October 2019
God Is Calling Us to Something New
Autumn is a good time for change, a time to take some new steps. These steps can be taken alone or with other people. Our church offers several different possibilities and options. You can bring yourself to join in home-prayer meetings or start independently reading the Bible through according to our reading-itinerary. By attending our fall evangelism and prayer evenings, you will receive encouragement to spread God’s joy to others as well as grow in your own faith. Or perhaps your new steps involve actually joining in on improving your body with our Gospel-stretching.
Whatever your new steps are, you need to let Jesus lead. We don’t have to push forward, but we get to proceed with His strength. All we have to do is surrender to be led. Maybe this is the moment to put your whole life into God’s hands. Can you do that, will you do that?
I know God is calling us to something new and we should listen to the advice given to us in Pekka Simojoki’s song In Changing Times :

In changing times, don’t go into hiding. Stay on the path and answer His call. Accept the guidance God is providing ‘cause He’ll be there with you through it all.   

It is our responsibility to reject fear of change and bury our doubts. It is time to break down the walls and break free from our old thoughts, those that prevent self-growth or that of the congregation. Jesus wants us to follow Him, not just by our words, but wants us to follow him with our whole hearts. I hope we are ready!
For his sake, who gave his everything for you.
With blessed thoughts
Pastor Mia

Is Your Bible Collecting Dust?
Now is the time to dust-off your old confirmation or wedding Bible and join in on a reading-journey with us. We will be reading the entire Bible during the next year, beginning with the New Testament at the beginning of October. The reading itinerary can be found on our web page, and a print version will also be distributed. If you do not have your own Bible, the church will provide you with a lightly-used one.  
Music News and Office Update
We are quickly approaching the beginning of our busy season here at the church, as we await our congregation members to return from their summer homes. We are grateful to have our snowbirds as part of our church family. We have some exciting events and music concerts coming, as well as our choirs starting their rehearsals for the season, choir times to be announced, as we know them. I hope that everyone is energized to return and sing and serve the Lord with their musical talent. We will be celebrating the beginning of the new season by having a bilingual Folk Music Mass on October 20 th . I hope to have a big group of musicians participating on this wonderful occasion. Music is a very important part of our worship, and we are grateful to have everyone who is involved! 
Here is an update on the progress being made in our office space. While there is still a lot of organizing and cleaning to be done, we are slowly moving everything to the offices located on the north-side of the building. We have transformed our tiny office into a warm, nice, welcoming atmosphere. Meanwhile, the flooring, painting and lighting have been completed in the fellowship hall. The old storage cabinets have been removed, and a new raised altar has been built at the front of the hall. 
The parking lots have been updated with freshly painted lines on the sides of the parking spaces, as well as some new trees and plantings in the green areas surrounding the lots. The sanctuary has also received a fresh coat of paint, along with some structural fixes around the stained-glass windows on the front-side of the building. A lot of work has been done and our old church building has been given a new look. We are very grateful to the Iglesia Christina folks who have lovingly done all of this work. Thank-you!!!
With many blessings,
Michael Poutiainen
Happy Birthday to All!
In Memoriam
Marja-Leena Suni
Our prayers go to Liisa Suni and all Marja-Leena's loved ones.
From Volunteer Worker's Desk
The idea for this article came to me as I was repairing a badly decayed and damaged piece of playground equipment at the preschool, which required me to remove a lot of old wood and replace it with new. 
Many of us have experienced big changes during the past year. There have been new additions to families, leaving home for school, moving into a new home, or the passing of a loved one. 
These changes are joyful, exciting, sad, and even scary, but still they open new pathways for our lives. All these emotions are associated with giving up something in your life, whether it be an old home, sleeping well at night, familiar elementary school teachers, or the loss of a life-long partner. 
Surrendering of old, loved, and secure things is very hard for many people. Often, we experience thoughts of loneliness and fear when confronted with something new. 
Life’s path is full of potholes and rocks. If we boldly dare to look into the future and believe in the guidance God, pretty quickly we will notice that sorrow and regret turn into warm memories, and upcoming concerns are a lot easier to overcome. 
This brings to mind a good story, which I have on occasion told at confirmation camp:

