In this episode of the Evangelism Podcast, I interview Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi, a long-time listener of the Evangelism Podcast, He is a young and passionate evangelist from Finland. We discuss the spiritual climate in Finland and the growing movement of young Finns who are boldly preaching the gospel. We talk about our outreach in the central square of Tampere, Finland, which Christopher believes is a significant moment of public proclamation of the gospel in the nation. We highlight the powerful work God is doing to revive the gospel message in Finland through Spirit-filled evangelism.
Learn more about the ministry Christopher is with: https://www.armofgrace.com/team/christopher
Transcript:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I am in the nation of Finland and I have a very special guest with me. Christopher, thank you for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (00:15):
What an honor to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:18):
And you have already been listening to the Evangelism podcast for a long time. Tell me, what are some of the things that you’ve liked about listening to the episodes of the Evangelism podcast?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (00:32):
Well, you have Sir Daniel, you have a lot of expertise and you really shine for Jesus and you’re really excited about telling about Jesus and you’re doing it really well. So practical fix things like giving an outer call, how to do it. You speak straight about deliverance and stuff like that. We need the fire of the Lord and you’re really releasing it through your podcast for many to see like wow, God can move when we fully surrender to him. And he wants to use people like me, people like you. It’s not for just like crusade evangelists who have adult together, but normal believers can get it and go with it when they just listen to the podcast and they can preach.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:21):
Well, that’s the purpose of the podcast, is to tell the stories about what Jesus is doing around the world to talk about evangelism and then to expose people to these great testimonies of what Jesus is doing around the world. And so today we are in the city of Tamara in Finland. I heard that it is the fourth largest city in the country. Someone told me. Second largest city, do you know?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (01:49):
It’s the second.
Evangelist Daniel King (01:50):
It’s the second. So this is the second city of Finland, and we are going to be doing an outreach right in the Central Plaza in downtown Tamara. Tell me a little bit about what we will see Jesus do there.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (02:07):
So I’ll tell you a little backstory. So we were doing an outreach with some of my friends and after that we spoke that what has God spoken to us? And I shared a burden that’s been on my heart since I did as if I’m fire camp, that we need to proclaim the gospel. So the words I said was that the gospel must become public. And
Evangelist Daniel King (02:33):
So you felt like God spoke those words to you? Oh yes. That the gospel must become public.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (02:39):
It was like a team with the Holy Spirit, really hard conviction. And I had some struggle. I decided to see it. But when I came home from fire camp Daddy was easy. We all like this crazy culture. We preached together, hallelujah. And people were getting saved, the Lord and Holy Spirit was moving so powerful. But here I was asking like, Lord, would you open? And God stops me here and there like, Hey Christopher, I have a crusade gospel campaign ready for you. Preach to them. And then I was like running
Evangelist Daniel King (03:10):
Away. You’re from here in Tamara
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (03:12):
Or
Evangelist Daniel King (03:13):
You’re from nearby?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (03:14):
I’m originally from Thailand, Estonia, but I live here in Tampa.
Evangelist Daniel King (03:17):
You live here? Yes. So when God started to speak to you about the gospel must be public, this is about this city that you’re living in, God placed it on your heart.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (03:27):
Oh yes. So what I really feel like is that this, what we are going to do, this campaign is really prophetic declaration that we will release the sound of the gospel here because so many in this generation, they heard about Jesus, maybe by name, they know religion, but they never even heard the real gospel and especially what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus. So people actually, many are getting really, really hungry. No one is teaching in the religion classes anymore, know this kind of barrier that, oh, we’ve seen this thing. But people are really getting more and more like, okay, someone needs to teach. What is this all about? Who is Jesus? And so
Evangelist Daniel King (04:13):
After you went to the Christ for All nations fire camp, then you just got on fire for sharing the gospel and you’ve been traveling to different places. Tell me where you’ve been.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (04:26):
I’ve been to Kenya for youth campaigns also in Cambodia, which is a Buddhist nation and The Gambia, which is still a Muslim nation, but
Evangelist Daniel King (04:35):
Not soon. And so now you’re right here. Now a lot of people they say, why do you go so far away when there’s people right at home that need Jesus? And I like to say that the light that shines farthest shines brightest near at home. And so it’s wonderful to see God do something in Kenya and Cambodia and Gambia, but you must also be a witness in your hometown. And so that’s what we’re doing this week.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (05:00):
Yes, sir. So I really feel like God has spoken to me because he has called me into many places outside and the word of God says, we have to preach to all. So many people have never even heard the name of Jesus. How could we not let them know? But God has really spoken that while I’m there, he’s also taking care of the home. Of course, we have to obey in here. We have to take care of our friends who preach the gospel to them boldly and share the love of Christ with them. But God has really grown me in this trust that he has to handle when we obey, when we go, he loves us so much and he wants to take care of our own nation and bring revival in here. And as my friend had a saying, what he heard from the Holy Spirit that as I saw into crusades into big gospel campaigns, we were as a nation rep also in gospel campaigns.
