Stand With Us!

It has been a while since the last post. Things have been extraordinarily busy here with getting ready for the off. We leave our home in the UK for Helsinki this coming Wednesday [17th]. So this Sunday will be our final Sunday with our friends at The City Church Canterbury.

Last night our wonderful small group gave us a super send off by arriving on our doorstep dressed as The Moomins [a Finnish national treasure!]. I opened the front door to nine Moomins characters clutching trays of food, cakes etc. for us to share together. They even had the theme music playing as I opened the door! What a great bunch and what a special evening!

I never want to hear anyone say that a Moomin doesn't make a great lasagne! Never!   

We were also thrilled to once again be contacted by a friend Susan Mack, from the church at Hedge End in the UK, who along with her husband Iain have supported us in prayer since the small beginnings of our journey to move to Helsinki to help plant a church. Before hearing about us they had been praying with a Finnish friend of theirs for many years for breakthrough in Finland.

Susan wrote to me as she has the opportunity to share prayer requests on our behalf with the international prayer group she attends. They have asked her to feed back about our latest situation to help focus the group to intercede for us. Hearing about this sort of thing [that people we have not met will be gathering to pray for the nations and that we will be part of their prayer agenda] is humbling and is such an encouragement to us! God shares his heart for the nations with us his people in so many ways. Some are called to go while others are stirred to an ongoing commitment to pray. 

As I wrote back to Susan with some thoughts on what she might be able to encourage the group to pray for us for, I also felt stirred to put these out there as an encouragement to friends and readers of this blog who we may not have met, to partner in what God is doing and going to do in Helsinki, by standing with us in prayer.

Many of the things you can pray for at this time will be stuff you may already be familiar with if you have followed our journey.  

A few key areas though include:

• Finding a place to live. Due to various pieces of red tape, we have not been able to rent a property from the UK to move in to when we arrive. We do have a week of house-sitting, so we have somewhere to go when we first arrive, but after that nothing yet. This is scary stuff, but we have peace that God will provide for us in a hilarious way.   
• Travel. Lydia will be flying to Helsinki with the three children and her mum on the 18th. I will be driving our car in convoy with Barry [Lydia's dad] who will be driving a van with our furniture etc. to Stockholm, where we will catch an overnight ferry to Helsinki. This journey will take four days. Pray for safety, good connections and lots of fun and a great sense of God's love and presence going with us.
• Finances. As a young family, we don't have huge financial means but, God has provided every step of the way for our various essential trips, and having accepted the job and fully committed to go [without the money to cover the relocation costs] we have seen the money come in  in order for us to be able to go! Praise God! This has come through support from Relational Mission and the the local church, but also from much anonymous giving. It has been amazing! Looking ahead we need God to continue to provide – not just to get us there, but to resource planting a vibrant Spirit filled church. A couple of families have committed to give on a monthly basis, this is so helpful as we move to an expensive part of the world and will be vital in sustaining the work we hope to do.
• Settling in. Lydia's new job [a heroic effort after five years as a stay at home mum, to put herself out there and secure a job meaning we can move and become residents in Finland], family transition etc. general stuff about adjusting, finding our feet, the children feeling secure, speedy processing to become residents and receive Finnish social security numbers etc. 
• Doors to open for the church plant itself. A lot of our prayer requests are to do with the immediate practicalities, but please pray for immediate breakthrough and for God to open doors for the church plant at its early stages. As we have been rather swamped by working through the inevitable practicalities, please pray for a fresh sense of how God wants to shape things and particular areas he wants to use us in. For the right relationships to be knitted together, and for clarity and insight on how to move forward with the group of friends we have been connecting with. Pray for a particular culture or distinctive flavor of church to begin to form which will be authentic, but also relevant to the people in the Helsinki area.

I hope this is of some use and that you can feel stirred to remember us and battle through in prayer for us at this time. Feel free to drop me a quick email or post a comment below if you like as we would be super encouraged to hear of folk praying for us.

Once again, a huge thank you for your ongoing interest and commitment to us and your perseverance in prayer. We really do need people like you backing us particularly in prayer, so we really do thank God that he has given you all to support us in this way!

Follow on twitter @Kevin_J_Jones

Email: finlandvision@gmail.com

Who is The One We Are Asking?

I flew out to Stockholm on Friday filled with expectation for what God had in store for us all at the Stockholm prayer weekend, but also still feeling somewhat shell-shocked over what had happened in the last seven days and the tasks that lay ahead.

Last Thursday Lydia and I were in Helsinki for a long weekend. We had booked flights for these dates in faith, not knowing if in fact there would be any reason for us going at that particular time, but hoping that these steps would bear fruit. As the dates came closer Lydia secured three job interviews – two on the Friday and one on the Saturday. Suddenly our trip had a clear focus and purpose.

