Miska's Story

Childhood photo of me, posing with some rye bread and a suitcase :-)

I was not brought up in a Christian home, although my mum and dad were in certain ways quite religious and also at the time members of the Russian Orthodox Church in Finland, where I also was 'baptised' (sprinkled) as a baby. My mum and dad divorced when I was about seven years old, leaving me and my younger brother to be raised by my mum only.

In my youth I was very much into the different aspects of Hip Hop culture. On a later stage I got very much into reggae music and heavily influenced by the religious aspects of Rastafarianism. At that point I thought of myself as a ‘righteous man’ before God, but completely failed to understand God's holiness and my own sinfulness and need for Christ. I even started reading the Bible at times and would have said myself to believe in Jesus if someone asked me, the problem was that I had a faulty and lacking understanding of the true Jesus of the Bible. I thought of myself as a 'good person' even though I was rotten inside, and my heart was filled with evil and sinful thoughts. I later realised that I wasn't a good person at all, rather I was a bad person (a sinner) who had rebelled against his Creator and broken His laws (lied, stolen, blashpemed, lusted, etc.).


Some photos of me with dreadlocks (around 2005-2006)

I became converted to Christ sometime in the beginning of 2007 when I was 18 years old, it was nothing too dramatic happening during one day, but rather a process of a couple of months when I understood more and more about the gospel, turning away from sin, and salvation that only comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. I started reading the Bible more and more and listened to some sermons on the TV and the internet. Soon after, I also realised the blasphemous nature of most of the music I had been listening to and playing at different events that we organised with friends and where I was a music selector/DJ (under the names: Youth Immanuel, Immanuel I, Miska Immanuel), the reason was that most of my music was heavily religious and with many Bible references but in a blasphemous way that didn't give glory to the true Christ of the Bible who is the true King of kings, Lord of lords, and conquering lion from the tribe of Judah! (Revelation 5:5, 19:11-16) I then decided to destroy most of my music collection at the time, since I didn't want to give it to anyone else to be influenced by it as I had been, so I threw away and destroyed most of the music I owned at that time.


Some old flyers for different reggae music events that I was part of in 2005 and 2006

I was baptised in the beginning of 2007 and joined the local Pentecostal church in my hometown, since that was the only good church I really knew about, compared to the liberal Lutheran church that I didn’t want anything to do with. During my first year as a Christian, I somehow found on the internet the evangelism ministry ‘Way of the Master’ by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron, and the radio program by Todd Friel, this had a huge impact on me and introduced me to some great American preachers and Bible teachers such as John MacArthur, RC Sproul, John Piper, etc. I started listening to their online sermons, especially MacArthur, and was greatly blessed and my understanding of the Bible grew. I soon realised the disconnection between the strongly Bible-based teaching I was listening to via the internet and the teaching I received at the Pentecostal church I was a member of at that time. I started wondering if I could find any church in my hometown that was more like the teaching I heard from MacArthur and others. Sadly, I couldn’t really find any.


This is a short video that I have made (it is my strange accent in the video),
it explains in a nutshell (2:30min) the message of the gospel that changed my life.

Once when searching on Google, I came across the website of an international church in another town (Tampere) in Finland that had translated some books by John MacArthur, I was very glad and excited to see this and ordered some books and tracts from them. Soon after I also decided to go and visit this church, so I took a three hour train journey to get there. Even though the church was very small, I was blessed and excited that I had finally found some people who represented the kind of Biblical understanding that I had been learning about via the internet and studying my Bible, but never met anyone in person who would be of the same persuasion. At that time in my life there was nothing holding me back in my hometown, so I decided I would move to this other city that had the good church I had been able to visit a few times. In 2008 I moved from Vaasa (my hometown) to Tampere, where I then joined the International Baptist Church and have been a member ever since, and Lord willing will be a pastor of one day. The church is currently run by an American missionary couple who have faithfully ministered in Finland for over 30 years.

Preaching at International Baptist Church, Tampere (2011)

In 2011 I met Alison, an exchange student from the UK, who was attending our church in Finland. Later she became my wife (April 2012).

Married to Alison on April 21st 2012

Preaching at International Baptist Church, Tampere (2014)

After training at the Masters Seminary (2014 - 2017) our plan and desire is to move back to Finland, so that we can serve God in Finland for the rest of or lives, Lord willing.