Finnish ConnectionsJoe Knight - 15 Jul 2010

As our plane began its smooth descent into Helsinki, Finland, I took a deep breath and gazed out of the window towards the vast patchwork expanse of lakes and deep green forests. I hid my joy at beating my wife, Kim and Pete Greig at Monopoly (an excellent iPhone app) and drew my thoughts to the coming weekend.

Before I knew it, we were off the plane and warmly welcomed by the excellent and remarkable Richard Brewis, who quickly began explaining the details of the Finnish Free Church conference, where Pete would be the opening speaker. About ten thousand people were heading towards Helsinki from around the country for their annual gathering, and this year’s focus would be prayer.

In the midst of an abundance of waffles and sticky syrup, we listened to the passion of the 24-7 Prayer Finnish national team, who find themselves a fair way down the road to seeing 24-7 Prayer really kick off around the country. Numerous houses of prayer have launched in this Scandinavian country during the last 18 months and a growing desire to see prayer, mission and justice marry together is spreading throughout the church.

Back in May we featured the country of Finland in our 'Euro Voices' season, noting key prayer requests as: connections between those with a heart for prayer, for believers to boldly to go beyond the church walls and for many to be inspired to pray. Little by little over the conference weekend, we saw glimpses of those prayers being answered.

This weekend people came from all over the country with all kinds of experiences. From those converting old barns into permanent prayer houses to those keen to convert a small room into a prayer space for a week. They were inspired by Pete's talks; retelling a few of the countless stories from the last 10 years, plus the challenge to be honest and persevere through unanswered prayer. Around 40 people gave (or recommitted) their lives to Jesus during the evening session. Kim ended up praying with one of the ladies who had been a Muslim from Russia. I helped take a couple of seminars on prayer spaces. One guy I spoke to was inspired to put a Prayer Room at a youth camp he's running at the end of the month (apparently the first of its kind in the Free Church). We had an awesome conversation about how the team could put prayer spaces into three Helsinki schools; and we spoke to and prayed with some people who are connected with the government about doing a prayer week in the Finnish Parliament.

So, people are hearing and acting upon the call to prayer; prayer that goes beyond the walls of their churches into schools, government buildings and many spheres of every day life. And though I travelled to Finland to help inspire and encourage others, I’ve returned having been the victim of much inspiration for this ongoing adventure to see Jesus centred prayer, mission and justice spring forth.