Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Thinking about this past year 2016 gratitud really fills my heart. It has been such a great year in terms of health, friendships, family, provision and many more things. I feel privileged to serve God with my talents and gifts and to be part of this big movement of the church which is alive and mobile.

Our Christmas celebration was awesome here. I'm already getting used to the fact that it's summer, it's hot & humid, the celebration is outside and beyond the good food there's joyful music and dance. We celebrated together with our Art ministry but also other people and family members joined in and together we were around 30 people.

Few weeks before the Christmas Eve we had a big Christmas dinner for the whole neighborhood. It's one our ways to reach and evangelize the people around us every year.

My piano student Joas performing 

We shared the gift boxes from
Operation Christmas Child to every kid who came

Here also some other photos from the last times:

Our band Pujahca playing in December

Celebrating the independence day

I wish you all a blessed and fruitful 2017! Get fully involved in God's adventures and I bet it won't be a boring year!

Thank you all for your prayers and support and love during this past year! It makes the difference!

Reaching the hip-hop culture

Now it has been few weeks back here in Buenos Aires Argentina. It was easy to readapt here.

In the first week we held a hip-hop event at the base. "YWAM Street Battle" was as any other dance battle, only arranged by ywamers, at our local base in YWAM Ituzaingo. Our hall was filled with around 200 dancers as they competed in the styles of break dance, hip-hop dance and house. The event was such and success, the dancers were amazed by the good organization and our love and care. We have been able to continue the good work we’re doing with them.

Final de los crews: AME Crew vs Supercpeones #ywamstreetbattle

A video posted by Compañía De Arte AME (@ame.artcompany) on Aug 28, 2016 at 7:13pm PDT

#ywamstreetbattle Mas fotos en Facebook! Etiquetate a vos y a tus amigos!

A photo posted by Compañía De Arte AME (@ame.artcompany) on Aug 30, 2016 at 6:42am PDT

If you'd like to see more photos please click here.


What else?

• I have been editing some of our videos.
• We inscribed our band Pujahca to a band competition. We’re still waiting for an email wether we passed or not. 
• Yesterday we visited a worship conference. Hiram, our leader was teaching about evangelizing and influencing in every sphere of the society and the guys danced.

Please be praying:

• I’m a bit sick right now. The weather has been variating radically lately and many of us are catching cold. Let’s pray for healing!
• Our project of opening a base in Rosario moves slowly forward. However there’s a man living illegally in the house we are looking forward to move into. Let’s pray he would leave as soon as possible and we wouldn’t need to wait for the police to interact. 

Thankful for all your support folks!

new songs from my band!

Hey, guys!

I don't know if you all know that I'm playing in a band here! The band is called Pujahca, and it's an original fusion of rock, reggae, hip hop, funk etc. The lyrics are in Spanish, but you'll like the rhythm anyway!

Half of the musicians are from our Art Ministry and half outside. The lead voice is the our ministry leader. I myself play keys and also do recording.


We recorded this song with other ywam artists.






You can also follow Pujahca in Instagram!

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.

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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!

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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!

my old and new passion

Hey!

A friend just posted a brief sample of our gig last month. I thought you'd like to know how do we sound nowadays. Well, this song represents the new style we do: more chill, soul, even jazz... 

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Another video is from our base during the world cup semifinal Argentina - Netherlands...

The whole sport thingy is something completely new for me. Those who know me have it really clear that I'm not keen on watching sports. I even used to find it more than ridiculous that people actually scream to the screen and give advice as the players could actually hear them!

But this world cup changed me a lot. I new from the beginning that Argentina has all the potential to win the whole cup. So I watched every single game, shouted every single goal, put the jersey on and finally... Got a bit sad.

Well anyway, I'm more than proud of Argentina!

Post by Pyry Biglia.

music & comedy

Ok, it has been more than a long time since last post. There have been lots of things going on and I have been more than busy at least the last two weeks. 

Two weeks ago we had a music concert here at our base. We invited three more bands to play with us. God has been really generous with us as we have received lots of instruments and sound equipment of the best quality. So it's our honor to use it and let others to use it as well. 

