Finland

Report from Finland

Europe has often been called a post-Christian continent… but I believe we’re stepping into a new era—because God is beginning to move in a mighty way!

This summer, I had the incredible privilege of ministering at my first Gospel crusade in Europe!

It started at a Jesus Night in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. I’m calling it “From Helsinki to Heaven,” because people were rescued from darkness and given the pathway to eternal life in Christ!

But that was just the beginning.

Our team traveled to Tampere, Finland’s second-largest city. There, we witnessed the Holy Spirit move in power!

Tampere is Finland’s second-largest urban area, known as the “Sauna Capital of the World” because it has more saunas per capita than any other city on earth. But beneath the surface of this modern city—known for technology, education, and design—lies a deep spiritual hunger.

Over 230,000 people live in Tampere, and many have never experienced a real encounter with the living God.

We hosted an Empowerment Night and an Evangelism Training for local believers—equipping the Finnish Church to reach their cities and nation. I believe God is raising them up to “Finnish the Great Commission!”

A passionate team of 20 evangelists from America joined us, linking arms with Finnish believers for one-on-one evangelism on the streets. Some rejected the message, yes—but many more were curious, open, and hungry for the truth.

During the eight-day mission trip, our witnessing team from Houston Faith Church spoke to a total of 2,199 people. On one witnessing day in Helsinki at Narinkkatori Square, our team gave away 380 slices of pizza, 480 water bottles, and 755 tracts. Of the people we approached, 242 prayed for salvation, 54 received the Holy Spirit, 44 were healed, 674 of these was a conversational encounter where a seed was planted, and 1,002 people completely rejected having a conversation about God.

I was witnessing in a park in Tampere. There was a man named Timo (diminutive of Timothy). He was covered in tattoos, drinking cheap wine from a water bottle and listening to rock music on a battery powered speaker. I shared the Gospel with him for thirty minutes. At first, he did not want to listen, but after a while, he turned down his music and paid attention to what I was saying about Jesus. Finally, I asked him if he would pray with me for salvation. He repeated a salvation prayer after me and afterward he had tears in his eyes. He wiped the tears away and said, “That was F&$%^#@ amazing! I have never felt that way before.”

Then came the main outreach event—Jesus Night in the Central Square in Tampere.

I had the honor of preaching the Gospel in the open air, and God did what only He can do:

People were saved.
People were filled with the Holy Spirit.
People were healed!

One woman came forward on crutches… but after prayer in Jesus’ name—she walked without them!

This is why we go. This is why we preach. Because Europe shall be saved.

Will you join me in continuing to pray for Finland and the entire continent of Europe? I believe a fresh wave of revival is beginning to stir.

This is just the beginning.From Helsinki to Heaven—Jesus is Lord over Finland!

With joy in the harvest,

Daniel King

Come Alive Finland | Matias Toivainen

Matias Toivainen is an evangelist from Finland. Matias and his team have been doing incredible work across Finland, traveling the country with a “Jesus truck” and holding powerful gospel campaigns that have led many to give their lives to Christ. On today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast, we will hear about the amazing testimonies and salvations they’ve witnessed, as well as Matias’ involvement in the Global Evangelist Alliance and his heart for pioneer missions to unreached people groups around the world.This episode will inspire you to be a bold witness for the gospel, wherever God has called you. Let’s dive in!

Learn More About Matias Toivainen: https://www.armofgrace.com/team/matias-toivainen

Transcript:

Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King and I am very excited to have with me a special guest today, Mattias from Finland. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast.

Matias Toivainen (00:10):
Yes, thank you for having me, and thank you for being in our country

Evangelist Daniel King (00:13):
Now. It’s very exciting what God is doing in your nation and over the last two months, your team has been working very hard to do multiple outreaches in multiple countries. Tell me about that.