It has been around three years since God shared with us some of his heart for Helsinki and drew us in, compelling us to co-labour with him in the plans he has for this city, Finland as a nation and the Nordic and Baltic regions. Since then it has been a journey of preparation, patience and prayer as we took gradual steps toward pushing on this door and God making his plans a reality.

Lydia on the train to her first job interview    

We were thrilled to discover before leaving Helsinki last Monday that Lydia had been offered two of the three jobs. One of these was the job she really wanted, in an area we were feeling increasingly drawn to and nearby to some of the friends we have been getting to know. God has been so faithful to us and has broken through at the right time. In Helsinki it is often difficult to even be invited to interview, which makes the two job offers even more impressive.

Suddenly the wait is over. Lydia has a start date of the 29^th July and has organised flights for her, her mum and the children to travel to Helsinki on the 18^th July. We have a short period of time where some friends have said we can housesit, but we really need to find a permanent address in time for us to move in, before this period of housesitting comes to an end. Barry [Lydia’s father] and I will most likely be driving a truckload of our furniture to Helsinki at the same time that Lydia and the children travel.

There are obstacles in the way. The main one is that as non-residents we do not yet have a social security number. We’re discovering that without this it is difficult to do a lot of important things such as: open a bank account, rent a home, register children at a state run kindergarten, sign up with a doctor, the list goes on! It’s nail-biting stuff, but we trust that this is God’s initiative and not ours. We trust that he will provide and bring things to completion. We trust that his attention is on this and he won’t forget us or let us fall.

Phil, Emma, Noah & Anna Whittall visiting us in Helsinki last summer. Great memories!

The Stockholm prayer weekend was excellent. A great time of being with dear friends from Relational Mission and other leaders from the Baltic/Scandinavia region, some of whom are at a similar stage to us, if not further ahead. I enjoyed spending time with the Whittalls, seeing their home and neighborhood and being able to finally picture them in Sweden. They are devoted to God & devoted to Stockholm. God is blessing the nations through this courageous family. It was thrilling to feel God’s heart for Sweden and the Scandinavian nations as we enjoyed his vital presence together. We went out in groups around the city to pray. The groups were each given a theme for their prayer walk and a particular route. The surroundings, the people, shop signs, the architecture provided constant stimulation and inspiration for our prayers and gave shape to prophetic words for the Stockholm plant, there was time back at the meeting venue to feed these back to the others and celebrate what God had been saying. I cannot emphasise enough what an excellent time this was. This model  could be used in all cities, towns and locations and not only reserved for very special weekends like this.

Mike Betts had taught from the parable of the persistent widow, emphasizing that there is nothing about this story that is like coming to God. The unjust judge gives in to the widow because he is irritated, but if is possible to lobby someone like that and eventually receive a favourable outcome, how much more will God stand with you and me for what we are asking. My favourite quote from that session was ‘Prayer is laying hold of God’s willingness, not overcoming his reluctance’. This has been resonating in my heart ever since. Our prayers make a huge difference and our weak attempts are not discarded by him, but are welcomed by him. We were challenged that ‘have I got faith?’ is an unhelpful question, and that the true question should be ‘who is the one we are asking?’

As we edge closer to our moving date, realising the increasing, unanticipated challenges we face just to rent an apartment, formalise logistical plans to get us out to Helsinki and begin to settle there we would do well to focus on who it is we are coming to. Not an impatient judge but a loving father and saviour who is immeasurably for us and has opened the door to us to Finland and can be trusted to complete what he has started.

Please pray for us for:

• Favour with the necessary companies and organisations, and that they will deal with us despite us not yet having the social security number. 
• A good, affordable family home, which works well for us, but also works as a place to host guests, meet & launch a church from. 
• God’s wisdom, despite all of the unknowns we currently face as we make decisions about how and when is best to move our stuff to Helsinki
• Us as a family as we invest much of our time and energy into doing what we can to resolve these issues, that we know God’s peace and security throughout this pressured season [please pray this especially for the children]
• The Stockholm and Riga church plants also, that they quickly see signs of fruit and breakthrough as a result of battles won in prayer over this weekend.

Follow on twitter @Kevin_J_Jones

Email kjones@ucreative.ac.uk

kaupungissa! [in the city!]

Tomorrow morning Lydia and I leave for a four-day trip to Helsinki. We are very excited at the thought of being back in Helsinki again, walking the streets, hearing the language and enjoying the sunshine. It is a great place to visit; the perfect city break! 

