A Report from the 24-7 Nordic GatheringAndy Freeman - 22 Jan 2008

I’m writing this on a plane flying back from Finland, where I’ve been with my friend and fellow 24-7er Ian Nicholson.  We’ve been attending the 24-7 Nordic gathering with 55 others from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark. We converged in Turku to pray together and see what God is doing across the Nordic nations.

Finland is a unique and beautiful country.  Yesterday we looked out of our meeting room onto the Finnish archepelego, with waves crashing, beautiful trees all around us (‘the forest is the Finnish church’) and snow falling around us.  It was stunning. It’s been a lovely weekend in many ways.  Much of what Ian and I were there to do was listen, encourage and hang out.  I can report that Jesus is at work in each of these countries: He’s blessing missionaries in Iceland, four people have moved to Reykjavik and are looking to start a community.

24-7 Kollectivs (or communities) in Sweden are active in prayer and mission with three or four new Christians involved in the community in Upsalla while the Stockholm community is facilitating eight weeks of continuous prayer around churches in the city.  On a national level the 24-7 Sweden team is forming around our new team leader Sandra Palm.

Prayer Rooms are spreading throughout Finland many developing annual rhythms of 24-7 Prayer.  One group of churches in the North East prayed 24-7 last May, they loved it so much they didn’t stop and prayed continuously through most of the rest of the year.  With all that’s stirring in Finland we’re praying about forming a national team to nurture and resource all God is doing.
Throughout 2007 travelling teams have journeyed around nations like Denmark, Latvia and Lithuania.  People are praying into and researching the roots of the Nordic nations and for the Saami people, indigenous to Norway, Sweden and Russia.

As we gathered we had a time of prayer together where six people came with the same image: an ice breaking ship forging it’s way forward like John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus.  It was an exciting and important time.  God is at work so watch this space.