Some of you might have been following our "Mission America 2009" trip here on www.pontusjback.com or on Facebook. We are now back home and I would like to share our highlights from the road with ya´ll.
Texas
The first leg of this wonderful journey we spent in the Lonestar state, Texas. There is a saying that everything is BIG in Texas and yes, it is true. Houston with its over two million citicens is a big city not to speak about the onion rings and steaks. We had the honor to stay at our friends Roy and Monica Sanchez home for ten days and it was really a blessing for us to have these wonderful people around us. Both of them are licenced ministers and beside the Ambassadors For Jesus Christ Motorcycle Ministry they run their own ministry, New Life Ministry. They are friends of God not only catering the Biker community but also there for anyone that have need for a minister. They do weddings, funerals, home blessings, bike blessings and are praying for people in need in all occasions. Together we had a great time and it was a priviledge for me to minister at Sword of the Spirit church in Houston, Texas for my second time. Not so many people but I got a mail copied to me about what one woman from the congregation wrote to a local Christian radio station and this message brought me in tears. Imagine that God is using me, an ordinary Finn who used to be the "bad boy" and struggled with alcohol and drugs for many many years.
Written to Radio KSBJ:
I am a member of a very small Christian Church, The Sword of the Spirit Church , and we have a Motorcycle Ministry, Ambassadors for Jesus Christ. We have a chapter of this Ministry in Finland , thanks to Pontus J. Back. His story is the most inspirational thing I have ever heard, we were so blessed a couple of weeks ago to have him here in Houston at our Church to hear him speak. I want so much to share his story with others, so that they may be blessed with his story and with his music. He has a book that only takes a couple of hours to read, and it could change lives. Much of his music has a blues feel to it, it is so wonderful! If I were to mail his CD and his book to KSBJ, is there a chance you could play it, and maybe tell his story? This would touch so many lives, so many people are kinda on the fence about following Jesus, and I think this could help push them over that fence! I beg you to consider this request, and I thank you for your time. God Bless You!
We did outreach on the Lonestar Rally in Galveston, Texas for four days and of course we got a little blinded by the hundreds of thousands of motorcycles and the double amount of bikers during these days. It was a life time experience and we have actually heard about people who got their lifes changed because of our ministry out there. We are praying about going there again next year. Thank you Roy and Monica for opening up your home for us and thank you Pastor Joe for everything. Thank you all brothers and sisters in Texas for a wonderful time, we miss you and we love you! Thank you Jesus for connecting me with these people and the Ambassadors For Jesus Christ Motorcycle Ministry.
Iowa
In the summer of 2008 I met a new brother in Christ, Rev. Brian Hill. We stayed in touch and I visited him and the congregation he works for earlier this year as well. This time I knew where I was going and that felt good to be prepared. We stayed in Fairfield, Iowa wich is a small town. Many of the people in Fairfield are "meditators" and belongs to the Maharishi University and sect who have its mecca there. If you are spiritually awake you are going to feel this if you ever visit Fairfield. In some ways it reminds me of Finland. Anyway we did four good meetings in three different churches in Iowa and in Livingstones Fellowship Church who also hosted us this week I had one of the most powerful experiences of salvation when I had the honor to lead a young man to the Lord. They way this man changed in just one night was amazing and Jesus really showed me that all power is in His hands. So wonderful to see a change life and hear the angels sing in heaven.
These days were also a good time of fellowship with brothers and sisters over there. It was nice to meet brother Brian again and also nice to play some music together with brother Scott Sydness on bass and brother Mike on bass. I am definitely going back to Iowa again as it feels like my friends there are so much a part of this big family and they are really close to me. Like the people in Texas, we ARE a big family. Thank you pastor Brian, pastors Larry and BB Rail and Scott for some wonderful days in your area. Thank you for everything, we miss you and we love you.
Florida
We landed in Memphis and saw some Elvis Presley memoribilia at the Memphis airport while waiting on our connecting flight. We arrived in Miami, Florida and our excpectations were high about this famous city. Well, Miami is another big city and it is busy. Way too busy for me. We had some days off and had booked a hotel at Miami Beach. Our excpectations about this beach hotel was also high but we got disapointed. The outside and the entrance looked really cool but the inside and the rooms were like nothing had happened since the hotel was built in the 50´s. Ugly and dirty and worse thing of all: no wireless internet in our room. The only positive thing was the ocean view from the fifth floor.
