Home, sweet Finland

It has been quite silent here lately. But it doesn’t mean my life would have been silent.

Right now I’m at New York’s airport waiting for my flight to Brasil only to be continued by the last flight to Argentina. So my trip to Finland is officially over now. 

I arrived to Finland on the 26th of August after a long trip. My parents were waiting in the airport. How had I been missing them!

After one day of rest at home I went to do something really Finnish with my friends. We packed our backpacks and went hiking. In two days we walked 20 km. And of course we slept outside in tents and cooked our food on bonfire. Really Finnish.

My brother was moving to a new house with their family so I also had an opportunity to help him with fixing the new house. 

You can see more photos from my sister-in-law's blog. 

There were also two friends from YWAM Argentina visiting Finland and together we had a little trip visiting some youth camps and churches. Emilia, who had done her DTS at our base this year was also seeing her family so together we formed a great team. I had the honor to translate our visitors when they shared or preached in Spanish.

Ale on the left loves Finland.
Aaron on the right is Chilean and visiting Finland for the first time.

Love this car! Emilia was our trustworthy driver
as we miraculously fit into this Mini Cooper

In general, it was so crazy how many awesome encounters I had with so many people! I got to see all the closest family members, supporters, crowds of friends, got to know my new nieces and nephew and even met with my friends from the job I used to have. 

Getting to know one of the new family members

Spanish worship in Finnish church

These guys (Kruuvi) are my best friends!
So I was more than willing to help them with their gig.

Playing with my niece.

I was spoiled in many ways :D

My plan was also to share about the new base we are about to open in Rosario. So this week my friend arranged a mission night where I was able to explain well what we are doing as AME art team and what’s the deal with Rosario. I was surprised how many people came to listen to me and how generous they were with our project! Thank you all!

So basically I’m just super happy and thankful for all the details of this trip! It had already been more than two years and half since the last visit and I don’t know when the next opportunity will be! So that’s why I’m so grateful for this opportunity to travel in this season.

Thank you everyone for your time, support, prayers, conversations and friendship. It’s something crucial to have emotional, spiritual and financial support from my homeland. 

ELEVEN days, 264 hours with the Artist

Hey!

Few days ago we finished our Art Seminar called ELEVEN 246. It was a camp -like seminar we held here at our base in Ituzaingo, Buenos Aires. The participants were 16 teenagers and young adults. Most of them came from different churches of Argentina but we also received one girl from Finland and two from Chile!

Our art seminar started today! So happy to get to know these guys and excited to see what God will do these days! #eleven264

A photo posted by Pyry Ihonen (@tofindmore) on Jan 19, 2016 at 6:07pm PST

As the staff of the art ministry we had different roles during the seminar: teaching, worship leading, sharing devotionals, leading games, helping in the kitchen, etc, etc... I myself spent lots of time translating everything to Finnish. Luckily I was not by myself with that and in some moments my brain started to think in my mother tongue once again!

During the seminar all of the guys received and took part into different art classes: acting, music and dance in its diverse styles: contemporary, hip hop, folklore, break dance and salsa. So each one of them had some classes they had never tried before. And in the end of the 11 days they got to perform in their final show.

#hiphop #eleven264

A video posted by Pyry Ihonen (@tofindmore) on Jan 24, 2016 at 6:24pm PST

The group was really united and open to receive our teaching and hearing God's voice. As God had told us beforehand, many of them found their way back to God, some received Him for the first time and others took important decisions for their future. For me personally it's such a joy to be part of their life with my own part. We're all so thankful to God for using us for His Kingdom!

Teaching outside when it's too hot to be inside

Argentinean folklore

Salsa

Thank you all for your prayers and support! I'm so privileged to serve Lord full-time without needing to worry about my financial support. Love you all!

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!

Good News in the USA

Greetings from USA!

Well actually I’m back in Argentina now but I’m sure you want to hear something from our missions trip to the United States.

Most of us had a long layover in Miami!

