What is Urban Dream
Urban Dream is an event organised by Christians from various churches in the Helsinki area from 6 - 10. August 2008. It includes acts of service in the afternoons in different areas of the capital and large meetings in the evenings in Helsinki Jäähalli for everyone.
The heart of the Urban Dream is formed from hundreds of team members who convey a messsage of our loving God through acts of service. These events can be cleaning parks, washing windows, taking old people outdoors and sports activities with the young people or children. In the mornings the team members are fed spiritually and equipped through worship, prayer and teaching.
The highlight of the day is the evening meetings. Well-known artists, action-packed dance and video performances with Finnish and visiting guest speakers, each present in their own way what the Christian faith is all about.
Acts speak louder than words. Do join us as a team member, helper, intercessor or campaign supporter!
Team Member
Urban Dream offers hundreds of team members a chance to convey God’s love through practical acts of work in different events. As a result of serving it is easy to make contact and chat with people who wonder why we are doing this good work. Team members work in teams of a minimum of six who will be with a trained leader.
If you want to join such a team in Urban Dream, you can print an application form from here. Read it carefully, fill it in and send it to: Urbaani Unelma – Pääkaupunkiseutu 2008, PL 136, 00531 Helsinki. More information from coordinator: Satu Kukkonen-Omar, 050-4321 959 or satu@urbaaniunelma.fi.
Volunteers
Urban Dream needs all kinds of skills as volunteer help in Helsinki Jäähalli for accommodation, team members’ eating, cleaning, tansport etc. If you want to participate as a volunteer you can print the 2-page aplication form from here page 1 and page 2. Send them to: Urbaani Unelma – Pääkaupunkiseutu 2008, PL 136, 00531 Helsinki.
Johannes Amritzer
Evangelist Johannes Amritzer is the founder, President and Evangelist of Evangelical Mission SOS International. He is also in the leadership team of the Harvest Center Church in Stockholm. During his 16 years as a pastor he has seen tens of thousands of people giving their lives to Jesus, and God has confirmed His Word through miraculous signs and wonders.
Mission SOS is an adventure of faith. God's miraculous power is revealed in the organization's activities in different parts of the world just as it did in the Acts in the Bible. Even today, Jesus performs miracles: the blind see, the deaf hear and the lame walk, run and jump!
Together with the local churches, Mission SOS organizes campaigns and Signs & Wonders Festivals. Johannes Amritzer and his wife, Maria, together with their partner churches, have founded 400 churches as the fruit of over 50 international festivals and seminars for pastors.
God has given the Amritzers a burden for the unreached people so that they could hear the best message of the world: that Jesus loves, saves, heals, delivers and restores. They have two children.
The Amritzers founded the Mission SOS organization in 1996. It has now 190 workers in different parts of the world with four mission stations and offices in Norway, Austria and the USA. During the last five years the organization, together with the Harvest Center Church, has trained 70-90 mission workers annually at the SOS Mission Bible College in Stockholm.
Johannes Amritser’s father is Austrian and mother Swedish. Johannes’ childhood was overshadowed by his parents' divorce and his mother’s abuse of alcohol. His father gave his life to Jesus while in prison and his mother was saved and rehabilitated in Johannes’ late teens.
”God’s power is meant for the streets and He pours it out to the thirsty. God has great adventures reserved to those who want to listen and follow the Holy Spirit’s voice”, Johannes Amritzer declares.
This man, born and bred in a disfunctional home, has yielded himself to be led by the Holy Spirit and is bursting with touching stories about healing miracles and adventures from head-hunters to presidential palaces.
Text: Else Leino
Translation: Vieno Kennedy
Kalevi Lehtinen
”At the age of 17, I realized that Christ has put me in this world so that as many people as possible would be in heaven with God as a result of my life”, says evangelist and Lutheran pastor Kalevi Lehtinen. At 72, he is one of the world's most well known Finnish preachers.
”I wanted to be an evangelist and a commissioned purveyor of joy. It became clear to me that a person doesn’t become a sinner because he does sinful things but that he does sinful things because he is a sinner. I also understood that the full price has been paid for me. Jesus said on the cross: 'It is finished.' All my sins have been forgiven. We have no other basis for saying this except that we have a good Father who has pardoned us in Christ”, Kalevi Lehtinen says.
Proclaiming the mercy of God, Kalevi Lehtinen has declared the good news about Jesus for over half a century. He worked first at Kansan Raamattuseura (Folk Bible Society) and later with Campus Crusade for Christ's (CCC) student work in Europe. In 1974 he moved with his family to Germany to be in charge of CCC’s staff training. From 1977 he worked for 10 years as executive director for their European work. During that time the work spread to 14 countries and by the time he 'retired' he led an organisation of 500 people in different countries. Since 1990 the CCC’s West European work has been named Agape Europe.
