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!

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!

Our students dancing..!

In the AME school the students need to show every two weeks what they have been learning. This is one of the performances. It's the first choreography that all the dancers made together and participated. Enjoy!