Six Days Later!

Over the last few years as we have pushed on the door to arrive in Helsinki, God has put us on a course, which has required us to trust him. As an individual who is not naturally disposed to this and as one who normally gets through life with a large scoop of self-sufficiency topped with a drizzle of I can make it happen and a sprinkling of I am in control, it has been a challenging personal journey!

Through the last year or more, God has been working things out to address this and teaching us to trust in him. Throughout this process we have faced a number of Israelites at the Red Sea type moments [although far less dramatic by comparison, but in some ways equally scary for little us]!  He had spoken to us about these things and the journey he would be taking us on, directly and through words from friends. Emma Whittall last year, when visiting us in Helsinki from Stockholm with Phil and their kids said that there would be lily pads and large turtles appearing on the surface of the lake to step onto, rising up at the last moment before each step forward.  Jonathan Farnham in Canterbury echoed this, he felt God say that he was wanting us to learn to trust him more deeply and that there would be times when we would have to go ahead, when everything was not yet in place, a bit like the Israelites at the Red Sea – God would provide at the very last moment! More recently Mark Nottage said that as we were sharing with The City Church Canterbury about some of the challenges we were facing, he could see a picture of a magician, dazzling a group of kids with tricks and them really not knowing what was going to happen next and witnessing hilariously unimaginable things, but the magician and others who could see from behind the stage knowing exactly what he was going to do next and how he would do it. We were like the children and God’s promise to us it that he is orchestrating everything together in complete control, but for us it will seem hilarious, unexpected and impossible. There were many other similar words to these.

Barry & Barns Removal Co.®   

Two weeks ago, after incredible support from dear friends and family helping clean our rented house in Canterbury and packing up the van with our furniture and belongings, we prepared to leave England without a house to move into when we arrived in Helsinki.

Sad goodbyes to dear friends outside a spotlessly clean   

25 River Court, Chartham   

Early in the morning the next day, Lydia's father Barry and I left the UK to drive across Europe to Helsinki via Stockholm. Barry drove a hired van loaded with our furniture while I drove our family car. The day after, Lydia and her mother Maureen flew to Helsinki with our three children, to stay in temporary accommodation, house sitting at a friend’s place. At this point the thought of arriving on the dockside and sitting there wondering where to go next with all of our stuff was looming large in my mind! But in reality, I was driving to our destination with the conviction that the God who would put the initial seed into our minds to do this in the first place and who had provided so richly so far, would continue to provide and see these and other plans through to completion. Suffice to say we got halfway across Europe and things started to happen. Lydia had heard from her employers [who knew of our situation] that they had gone ahead of us and found us a flat at the last minute, renting it through the company and thus avoiding the impossible situation we had faced with not being allowed to rent any property in Finland due to us not having a Finnish identity number. The 

Lydia after rushing across the city to collect the apartment  
keys, last minute on a rainy Friday afternoon. WooHoo!  

apartment, not only meets our very immediate need to have a roof over our heads, but it's within one minutes walking distance to Lydia's work and is a really nice place that we know we'll be happy in.

So at risk of sounding like a Craig David song [and showing my age]:

We packed up the van on Tuesday

Started our drive on Wednesday

Heard we have the flat on Thursday

Lydia collected the keys on Friday

We arrived in Helsinki with the furniture on Saturday

And moved it all in on Sunday!

Barry, Maureen & Edith on a day out to Suomelina Island

It has been an amazing but hectic time!

Barry and Maureen stayed with us for a week. This was a mix of spending time together [for the last time in a while], seeing some of the sites and enjoying some of the good weather. But, for them and us, lots of hard work helping move us in, unpacking boxes, trips with us to IKEA, looking after the children while we got things going with bank accounts, immigration stuff etc. It was hard work, but a great time together and we couldn't have done it without them.

Lydia outside her new classroom   

Lydia has started a new job as a nursery teacher and is settling in well. She has been busy planning, producing resources, and making stuff to make her classroom feel more vibrant and creative. The last few days have been spent welcoming the new children and dealing with anxious parents! So far it seems like a good working environment with nice staff. Although Lydia was a school teacher for many years back in England, she is new to working in a nursery or daycare and has some difficult kids who don't speak or understand English. When she applied for the job it was for a classroom assistant type roll. But she has actually been made the main teacher. This is a great compliment, but also adds to the challenge and level of responsibility.