In Finland Kalevi Lehtinen rose to prominance in 1987 as Billy Graham’s interpreter during Missio Helsinki. In 1990, large missions made him known also in Estonia, Russia and other East European countries. After 70 years of Soviet rule and atheism, a hunger for God led to tens of thousands of people giving their lives to Jesus evening after evening. Kalevi Lehtinen’s books have been translated into four languages and sold around 1.2 million copies.
”My greatest vision is not just to work as an evangelist myself but to train others to evangelise”, Kalevi Lehtinen says. He likes to work as a pair with his wife Leena.
He reminds Christians that Jesus said: “'Go and preach'. Jesus is not looking for supporters but followers. Those who just keep their church pews warm on Sundays must become preachers of the gospel whereever they live. Even a small group of Spirit filled Christians for whom Christ is the Lord can change the fate of a nation.”
Text: Else Leino
Translation: Vieno Kennedy
Samuli Edelmann
Samuli Edelmann is one of Finland’s best-known singers, and during his long career has sold over 350,000 records. Having spent several years without recording any music, last autumn Edelmann published a record called “Virsiä” (Hymns), and he'll be singing some of the songs at Urban Dream. It will be his only concert in the Helsinki area this summer.
Traditional hymns come back to life with Edelmann’s interpretations. With his strong voice and new arrangements the words of the hymns stand out afresh, compared with the more traditional hymns accompanied only on the organ.
The producer of the record, Petri Eklund, says that “the starting thought behind it was to bring to light, with the aid of a strong interpreter and a suitably 'earthy' but many-shaded production, the excellence and greatness of the songs, which has kept them alive and relevant throughout the ages.”
The record was recorded by eight musicians in Luhanka’s century old wooden church in a relaxed summer atmosphere. There is more to come as Samuli launches a second hymn CD in the autumn.
Text: Lilli Olsson
Translation: Vieno Kennedy
Juha Tapio
In 2007 Juha Tapio, a musician from a little Finnish village, worked as an Embassador of Hope with the Lutheran Church’s Foreign Aid organisation. This year, he celebrates the tenth anniversary of his first record “Mitä silmät ei nää” (What the eyes can’t see) which made him familiar to a wider public, and now he is well known both in Finnish gospel song circles and the secular sphere.
Juha Tapio’s songs touch people in their joys as well as sorrows. During the past ten years he has published five records, the first two of which were clearly gospel songs. The later ones were more traditional. The latest record, “Kaunis ihminen” (The Beautiful Human Being) 2006 received a platinum award and the previous ones received a gold.
More than these awards, Juha values people’s feedback and the fact that the songs touch his listeners. This brings meaning to his work. “Nevertheless, music itself is enough to motivate my music-making, the joy of finding and creating lyrics and tunes, the birth of a new song and being able to perform it. Although it's hard work and exhausting, all the bustle is enormously inspiring”, Juha Tapio says.
Text: Lilli Olsson
Translation: Vieno Kennedy
PlastiC
Mika Poutala, also known as PlastiC, raps with a heart full of praise and joy. PlastiC's enthusiasm for rap started in 2001 with a simple desire to experiment. As his experience has increased over the years out on gigs, he has also made his own CD and a couple of singles.
PlastiC doesn't want to force the birth of his songs, for the end result is best when the issues nearest his own heart, Jesus and spiritual matters, are at the core of his work. The lyrics are born out of the content of his heart - as if by themselves.
"Rapping is a good way of telling people about Jesus and my own life. The aim of my music making is to get listeners in a good mood and encouraged", PlastiC says.
In addition to rapping Mika has achieved many other things in spite of his youth, such as a sixth place in the 2008 Winter Olympics speed skating. His dream is to be just where God wants him, and right now he believes he is just there.
Text: Lilli Olsson
Translation: Vieno Kennedy
David Lyle Morris
David Lyle Morris is a New Zealand singer, songwriter and worship leader, who has recently returned home after being based in the UK for the past 15 years. David describes his music as acoustic based rock with flavours of New Zealand Maori and Pacific (Fiji) music cultures and traditional church music.
David started his own band in the age of 14 and professional music career when he was 25 years old. He recorded his first nine albums in the UK and the newest the “Trust’” CD in New Zealand last year. David is best known for his work alongside worship leaders including Robin Mark, Graham Kendrick, Darlene Zschech and Gloria Gaynor.
David has worked as a concert performer, worship leader and session singer in many countries. At the moment he works as a worship leader at an Auckland Anglican church and lectures on leading worship, training and equipping leaders at the Bible College of New Zealand and regional centres. David also works in Restore Trust -organization where his mission and vision is to restore trust in relationships and unity across the boundaries of race, and to encourage Maori and Pacific Island Christian leaders.
Text and translation: Lilli Olsson
Suhe band
Suhe band's worship music has a contemporary sound which, together with their devoted attitude, is a vital part of the band's make up. The leaders are Markus Lehtonen and Jesse Pitkänen who are long-term worship leaders in Suhe (Suur-Helsingin seurakunta). The other band members are drawn from musicians active in Suhe. The band will be leading worship during the whole Urban Dream event.
Text: Lilli Olsson
Translation: Vieno Kennedy