(06:02):
So I really believe the blessings and the boldness that God is growing in this mission field, for example, preaching to Muslims, which is crazy thing to do when we come back, we receive the Holy Spirit, what he has done in us, and we can be so much bolder. And even though we less time in here, we can bring the fire of the Holy Spirit. And we’re so much more effective in here since the fire camp. I’ve been traveling much more outside, but it actually has made some ways and equipping for me to have so much more harvest in here. And yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:40):
Yeah. So we’ve been watching on Facebook, the Jesus Tour, and this is a group of the Christ for all nations evangelism bootcamp students that have come together and said, we must reach Finland for Jesus. And I’ve seen in city after city with a big gospel truck going and preaching the gospel. And so you’ve been helping out with a few of the different events you helped out in Helsinki and here in Tamara. Tell me a little bit about what you’ve seen happen in the Jesus tour.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (07:16):
Well, one of the most remarkable things was in Korea. I wasn’t there myself, but it was a small town and we put in the city square, the gospel truck, and we preached the gospel and we were thinking, is any people coming here? Because there was very little. But then it happened that in the outreach before the actually event, our team met a person, a young man who had metal in his heart because of problems held and they prayed and he started to test his chest and everything. And the problem, the metal was stopping and hurting, it was gone. And I don’t know exactly what happened, but seems to me like metal is gone and this guy is going all over and he shares to all his friends around. And they came as a group like here in Finland, a group of young people coming to a gospel campaign. And then they give their life to Jesus, most of them there. And then they come for discipleship in the evening. And local youth pastors got to really connect with them. And some of them are still following Jesus today and going with the gospel.
Evangelist Daniel King (08:36):
So what is the spiritual climate here in Finland when you begin to share the gospel with someone? How do people respond?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (08:46):
I think people want to see something real in here. And we have to be really honest as we preach and sincere that this what we carry. We have to know that the gospel we’re preaching is good news. And when people see that in us, they’re also open. What on earth is this? We heard about religion and stuff. We don’t want to deal with the empty things, but okay, you carry something real, you really met Jesus. And when we speak to gospel and we go in boldness in faith, we pray for healings and stuff and people are like, I didn’t know that there was a God who can do that. And there is lots of reaction.
(09:31):
Someone’s, for example, ankle gets healed, whoa, this can happen to me. And this really surprising stir up hunger. And I believe that even though there’s a lots of secularism and there is also a lots of depression, all kinds of bad stuff and lots of speaking that into this generation and in this nations also, that they’re rejected Christ. But when we actually preach the gospel and come in the power of Jesus, so many people are actually open, open and it’s getting even more and more open. And especially the young teens, I’d say like 13 to 15 year olds, they’re so open. I’m not even surprised when we stopped by a group of five or six people maybe. And we just do a mini gospel campaign to them. We share the quick gospel and we give an altar call like, Hey, do you want to receive Jesus? And they answer. And oftentimes many of them want to give their life to Jesus. And it doesn’t even surprise me anymore.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:36):
Yeah. Last night we were with our team from Houston, Texas. We brought 20 people here with us and we’re at McDonald’s and there were a group of teenage girls there, and one of our team members started to share with them about Jesus and said, would you like to pray a prayer of salvation? They said, I’ve never heard of that before, but yes, I want to. And so the girls prayed, they repeated the prayer of salvation and then afterwards she says, wow, I feel so good now. I feel so good. And she’s like, this feels so good. I have to go tell my friends about this. This is crazy. She’s so excited. And then she ran off and grabbed her friends and brought them back and says, you have to also pray this prayer. It makes you feel so good. And it was so neat to see how open they were, because at first they asked, are you Christian?
