Dear Friends,
The midsummer weekend is soon over and we have had a great time after all. First of all I want to thank everyone who have been helpful and supported with the new teeth that I got in my mouth last Wednesday. Now I can smile again.
Thursday I had the privilege to bring my wife with us on a short missions trip to Polvijärvi in eastern Finland, only one hour from the Russian border. Our brother Pekka Karvinen, also known as ”Reindeer Pekka” hosted an event at his property with a huge bonfire. It is a Finnish midsummer tradition.
We were taken good care of and we had a wonderful small house by a lake for two nights. We were welcome to stay longer but the situation with upcoming trips, events and at home forced us to leave after two nights. I even had a chance to swim in the lake. Some people commented on the pictures I shared on Facebook that I looked like Loch Ness and I think it is very true :)
The main event started Friday night at 6pm and I did three sets of music. One rockabilly set, one rock and roll set and the last set was acoustic. Between the songs I shared the love of Jesus and told my life story about what Jesus has done in my life. The message was well received and to me it meant very much to have my wife with me. Thank you all for coming out on Friday. Reindeer Pekka managed to raise 1350€ to the cancer treatment center in Joensuu, Finland. Thank you Pekka, a man with a heart of gold!
Sweden next
We have also been working in the garage on both our own projects (junk) as well as cars we are restoring to sell and raise money for the ministry. Since we have found a passion for old SAAB cars we decided to go viral with this and hopefully we can get more people to find their way to our website with the new subdomain www.saabpastor.com. It does not really matter what kind of old Saab you drive. They draw attention and can be a billboard for Jesus. Personally we do not believe in over preaching on a car. It can have the opposite effect. Instead we try to create an interest so that people first of all will see that we ARE christians and hopefully be so interested so they are curious to find out more.
Early Thursday morning we are back on the road again. This time we are heading west, to Sweden and our first stop is the annual Church on Wheels meet at Bjärka-Säby. From there we are heading even more west for the worlds largest American car show, Big Power Meet and we are there for one purpose; to tell people about Jesus. There has been and there are many pieces that I hope will come together before this trip. The enemy is not sleeping and I can understand this as we are going to be in the midst of hundred thousand people and most of them are not yet followers of Christ. It is not an easy job but someone has to do it and what we do, we do for Jesus.
Physically I can smile again with my new teeth but it hurts when people you have trusted twist things around and are running the enemies errands to try to get me down. Right now I have a hard time to smile after being accused for things that are not true. I preach the Gospel and nothing else and I pray and hope that there will be reconciliation and forgiveness both ways before we leave as I want to focus on Jesus and Jesus only when we are on the road. It is never easy as we do not fight against flesh and blood. Please keep us in your prayers so that we can do our very best to glorify Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
God Bless You All!
Pontus J. Back