This time we had a new drummer and bass guitarist playing with our band Pujahca. To be honest the guys just exploded it and I really enjoyed playing. And so did all the other bands as well.

The goal of the concert was to evangelize, create relationships and raise up funds for our rehearsal room. Praise God it went all well!

Last Saturday we started once again with our musical El viaje de los hermanos Luna. We will be presenting during the weekends and then non-stop for two weeks during the winter holidays. This time it's a theatre in the downtown of Buenos Aires.

It has been such an effort and work once again. During the months I was working with different promotional designs, new tracks, videos, radio promos etc. And during this last two weeks we made a whole new set up. As we didn't have lots of time and resources we have been working super hard. Last week we stayed up almost every night till 1 am. 

We used a projector to mark my drawing to the material.

One of the many many designs I've made.

So it has been kind of crazy till yesterday. I don't personally like pressure because it easily makes me stress. Or actually the work and tiredness aren't that big deal but the way we handle them. In my case, the pressure and tiredness make me see the crap I still have inside and that doesn't really encourage me. 

However God has been more than faithful. There have been so many days I have just said "God I don't know how to go though this". But He has given me strength and helped me in every task. He has healed me from my flu and covered many possible mistakes. 

A video I made to promote the play.

So this is basically what I have been in to. Well, just a small small part of that. Everyday is a new adventure and new challenges. I find myself once again so poor and needy for God. I keep on being surprised by the deceitfulness of my heart but as well by His everlasting love. If I'm alive it's by His mercy. If I manage to do something for His Kingdom it's only by his grace.

Thankful for:

• God's taking more than good care of me.
• The support of you guys, family and friends.
• The concert and the musical.

Praying for:

• To move on in my relationship with God. 
• Our musical to reach the right people.
• A new MacBook :)

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!

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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.

Testimonies from Mar del Plata

Sorry guys about not telling you more about our outreach even though it finished like two weeks ago!!! But here we go!

Going to share flyers.

As I told u before we had some struggles to make people to come to see our musical. However God used us in a different way: to impact other artists. And anyway the whole musical thing was just an excuse to enter to the environment of the local artists.

Something we didn't know beforehand was that the theatre we performed is a place where many transformistas prepare for their shows. Transformistas are gays (at least in this case) who dress up as women for the shows. (So they are not technically transvestites because they do it "just for show"...) Most of the musicals in the city had to do this or other kind of perversion. There were just two other shows for children.

Some of the guys promoting their shows on the walking street.
Oh, there are also three ladies on the back row!

However after the first shock we slowly began to built a good relationship with most of them. They noticed quickly that we are different and have totally different values: family, respect, humbleness, love etc. Especially they were touched by our unity and through the children in our team.

During our intercession times at our house we prayed for the guys and then we wrote on the words God spoke to us and passed them to the guys in the theatre. They were really thankful. In the end one of them came out with an idea of having lunch together. So we invited the to visit us.

Now, in the spiritual world the conflict between us and them was pretty strong. So the previous night we stayed interceding and worshipping till 3 AM because of the oppression we felt. And even during the lunch we took turns of intercession. We finished the lunch praying for each one of them. They liked the fellowship so much that they wanted to come again. That was fine for us and once again we had an opportunity to share our testimonies and pray for them.

The first lunch.

And the second one.

We didn't let them leave before praying!

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Another goal of the outreach was to play with our band Pujahca. So finally we found a good place to play. Before the gig we also had interviews with two different radios. We really enjoyed playing! The only thing was that just few people came to see us.

Check this out! We played this song for the first time and I just love it.

During our time we were really blessed by the hospitality of the local people. The church we went to welcomed us so warmly even without knowing us! They also helped us with the promotion of the musical and invited us to eat! That night was so special that I won't forget it. As well the local YWAM base helped us with many things and the ywamers were by our side.

The church members sewed the flags of each one of
our countries! Just to make us feel welcome :)

The whole outreach was such a great miracle, how God provided everything, how He kept us safe and used us by His grace, how we grew in intercession and our relationships and many other things. Thank you all for your prayers and support! I felt so blessed because I was able to help the whole team with some purchases.

