Called to serve!

Happy Easter for everyone!

I'd like to share a bit about the YWAM Conference we had last week. The theme or slogan was "Llamados a servirle" which means "Called to serve".

Every year we get together as YWAM Argentina and some other ywamers who are part of our family but now serve as missionaries in other countries. The location of the conference changes from year to year and this time we had it here at home in Ituzaingo, Buenos Aires. Well, that meant that the last month before the event we had lots of work to do as we prepared the base for about 400 visitors.

So basically we worked non-stop from the morning continuing until after midnight painting, building, fixing things etc... I was also helping with coordinating people with their tasks so I was quite busy during the days and at nights I had more time to do specific things.

Many times I really doubted whether we will be on time with all the preparations or not. However God was super faithful and we received help from other YWAM bases, and somehow God provided money to do lots of stuff.

From the opening performance

So after working that much I also had lots of expectations for the conference. During the event I was serving in worship, sound system, recording and sometimes translating. But I was able to listen every word preached. These gatherings are so important for us as God speaks clearly, reaffirms our calling and shows His direction.

The kids also had their own conference!

Exalting our Savior through this crazy #celebration. #ywam #jucumargentina

A video posted by Pyry Ihonen (@tofindmore) on Mar 23, 2016 at 10:32pm PDT

This year we also presented our project of opening a new YWAM base in the city Rosario in Argentina. So the all the people blessed us and also rose a generous offering. But I'll explain more about that later.

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I really want to visit Finland this year! So I'm planning it to happen this August. Please be praying for guidance and finances already!

Bless you all!

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P.S. Check our base video from this year

Merry Christmas and Blessed 2016

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Hope you all had the best Christmas ever! I spent mine in the coast of Argentina in a city called Mar del Plata. I came here to the local YWAM base to rest a bit before starting the 2016 with everything!

This year 2015 has been full of action as the missionary life always seems to be. Once again it's hard to believe that all these things happened in one year. Let's see a bit.

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It was the beginning of the year as we created the musical "Huesos Secos" with the art school students and performed it. The school finished in March and some students joined our ministry.

Second night over! So proud of our students! Come and see us this weekend or the next one! #ame #huesosSecos

A video posted by Pyry Ihonen (@tofindmore) on Feb 20, 2015 at 5:36pm PST

The YWAM conference was this year in Mendoza. We went a bit beforehand to help with the sound system. But beyond the work it was time to renew in the Spirit. In 2016 the conference will be in our base..!

A #worship moment from our annual conference. Fellowship, word, ministration, celebration and healings! So #grateful to Jesus! #jucummendoza #ConferenciaAreaSur

A video posted by Pyry Ihonen (@tofindmore) on Apr 5, 2015 at 6:33pm PDT

One of the happiest memories of the year was when Marko, my youth pastor from Finland came to see me here! We even got to know the famous waterfalls in the North of the country.

At the #triplefrontier of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.

A photo posted by Pyry Ihonen (@tofindmore) on May 13, 2015 at 8:51am PDT

We also got to arrange LIBERARTE, the art event for the youth of our city. This year was very fruitful cause some of the guys stayed in contact with us and we were able to disciple them.

Then the real miracle of the year was our outreach to USA. I had a little faith in the beginning but by your help the trip came true! And how God blessed every single detail..!

Los Latinos took over the #CentralPark as we went to promote #nycityfest and #PalauFestival. #ywam #jucum

A photo posted by Pyry Ihonen (@tofindmore) on Jul 8, 2015 at 5:13pm PDT

Our second outreach was to the South of Argentina where we performed our family musical in 7 different cities, all together 25 times including schools, churches, theaters even outside... Thousands of kids heard the message salvation through this play.

A photo posted by Pyry Ihonen (@tofindmore) on Aug 11, 2015 at 4:41pm PDT

In September we had this unique opportunity to record three songs in a professional studio with our band Pujahca! It was something we didn't expect but God just arranged it all! Such a great experience!

#studioselfie #pujahca

A photo posted by Pyry Ihonen (@tofindmore) on Sep 2, 2015 at 4:23pm PDT

And the rest of the year we had three weddings at the base, we started reaching out the hip-hop culture, continued giving art classes, celebrated the Christmas with the neighborhood and many more things...