One of the many busy squares in the city centre   

There is however a real urgency to our trip this time. Since the summer, when we spent over a month in Helsinki, we have been working on a relocation plan to allow us to be back there on a permanent basis this summer. This has involved research, language lessons, maintaining contact with the super friends we have got to know out there, job applications, Skype interviews, writing speculative letters and emails to possible employers and of course much prayer. Even with the wonders of modern technology, there is only so much we are able to do from our home here in Kent. We are therefore desperate to see some tangible positive steps and doors opening as a result of this trip. Lydia now has three job interviews lined up for positions in kindergartens. Two are in Espoo [a neighbouring district connected to Helsinki], this is a family area which is slightly cheaper than the expensive city centre. The third interview is in Helsinki itself. This is very positive; we now need one of these places to make a concrete job offer. 

Lydia at the tram stop   

We are also delighted to have opportunity to see the friends we have been in regular contact with from our visit in the summer. They have since the summer pioneered a small house-church type missional community. They are a super bunch and have been so kind to us translating letters, giving advice and generally being so encouraging and behind us. We can’t wait to see them again and are thrilled to have been invited to a get together with their house church friends who want to meet and hear from us also. It is such a privilege to be invited into a network of relationships, which they have fought so hard to establish.  We value their openness and commitment to us.

Finally, we have had great difficulty affording this trip. Although in Europe, Helsinki is not a cheap place to get to or to be in. Like many we struggle to manage financially as a family without adding expensive trips into the mix. We are so thrilled though to say that through various gifts and expressions of support that we have ended up just £4.00 short of all we need to cover the entire cost of the trip! We are so grateful to experience the love and support of the family of God who catch the heart of our calling and are so eager to partner with us!

Please pray for:

• Lydia’s interviews, for a job offer[s] which will also give us some clarity as to which neighborhood we can focus on. 
• Developments with finding suitable and affordable accommodation. 
• Our time with the house-church friends; that we can be a blessing to them, that our relationships deepen and continue to flourish, and that they feel encouraged to continue to help and support us too. 
• The children [Edith, Johan & Barnabas] as they stay at home with grandparents, but knowing that our trip is connected to our relocation to Helsinki as a family 
• Me as I meet with some university contacts with a view to finding a suitable career path for me in Helsinki. 
• On-going financial provision, that should we get a job offer that we will be able to afford all of the relocation costs [shipping, travel, deposit for an apartment, other taxes and fees etc.]

Helsinki Plant Interview

In this interview we answer some questions about our journey so far and the current status of the Helsinki church plant. The interview happened at the recent Relational Mission Presence of God tour in Canterbury. The questions were put to us by Mike Betts, leader of the Relational Mission apostolic sphere.



Kev and Lydia - Helsinki from The City Church on Vimeo.

Please pray for us for jobs, other financial provision, housing and that we will be able to move to Helsinki this summer. Please pray also for the continued formation of a church planting team, that others feel stirred to join us, that people will sense a call not just to a church plant, but to be God's agents in bringing his kingdom and changing an entire nation.

Some Information about Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital of Finland. The city itself has a population of around 600,000 but as populations increase, the areas to the North, east and west of the city are now merging together to form one much larger municipal area combining to form the worlds most northern urban area of over one million people.

One in five Finns live in this area. Helsinki is strategically placed 50 mi north of Tallinn, Estonia, 250 mi east of Stockholm, Sweden, and 190 mi west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Helsinki has close Historical connections with these three cities. The architecture seems to reflect this with a mix of Scandinavian and Russian influence evident as you explore.

Helsinki has a diverse and cosmopolitan atmosphere and is similar to other European capital cities in that respect. The city is well organized, clean and safe to walk around and explore. In 2009, Helsinki was chosen to be the World Design Capital for 2012

In the Economist Intelligence Unit's August 2012 Livability survey, assessing the best and worst cities to live in, Helsinki was placed 8th best overall.

Helsinki has a humid continental climate due to the influence of the Baltic Sea and Gulf Stream. Temperatures in winter are much higher than the far northern location might suggest, with the average in January and February around −5 °C. Temperatures below −20 °C occur normally a week or two in a year. Because of the latitude, days last less than six hours around the winter solstice but, Helsinki enjoys long days in summer [19 hours around the summer solstice].

The culture here is secular to say the least. Although over 80% of the population would tick their religion as Christian and volunteer to pay a tax directly from their salary to the Lutheran church [which is the national religion and still regarded as essential when applying for jobs etc.] less than 1% go to any form of church and of that number a very tiny percentage again could be described as born again and reformed in their theology. Most aren’t anti God or the church, more disinterested and completely unaffected by conversation to do with religion. Those who are religious often regard this as a private matter and not for open discussion.