Matias Toivainen (00:27):
Basically what you see behind us is something that we’re calling the Jesus truck. And so we had an idea, our dear friend Henry is here, he’s been leading the Send Finland and we’ve been doing an evangelism campaign, a crusade in Helsinki, our capital city. And so we had an idea, we got together last autumn and we just decided, hey, a lot of the different cities are starting to ask for evangelism in their town. What can we do? And so the send had touring teams and we had this kind of crusade ecosystem that we had been kind of pioneering here in Finland. And so we decided, let’s join forces, let’s go on a tour around the country. They send touring teams come, they mobilize the churches, they activate them, especially the young people. They’ve been doing a great job with that. And then we bring the truck and set up in the middle of the city and do kind of a crusade style proclamation gospel campaign. And so this is our, I believe, 11th stop. We started on the last day of April and through the very cold finished spring, we’ve been going until now in the middle of May we finish here in tame with you.

Evangelist Daniel King (01:33):
Well, tonight was just such a beautiful night. Many people were here, many people gave their lives to Jesus, and you’ve been seeing Jesus do really wonderful things in Finland. What are some of the testimonies of what has happened while you’ve been doing this evangelism across Finland?

Matias Toivainen (01:50):
Well, I must say I was really impressed by God in my own native town in lti. This is a town where I lived for five, well, I lived for many years, but for five or six years I preach the gospel every day with some exceptions. I’m traveling and sometimes not. But about approximately every day I was preaching for five or six days and five or six years. And in all that time I got to lead one person to Christ.

(02:16):
And so now we came with the Jesus truck after all those seeds being sewn in the past, we came back now five years later with the Jesus truck and we set up our preaching. And until tamper lofty, my native town was the biggest city. We had multiple churches working together. The biggest catches coming. And I remember one guy, he was walking through the market square where we had the campaign and he was walking with a book in his hands. He was on his way to the library to return a book that he was holding in his hands called What Is Christianity? And he was on his way to return this. He said, he has been seeking God, he’s been trying to find the truth. And as he was walking to the library, he saw the big sign with the Jesus tour and said to himself, nobody in my life has been talking about Jesus here on this square. And so he stopped to listen. He heard the clear gospel being preached. He saw people getting healed and he decided to surrender his whole life to Jesus. And I remember the pastor was crying with him, praying with him for like five minutes, and this guy was so impressed by how his life changed. And so we see this happening in our country now where people are searching for God, they’re seeking after him, God is drawing them. And so obviously we know our role to just go and tell them

(03:31):
About who Jesus is and call them to follow.

Evangelist Daniel King (03:33):
Now you’re a graduate of the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp with Daniel Kolenda, and I had the privilege of being one of the teachers for that camp. And it is so beautiful to see what you and some of the other bootcamp grads are doing here in Finland and around the world. It is really amazing. And so I’m just so excited that those seeds that were planted in your heart are now bearing fruit in so many different places. You look at what God is doing through the Evangelism Bootcamp and it’s in Africa and in Asia and now in Europe and in Central and South America and in North America, the whole world in Australia too, the whole world is being shaken by the gospel. And so where before there was one or two evangelists, now there is teams of 10 or 15

Matias Toivainen (04:25):
Evangelists.

Evangelist Daniel King (04:26):
Now you have started an organization here and you are particularly focused on pioneer missions and doing evangelism in difficult to reach places. Tell me a little bit about what God has been doing in Gambia.

Matias Toivainen (04:42):
Well, first of all, I must say thank you so much for teaching us in the bootcamp. We all remember very well. You took a whole week and then I think another week to teach us about gospel messages and crusade organizing and things like this. And so we were very blessed. And like you say, all over the world now, we are working

Evangelist Daniel King (04:59):
Now you teach your own class, now you see the it’s work to do a crusade.

Matias Toivainen (05:03):
It’s true, it’s true. Actually, we just had people preaching now who went through our training two months ago

(05:09):
And now she was preaching to her whole or to her own hometown, the gospel. And so we’ve been actually raising up our kind of vision is to do our part in finishing the great commission, specifically like you say in the unreached nations, unreached people groups where there is no church, there are no believers. 40% of the world live in unreached people groups, and so we want to go after them. You mentioned Gambia, it’s a Muslim country in Africa, it’s only about 2 million people, 96 to 98% Muslim. And so the great opportunity though is it’s a small country and they all speak English. It’s a young population and there’s full freedom of religion to share the gospel. There aren’t major issues with persecution against Christians. And so we share the gospel to the youth. We organize these youth campaigns where the children and the young people come and hear about Jesus.