This was just a quick look to the year to be able to WONDER God's goodness and faithfulness! Remember that all this was possible because of your support and prayers! I couldn't be able to do any of this by myself! So thank you soooo much!

The year hasn't been super easy but it's good to see how fruitful it was anyway! I'm expecting new things of 2016 and trusting that Daddy has some cool stuff prepared for all of us!

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We'll start the new year with an art seminar. The invitation is open for everyone!




P.S. Even though my plan and vision is to stay here in Argentina and serve Lord here for now I do want to visit home back in Finland this year! So please join me in prayer so everything will fit together!

Growing in God's favor - The conference 2014

Still want to write a bit about the conference we had. We don't actually know any more how to call it anymore. Because basically it's the national conference of YWAM Argentina. But this year we also called all the people who used to be in our bases but went out to open new bases and projects in other places. So we received teams and leaders from other South American countries, from London, Sweden, China etc etc.

In total we were around 500 ywamers. Now the fact is that our base is not made to receive such a big number of people. So we had lots of preparation work to be able to host the people. And anyway lots of people slept on tents. I was in charge of some of the preparation work with a team. It was something new and scary but Daddy totally walked with me every single day. 

Recording audio

During the conference I was serving in various areas: the maintaining of the base, helping with organizing the work duties, playing in worship and recording the preachings. So it sounded like a lot of stress to me. However I was able to enjoy every moment and get to know new people. 

It felt like the whole YWAM family gathered with a desperation for God's presence. The last year was really hard for us. We lost some beloved workers and family members, others left us and other hard situations in all of our bases. 

Now, what I really love about YWAM is that we are not denying or hiding these difficulties that we face. I just admire the humbleness of our leaders when they confess how they don't know how to carry on in certain situations, how they repent their shortcomings and the sins of the community and how they express their desperate need for God.

We don't preach about the prosperity when it comes to economics. The theme of the conference was "Growing in God's favor". Recognizing His favor over us has to do with humility, confessing that it's all about His work in us. Actually many of the preachings were about seeing God's favor in the storm, it the temptation and even in the valley of the shadow of death. 

So once again I feel really safe to be part of this kind of movement. Where we as human do commit errors and make mistakes but where we choose to fix our eyes on Jesus and He glorifies Himself in our weakness. 

Ok, that's enough for now. Let's see some more photos.

The kids also had their own conference

The opening ceremony

Thank you all for your support and prayers. Once again I really felt that you guys were there behind me. May God bless you multiple times more!

Let me introduce... all my YWAM people

Last week we had our national conference as YWAM Argetina. Actually it was international because we received our people from many continents. In total we were around 500 ywamers. 

The whole week was super blessed and there would be a LOT to share with you. God really spoke to us and ministered us as a mission and individual. Physically we are more than tired but in our spirit we all are renewed.

However now I just want to show you the video we made to present our base and some things we did this last year. The song we presented is an old Christian song. However we made our own version. Joel recorded that electric and bass guitar and I made the rest of the musical production. 

So here we go if you want to know a bit our staff here at the base...

In the end of the conference we did thae same with all of the people...

The blessed trip to Cordoba... and somewhere else

Let me tell a bit about last week. (I mean the week before last week, I'm a bit late with the updates...) On Tuesday night I left to Cordoba, Argentina with Joel and Hiram. Here in Argentina the distances are long and it took eight hours for the bus to arrive to our destination. 

The local ywamers welcomed us so warmly. It was my first time at the base. The base is way much smaller than ours, there are just three families and six single staff members. But the guys really offered us their best! We ate so well and had some good rest as well.

The reason we went there had to do with the band the ywamers have in Cordoba. They form a worship band called Connect. And as the bass guitarist is in another province they asked Hiram to join them for a week. 

The first goal was to finish filming their music video. The surprise was that they also asked Joel and me to appear in the video! That was kind of funny because we are not part of the band nor playing in the track. Anyway for me it was such a great honor to do that. I will surely post the video here whenever it will be published.

The main reason of our trip was the weekend's concert. We took a bus early in the Saturday morning to another city called San Francisco. That was just about 3 hours from Cordoba. Then we got ready for the night.