The night before last, a man had a dream. He was walking on the beach with Jesus, when a vision appeared from the heavens about his life.
Upon seeing these visions, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One set being his own, the other belonging to Jesus.
Before seeing the last vision of his life, he looked back at the path which he had traveled. He noticed that may times during his life, there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that during these times when the second set of footprints was missing, were times that were the most difficult in his life. This bothered him tremendously, so he questioned God.
“Lord, when I decided to follow you, you promised to always walk by my side, but during these difficult periods of my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why you have abandoned me when I needed you most.”
The Lord answered: “My dear child, I love you and will never abandon you. During those difficult times when you only see one set of footprints in the sand, I was carrying you.”

Warm greetings and a Blessed October,
Teppo Honkanen
September Highlights
We have had some fun lately at our English services. During children's time we have played Simon says and hopped on one foot. We have drawn, done coloring and searched for lost sheep.
We are so happy to have two families with children to attend our Sunday services. It brings such light and joy to all of us. Last month we also celebrated the 6th birthday of Johannes. 💝
Preschool News
September did not begin exactly as planned- Hurricane Dorian came close and changed some of our lesson plans. The school was closed for an extra 2 days after Labor Day (same as the public schools). It took several days to prepare for the storm and then several more to “unprepare”. We are very grateful that Dorian missed us and we are sending thoughts, prayers and supplies to our neighbors in the Bahamas.

We have been learning about fall, apples, colors and shapes and are still working on our Piet Mondrian masterpieces.
October is the time to clean out our vegetable garden and replant. We will plant beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, corn, squash and a variety of flowers.

Our first big theme in October is Birds. We’ll sing like birds, dance like birds, paint birds and glue feathers. We will learn about chickens, eagles, hummingbirds, penguins, ostriches, woodpeckers and owls. We’ll use our “binoculars” and search for birds in our school yard and use recycled materials to build some bird feeders.

The month ends with Halloween fun…decorating pumpkins, playing games, wearing costumes and eating (just a little!) candy. 

God bless,  
                          
  Pirjo Komonen Campitelli
orange_pumpkins.jpg
From Church to Church - Matti Mecklin's Greetings from Finland
Very few of us are thankful, that there is a seven-hour time difference between our home country Finland and Florida.
It is quite the opposite for our family. We are happy, that in addition to participating in Sunday morning services at our local congregation here in Finland, we have the privilege of gathering around the television at 4:30 to follow the Finnish service from St. Andrews Church.
In addition to being able to participate in this worship service, it brings us warm thoughts to see that so many of our friends are at church and that we can catch a small glimpse of them. It is also interesting to see the recent renovations which have been done in the church as well as the fellowship hall. Very thoughtfully, Pastor Mia has walked around with the camera, either before or after the service, so that people watching can get an overview of the congregation and the church, along with the face lift in the Fellowship hall.
We can thank our modern-day smartphones and wireless-internet technology, that this kind of live-video is available to everyone, just by using one phone! Of course, having only one camera has some drawbacks, such as, not showing close-up shots, or the microphone does not always pick up what is being said loudly enough. On the other hand, the camera is always situated so that the projector screen is visible. If you are so inclined, when you can see the hymn lyrics, you can sing along from your sofa at home. With the organ in use again, its beautiful sound is heard well, and the music is easy to follow.
During the live video stream, there is a conversation forum on the right side of the screen where you can send messages, and you can also see who else is online watching the service.
In our home, we have the computer connected to the television. We can follow the video broadcast as if it were a normal TV program. The connection is established through either an HDMI cable or wirelessly via Chromecast, for example.
DIRECTIONS
In order to view the video, you must logon to Facebook. Open Facebook and write in the following link into the search box:

When the church’s page opens up, click on Follow and Like. You will receive a message when the video feed begins, and you can view it. The live feed is not available beforehand, but usually begins right on time at 16:30 (4:30 pm).
If you are not able to view the live video, it is available to watch on the St. Andrews Facebook page for the following week.
Happening in October
Art Gallery
(by Attendants in Our English Services in September)
Sunday, October 20, at 10:00 a.m.
Coming in November
Have A Blessed October!

"The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.""

(Joh. 7:38)