The lovely Kodys Family

Our three-week-long outreach started in North Carolina. One of our team members, David, is from there and his parents welcomed us to stay there. The ministry that we did there had to do more with Christians and churches. We shared with youth and with a cell group, we presented a play in the Vacation Bible School and in a Sunday service and led a whole Sunday service in a smaller church.

Vacation Bible School. I was one of the actors.

Corin dancing in a Sunday service

Hiram sharing about our ministry and the work we do

For few days we split to groups to serve different families with cleaning, packing and moving for example. With my group we drove a bit further to meet the family we helped. Our job was super simple: to move boxes, pack stuff etc. However we were such a great help and left the families more than happy. It’s crazy though because we ended up being super blessed! Well I think that’s how the Kingdom works.

Connie. We had such an honor to know this great woman.
She even gave us copies of the book she wrote!

boxes

Lisa and Matt and their beautiful family. 

David’s parents lent us their van and a car to drive all the way to Virginia. We stayed there just few days but it was such a beautiful reencounter with Lindsey, one of the old staff members from our base back in Argentina. We got to share with the youth group of their church and they also prayed for us in their Sunday service. We also spent the 4th of July there. It was such a beautiful experience tc celebrate with the locals.

It was such an art to fit all of the bags into the van!

Lindsey translating Hiram in their youth group

Part of the parade of 4th of July

The fireworks kept on going for 40 minutes!

For the last week of our trip we finally traveled to New York. Some of us took a bus meanwhile others drove the van over there. We stayed at the local YWAM base in Long Island. It’s such a wonderful place and the staff are amazing, hardworking servants! The only issue was that the base is quiete far from the city but that’s understandable however.

The base leader

worship moment at the base

We were not the only YWAM team which came to help with the Luis Palau Festival. There was a team from Puerto Rico, from Mendoza Argentina and a couple from Argentina. In total we were around 40 Latinos and Spanish-speaking wannabe Latinos like me.

We spent some days evangelizing and interceding in important places in New York City. We presented some plays and choreographies and invited all the people to come to the New York City Fest / Luis Palau Fest. Our team did really well because there are so many Latinos in the city so you always find someone to speak Spanish to. I was happy as well to be able to speak Spanish, it was pretty useful!

We played soccer with these guys from El Salvador.
It was an easy way to enter to a conversation and we even ended up praying for them.

In Central Park

Dancing salsa and tango at the Times Square

Girls sharing about God´s love to some Muslims

During the last weekend there, Saturday and Sunday, there were two big events in Times Square and Central Park. Those were the climax of New York City Fest, where the world-known Argentine evangelist Luis Palau preached. When he shared the gospel, the people had an opportunity to answer and receive Jesus as their Savior or rededicate them with Jesus. Our job was to get close to those people, pray for them, take their contact and give them a book to help their spiritual growth.

Times Square

Times Square

"Seek first for the Kingdom..." I always wanted to see TobyMac!
God is faithful and He surprised me with this.

Luis Palau and Alejandro Rodriguez, our leader of YWAM Argentina

Central Park

Central Park

Central Park

In general our trip was so blessed, as Jesus “warned” me beforehand. Some may wonder why on earth would the Latinos do and outreach to the USA, but I just got to see that there’s a great need in the States as well. Especially in New York I felt a bit hopeless to see how great the need is and how small the resources of an individual are. However I was happy to be part of something greater. And I do believe that our presence impacted the spiritual environment of the city.

Once again this trip was a miracle and God provided everything we needed during the three weeks. Thank you SO MUCH for supporting me, I’m really touched by that.

Our next challenge is an outreach to the South of Argentina. We’re leaving in two weeks already! We’ll take our children musical to eight different cities and present it in schools. How cool is that: super funny and original musical with a godly message presented to all those kids in the very place they study. I am excited. But it’s also a challenge because we need to buy our tickets there. It’ll be around $300 USD. Please let me know if you are willing to be part of this!

P.S. I renewed my residence yesterday! I have one more year to stay in Argentina legally! That’s how faithful God is!