HELSINKI, FINLAND

I am here seated on the 6th floor of an apartment in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. I arrived here Tuesday evening from Germany and this evening I depart for Stockholm, Sweden.

Finland has been a great country and I have really enjoyed meeting the people here. Our main contact here is Aki a former missionary to Uganda who serves with ONE WAY mission. Finland is a great country with a lot of heritage. It is a country with only 5 million people and just this last week it was nominated to be the most favorable country to live in the world. Clean, great healthcare, very peaceful and friendly.

This country got its independence from Russia in 1917 and it has been at peace except for the world war where it sided with Germany and in effect lost much after the war.

The church here is probably the strongest in the whole of Europe, they have a strong Protestant history with the Lutheran church being the largest church in Finland. This church has seen lots of great moves of God in the past and the country generally remains more conservative. The Pentecostal church here is very strong and they experienced a great revival soon after the Azusa revival in the early 20th century. It is amazing that people here still hold street meetings and there is a free Christian TV channel as well as a radio station. The Finish government has been known to provide a lot of development help to the 3rd world through the church.

I have had great experiences here meeting many people and some the great high lights have been the interview I had for the TV station where I was asked to talk about the orphan needs of Africa. I also had the opportunity of visiting their parliament and was amazed at the democratic system of this country.

Aki has taken me to all the key places in Helsinki and I have tasted much of what the Finns love. A visit to the 2 Cathedrals was such a blessing. The Lutherans here are so strong and powerful the next large group here are the Russian orthodox churches, they have a lot of history.

We have had a 2 day conference here which went so well. Last evening I was able to make a presentation about our ministry and received some very encouraging responses. The conference has brought together over 200 people and of course most of these are from Finland. But we also have had people from Nepal, India, Ukrain, Russia and a few of those names that are so new to me like Estonia.

Our keynote speaker has been Al Akinoff an American Missionary to the Eastern Europeans, what a blessing to have heard this great man of God who shared with us the passion he has to reach the world for Christ. I am looking forward to the next few days in Sweden and I believe I will again learn some more.

Talk to you again soon.

Peter on the Road!