Month Two in Lapland

Yes, even after almost 2 months being in Lapland, Finnish sky doesn't stop to impress me!!!

       It feels like this month just went way too fast :) but no complains that means that our wedding day is coming soon...

       The month started by us being invited to lead worship at Life Factory, the youth ministry of Kemi Pentecostal church. You think that by now I would have learn that there is always something more expected from us than what I am being told :) Together with Mirjami we were asked to share something more about us, our walk with God and our future plans. It was great to just sit in a nice, cozy place, relax atmosphere and share with the youth about Jesus' worth, beauty, passion and love for us...after 45min of sharing we continued the night with worship that turned out into a time of prayer and ministry. It was one of those moments where you don't plan to do anything, but the Spirit comes and takes over and you just enjoy yourself and loose yourself in the presence of God.

       Long before we arrived in Finland one of Mirjami's friend asked us if we would like to do one day teaching on worship & prayer on which we said YES. Finally the day for that came. We were able to spend one weekend at the town of Ylistaro and enjoy great hospitality by Mirjami's friend and her husband. Oh it was so great being in the countryside and enjoy the sunny days laying down on the grass and being fead the most amazing food so far while in Finland :)
       The day of teaching started and ended great. We had around 30 people present most of them part of Lutheran church but also people from Pentecostal and Free Church. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw that there was only 2 man and the rest of them all women :)
     
       This was a first time for Mirjami and me to teach together so we were excited to see how that would work in practice. It was a real joy and a blessing to see each other flowing in the same spirit even though we were talking about worship & prayer from different scriptures from the Bible, scriptures that have impacted our own personal life's. One lady said to me that her husband passed away recently and ever since then she's been struggling with depression and the reason she came was to find that place of joy and freedom once again so she was thankful for our teachings. Our main challenge for the people was to create and abide in that place of intimacy with Jesus as a place from where everything else flows.

       I'm discovering more and more the beauty of teaching, the beauty of encouraging others and revealing God's word but in that way I myself am being encouraged, my heart is being stirred up, my soul is touched, my spirit is moved...From other side being able to teach, preach, share with people, lead worship here in Finland together with Mirjami really humbles me because I'm just a guy from small mining town, in a small country that makes people wonder; "where is Macedonia?"...and to think how God found me, led me to be where I am now, doing what I'm doing it's just beyond me...but that is our Father who loves us as much as He loves His Son Jesus, that is our Savior Jesus Christ filled with desire, passion, compassion...that is our Comforter - Holy Spirit revealing the beauty and mystery of God...Needless to say that we are excited for our returning to Macedonia and what God has in store for us there and how He will continue to lead us and use us for His Kingdom and His glory!!!

       First week of July our love story came out in the Pentacoastal church magazine here in Lapland. You can't help it but feel special with a huge smile on your face when you see your picture on the cover and another full page picture followed by our story. Almost feel like celebrity here in Lapland :)

       Two Sunday's ago we were invited to preach at the Tornio Pentecostal Church, church that Mirjami has been connected with for a long time. Mirjami shared about us and our future plans and helped with worship while it was my time to preach. I talked about living a life of passion and compassion, life of one thing, life passionate for the beauty and presence of God and challenging the believers to make intimacy with God priority in their life's. It is always encouraging receiving positive feedback from the people afterwards, comments like; "it was both message and spirit in one", "it was deep and full of knowledge"...and one of the leaders said that he has been feeling dry and empty so this is what he needed to hear. He even suggested that we should come back and do a short teaching/bible study for his church... Unfortunately their available dates were not working for us so we had to kindly say NO.

       Our last ministry time for this month was leading worship for a local event organized for Gospel Riders Finland. In spite the cold weather with Mirjami we did few songs while the bikers from their side were sharing their testimonies, messages and sharing the Good News face to face with the people standing or just passing by.  

15 DAYS UNTIL THE BIG DAY!!!

       Since our wedding day is approaching fast we decided to fully focus just on our wedding and everything that still needs to be done. We were able to finalize how the church ceremony will look like and the day before we will have rehearsal (that's something that you don't see in Macedonia for sure), we almost made all the decorations, few more waiting on us, the reception place looks much better after second time visiting and we were able to get an idea how we want to set it up, the menu list is done, my family bought the flight tickets so they are coming for sure, Mirjami has her hairdresser and make up scheduled, which reminds me that I need to cut my hair little bit but paying 25 Euros sounds like lot of money to me :)  
       We have really been blessed financially and taken care off by God during this last 2 months, being able to cover our daily food expenses and not be burden to anyone. Even though we don't have all the money needed to cover all the wedding expenses we are believing that God will provide for all that we need but you can still pray for that.
       Also you can pray for our support for life and ministry in Macedonia which right now is on 60% raised.
       Another important prayer request is for Mirjami's documents needed for her to apply for Macedonian residence permit once we move there. Right now we have only 2 documents of 4 needed. All of those documents needed to be from Sweden (yes Mirjami is Finnish with Swedish passport) but we got positive replay from Macedonia saying that one of those 2 documents needed we don't have to have it and the second one it can be from Finland. But you can still pray that everything goes ok and that we will not have any problems with documents once we return to Macedonia because without all of these documents we can only stay in Macedonia for 3 months.

Blessings & Love