church multiplied as the stories about Jesus spread everywhere. It continues to grow alongside stories of what He is doing now. The Global Prayer team invites you to: Share stories of God answering prayer. Please a brief summary of the story to global.prayer@ccci.org and we will contact you before passing along your story. Keep current on a selection of Campus Crusade prayer needs. One part of the worldwide movement is highlighted in each issue of this prayer journal. To receive notifications every month, send your name and preferred address to: global.prayer@ccci.org, subject line: Subscribe. Global Prayer Campus Crusade for Christ 100 Lake Hart Drive 2100 Orlando, FL 32832, USA On the web: GlobalPrayerMovement.org global.prayer@ccci.org Phone: (407) Fax: (407) Editor: Dave Stedman, Global Prayer Design: Rick Tucker, PCG Media 8 Movements Prayer Journal 2014 Campus Crusade for Christ