(06:07):
They experience healing the Holy Spirit. Also, we are doing something called Jesus camps. And so our heart is to kind of go where we’re most needed and make ourselves useless. And so we say the power is not in the white skin, the power is in the gospel. And so we want to raise up the local people and just pass on to them what we’ve received from Daniel Kolenda and yourself and other teachers to pass it on to them and release them to run with the gospel. And so that’s what we’ve been doing in Gambia and in about 40 other countries, 45 other countries with like you say, a focus in the unreached world. And we’re also doing a crusade this year in Gambia with another bootcamp graduate and his team, Jacob Ebersol, you may have had,

Evangelist Daniel King (06:51):
Yeah, Jacob’s a good friend. I’ve had him on the podcast before and he’s a great evangelist.

Matias Toivainen (06:56):
Yes, definitely

Evangelist Daniel King (06:57):
Full of faith.

Matias Toivainen (06:59):
And so the guys are around now. Five years ago the bootcamp started and imagine what can happen in the next five years.

Evangelist Daniel King (07:07):
Yeah, I remember in Tanzania I was doing one of the Capitalis crusades with Christ for all nations, and there was a man who had been Muslim, but he came to Jesus. Jacob Ebersol had led him to

Matias Toivainen (07:25):
Jesus. Oh, I remember.

Evangelist Daniel King (07:26):
And he got baptized. It was such a beautiful story of what Jesus can do.

Matias Toivainen (07:31):
Yes. In Khama. And he was about to become an imam and deep in the Islamic process and world. But yeah, Jacob went and pulled him to

Evangelist Daniel King (07:43):
Christ. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about some of the other countries that you’re looking at.

Matias Toivainen (07:51):
Yeah, so one of the things that, so we have an organization registered in Finland called Arm of Grace International. And so it’s kind of a Finn team doing pioneer missions. We do India, we do Bangladesh, we do Thailand, also some disaster relief, Ukraine, Bangladesh. We help some children get rescued from the sex trafficking and be taken into a safe home. One of the things we also do is we’re hosting kind of an international ministry called Jesus Camps. And this is an equipping ministry where our goal, again is to raise up local national people in their own country to preach the gospel in their own city, in their own language to their own people. And so this is our first calendar year doing that. We’re working in about 50 countries all the way from Russia, Israel, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and most of Latin America.

(08:58):
And so yeah, there’s just something that God is doing with raising up an entire generation to preach the gospel. The way we think about it is traditionally missions has worked kind of like a pyramid where the man of God comes and everything is gathered around them to support their ministry. And so what we see God doing is kind of flipping the pyramid upside down where he brings the servants or the ministers to come low and just build what the rest of the church ought to be doing. So that’s where we kind of see our place in a lot of places. And some places, like in some countries in South Asia, there is no evangelism, there are no evangelists. And so then we want to be the first ones to kind of just come alongside the local believers and believe with them for a new breakthrough in evangelism. And so we’ve seen that happen in Bangladesh, in India, and just places where traditionally it was thought of as impossible. And we’ve been told for 10 years that you can’t even get into the country to try, but God is doing something supernatural.

Evangelist Daniel King (10:03):
God is opening the door. Let’s talk about the Global Evangelist Alliance.

Matias Toivainen (10:08):
We

Evangelist Daniel King (10:09):
Just completed here in Finland, the World Pentecostal Conference, and many Pentecostal leaders from around the world came here to Finland for that. And it was hosted by Dr. Billy Wilson, who also leads Empowered 21. And so under Empowered 21, there is a group of evangelists called the Global Evangelist Alliance. And we had a meeting and there were so many Finnish evangelists that are excited about evangelism. And so you want to empower evangelists from here in Finland to go around the world. And so talk to me a little bit about if someone wants to be part of the Finn Evangelism Group, what shall they do?

Matias Toivainen (10:51):
Well, yeah, God is doing that here in our country too, which makes me rejoice. I’m looking behind me. There’s Consta, 19 years old, there’s family, 25 years old. There’s all these people. Most of these people, they have received training from us and also been sent to the Mission Field Consta. I found him as a 17-year-old, and I could see God has a calling for him as an evangelist. And so when he was 18, I brought him with me to Asia and he was preaching to hundreds of Muslims and seeing the Sikh healed.

