back to the scheduled life for a while

school started, and Im excited for that.
we have some really interesting lectures coming,
about the refugee policy in finland, rights for women in developong countries etc.
and Ill be flying to wien on the 10th of september and to tel Aviv on the 12th!!

at least at the moment it seems that they allow us to go.
its been a piece of a process to just let go.
cause going to israel is quite a thing for me, and then I just have to wait what the
school decides, cause I cant go if they tell me not to.
and in a way I feel its so unfair, cause if the israeli people live under the circumstances
24-7, then why should I be any more "priviledged" to keep myself in this safe and sound
finland, especially if I feel, that Jesus is calling me to israel.
and yeah, I know that maybe there isnt much I can do, (though we have been joking around with tytti that our final works title is:peace to the middle east), but still. if I can smile to one palestinian girl, wipe a tear from an orphans cheek and help an older lady to cross the street I know Ive done something. my friend hanna (whos back from south africa-thanks Jesus) told that one lady said to her there: a wise person knows that the sea is made of drops.
but yes, in the end Ill have to trust Jesus, if he wants me there, then he can do it.

I just had a great weekend in ahvenanmaa, åland. some old and new friends
coming together, hanging around, praying and hearing some good teachings.
again the topic about seeing the unseen come about. its been a theme for me for the whole summer. and defenitely something I want to learn more of. like in everyday life.
walking in it.

heard a great teaching beginning with the story from acts three where peter and john heal the crippled man, telling him how they dont have gold or silver, but what they have they can give : in the name of Jesus rise and walk.
and how Jesus many times has to do quite many things in order to get us to this point where we dont have any silver or gold, or any other own theories or plans or ways to act. then its just Jesus and me. and thats when the real story begins :)
the God you have, is the God you have when youre all alone with him.
its easy to go to a meeting, praise some mighty God, rasie your hands with everyone else and shout hallelujah. but how about when there is only you and God. you, some difficulties and God?
who is He then to you?

also this sad story (dont know wheter it was a true story or not, sad anyways. could be taken as a joke, but brings tears to my eyes)
a young priest standing in a beautiful glistening church building says to an older:
over are the days when the church had to say: gold or silver I dont have.
and to this the older responses:
gone are also the days when we could say: in the name of Jesus, rise and walk.

from the journey

hope

man selling vegetables

bosnian children

sarajevo

the girls are back in town

home. feels good to be in finland.

vilnius was a great place, and perfect for having some rest as well.
we stayed in a hostel with great pillows and sheets and three british boys
in the same room.
friday night we took a bus to tallin, estonia. I couldnt sleep at all,
though was sitting next to milka this time. so after arriving to the terminal
in tallin, lotta and I just threw our sleeping bags in one corner and had sweet
four hours of sleep.

at the ship we had some feedback :) about our feelings towards the trip and to each other.
the trip was actually quite different from what I thought it would be,
but Im sure it was what Jesus had in mind. I learned quite a lot from the
chemistry we had as a group (would I dare to say as a body :)) and Im actually
quite sure this whole trip has more things to offer to everyone of us than we can even
think of.

seeing places and people still confirms one thing for me;
the more I see, the more I know I dont want to live for myself.

vilnius

in liethuania. very nice here.
tried to sleep next to a big italian guy in the bus
last night, didnt succeed.
slept some in the park though.
sleeping outdoors is defenitely one of my favourites.
booked tickets home, arrive helsinki
saturday evening.

in warsow

today came to warsow.
for a moment we were actually quite unsure if our train was just late
or if we were in a wrong train, but in the end we did arrive here. and only one hour late!

met some of tyttis friends from finland who were visiting poland.
adam is actually polish as well and he told us some interesting stuff
about the political situation.
also took us to this cool polish foodplace were basically the homeless
and students eat. and there was some really freaky food..
adams girlfriend ate something with warm pasta, jam and sugar.

yesterdaynight we did some pancakes to the wallets and sat for a while together.
we heard more about this SLOT festival,, sounds so cool. maybe we could come next summer.

now we are waiting for a bus to vilinius, it takes off at eleven. the ticket cost a bit more than we expected, but no worries still. everything ok, we are heding home. have to go, times out.

auschwitz

yea. feel quite hollow to even try and write anything about it.
Ill just mention that one thing that touched me the most was the brief
mention of fathers Knobes story. there was a cell were they held candles and
flowers for his memory. he volunteered to starve to death so that some other might live.
we people are quite good with shrines. it jsut came really close to me.
no greater love said Jesus.
would I?