The place we played was a really nice, small theatre. We were three bands: a worship band from a local church, Pujahca and Connect. Connect's drummer played with us (Pujahca) and all of us also accompanied Connect. Before starting the night Hiram shared a word of encouragement for the local musicians. 

The concert was pretty awesome. It was the best place I've ever played, the public seemed to be happy as well. But more than anything it was the beautiful presence of God that made the night unforgettable. 

After the concert we continued to Santa Fe with Joel and Hiram. Joel is from the city of Santa Fe, so some of his friends came to pick us up. We stayed at Joel's house. His parents are pastors of a local church. As it was Sunday we played worship in the service and Hiram preached. With Joel we stayed till Monday night and then took the bus back to our base in Buenos Aires.

Hiram preaching at Joel's parents' church

The Ramirez Gamarras.
Thank you for your love and hospitality!

The whole trip was SO blessed. God took care of us and showed His kindness and favor through all the people we met. Everyone's hospitality and generosity really surprised me. Also our friendship with Joel and Hiram was something I really enjoyed during the week.

Just wanted to share this because I'm so happy and thankful to Daddy. And thank you so much all my supporters and prayer warriors! Without your support I couldn't have been able to do this trip, especially because it was something that came out suddenly without a long time of planning. Thank you, may God pay you back ten times more!

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This week we've been working a lot here at the base. In two weeks we're going to have the national conference of YWAM Argentina here at our base and we are expecting about 600 people to come. That means a lot of preparation and these days we have been working from 9AM till 8PM.

I have been coordinating the people, just checking what each one is doing and giving them a new task whenever they finish what they were doing before. It has been a crazy and super busy week, but God has been in every detail. He has given me such a grace with the personal relationships and we have avoid all the big conflicts which could easily occur.

The next two weeks can be even busier so I'm not sure if I'll be able to write. And when everything is ready the real craziness is just about to begin. I still don't know how on earth 600 people will fit here! But well we are all exciting to receive our sisters and brothers and see what God has for us these days. 

Be more than blessed!

Something to be grateful for:

• the whole trip to Cordoba, Santa Fe and San Francisco
• the hospitality and generosity of the people we met
• God covering me this week and giving me grace with people at the base
• I have a new niece!!!

Something to pray for:

• All the preparation of our national conference
• I'm finally starting the residence process once again... Please pray for me
• Just pray that the Lord would be able to use me fully without any limitations from my part.

ready for the national conference

A brief update!

I have been now for two weeks back at my "home base" in the province of Buenos Aires. So I came back to work in the art ministry. Honestly it's good to be back and we're living new, interesting times with the ministry.

As most of you know I first came to Argentina in 2011 to do my art School "AME" here in this base. As a ministry we planned to do the school once again this year. However the plans changed a bit. So now we have 6 more people on the base from all around the world. But instead of taking the art school they work in the ministry as staff members and receive some classes in the same time. So instead of the art school AME we run a six-month-long internship with the new guys.

Ok, ok, let me explain. I was TRANSLATING this theatre make up class... Just translating, ok? But yeah, I'm the person on the left.
The guys of internship: Michel (Colombia), Daniela (Italy), Laura (Brazil), Camila (Chile), Katie (Australia) , Milena (the small girl, not part of our ministry) and Matias (New Caledonia) Hope to put some other pictures also in the future haha. 

So I have been already fully part of the ministry: translating, cleaning, helping with worship, taking theory classes (identity, the enemies of an artist, team work...), technical classes (singing, salsa, dance...), painting, playing with Jeremy etc etc.

But now I'm more than anything writing because in few hours we'll leave to the coast! We'll have the national conference of YWAM Argentina. That means that all the ywamers in Argentina (400+) get together for five days!

This is first conference I will be participating and seriously I'm really excited. Surely I'll have so much new friends..! And I can just imagine the spiritual part of the conference. I'm so blessed with all the experince and wisdom that God has placed on YWAM. So I can only imagine how God will manifest Himself when we get together like this.

So just wanted to share this excitement and tell that I won't be available for 5 days... bless!

Playing with Jeremy Black last Saturday.