London - 20 Years After

Dear friends,

It has now gone 20 days since I last updated this page. The calendar is always alive so it is worth checking that often as dates are being added all the time. Since last time I wrote when we were heading back home from our three week trip to USA I have mostly been at home. We did a trip to Kaarina on the southern west coast of Finland a few days after we came home. There we visited a school and spoke to around 200 students during their school time. It was such a wonderful time to be able to tell these young people about my life and what I did wrong, so they don't have to do the same mistakes I made. Still the most important; the message about He who dragged me up from that horrible pit of destruction, saved me, did many miracles and gave me eternal life; Jesus. The same night we had a meeting in the church of Kaarina and it was another good night and many came to receive prayers.

During the days at home I have spent time with my family but also been working on the new Life in Him & PJB Ministries YouTube channel. We are continuously adding the old Life in Him episodes to this channel as we really feel that all these testimonies are encouraging to watch and especially those who do not yet believe can look in the archives and find many personal life stories from different people who have met Jesus. We all have a story to tell and somewhere out there, there is someone waiting to hear your story. We should not compare our testimonies as we are all different and unique. This is also why all our testimonies are unique. Think about that YOU can win a soul for Jesus by telling someone YOUR story. When a person gets saved he is ready to witness. There is absolutely no idea to wait with sharing your personal story with other people. This is very important and as we keep sharing we also will receive from our Lord. Personally I do not know how many times I have shared my story but it never gets boring. Every single time I get excited as it is a story that not only saved my life, it also saved my soul. So far we are close to 100 episodes since 2012, some of them are still being edited and broadcasted on TV7, TV+ in Finland and on Heaven TV7 in Sweden. Meanwhile we are uploading a couple of episodes a week on the YouTube channel as it is so easy to share it from there in social media. Check out the channel and get inspired. Share the links on your pages and tell other people about what you have heard. This is something we do together!

Late last night me and Sebastian came home from a four day trip to London, UK. It is actually a interesting story behind this trip as it all started 20 years ago when I visited London for the first time with my wife. Then Sebastian was only a few months old and stayed at home with my mother in law. During this trip I came in contact with former Whitesnake guitarist Micky Moody and guitarist Steve Simpson who played with several different artists such as Frankie Miller Band, Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Tyler over the years. I brought them over to Finland and we shared the stage with them as well with my own band The Rubbish Brothers. This connection led to more connections within the London rock'n roll scene and soon I was a touring rock musician. For some years I toured with several different artists out of London. Original Status Quo drummer John Coghlan was one of them. Now 20 years later it was time to return to London but on a totally different mission.

We arrived at Sunday night, April 19th. Monday we visited the same places me and my wife visited and went to famous Denmark Street to check out the music stores and the place where I met Micky Moody exactly 20 years ago. I would have loved to meet Micky as well during the time spent in London but in my past things did not always go as scheduled and on the last tour with Micky in 1997 I lost money due to different reasons (no ticket sales, non paying club owners etc.) so I could not pay the band. Nothing I planned on doing but because of this I could not pay what was agreed and I understand that he is not interested in hooking up with me. Showbiz was not easy and I am thankful that I am out of it. I still wish that I one day could be able to pay those who I owe and do the right thing but all has to happen in God's timing. With the income me and my family have today we barely survive. The good thing is that my values has changed and I am not looking for fame and fortunes anymore. If I one day can support my family and take care of my parents I will be happy. If I one day can pay off what my old life costed my I would be extremely blessed. That is the truth. Nobody is perfect and coming from the life I came from has not and is still not easy.

Tuesday we entered Oktopus Studios in North London to record drums and bass for two of the songs for the new album and it was such a blessing to hook up with John Coghlan again. It was the first time we met in 18 years but after spending some time with him and his wife it did not feel that long. John had not changed much, looked healthy and he still played that amazing shuffle that made Status Quo famous in the 1970's when they started to play boogie rock and roll. Before that they play some 60's stuff that I can't put a name on. Psychedelic is what comes to my mind. John played on two songs, the old hymn "I've got a home" and on the Mark Mason song "Washed my blues away". We also had another celebrity with us in the studio and it was Pete Rees who I met back in the mid 90's when he played with Papa George Band. In 1998 he started to play with Gary Moore and played with him until only some years ago. A great bass player and a good friend.

London has changed lots since I back in the days. I was very happy to leave yesterday and get back home. We got what we went for but I realized that London does not attract me at all anymore. Too much people, too stressful and messy. Of course there are still beautiful and historical places but I do not see London the way I used to see it. I thank God for people like John Coghlan and Pete Rees who came out after all these years to play on my album.

We are funding the album by crowd funding. To read more about this and to be part of this project visit our crowd funding page.

Next it is time to fly again and we are going back to Germany. This first trip is only for one week but we will be busy ministering at different biker clubs and biker events as well as an outdoor concert together with one of my german back up bands. We are also doing a couple of churches and in Bamberg I am going to talk about a very important topic; family restoration and restoration in relationships. Actually looking forward to do that as that is basically part two of my testimony as my testimony lives every day. We are coming back to Vasa for a couple of weeks before we go back to Germany for three weeks of ministry, mostly in former east Germany. That is a huge mission field that God has put on my heart and I have very good experiences from our past trips there. People are hungry for God and people pack a church or a youth house in the middle of the week to come and listen.

At the moment we are basically doing a minus financially but we can't stop now. God has opened these doors and we are going to go through them in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are constantly looking for new partners. This is something we believe we do together and Kingdom business is teamwork. Please pray for us and for all different projects we have going on. God is keeping us busy but we are thankful for every open door.

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God Bless You All!