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.

---

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!

---

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!

Coming very soon: Outreach to South

Hey! 

As I wrote in the end of the last post we are about to leave to another outreach, this time to the South of Argentina. We are leaving in nine days and will stay for almost three weeks. 

We were invited to take our musical to eight different cities in the South. The shows will be at theaters and schools. The good part is that the audience is already there because it's going to be part of their school schedule. 

"El Viaje de los Hermanos Luna” is our own original musical with lots of colors, noises, laughter and a really good message. Through the play we want to tell the children and people of every age that there is another option for our boring and problematic lives. The solution is personal encounter with “The King of Lights” who represents God. This is such a great opportunity to share this important message to hundreds of kids!

So these last days have been long days of production: wardrobe, choreographies and props. I myself have been composing the new tracks we want to add to the play. To be honest the musical is getting better than ever before!

I write most of the music on computer but we also record real instruments.

The new wardrobe is getting even more colorful!

There are people in the South organizing the whole tour and they are in charge of the internal transport and accommodation. However we have to buy our plane tickets. In our team we are families and young adults, twenty people in total. The half of us have their tickets already, but the rest are still with this economical challenge.

The price of one return ticket is around $300 USD. 

If you are willing to help me or our team please let me know! We also need your prayers, there are a lot of spiritual warfare going on, especially in the area of health. 

Bless you all!

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!

Ready for wholehearted service & radical blessing

Greetings from an airplane! I'm just so amazed that I'm on this missions trip! 

To be honest once we first started to talk about this outreach I was doubting a bit. How could 16 people make it till the States when we hardly have money for the rent and food? But Jesus is so awesome and faithful!

One family left to the States already on Thursday and four other team members earlier today. I'm in the plane with Maty, Katy and little Owen when Joel is in another plane. Our leader Hiram will travel on Tuesday and one family hopefully on Wednesday. Also pray for Mirja, our Finnish team member who doesn't have money for the ticket yet! 

Each one of us traveling today will have a long layover in Miami so maybe we'll check it out as well. 

Our goal and heart for this outreach is to serve in every way we can. But something interesting is that when I was packing my suitcase and talking with Jesus in the same time he asked me: "Are you ready to be blessed radically?"

I'm so going to New York!

Long time, no sea.

Hey, I'm super sorry for those who actually read my blog for not writing for ages! Sometimes I even write the text but then never manage to add photos etc and never end up publishing anything..! fail.

But yeah, I want to share something exciting... We're going to have an outreach in the USA! How cool is that!

Everything started with Luis Palau. He's a famous Argentinean evangelist. And right now his association and the local churches in New York are having big events in the New York City. The main event will be the 11th of July in the Central Park. So basically Palau invited the YWAMers to be part of this movement and we took the challenge as a ministry.

Our team is 13 adults and 3 babies. :) First we'll head to North Carolina and serve there. And to new york we are going for the rest of the time in July.

But now the great thing is that I bought my tickets today! It's a real miracle! Thank you all my supporters and intercessors! I borrowed some money though to not wait any longer.

If you want to be part of this dream you still have an opportunity! Beyond the debt I have to cancel I still need money to the transport from North Carolina to New York. And of course some spare for the daily needs... And there're still some team members who don't have their tickets yet. So please at least pray for us! ;)

Here we have a video of our trip in three languages: pick up the one you mostly speak!

travelling & growing

Hey!

We just finished our investigation month on Friday. It was a month when we split as a group and travelled to different cities to investigate the artistic movements.

To be honest I was a bit afraid or at least nervous thinking about this time beforehand. I haven't been leading a group to different cities before. But I'm really thankful I didn't need be in charge of the group by myself but we formed a good leadership team with Camila and Joel. 

Now when the trip is over I can only be thankful to Daddy. He really covered us and blessed us in so many ways. I didn't burn out or anything like that but I grew in service and leadership during this time.

During the first two weeks on the coast we got to see lots of shows. However the following two weeks in the downtown had a bit different focus. The fact is that we didn't have enough money to continue the school. So everyone who's lacking school fees did something to raise funds. 

So almost everyday we went out to the streets of Buenos Aires to sell homemade bread. Some days our dancers performed on the streets and they even made some kind of flash mob another day. God was faithful and we were able to gain quite an amount of money.

Thanks for your prayers and support! It was super important during this time also when there were some additional costs.

Guys dancing on the walking street.
Sometimes I encouraged myself to dance as well :)

Yes, even inside of the train! This brought us good income.
However we almost ended up being kicked off by a police officer...

So the next phase of the school is PRODUCTION. As a group we're going to form a show and present it in one of the cities we visited during last month. 

This becoming season also has a great challenge for us. Especially we need help with the wardrobe. We have many staff members with sewing skills but we are lacking sewing machines. So if anyone is willing to donate for this purpose, just let me know!

And to finish, just check this dance from November. I'm really exciting for our production because it will be even ten times better than this one!