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!

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!

¡Feliz navidad!

I wish merry and blessed Christmas to all you readers, friends and supporters with some news:

written on 21st of December

I'm writing this update on a train. We are leaving Mar del Plata behind and heading for the downtown of Buenos Aires. 

We are in a new season of the school. The classes are behind and this month is dedicated to an artistic investigation. The idea is to get to know cities with strong artistic movement. As we are many in the school we split up. In my team we have six students: Jason, Mora and Lester from Guatemala, Gerald from Nicaragua, Mirja from Finland and Lorena from El Salvador. My amazing co-leaders are Joel (Argentina) and Camila (Chile). As none of the students is Argentine we decided to stay in Argentina because it has lots of stuff to be seen and discovered.

So we just spent two weeks in Mar del Plata, in the touristic city on the coast of Argentina. This was actually my second time there this year! In February we presented our musical over there. This time we stayed at the local YWAM base. It was totally best for us! The guys welcomed us so well and we got to spend really good time together as well. The base is only one block from the beach. To be honest it's a great privilege and blessing to be able to go to the coast. It's totally beautiful and relaxing!

We got to see different shows almost every night: music, dance, theatre, street art etc. We have break dancers in our group and anywhere we went the guys got to dance and the people were super interested. This also opened doors to new contacts and to evangelize people. 

Mirja teaching ballet to the ywamers

For me leading a group to another city is quite a new experience and that's why I'm super thankful that I'm not alone. Together with the other leaders we compliment each others and also share the burden. 

For me the first week was a bit difficult because I got sick. I had strong allergies and right after I got an infection in my throat. So I spent few days in bed with high fever. It wasn't easy because I felt I'm more like a burden than a help. But God was treating my heart. He affirmed me once again and taught me that my leadership or authority don't come by what I achieve but straight from Him.

I'm so thankful to Daddy for these two weeks of care and blessing! Tonight we'll get to the "Capital base" of YWAM. That's the base in the downtown of Buenos Aires where I did my counseling school two years ago. We'll continue our investigation in the centre. However we'll head back to our home base for Christmas and new year. It's better so spend the holidays in a familiar environment as most of the guys spend their first Christmas away from home.

Thank you friends for making this trip possible! Your support has allowed me to join the team and share the financial challenge as well. Your prayers sustain me and drag me deeper to God time after time. 

So let's thank Daddy:

• For healing me and also treating my heart
• For taking so good care of us
• For His grace every morning ;)

Please be praying for us:

• For the financial challenge of the group (they are lately doing their best: selling bread and dancing in the parks to get some money)
• For protection and health
• For wisdom and discerning to everyone in the leadership

the first month of AME 2014

Hey!

It has been already more than a month since we started the AME art school! Time has gone pretty fast but everything has gone well. The days has been long as usual but it hasn't been that tiring as I was afraid of. The students get up 6:30 every morning and have activities till 22:30 PM. So the school itself is really intense and during the day I myself hardly have any break to stop for a while. 

For me it has been challenging but in a good way. My responsibilities aren't that heavy and I'm not even discipleling anyone. With the translation I'm always a bit more exposed and that's hard in the moments when you don't just flow. However I'm so thankful for our amazing staff team. We have such a nice environment of trust and mutual help.

So we still have one month and a half left of the lecture phase. After that we'll head for a month of investigation. But I'll write more about that when we have more information to be published.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell! This week we received more students! There is this Guatemalan group of hip hop dancers who left their country to come here to do our school. At this moment nine of them are already here! It's a true miracle of God because they didn't have enough finances to do the whole trip. However we're still waiting for the last part of them. Please be praying with us!

I'm quite proud of our students! They're amazing!