Gratitude:

• His provision, guidance and care. Health.
• Every fruit we were able to see in the people we met. And there are so much more that we can't see yet.
• My niece is alive and getting better! It's a real miracly, Daddy is just so faithful!
• Maru and Naka got their baby Takeo. He's healthy and cute :)

Trust:

• The seed we sowed won't be stolen but bear fruit.
• I'm leaving tomorrow to Cordoba for five days. I'll be playing with Pujahca and another band. Let's pray God's will to happen in everything.

I am (almost) ready to go home

Time is running fast! 

Ok, the thing is that tomorrow I'm finally going to fly back to Finland to visit my family! I'm super excited! 

My plans are to stay the first week with YWAM Finland in Ruurikkala supporting the counseling ministry. The rest of the time I want to visit various congregations or events and share a bit about missions, art or what ever the need is. So if you want me to visit your congregation or small group, just let me know!

Other plans are to raise more supporters for me and for the art ministry in Buenos Aires. And well, of course to spend the real white Christmas at home with my beloved family that I haven't seen for almost a year and a half.

And well, right after the new year I'm already coming back to Argentina.

So I should be preparing myself to leave, but to be honest there're still other stuff to be done! Tonight I'm playing with the two bands of our ministry, with Jeremy Black and Pujahca. And every night I'm helping the girls from our ministry to make costumes to raise finances for our outreach in February. 

I'm a bit frustrated because I couldn't renew my residence yet, but well, I'll do it after coming back. God is super faithful and I have seen Him totally coming through once again in many areas. Just love my Daddy. 

Thank you a lot, all friends, supporters, family and all you readers!

Making costumes...

rehearsal with Jeremy Black

A sign we made for a event against
 child sex abuse and violence

A NIKO camp. Awesome experience!

¡MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC!

(Written on 25th of September. Now I'm able to use the Internet only on the weekends so I'll be writing posts during the week and posting them on the weekends)

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RESIDENCE

At first I just want to thank everyone who has been praying for my residence! When I went to get this one missing document I heard that it takes 20 days to receive it... So everything delayed a bit. Anyway I had my turn to the migrations so I went to ask if I had everything else. They said yeah, so now I have my next turn on 9th of October. I hope and pray that I have everything I need and the process would be finally over... Please be praying with me!

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TWO GIGS - ONE DAY

The last week was full of music. We practiced with the guys during the week. Many of the songs I had already played before but there were also many new ones I needed to learn.

Friday the 21st was a day of spring and students here in Argentina. It was a free day so most of the people got out to enjoy the sunny day. As missionaries we need to go where the people are. So we played in two evangelic events on that Friday. 

Early in the morning we packed our instruments and a stage which we have at the base. Few guys went with the van to the downtown and rest of us took a bus (ok, 3 buses.) In the downtown we set the stage and then we needed to hurry up to take a bus to the other side of the downtown to play in one event. 

This event was held by a church I go often. They have a really strong artistic movement and I love to work with these guys. 

We started the event playing with Jeremy Black Musta. Then we continued with the band Pujahca in which I have played from the beginning of this year.

As soon as we finished we needed to come back to the place we set the stage in the morning. Jeremy didn't play there but with Pujahca we played a bit more.

This is the stage we set up in the morning.
There were several Christian bands playing.

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ONE GIG - ONE NIGHT

So it was a full day as a musician but it was to be continued the following day. As the Black Family of Jeremy Black we were invited to play in this restaurant/bar held by one church. Over there we played a bit longer.

Before playing...

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BLACK FAMILY WENT TO THE STUDIO

Oh, and I have forgotten to tell you folks that we also spent some time in studio with Jeremy & Black Family. We were recording 5 songs and they came up really well! They still lack mastering but anyway, listen to this one:

I'm playing the synthesizer in this one!

From the studio!

Sometimes things and schedules get a bit complicated and days are long but I really enjoy the fact that I can serve God and people with this gift of music. I just want to encourage all of you to put your talents to the hands of God and not limit yourselves!