We stayed one night in Miami and here we also rented a car. We took a ride out towards Key West but turned around half way since it got dark. From Miami we drove through the Everglades to the west coast and stayed one night in Naples. Naples was more my taste, not too big and nice people. We needed the rest so we ran some errands and slept long the following day. We hit the road again and found a beautiful small town between Fort Myers and Sarasota. It was Punta Gorda which have been known since one of the hurricanes destroyed the town some years ago. Everything looked new and this was the little town by the sea that I could imagine living in. We arrived late at night at our final destination this day, in Sarasota. Sarasota is known for its white beach. We did not see much of that as it was dark but we had a chance to see some beautiful things the next day on our ride to St. Pete Beach where we hooked up with my old friend and band partner Dave Valliere. It was nice to meet him again.
We had the first meeting of the four Florida meetings in pastor Billy Faulks church in Auburndale outside Lakeland. Not too many people showed up but the meeting was actually good. It is not for the numbers we do what we do. We know that if one soul gets saved it is worth more than all money in the world. We stayed in Lakeland and on our saturday off Sebastian got sick so we stayed inside. I feel that we both needed to rest.
The second meeting in pastor Faulks church was awesome. Pastor Faulk had a message to the people and I spoke about my mistakes as a Christian. There are some things God have putted on my heart to share even if it hurts to speak about own mistakes. If it can help other people I am happy to share what I have been trhough and most important of all is to listen to the Spirit of God. In our own power we cant really do anything.
It was time again to drive through Florida and to the east coast. We had a wonderful car ride and saw lots of cool stuff. We took a quick sightseeing in Sebastian and Sebastian thought it was cool being in Sebastian. Our final destination this day was Palm Beach and on the way down there we stopped in Port St. Lucie to meet our good friend and brother Garry Nutt. For those of you who dont know Garry I can tell that he is playing bass on the "Ride to Freedom" album and I got to know him when we played together in Skinny Molly after Dave Hlubek left the band to play with Molly Hatchet again. Garry is a cool dude and a great brother. Shame we did not have time for much more fellowship this time as we had to continue our journey and he was also on his way out on tour with Chubby Checker. It was dark when we arrived at our last hotel on this trip, The Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn. I was very sceptical about this hotel since we had a bad experience at the other beach hotel in Miami Beach. I had also called this hotel to make sure they had internet in their rooms and their answer were that they dont have internet. Anyway they had internet and even if this was the cheapest hotel during our time in USA this was the best hotel. A really good place that I can highly recomend to those who are going to Palm Beach.
Here we spent the days on the beach and we had two meetings in the Finnish Pentecostal Church of Lake Worth, also known as Kotikirkko. The first meeting was in english and it was an awesome meeting in the presence of God. The second meeting was in Finnish and it was a great honor to meet the elders of the congregation who had been there since the start in 1971. I really feel that there is lots of stuff to do for the Kingdom of God over there. I am so blessed and happy that God have opened these doors and I am looking forward to work together with Kotikirkko and pastor Petri Kosonen in the future as well.
Our trip came towards its end and on friday morning, november 20th we returned the rental car and jumped on the Continental flight from West Palm Beach to Houston, Texas. We had four big suitcases and I was excpecting us to pay for each bag. I had prayed to God to take care of that and I know that I have brothers and sisters in Christ who had prayed for us as well. At the airport a lady named FAITH took care of us and she managed to chech our bags all the way from West Palm Beach to Vasa, Finland. Normally we would have had to claim our bags in Houston and check them in again. I know God was behind all this and we also saved money on our bags. At the airport in Houston we ran into a mess and we were standing in lines for four hours before we could enter our plane to London, Heathrow. We had most likely the worst seats on the 747 and it was a bad ride. We changed flights in London and in Helsinki and finally we arrived in Vasa saturday night at 5:35 PM. It took us 26 hours to get from West Palm Beach to home. We were tired when we came home but it was as always, nice to be home with the rest of the family.
I am looking forward to the next trip, most likely a shorter tour of Florida in february and march. Thank you all people in Florida as well for taking good care of us. Thank you Eduardo, pastor Strader and all at Ignited Church and pastors Billy Faulk and Petri Kosonen. You are all on my heart and I know we will meet again.
Love and Blessings
Pontus J. Back
