Jonathan and Jessica Heeb - Finland |
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October 2007 prayer letter
'Hei' from the Heebs in Helsinki
Sent out to Finland by Crosslinks to work within the Finnish Lutheran Mission, we are currently based in the International Evangelical Church in Helsinki. IEC provides Evangelical Biblical teaching and Christian fellowship in English both for Finns and also for the many international people living in Helsinki. Jonathan is assisting Pastor Timo Keskitalo in preaching and student work. Jess is involved with the music in IEC. Jean-Paul (11) and Nathan (10) are in a Swedish speaking school that specialises in music provision.
Jonathan is enjoying the preaching that he has been doing as we study our way through Mark’s Gospel. Usually the church follows the lectionary, so this is a new and exciting venture for us all. It is proving to be a long haul to get through nine consecutive weeks. Jonathan is using passages from Mark’s Gospel and material from Rico Tice’s Christianity Explored. Because, Jonathan has also been over-seeing the Bible study groups looking at Mark using Rico’s material, he has to be careful that they do not overlap. Helsinki attracts a huge number of international students and working professionals, which makes for many opportunities to share God’s Word in those communities. Timo and Jonathan are excited by the responses they have had so far to their endeavours to reach into the student world. In particular, Jonathan is hoping to see Christianity Explored translated into Swedish and Finnish, so that the students can use the material in their own universities across Finland.
Jess has been asked to take on co-ordinating the provision of music in the services and play in one of the groups. She is keen to keep a healthy balance between these needs and those of her family. She has committed herself to joining the music group that plays in the afternoon service and leading a Bible study with that group. We had a recent pot luck supper here for that group and are tremendously grateful for the happy (and long!) time that we had together – and that Jess’s contribution of food was edible!
THE BOYS
Jean-Paul and Nathan are both going to Jonathan’s old school and have been immersed into the Swedish language. On the whole, as schooling days go, they enjoy their time. They are struggling with their lack of ability to speak or understand either Swedish or Finnish. Schooling and language aside, there are many lovely things that they are able to enjoy – particularly getting out on their bikes thanks to the kind provision from Jonathan’s Mum. Jess’s Mum, ever the musician, is helping with their music fees, which enables the boys to learn with a Hungarian PhD student who brings much laughter into the house and to whom we are very grateful. Both boys miss their friends from England very much, but are getting ever more proficient at e-mailing. Thank you to all those who have replied to them.
OUR HOME
The area in which we live is a newly built mix of terraced houses and flats. At the back of our house we have a tiny deck and patch of grass and beyond this is a play area. We are struggling to cope without our pets. So, by way of helping us through that process we have been busy making some bird feeders out of juice bottles and stretchy onion bags. It has been so rewarding to watch the little birds enjoying the peanuts and seeds. There are few cats around outside (cat flaps and triple glazing being mutually exclusive perhaps), so the birds are very bold in their eating habits and come right up to our windows. Our latest visitor has been a very cheeky red squirrel (even to the point of trying to get into the house!) who has challenged our ability to make the feeders squirrel-proof. But Jonathan was as determined as the squirrel and so far we have won the peanut battle – but lost the fat ball battle, much to the frustration of the birds! Our front looks onto a quiet road and some more flats and houses opposite. We live in a very multi-racial area, which is proving to be quite challenging for the boys who have been teased already. However, on the whole we do feel safe and are very grateful for the Finnish neighbours in the immediate vicinity.
We live very near to a sea inlet, an island and several park areas, which provide us with fantastic opportunities to enjoy the prolific natural wildlife of Helsinki. Even our local MacDonalds – known as the RockiMaki – rather bizarrely offers the chance to gaze out at the sea and watch the birds whilst munching burger and chips! Yet we are within fantastically easy access to the major places that we need to get to – the boys’ school, the Rock church, the IEC office and the main down town area (the only difficult place to get to is the morning church over in the East side). It has been so important for us to find somewhere to live with such easy access to work and school because we don’t have a car, due to the extortionate prices that cars, tax and petrol are over here. So far we are managing fine without our own four wheels as the transport system out here is very reliable and efficient, but there are times when it would be great to have that independence and just zoom off on an outing when we get some time off. We have a great system at our local Ikea where we can hire a van by the hour, although it takes a lot more time than if we had our own car but at least it has been possible for us to get some of the furniture we need.
AND SO...
We give thanks for the many things that God is doing in our lives and in the lives of those around us. He has been such a source of comfort when we have been feeling inadequate in who we are and incapable of doing the work set before us. It is such a relief that we can trust Him to somehow get His work done in spite of our human frailties and difficulties coping with change. We are very grateful to you for the encouragement your prayer support has been to us. It is great to be able to join with you in holding on to God’s Word as together we all hold out the word of life. Thank you so very much for the letters, cards, texts, e-mails and phone calls – they have really helped us feel loved when we have been struggling to cope with all the demands of this new venture. Thank you so very much to all of you who have made it financially possible for us to move out here.
We would value your prayer for us generally as we continue to settle in and make this place our home. We are often tired and in danger of allowing our focus on our own interests to take over, rather than looking out for the interests of Jesus Christ in all we do. The challenges of moving into this new culture mean that family time is important to us, so please pray that we would get find a good balance of work and play.
We still need to sort out the necessary paperwork and forms needed by the authorities so that we can get residency permission and Jess and the boys can get their social security numbers. We don’t envisage any complications but would really appreciate your prayers that things might move swiftly through and that we can have the time to get all this done.
We do miss England and the friends we have left behind, but we are happy to be here. There is much work to be done. It is great to be able to help in whatever way we can to serve God and make him known. We are only human and feel we often make mistakes and muddles, but we press on somehow, grateful for God’s help to keep on keeping on, as we run this race for Him.
Jonathan, Jessica and Jean-Paul and Nathan