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. 

Who we are?

Hey!

This is something I've wanted to do for a long time! I really would like to introduce the amazing people I'm serving with. They truly are as a family for me! They are the AME Art Ministry.

Here at the YWAM base in Ituzaingó, Buenos Aires we are around a hundred staff members serving voluntarily and full-timely. Each staff member belong to an ministry which is the group of work where they spend the most of the time of their days. The ministries are focused in different spheres of the society: family, education, sports, arts, communication etc.

So today I will introduce you the ART MINISTRY AME (Artists in their Maximum Experience)

The art ministry of YWAM Ituzaingo is composed of an internationally diverse cast of artists. Our main focus is to use all areas of artistic expression to feature principles and values. Through what we do we try to challenge society to embrace a different worldview. 

OBJECTIVES:

• To co-create with God and to express his heart through the arts, seeking out new creativity and taking hope and salvation to people.
• To disciple and minister to artists.
• To redeem the arts of all nations.

How do we do it?
Through different artistic disciplines, participating in social, cultural and sporting events, offering workshops and performances to churches through the following projects:

• Art Studio
• AME School
• Liberarte
• Bands
• AME productions

Additionally, our ministry has the vision of promoting artistic events during summer and winter vacations in the more touristic locations of Argentina like Mar del Plata and Villa Carlos Paz. By doing this we offer a family-friendly and evangelistic show to the public. Our goal is to be a part of the official show business grid, to participate in national awards in Argentine theater and to bring influence and transformation to this area of society. 

Contact: jucumarte@gmail.com

The Maldonados: Hiram (Puerto Rico), Paula (Argentina), Mia, Lucca & Tiago.

The Ramires: Daniela (Italia) & Joel (Argentina)

The Nakayamas (Argentina): Maru, Naka & Takeo

The Arredondos (Guatemala): Edi, Marielis, Daybel & Zoe

The Kodys: David (USA), Noemi (The Dominican Republic) & Eloise

The Lozzis (Guatemala): Sara, Joseph & Walfer

The Theimboueones: Katie (Australia), Mathias (New Caledonia) & Owen

Chile

Canada

Guatemala

USA

Guatemala

Brazil

Guatemala

Finland

Chile

Finland

Mauro (Argentina)

Gabriel (Argentina)

That's who we are. These people are amazing and brilliant. If you want to pray for some of them specifically or support one of them financially, just let me know!

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...

Thanks Daddy for the best Christmas!

Greetings from São Paolo's airport! I'm almost there - just waiting for my third flight which will finally take me to Argentina.

So now as my visit in Finland is over it's a good time to post some photos and share a bit. 

The whole trip was such a great gift and a huge blessing! I really realized that it's by God's grace that I could see my family and friends, serve and enjoy. I could really experience Daddy's love through many different people, especially through my parents and family.

It was hard to leave my country once again - especially because I don't know when will I come back next time. I already miss friends and family. But more than anything I'm so thankful for the time I got to spend with them.

YWAM Ruurikkala - I got to know this amazing DTS!

A worship meeting where I shared a short testimony

The Christmas celebration of
the youth ministry of my home church

From a pentacostal church

Amazing Sarah, my friend from the DTS, came to see me!

Visiting my sister's family

Tampere

Thanks mom for taking us to eat!

Chinese dinner..! 

my daddy

The Christmas Eve. My brother came over with his wife 

The Christmas day
- singing for the homeless/alcoholists/poor

Lovely people indeed.
Got to pray for one of them and just share Daddy's love.

More family together!
The children make a real Christmas!

From my home church's new year camp.
I gave a teaching about missions.

Well, I also spent heaps of time with my friends, but I don't really have photos of that. However they are super important for me and I really liked just to relax.

Hope each one of you had an amazing Christmas and New Year. May God really bless u overwhelingly during this year!