Finally in Rosario

Big changes!

Our dream and long prayer came true as we moved to the city of Rosario on the 19th of January. We are renting a beautiful house at the city center just about 5 blocks away from the river. We are three families with their five kids and 12 singles living at this YWAM missionary community. 

The first two weeks we worked hard to make our home beautiful. And in two weeks we already had the opening ceremony of our base. Here´s a brief video about that. 

To be honest we have been working hard, but it hasn’t been that difficult as I imagined. We have seen God’s faithfulness in so many ways! People we didn’t know beforehand appear to our door bring donations such as food and cleaning and hygiene products! Daddy really knows our every need!

Every Friday we have our Coffee Night where we gather to worship, listen to the word and share together. Every Friday there are new faces and we are happy to receive non-Christians as well!

We have already been invited to many different events but also we are planning two conferences for women. 

This is an event for Christian women of different ages and denominations

This is a special event for non-Christian women 
of different professions and areas of influence 
in the society

I am personally really grateful for this challenging but rich time. Looking forward for everything to come. Please stay tuned to hear more!

Please pray for these topics:

• For the women conferences. We are still looking for auditorios. 
• For the neighbors and people we evangelize and are starting to disciple to
• For the finances. It has been a challenging time but as well a time to see God’s providence always on time.

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!

Original Design

Check this new video we made to promote our Art School!

English and Finnish subtitles available, just click "CC" and settings to change the language.

It's our six-months-long art school, the very same I came to do when I first came to Argentina. The next school will be held in 2017 in our new base in Rosario!

P.S. Excited to visit Finland. Leaving in three weeks!!!

Be a dancer - Be an Artist in the Maximum Expression

So proud to present our newest video! 

It's a promo of our art school AME. My leader asked me to make a promo video. Honestly, I wasn't really enthusiastic about it, because finding good video recordings about the stuff we do as a school and ministry is frustrating sometimes... 

Well, however luckily I prayed and asked Daddy's opinion. So He gave me this idea to make a story. I started forming this idea of a dancer, musician and actor preparing themselves for a show and thinking deep stuff in the same way. So instead of just using already filmed material I planned to film something new.

When I told my idea to my leader she liked it but took it to a totally new level. She made it more real and dramatic and split one video to three different stories! 

So we wrote and filmed this first part quickly. Naka was the director, while Cami filmed the most of it. The actors are all from our base, as usual :D Later on we edited the material with Naka and I composed the music with Joel.

To be honest I'm super happy for this product. It could be a way better of course, but we still have two more videos to make ;) Let it touch you and come to do our school! Or at least share it forward.

P.S. It's the same school I came to do here in 2011. It will change your life!

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.

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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!

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P.S. Check our base video from this year

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!

New stuff from our dancers

Hey guys! Sorry for the long silence around here!

I'm still alive and doing well. This time I'd like to share the newest choreography of our guys! For the first time we have such a big and diverse dance crew as all of the dance students from the last AME School stayed in the ministry.

 They are just stunning! Enjoy!

I'm so going to New York!

Long time, no sea.

Hey, I'm super sorry for those who actually read my blog for not writing for ages! Sometimes I even write the text but then never manage to add photos etc and never end up publishing anything..! fail.

But yeah, I want to share something exciting... We're going to have an outreach in the USA! How cool is that!

Everything started with Luis Palau. He's a famous Argentinean evangelist. And right now his association and the local churches in New York are having big events in the New York City. The main event will be the 11th of July in the Central Park. So basically Palau invited the YWAMers to be part of this movement and we took the challenge as a ministry.

Our team is 13 adults and 3 babies. :) First we'll head to North Carolina and serve there. And to new york we are going for the rest of the time in July.

But now the great thing is that I bought my tickets today! It's a real miracle! Thank you all my supporters and intercessors! I borrowed some money though to not wait any longer.

If you want to be part of this dream you still have an opportunity! Beyond the debt I have to cancel I still need money to the transport from North Carolina to New York. And of course some spare for the daily needs... And there're still some team members who don't have their tickets yet. So please at least pray for us! ;)

Here we have a video of our trip in three languages: pick up the one you mostly speak!

Teaser

A short teaser of our show! We still have three shows left: today and Sunday in a theatre and tomorrow in a church. And next week the students will graduate! The six months are almost over! I'm super grateful to God! Thanks for being with me during all this time!

