God's Presence Breaks the Ice in Finland - 24 May 2005
Praying young people in the Scandinavian nation of Finland believe that "the ice covering our country is melting." Ian Nicholson (below) our European Director, recently returned with an encouraging report from Helsinki. "It was a great trip," he writes, "with temperatures of -15, lots of snow, cross-country skiing on a frozen lake and of course the wonderful Finns! The highlight though was the National Youth Day of Prayer."
"About 100 people gathered over the day (which is a lot of people in the context of Finland) in the oldest free church in Helsinki. It is a church that has seen revival and also sent out many missionaries over the years. There was some great worship led by teenagers all day and some good teaching and loads of stories about 24-7. However it was the evening when things really stood out.
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"For two hours there was wonderful prayer, dancing and singing – God’s presence was so powerful." |
All day there had been something waiting to break but it was all pretty reserved. There was then prayer that young people and prayer would break out in Finland. The Vision track was played and at one point people simply starting yelling Come On with all their beings, dancing, singing, shouting and crying. Then for about 2 hours there was wonderful prayer, dancing and singing – God’s presence was so powerful. |
The trip was organised by Eva Sarsa a Finnish mum and church leader who is the nearest thing to perpetual motion and omnipresence that is humanly possible! Eva reports about the day…..The expressions of dance and song were so vivid that it was hard to believe what we saw. Were these really the quiet, reserved Finnish people? Later young people came up to share what they felt God had said to them. One pastor asked for forgiveness from the younger generation for not giving space for them and as a response, one young man asked for fogiveness for not respecting the previous generation. Some cried and the release of forgiveness was immense.
When I asked different leaders, young and old, what they thought was the most relevant thing that happened during the day, they all agreed that in the evening meeting new things broke out. They mentioned the following things…
- the bondages of religion and tradition were broken in many lives, so that the young people were free to express their love and worship to Jesus - chains were broken from their feet
- the generations were touched and the younger generation was released by the previous generation to lead and express the touch of the Holy Spirit on their own way.
- a new sound was released from the Finnish youth, a cry was heard
- we believe that the rivers that were released will continue to flow and release others as the youth came from different cities around Southern Finland
- a prophecy was given during the day that the ice that covers our country is melting from both sides, from the top, God’s love from heaven, and from the ground itself as God’s love is warming our hearts – a breakthrough is coming!