Evangelist Daniel King (11:25):
And

Matias Toivainen (11:25):
Now he’s been actually leading missions and equipping others.

(11:29):
And this is something that God is doing in Finland. He’s raising up the goers again. And like you mentioned, we have the Global Evangelist Alliance Network, also very fresh, started here in Finland with about 70 people on the first call. Lucas Stein is leading that group with myself and some others. And yeah, you can just find Lucas Stein or myself, Mattias to, I’m sure it’ll be written somewhere here on the episode. And just send us a text. Hey, you have a network of evangelists in Finland. How can I be a part of that? And we’ll connect with you.

Evangelist Daniel King (12:05):
If someone has a heart for Pioneer missions and wants to help you to reach some of these nations that are on reach that have such a huge number of people that need Jesus, how can they find out more about your ministry and even support you with what you’re called to do?

Matias Toivainen (12:22):
Definitely. You can go to our website, arm of grace.com or you can go to our Instagram page, arm of Grace International. And so we definitely need the help to go and bring the gospel to the people who have never heard it before. And also I recognize there are some people who God is calling to go and come with us. And so we definitely, it’s only a matter of laborers. The harvest is out there, the harvest is open, the harvest is ready. Send us a message, we’ll find a way for you to get to the field. Most likely this autumn, this November, we’re bringing a group of Finnish people who answered the call in the sand to come to Cambodia with us. And we’re there with other bootcamp graduates, Dario Justina and others just go to the unre, tell them about Jesus and even planting churches

Evangelist Daniel King (13:14):
And

Matias Toivainen (13:14):
Just come

Evangelist Daniel King (13:16):
In the past, there’s been a great move of Finn missionaries,

Matias Toivainen (13:21):
And

Evangelist Daniel King (13:22):
As I’ve traveled around the world, I’ve met Finnish missionaries. My wife was a missionary in Papua New Guinea for a year, and she met finished missionaries there that were helping to translate the Bible. And she said, even in the hot tropical nation, they were finished missionaries because they all had a sauna in their house, proper Finn missionaries. But I believe that God is now raising up a new generation of fins that will have an impact on the world.

Matias Toivainen (13:50):
Yes, it’s true. I have lived on the mission field for about 26 years. So when I was nine months old, my family moved to Kosovo.

Evangelist Daniel King (14:02):
Wow.

Matias Toivainen (14:02):
They were the first Finnish missionaries, I believe, to be in Kosovo where Christianity, as we know it is only about 30, 40 years old. And so I’ve grown up kind of in the missions world on a few continents in many countries. And what I saw was a very different kind of approach to missions. It was very kind of humanitarian development aid, a bit political, social. There was a reluctance to kind of take risk in terms of preaching the gospel or making disciples in areas where it’s not so where it’s a bit more hostile. And so when I answered the call for myself as a 15-year-old and I went, God sent me to all these places where things haven’t really been going that much in the recent past with the gospel message, I was always alone. Nobody would come with me. I was alone. It was hard. I didn’t see any fruit. People were discouraging me from going. But now something has happened in the past few years where wherever I want to go, I’m never alone. And a lot of the times it’ll be fins around me. It’ll always be people from sea fans somehow.

(15:17):
But a lot of the times it’ll be fins also.

Evangelist Daniel King (15:21):
Amen.

Matias Toivainen (15:22):
Well,

Evangelist Daniel King (15:22):
May God raise up a mighty army of Finnish evangelists and always, if I had a ministry in Finland, I’d name it, finish the great commission, or it is finished. But praise the Lord. God is using fins to do great things for his kingdom. So Mattias, thank you for being on the Evangelism podcast. I appreciate

Matias Toivainen (15:41):
It. Thank you, Daniel. And thank you for pitching the gospel to our people,

Evangelist Daniel King (15:44):
And thank you for helping to organize this great event here and all the different events that you’re doing around Finland. It’s so beautiful to see what God’s been doing.

