Since I wrote last time I have been taking it easy and focused on my home and our house. We are still doing renovations and hopefully we will have what we have started done within the next weeks. There is lots of work but when we do something we want to do it good. It is the same way working for God. When we do something we should really focus on doing our very best as we serve an awesome God that deservers nothing else than our best. Sometimes I think about this when I visit different churches, there is many ways to show our love to God by doing our best and we can also show it by having proper sound equipment in our churches. It is sad but true that many of the churches here in Finland have really old fashioned sound systems. Some of them have only one microphone and the loudspeakers on the wall are from the stone age. My opinion is that when we come together and worship our Lord we should not think about ourselves but we should think about giving HIM all the best. Of course we will have a better time as well if the sound is good. I might be some kind of perfectionist and thats why I most of the time carry my own small sound system but this is the way I am and this is the way I think. I don't think there is anything wrong with trying to give our very best to our Lord and Savior.
Yesterday I had the honor and privilege to sing some of my songs at Vapaakirkko in Lapua when they had Biker Church there. Note that when I speak about Biker Church I do NOT speak about any organisation. I translate the word "motoristikirkko" or "bikergudstjänst" to english and it turns out the best using the phrase Biker Church. Shame that some people think Biker Church is an organization and that they are the only one that can use the name Biker Church. Enough of that, just thought I mention it to avoid confusion.
Anyway, I was happy to sing through a good sound system and the meeting organized by the church and Gospel Riders was good. It was also my first longer trip with the bike this season, it is finally ready and I like they way it look and how it rides. The church was packed and even people without bikes came to church. One of my brothers saw an older lady and I guess he thought she was scared when she stood outside the church looking at all the loud bikes but when my brother asked her about it she said that she loves it. Here is another way to see at things. When our hearts are right and we are on a right standing with GOD people will see this. We can not serve God if our hearts are not right. It should be because of our love to Him that we serve and love other people. This really spoke to me as she did not look like a biker at all and she looked like one of those older pentecostal ladies that might think that all music from today is from the devil and that you can not have fun at church. Praise the Lord for this old woman and her heart. I really love the older generation.
We also had something else to celebrate yesterday. Our brother Juha Allan Jyrkkä became an evangelist at his home church and therefore he is now wearing the evangelist patch on his vest. Brother Juha just came back from a rally in Lithauia where he hung out with other bikers and he even ran out of tracts. He is a true evangelist and I am happy to have him on board in the Ambassadors For Jesus Christ Motorcycle Ministry. We also welcomed a new member to our family yesterday and Pete "Rocky" Rehn from Ylivieska joined us. Also brother Jussi Mustikkamaa became a member of our ministry. It feels good when we come together and yesterday after the Biker Church we had some wonderful fellowship with some of our members. I have to say that when I think about it today and about what it looked like back in 2008 when God first started to speak to me about this ministry I get so thankful. I remember it as yesterday when I told the people at my church that God told me to become a biker. I remember how they started to act weird and they must have thought I was crazy. Anyway, today we know that all this is from God and our ministry is growing and I thank God for each and every member.
After a wonderful ride to Lapua and a wonderful time in Lapua I drove home to Vasa in heavy rain. For the first time ever I enjoyed riding in the rain and I was thinking what was wrong with me. I came to the conclusion that I was thankful in my heart. Thankful for so many things, my family, my salvation, my brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers and most of all for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It does not matter if you sit an hour in heavy rain when you are thankful. I just think how much worse it could have been if I never had met Jesus and it scares me to thing about where I would be if my life had ended then when I was living in the world. It is very easy for me to be thankful and hopefully that makes me more humble and more obedient to God each and every day. I am far away from perfect but my desire is to get better and able to love people around me more and more for each day.
Now it is midsummer week and I will be here at home taking care of my family and our house. Next week me and my son Sebastian are heading south again and our destination is Bjärka-Säby in Sweden where Church on Wheels have their Church on Wheels meet. We are looking forward to this and actually we are praying for good weather even if it does not matter with a little bit of heavy rain :)
After the meeting in Bjärka-Säby we are heading north again, now together with Pastor Ulf Mannebäck. We are going to have some meetings on our way up to Umeå where we take the ferry over back to Finland and july 8-10 we are going to be together with Gospel Riders at their MOJ meet in Larsmo. There are many things going on this summer and you might want to check out the calendar for more information about where and when. Remember that we serve an awesome God and that all the glory belongs to HIM!
Hope to see you on the roads this summer!
Stay blessed!
Pontus