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!

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.

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.

Trust

A time ago I mentioned that I was helping with an advertisement. So finally the video came out! It's called CONFIANZA that means trust. Almost all of the actors are ywamers from our base.

You'll find me at 1:34

internship over!

Hi again!

The Art Internship finished last Monday with and amazing gala night. The program included the dinner and lots of our presentations: four skits, three folklore dances, an acapella song and dance mix of contemporary, hip hop and lots of more. Even though I was a staff member of the internship I was on four of the performances because I had been taking the classes.

The video I made for our graduation

So this week has been a bit lighter, because the art ministry is on hold for two weeks. However there're heaps of stuff to do here in the base: construction, painting etc. Right now I'm writing this in the phone office. Anyway the stress and the busy schedule of the last weeks of the internship took my defenses down and when everything was finished I got sick. The tiredness just took over and even though I tried to help people with constructing etc I ended up to my sick bed. Praise God I'm better already and we even visited one church yesterday and performed. 

So after a week we'll start fully with the ministry. We'll have a small seminar to talk about our vision, plans and goals and to let God guide us in all. This is also because we're having new staff members from the guys of internship.

Just wanted to share these small news. Please be praying for God's direction to our ministry and also for my future plans to visit Finland etc. Thanks for all the supporters once again. My every week is a miracle of God's provision. I eat every meal with a greater gratefulness for recognizing God's favor over my life.

¡Hasta luego!

the intense internship

Hi folks!

It has been a while since I've written here. And as usual it's only because I have been busy and lazy. One more reason is also that so much things going on that it's impossible to record every event so I don't even try to. 

Our art internship has been more intense during these last times. I have been participating the different classes: singing, dancing, acting, history of art, theatre make up, folklore... In the same time I have had other responsibilities in the art ministry and at the base in general. 

The time has run really fast and this week is the last one for the internship! Luckily all of the guys are staying at the base so we don't need to say any goodbyes. 

We performed an opening dance for a kids' camp

A theatre make up class: fire, earth, water and air

A folklore party we had for the second time

Haha, I was helping in a commercial and gained some money.
(It's not me in the photo. My part was to congratulate him!)

Our girls passing time with the teacher of the history of art

A theatre make up class...

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I have been experiencing some strong homesickness lately. As I wrote earlier this year, I decided not to use my July's return ticket to Finland but stay a bit longer. Even though I had made this decision many months ago, last week was really hard because my return would have been on last Thursday. 

However God is my comfort and my best home is always in His presence. So no matter where I am, I find my home in the intimacy with Papá. And He will surely take me to Finland when it's the right time.

God has taken really good care of me. Every week I have seen His faithfulness. There has been opportunities to work and I'm super thankful for all of you who have remembered me with financial support. My part has been just to receive and share to others as I'm getting to know better our generous Father.

And for those who like folklore: our presentation

¡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! 

Variete

Hey guys! This was like two weeks ago, but I wana share you something. Every second month we as ywamers arrange Variete, an art night in the downtown of Buenos Aires (YWAM has a National Prayer Center "CNO" there.) The idea is to get together with all kind of artists and share some pieces of art: songs, dramas, improvisations, photos...

Diego is the one hosting the nights

This last time we were like 90 people + the ywamers arranging the night..! That's a lot of people hey! We hardly have enough space for everyone. And I guess the majority of the people coming are not active church goers so this is always a good change to share a bit (or more :D) about Jesus. God has led lots of young really talented artists to our these events and to be honest I'm really excited what God's gonna do next! 

We have already started to disciple some of them at the devotionals we have every second week. Today I'm heading there once again!

Please, listen how beautifully Cherish sings! She's my singing teacher and lives in CNO with Diego and their baby boy.

I'm thankful:

• to be part of this beginning revival among the artists
• how God is leading every time more and more people
• for God's provision and few offerings I have received

I'm praying:

• God helping us to disciple these artists
• for chances to share more about Jesus with these people
• for more people helping Diego and Cherish with this great job they're doing

AME 2013 promotion

Check this out! This is a video we made with Jeremy to promote our art school 2013! It's the school I did here in 2011 and the reason I first came to Argentina. I will be staffing this becoming school.

So if you are musician, dancer or actor... have calling to arts... want to make difference in the area of arts... want to know more God as an Artist... Please pray about doing this 6 month school. It's challenging but it's worth it!