Matias Toivainen (15:54):
Thank you. Yes. Well, really it’s our team, brother, pat and others. But

Evangelist Daniel King (15:58):
Yes,

Matias Toivainen (15:58):
We’re with you. Thank you. Come back to Europe.

Evangelist Daniel King (16:01):
Thank you. God bless you.

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One on One Evangelism in Finland | Aaro Kumpulainen

Today on The Evangelism Podcast, I talk with Aaro Kumpulainen who recently led an evangelism training workshop in Tampere, Finland. We talk about the core elements of the gospel message: the problem of sin, the solution of Jesus’ sacrifice, and the choice to put one’s faith in Jesus. We also cover the importance of presenting the gospel clearly and directly, without forgetting to talk about Jesus. You will be blessed as you listen today.

Learn more about Aaro: https://www.armofgrace.com/team/kumpulaiset

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 have a very special guest with me. Aaro, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.

Aaro Kumpulainen (00:11):
It’s a pleasure. Thank you for having me

Evangelist Daniel King (00:13):
Now say your full name.

Aaro Kumpulainen (00:14):
My name is Aaro Kumpulainen . Try to say it with me Aaro.

Evangelist Daniel King (00:20):
Well, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast and today we are in Tamara, Finland and we have just completed in evangelism training in how to witness one-on-one. And you were the instructor and you did an excellent job. We filled the room, packed jam full of people. Some of them were some of my team members from the United States, but there were many, many finished people that came. And let’s talk a little bit about what you covered in this workshop today. What do you feel is the most important thing that you told

Aaro Kumpulainen (01:02):
Everyone? Well, obviously at the evangelism training, the most important thing is to get the gospel correct When you share people about Jesus, don’t forget to share about Jesus.

Evangelist Daniel King (01:15):
Something you said was really good. You said that evangelism is not just about debating. It’s more than just smiling at people. It’s more than feeding the poor. Of course, all that is very good. It’s more than just saying Jesus loves you, but it’s actually leading people to a point of decision. And so you present the gospel, you talk about Jesus, and then you bring people to that point where they either says, yes, I want to receive Jesus, or they reject him and walk away. And we can’t make them make the choice, but we can present Jesus to them. And one of the things you said just now that I thought was so good is that when we tell them about Jesus, you have to make sure that you tell them about Jesus. And you said, when you make chicken soup, make sure you don’t forget the chicken.

(02:06):
Amen. And so Jesus is the most important thing when we must make sure. I had a really wonderful interview with Aaro in Finland, but unfortunately one of the cords on my microphone had a short in it. And because of that there was lots of hisses, crackles and pops, which I’m sure that you have heard on this recording. And so I really apologize for that. And part of my interview was not usable. It was impossible to understand, but I still wanted to present the teaching that Aaro did on evangelism because I thought it was really good. And so I’m going to give you his notes that he taught in Finland, and then we will continue with the rest of the interview with him where the audio was a little bit better, not perfect, but still I apologize for the problem. So in this workshop, Otto broke down the gospel into three essential parts.

(03:17):
The problem, the solution, and then the choice. The problem is sin. God created us to be his friend, but then sin separates us from God. It leads to a broken relationship. Sin is breaking the will of God. And sin is things like lying, lust, stealing. It leads to bitterness, brokenness, guilt, shame, fear, emptiness, and ultimately eternal destruction. But the solution is Jesus. Jesus lived a sinless life. He died on the cross because of his love for all of humanity. He suffered the punishment for our sins. He was buried. He rose from the dead and is now alive. And he invites you to freedom. And so after you present the problem and the solution, then you leave the person with the choice. And the choice is to put your faith in Jesus and come to a place of repentance where you turn away from your sin.

(04:27):
And so faith in Jesus means that you trust Jesus for salvation. You turn away from your old life, you turn to Jesus. And so you give people the choice. Do you want to follow Jesus? Jesus is the king of the world. He wants to be the king of your life. Do you want your sin forgiven? Do you want new life? Do you want to be filled with the Holy Ghost? And so the reason that you present the problem first is that if you don’t know you have cancer, you don’t want to take cancer medication. But once you find out that there’s a problem, then suddenly the cancer medicine becomes a lifesaver. And so then when you present people with a choice, you tell people that it’s not about trying harder, it’s about trusting in Jesus. And we should ask people which direction they want to go.