We had a super time with our dear friends Steve & Hanna who have been developing a house church type group over the last year. We don’t know them extremely well, but it feels as if we have known them years and there is a sense of joined hearts. Steve collected Lydia and the family from the airport when they arrived. They had put together a bag of groceries for the first few days and a houseplant as a welcome-to-Finland gift! Their group has been built on strength of relationship and a desire to be open and hospitable, welcoming in anybody. They have seen success through running an English speaking group in their local neighborhood. As a result there are several families who have joined the group and become knitted in – but have not yet come to faith. It is exciting and inspiring for us to see what has happened through them and from such small beginnings. We are delighted to be in relationship with them and are interested to maintain this and explore possible ways to work together and support one another, we eagerly look forward to further opportunity to get to know them.

We too are eager to find opportunity to form relationships with those around us. This is most likely to happen through getting to know others in our apartment building, putting on social gatherings, Lydia building relationships at work and also through the open daycare groups, which serve children not enrolled onto formal daycare, and their parents. This has been a great meeting place so far. As we continue to try to get to know people and build genuine relationships, our prayer is for the miraculous to break out. We are asking God for this to happen through anything from just forming some solid relationships in what is an individualistic and suspicious culture, to opening hearts to be receptive to the gospel as we chat to people, or for opportunities to pray with folk and demonstrate the reality and personal nature of our faith in Jesus. As a family here with no actual church as such, we are praying for a miraculous door to be swung open to enable us to grow even by just a few. We do ask you to join with us in this prayer.

We have had a few setbacks to do with our immigration stuff. Lydia has received a Finnish identity number as she is here with a job and the number is essential for taxation purposes. But as things stand myself and the children will have to go through a lengthy process to be regarded as connected to Lydia and counted as one family unit living together in Finland. This means that we cannot register with a doctor, begin the process of registering the children into kindergarten, I cannot be added to our bank account to make it a joint account. The process will require having our documents [birth certificates, marriage certificate etc.] certified and legalized in the UK before they will even look at them. This is an expensive and time-consuming process [which we were not informed of during our recon visits and meetings with immigration staff prior to our permanent arrival]. Once we get through this and can become residents, we can then get the children registered into Finnish kindergarten. The priority here is Edith, we really want her to be in Finnish kindergarten as soon as possible. With a year to go before she starts in a Finnish school, we had been banking on her having this time to learn enough language ready for school [apparently nine months to a year is enough for this to happen]. However, we have learned that after becoming residents it then normally takes four months to register and start at a Kindergarten. This is obviously not ideal and we are praying for an unusually quick route through these obstacles.

That’s the main headlines from us so far. 

We do ask you to continue to pray for us and to keep in touch [we are delighted to have resolved our internet connection problems so are back in the contactable realm!] emails, tweets, messages really are a source of encouragement to us and we are so grateful to those who have made contact. We are also grateful to those who have given financially to us. You know who you are and we are so appreciative. It has been an expensive process to get here with many hidden, unexpected costs on top of what we had already budgeted for. But, thanks to God's provision, through the generosity and mission heartedness of his people we have had all of our needs met so far. We really are grateful to Him and to you! 

Apologies that this is a bit of an epic, there has been so much to include [compounded by over a week without internet], and these are just the headlines.

Prayer points:

• Speedy and miraculous journey through the immigration system [avoidance of unnecessary red tape].
• Edith [and preferably Johan] to be quickly registered into kindergarten.
• Language learning for us all – [it was a long night of working through pages of internet configuration settings with a Finnish-English dictionary!]
• Wisdom and the right path to emerge with a small house church we have been relating to. Ways to support them and informally connect them to RM where useful.
• A clear door to open to birth something, which is more than just our family. A relationship connection, opportunity to share the gospel, someone coming to The Lord, miracles, divine appointments. That sort of stuff to really open a door which, we cannot open based simply on our own efforts (that one is a bit vague, but hopefully you understand what we're getting at!)

Follow on twitter @Kevin_J_Jones

Email: finlandvision@gmail.com