Amazing days in Sweden

Dear Friends,

At the moment, me and my son Sebastian has just boarded Viking Line's MS Mariella that is going to take us over the Baltic sea from Stockholm, Sweden to Helsinki, Finland. Behind us we have 16 days of intense ministry work and it has been such a blessed time.

We left January 12th and spent a couple of days together with a brother and friend in Västerås, who is suffering with cancer. We had some wonderful days together with him and his sister as well as the time we spent at his home church. From there we drove to Gothenburg where we were located for mostly the rest of our trip.

January 17th was our first meeting and also the first performance with the band featuring Jukka Mäkikangas (drums), Lennart Elvmyr (bass) and Zet Tonmyr (keyboards). We had a great kick off and as we have played together before we did not have any bigger issues. It is always so nice to come back and not only play music, but serve the Lord together with these people. The entire journey was organized by Jukka Mäkikangas and Mission Göteborg and this is a ministry relationship I highly respect and honor.

Sunday, January 18th we had Sunday morning church at Kyrka för livet in Partille, outside Gothenburg. A small church on fire for Jesus and we left deep marks after us. Some of them outside the church as I managed to get stuck in the grass outside the church but we also heard that the testimony, music and the word that was spoken that morning left it's marks in peoples hearts.

Monday 19th we did a one hour TV program for Öppna Kanalen in Gothenburg, a secular TV channel and we did talk about Jesus as well as mentioned some of the things in christianity that has gone so wrong. I even made a statement that the old style "fire and brimstones" preaching and hitting people in the head with the bible might have scared away more people to eternal punishment than saved souls for the Kingdom of God. I was told that it was quite a radical statement but I have seen how much harm it can cause if we try to force the Gospel on people. It has to be a work of the Holy Spirit if it is going to be real and He does not force Himself on anyone. Neither did Jesus. We also spoke about that a Gospel without repentance is a false Gospel and that we all need grace! It was a great opportunity to share the true Gospel and the love of God to the people watching and the episode will be running for three weeks.

Tuesday 20th we had the privilege to work together with the LP connection again and this is something that really is on my heart. They work with people with alcohol- and drug related problems and they are doing an awesome work.

Wednesday 21st was totally different as we visited Missionskyrkan at Vrångö, in the archipelago of Gothenburg. This island has three churches and two cars, one of them a taxi and the other one an ambulance. It is the most south island of the Gothenburg archipelago and we were taken there by a small ferry. It was very unique and we had a great night at the church. I am looking forward to return there in the summertime. I can only imagine how beautiful it is there then as it was dark when we visited this time.

Thursday 22nd we did Sisu Radio witch is a Finnish radio station that is broadcasted all over Sweden. It was a great interview with me and brother Jukka and we had lots of fun. I am so thankful for all the good feedback we received after that as this was another secular media God had opened the door too.

Friday 23rd we ministered and played at the Tabernacle church in the heart of Gothenburg during their evening feed for the poor and homeless. It was a different night but again people that are on my heart. God is raising up those who were nothing in the eyes of this world and then the wise are going to stand there in shame. This is what my bible says and I am thankful to be one of those "losers" who became more than a winner in Christ.

Saturday 24th we drove to Helsingborg for another LP event and they had a one day conference. We were playing and sharing at the evening meeting and what a wonderful bunch of people we were surrounded by.

Sunday 25th we drove to Borås to Cafe' Källan that is part of Amazing Life Church and this is where it all started back in 2010. I was invited to minister there as well as in the Finnish Pentecostal Church of Gothenburg and this time they had arranged so I stayed at Betelskeppet. That is a ship that is a homeless shelter and to be honest I was prideful and thought "how can they have me to stay with the homeless". I am glad they did as that was when I met brother Jukka for the first time and since then we have been close friends and we have had a fruit bearing work together, not to forget all the fun times we have had.

Last night we had our last meeting at the Pentecostal Church in Säffle and it was a good end of the tour. After the meeting we drove to Västerås where we slept for some hours and today we visited our brother and friend who now is placed in hospice. He had peace and it was with very mixed emotional feelings we left. I know I will see him again. Sometimes we just don't have the answers to all the questions, but God has everything in His hands.

This has been an amazing race and we have seen people get saved, healed and delivered. I am not into numbers or sharing all the miracles we see as they are not trophies for us. They are precious souls for Jesus and I pray and hope that they will share Jesus with others as we are called to do disciples. It is meant to be a chain reaction when a person gets saved.

Now we are on our way home to Finland and before we get all the way home to Vasa, we have one meeting at Siion in Helsinki, tomorrow night, January 28th.

There are coming some major changes in the ministry and I am going to come back to that later. We are currently working with the new Life in Him YouTube channel where we are going to broadcast all the Life in Him episodes and therefore make them easier to access and share on social media in the future. We are still looking for monthly partners as the time has come when it is time take a step in faith and walk on water and stand on our own legs.

The rest of the year is quite fully booked and I am most likely not taking any more bookings right now as I need to be at home with my family as well. This is something we do together as a family as well as without my wife standing behind me and blessing me I would not be able to do what we are doing today, so she is as involved in this as I am. I am looking forward to a successful year for the Kingdom of God in 2015 and we would gladly invite YOU to partner with us. What we do is simple! We tell people about Jesus and Jesus does the rest. We keep it simple so everyone can understand the message of salvation, the biggest miracle of them all.

The video blog from this last tour can be seen here. The future dates are on the website and they change, so make sure you check back often. Thank you for following us and praying for us.

God Bless, In Christ!