(11:25):
He says, yes, I was born a Christian. But of course, you also must make a choice to follow Jesus. And I think that’s probably a common thought here in Finland that people think, because I’m part of a traditional church, then I go to church on Easter and on my wedding day that I’m a Christian. But then every person must make a choice to follow Jesus. And when she prayed that prayer and made that choice to follow, Jesus felt so good on the inside and immediately she became an evangelist. I mean, it was just like the woman at the well in John chapter four. She rushed off and she got her friends and brought them back and says, you have to pray this prayer too.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (12:06):
Amen. And what you mentioned that she went out to preach to others. We’ve seen when people have come with the fire of God and they’ve been preaching the gospel and people have got touched, that those who actually want to follow Jesus, many of them, they want to go and preach forward. This is really actually really radical culture shift in Finland right now. Before there was, let’s say 3, 4, 5 years ago, there wasn’t so many who were going, but now we had circuit writers coming in here like, Hey, we are not ashamed of the gospel. We have the fire comes in Finland, like hallelujah. And people are raising in such boldness that I myself, even as I’m teaching them, well, I might have both. They’re going, going with the gospel and it’s going from disciple disciple generation to generation like new believers and new believers. They preach the gospel and we have this culture.
(13:04):
And one example is I shared the gospel in a Bible study with my friends. We shared to one guy and he got saved in there radically. And he started preaching everywhere. And many of his friends got saved and they started preaching forward and people started getting many, many, many saved. And some of them now are preaching through rap, even in the gospel campaigns in Jesus store, one of his friends has been sharing the gospel with the power of the Holy Spirit. You can really sense the Holy Spirit on these guys. And their friends have been having this culture where they preach in YouTube and suddenly there’s 1 million views on video here in Finland where there’s only 8 million people. And this really radical, I will preach the gospel. I’m not ashamed of the gospel culture as really writing here. Like the lady, Hey, I got share for this is what I experienced. It’s not my personal thing or something, but it’s kind of automatic in this culture that of course we preach. So that’s been a really big shift. I’m so grateful for.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:14):
Yeah. So God began to speak to you about preaching the gospel publicly.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (14:19):
Oh yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (14:20):
And now we are here. We are doing the Jesus tour. We will be in the central square preaching the gospel publicly. Amen. That word that you began to pray for is now coming to pass. It’s a real miracle because God brought the Jesus tour after 11 cities. This is the last city. And so we’re expecting God to do the greatest here at the last. And God brought our team all the way from the United States to come and partner with it. And so it’s a really miracle. What do you believe in God for here on Tamar? What would you like to see God do in the next couple of nights?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (14:59):
His holy presence coming upon us? And we have here 15 churches involved. So I really dream that all of these churches and people who come here would get a taste of the gospel and the power of the simple clear gospel. And they would take the torch to everywhere. And I believe in Jesus culture, what is normal, for example, in Helsinki, two hours from here, there’s a metro. Okay? We didn’t metro, we will preach, we will worship, preach, and I believe this. We’re going to worship. We’re going to fill the city with the noise of Jesus in the middle of pride and all the other noises. And this is going to be everywhere. That’s what I believe.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:41):
Yes. If sin can be lifted up loud, why can’t we lift up Jesus loud?
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (15:45):
We got to have to.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:48):
Amen. Well, let’s finish by praying for God to send his fire to Finland. And if you could pray, but don’t pray in English, pray and finish that God would send his fire to this nation.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (16:03):
Yo. Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:55):
Ah man.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (16:55):
Amen.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:56):
Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.
Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi (16:59):
Thank you so much, brother. We’re
Evangelist Daniel King (17:01):
Glad to have you here.
