Long Awaited News!

Brittany & a new church plant member: Elias    

Brittany has written this update [although I may have been a bit creative with some of the captions]. She, husband Ben & two year old Eowyn moved to Helsinki from the US a year ago & now have baby Elias. We're grateful to God to know them all!

Brittany is a great writer & a super photographer amongst many other things... 

It’s been an encouraging past few months here in Helsinki! I wanted to pop in again and give a glimpse of what’s happening (from a member’s point of view) here with the Oh-So-Wonderful Helsinki church plant!

We Spragues have recently celebrated our one year of officially meeting and joining Kev and Lydia (we share this anniversary with Jani, he joined on the same Sunday one year ago as well!) and it’s been an incredible thing to consider all God has done in the past 365 days. Not only have we been growing in number (the Jones’ recently moved to a bigger place just to have it filled with more faces! Praise God!) but there has been a growing sense of cohesiveness and community in our group. The culture that is being formed in this community is so rich. We’re grateful to experience it.

While there are many exciting things ahead, today I wanted to share some of the highlights from the past several months. It's so encouraging to me to reflect on what He has done so far, and it makes me all the more confident of his continued work here in Helsinki!

Hard to believe this bird was running around the apartment just 30 minutes before this photo was taken!    

 Supporters look on in amazement as Brittany goes head to head with that turkey!  
[Final score: Brittany 1 Turkey Jerky 0]    

Back in November of 2014, we all gathered to celebrate an American Thanksgiving meal at our place. This was our first official holiday away from family and from our home country. The group loved on us by indulging in our traditions. Having this special group of people join us in our home (and in filling our bellies) made us feel deeply honored to get to be a part of this group. We even had the pleasure of meeting a few new faces at that event and they've since stuck around! Some major milestones were reached on that fateful night: we were able to persuade Kev to play a board game (and all the angels sang!), tried our first glöggi, and became thoroughly convinced that this group was special. 

We as a group ended the year with even more Christmas celebrations (like an awesome glöggi party put on by the Jones'!) and took time to reflect and dream of what the future year would look like. 

January through April birthed a rhythm of  meeting together weekly at the Jones’ for worship, community, and feasting. We have a few AMAZING chefs and bakers in our midst. Mr. Kev Jones himself makes a cheesecake that is top tier (a slice of which, I am sure, would leave Jesus Himself well pleased.) These past several months of meeting together have given us all opportunity to serve one another and be served. Several have taken a turn at leading worship, facilitating discussions, creating kid’s projects and lessons etc. It’s been a tender time of fellowship and growing together.

In March, we had the deep pleasure of having Paul and Hazel Flood from Bournemouth UK join us for a week.  They led an evening of prayer and encouragement that left everyone deeply uplifted and spiritually connected as a team. The gift of their presence and encouragement is still being felt months later.

Sports day fun in Helsinki [practice for next years turkey chase]    

In May, through Lydia’s work, we were able to have a fun Recreational Day in a school gymnasium. Several friends came to the event and it was a great time getting to share a meal, throw balls at the children (ha!) and really celebrate the littlest members of our congregation. I think everyone slept well that night!

Great time together at the recent #Sketch event [can't really think of a turkey related caption for this pic, but hey that's what the comments section     below is for right?]    

We  most recently had  the opportunity to do another #Sketch event in downtown Helsinki. We kicked off the weekend with a fun barbecue Friday night, then on Sunday, received an encouraging word from Tom Shaw from The City Church in Canterbury UK. We enjoyed worship lead by Alison Morrison. It was an awesome time together and was an encouraging exercise in having church in a more public setting.

Just a few weeks ago, Ben, Patrick and Kev officially submitted the documents required to make us an association with the Finnish Government. This will help allow us to open a church bank account, facilitate members giving, hire premisses more easily for meeting, employ staff in the future etc. We received notification just yesterday that our application has been granted and Relational Mission Helsinki Church Plant Ry now exists. The Ry bit stands for rekisteröity yhdistys, which as we all know is Finnish for registered association. We've known that the church plant itself exists for a while now[!], but it's great to hear that we have some growing legal status to reflect what is already happening relationally here on the ground.

Amidst all the sensational events, God has been bringing incredible people to join our church family through the year. Most recently we added Luke & Alison Morrison! We have been eagerly awaiting their arrival and it is so exciting to share that they have officially moved to Helsinki from the UK. We are all praising God as we’ve witnessed His divine hand in orchestrating their coming and we are already feeling the impact of having them with us.

We have been blessed so much by the Jones family and all that God is doing here through this church. Thank you for your continued prayer. While it's fun and exciting to write about all the cool things God is doing, He has been faithful in carrying this group through hard winters, stressful schedules, job interviews, financial struggle and life circumstances not so easy to write about. It is with joy that we can recount these fun times with you and it is still with joy that we get to share in Christ's suffering in building his Kingdom. I personally have caught glimpses of the sacrifice that many of these families have made, especially Kev & Lydia, in following where God calls. It is encouraging to see the fruit that has come from the past few months in the form of events and new faces, but God is continuing his good work in our personal lives as well. Most certainly God is using this church to speak truth to each other as we journey through the darker seasons (as I can personally testify!) All this to say, I'm most confident that the prayers you take time to make are changing lives here in Helsinki. We are directly benefiting from your prayers. Thank you. We are so grateful for the way you persevere in your commitment to praying for Finland

Summers in Finland are a super special cultural experience (the whole country seems to go nearly silent as they all migrate to their summer cabins!) but a whole lot of us will still be gathering in the Helsinki area to worship, fellowship and enjoy one another's company. We look forward to seeing all that God has in store for this church as we go forward into the rest of the year.

Follow on twitter: @Kevin_J_Jones

Email: finlandvision@gmail.com
Connect via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Helsinki.Plant