(05:21):
Do you want to follow Jesus or do you want to go away from Jesus? And the more we show people that we care about them, the more we can talk about sin. And so he also had a great thought. That is if you see yourself as a soul winner, then you’ll be disappointed when you minister to someone and they don’t get saved. But instead of thinking of yourself as a soul winner, think of yourself as a sower, someone who’s planting seeds. Because when you plant a seed, you will feel successful every time you share, whether it immediately produces a harvest or not. And so we’re looking for open hearts. We’re not looking to have arguments with people, but in order to start a conversation, we go out witnessing. We don’t apologize. We’re children of the king of kings, we’re God’s representatives. And then one other thought that he had that I thought was really good, he said, evangelists are not born brave.

(06:26):
But you become brave with practice. And that’s true because the more that you talk to others about Jesus, the easier it becomes. And so the first time you go out witnessing, you might feel kind of hesitant. You might feel unsure about yourself, a little nervous, not sure what you’re going to say. And so you’re not born brave. But after you go out a hundred times a thousand times and you’ve had many, many conversations with people about Jesus, the easier it gets. And you become brave because now you have practiced. And you know that sometimes you’ll be rejected, sometimes you’ll be accepted. Sometimes you’ll find an open heart. Sometimes you just plant a seed. But you become brave because you know that the Holy Spirit is working through you, that the Holy Spirit will give you words to say God will help you in ministering to people.

(07:21):
And so those are some of the great ideas that were presented at our witnessing workshop in Finland. And now let’s go back to the finish of my interview with Otto. And hopefully despite the hisses cracks and pops that was caused by a bad wire, you still can get the gist of his spirit and what he’s trying to say. Otto is a great evangelist, and I was so impressed with his patience in witnessing one-on-one. Him and I ministered to one person in the park that when we finished praying for him, he had tears in his eyes. He was a drug addict, addict, a man who was cussing, playing rock music, but yet took a moment to have a spiritual conversation. And by the end of this conversation, this man was crying and said, I don’t know. I’ve never felt this way. I don’t know what I’m feeling, but I feel something different when he prayed the prayer of salvation with us. And so let’s go back to the interview. Here we go. Now you’re a graduate of the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp. Tell me, what are some of the things that you learned in the bootcamp that you are putting to work in your ministry that God’s called you to now? I had the privilege of being one of the instructors for the bootcamp,

(08:49):
And it’s so amazing to see what God is doing around the world through people that have gone through the C Fan bootcamp.

Aaro Kumpulainen (08:56):
Yeah, absolutely. The Christ For All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp has helped me a lot, and I’m very grateful to evangelist Daniel Kolenda and other instructuctors like even Daniel King for teaching me a lot about just even the relationship with God. We cannot just be evangelists who just do do, but we need to be in the place of receiving from the Lord and seeing God and ourselves correctly. So even the foundational things I learned there, but the greater things that I could not find anywhere else other than from s and so far, how to put into words this beautiful mystery of the gospel.

Evangelist Daniel King (09:40):
Well, we’re here in Tamara, and we’re going to be doing several days of evangelism here in just a few minutes. We’re taking teams of people actually out on the street. We are not just teaching them in the classroom. We are going to go out and talk to people. What do you hope to see God do here in Tamara?

Aaro Kumpulainen (10:03):
Well, I hope to see what God has promised to do so we have a great trust that he will do it. So we want to see people have not just conversations and not just make decisions for Christ, but really to have an encounter with the living God, even on the streets during some short prayer moments or during while they listen to the gospel. That’s something will really change in their heart, that they will become part of this new wave of people who are on fire for God and that they would want it in such a way that they will come to the gatherings of believers here, even the Jesus tour events, the campaign nights, and to become disciples, to come into relationship with disciple makers and really go in the things of God and really even become missionaries or pastors or whatever their calling is as businessman, sharing the gospel wherever they go. Thank you so much for having me here.

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Excited to Tell People About Jesus | Christopher-Kullervo Jõgi

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.