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.

---

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!

---

P.S. Check our base video from this year

From the centre of Buenos Aires

¡Hola!

The two intense weeks in the downtown are over and it's time for some updates from the outreach. 

The hostel we stayed is in the very centre of Buenos Aires. I don't know if have ever seen it, but there's a huge obelisk in the centre of the city. If you put Buenos Aires to the Google Maps it will point you that point. So, our hostel was only three block saway from there.

A = Obelisk and B = where we stayed

The owner of the hostel used to be in YWAM for long time and now the Lord has led her to have that hostel in the micro centre of Buenos Aires. The vision of the place is really clear: it's a place where people have to decide whether they accept Jesus or continue their life empty. So for us it wasn't only a place where we were able to intercede and worship but as well evangelize the other guests.

in the hostel

Our days went usually like this: 

• 7:30 - wake up
• 8:00 - breakfast 
• 8:30 - quiet time
• 9:30 - intercession/worship
• 10:30 - preparing to go out
• 11:00 - sharing flyers on the streets, outside of the malls and family restaurants
• 13:30 - theatre: sandwich lunch & set up
• 15:00 - ready, set, go! Presentation 

And well, after the afternoon play it was bit freer: we had snack together with the other actors or went out or just went back to the hostel to sleep. Well, one night we had another presentation on a Christian book market. There were easily more than 200 people.

Our team. I'm on the right.

Our main focus was once again the people working inside the theatre. They were the people we spent most time with and the truth is that if we didn't preach them who would? So we prayed for them them a lot and according to what God spoke to us we moved forward building the relationship and sharing the truth. 

We needed to cancel one of the first presentations because no-one came. That was once again an opportunity to show the people in the theatre where our identity is. Of course it was sad that one-one came but they were surprised how we decided to rejoice anyway and not to turn to a bad mood. However since that we were able to see God's faithfulness with the public!

As I said the two weeks were pretty intense, but it was totally worth it. It was also good for the group: we are once again a bit more united and family-like. It's a good preparation for the next challenge: the AME school starting in the beginning of September!

The last last time

Thanks:

• God's favor over us with the accommodation and public
• We're able to preach and impact different people
• For the support and prayers of you guys

Next:

• I'll try once again with the residence this Thursday. Please pray!
• There's a lot of preparation for the AME school.
• Ok, my computer still works well, but it's getting out of date... This week Skype stopped supporting my system any more. So I'm praying for a MacBook Pro.

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!

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!

---

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.

worshiping on the beach, interceding in the theatre and evangelizing on the street

Greetings from Mar del Plata, from the coast of Argentina!

A worship time on the beach

We have been already more than a week here on outreach and it's a good time to write something.

We came here on the Saturday 1st. Our bus was almost 3 hours late and the AC didn't work, but finally we got here. Gabriel and Joel came on a van and they also had their own adventure when a random driver decided to give a punch Gabriel. Well, they ended up to a police station to figure out what happened. 

We're living in a house we're renting. Since we are more than 20 people including 5 marrieged couples and 5 kids we don't fit all inside. So I sleep with the guys in a tent outside and two of the couples are taking turns with another tent. We have two bathrooms, one kitchen and the living room serves us as dining room and girls' bedroom as well. Till now we're doing great, not big fights or anything hehe. 

Almost every one of us

The house is like 15 blocks from the beach and we've been able to go there few times. I'm working hard to look a bit more latino, but I still working on that. 

So our main tool to evangelize is our musical. El viaje de los hermanos Luna is a story of three siblings who are taken to a new world. In that new kingdom they find answers to their questions and core issues and finally got to meet up with the King of Light. The musical is for the whole family and the message is quite straight in the end. 

We perform the musical in 5 days every week, last week we had already a full week. The thing is that even though we've already handed out 10.000 flyers, just a few people have come to see the play. The other musicals are doing great. It's sad but maybe because they are all about transvestists, gays, gossip etc. During our play there are always a group of guys in the same theatre putting their woman make up for the transvestist show of the night. 

Oh, what's my part in the musical? I'm working on the back stage. Before the show starts I prepare the set off and during the play I take care of the props. As well I have been working with all our promotion and flyers and the huge banner.

A huge banner I made :)

Handing out flyers

Flyers and new friends

So in general we're doing very well. We have already paid the house and theatre and we've got some sponsors to provide some snacks. Thank you so much for your support!

What really upholds us is the daily moments of intercession and worship. To be honest we're not playing around here but in the midst of a spiritual war. So every prayer for us is more than welcome and needed!

Motives to praise:

• the financial provision of our team
• the health we all have
• we're doing well with our interpersonal relationships

Prayer requests:

• for more people to come to see the play
• for discernment and wisdom in this difficult atmosphere
• please pray for my niece in the hospital recovering from surgeries!!!