hey mormons and some spirit stuff even.

ok, so in krakow still.

we left budapest saturday night.
saturday was a good day in krakow.
we had some time with gaby, she showed us around
and took us in to this coolest cafe.
prayed together and felt just so good
to hear what is up in gabys life.
she is a dear one.

we arrived krakow on sunday morning.
(and by the way met the sweetest muslimlady from libya in the train.
I got quite excited about her, stirred someting in me)

the wallet family welcomed us and the first thing we did was taking a nap.
after that sat a while with the family and heard about poland and krakow and
youth with a mission and other interesting things.

the central of krakow offered us a crowded touristplaces
and nice buildings.
also some fun, cause there were theses street artist mimes,
and tytti went to do some mime with them.
all the tourists have now photos of tytti on their films.
and it was way funny, cause while we were sitting on the stairs of
one church (which by the way said: visiting the church during the divine service
is not permitted. ok, for tourists I understand but still come on. there were also statues
of the apostles and tytti took a photo of us infront of them. contrasting the living stones
we would maybe supposed to be instead of those fancy buildings. but ok, getting side tracked here..) yea, we were sitting on the stairs when we spotted two mormon guys.
cause we have made friends with so many mormons in finland we just yelled after them:hey mormons! and they stopped. so we hanged out with them for a while.
were really exhausted when got back to wallets.

then with milka (again with her.. maybe we shouldnt spend moments just the two of us, cause we also try the limits :)) we had some nice time of praying and casting out some spirits. this might be a long story though and my time is about to run out. and I havent even started about auschwitz where we were yesterday. ok, need to continue later.

blessed in krakow and everywhere

in krakow,
lori, steven and their kids are awesome.
so blessed to have a home to stay in.

will write more later.

some random stuff

i forgot to tell that I actually lost my bankcard in sarajevo.
but Jesus was good, I got it back. i had left it in an ATM and in the end
a hilarious bosnian guard found it for me inside the machine.

also got slapped by a bosnian man. this sweet old man stopped to talk
to us cause tytti was laughing so hard. I think he intended to tap me on
my cheek lightly, but it came a bit hard. well, no bruises.

been thinking about safety as well. cause many people in finland seemed
a bit worried for us cause we slept in the park/at the station in zagreb.
ok, I know no need to be stupid and so on, but its just a good moment to ponder
where I place my safety. circumstances, safe places or God?
i like what tytti commented about the psalm 23: it doesnt say IF I ACCIDENTLY
happen to get lost in some valley of shadow of death, no it says

Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

yesterday had a great day in budapest. I found sweet shoes, the city is nice and we hanged out with Bane (the serbian guy from bosnia we met in train) for quite a while. He is so cool, like him a lot. Jesus, just bless him, will you!

this evening were heding for krakow.
pray that we could get some rest eventhough its a night train.
in krakow we are going to stay at some youth with a mission workers we havent met before.
pray also that jesus would bless them, and for out unity with them.
also, we dont quite know how to get home after poland,
with buses we guess, but dont know anything about them, so can pray for that as well.
(and bro, writing in a hurry, no time for grammar)

and a day in budapest

it seriously is so blessed to be at gabys place!
there are beds,
toast and butter on it.
coffee machine.
a fridge. a shower.
and of course, gaby :)

yesterday we went to town and ate delicious thaifood
and then walked to the fellowshipgroup I mentioned earlier.

and it rained!

it rained so much. my jeans were wet up to my knees.
and I loved it! its been so hot everywhere and now finally
there is a possibility to wear jeans, hooray!

on our way to the fellowship me actually run into some hungarian
believers singins at the metrostation. they were so amaginz,
so full of life.

and when we finally found it to the group it was way blessed as well.
to pray, sing praise, to be prayed for and just to see these people who have been
obedient to Jesus and followed him to the other side of the world.
cause quite many of them were originally from the states now living in hungary.

a year a go we stopped on budapest for couple of hours with milka and walked to the river to pray for the city. then we felt quite strongly that there is sope depression in the city. yesterdax as I asked how we could pray for budapest one girl actually told me, that she sees the spirit of depression. people think they have to work a lot, earn a lot of money and so on, but are actually very lonely. oh if we people would understand to seek first Gods kingdom.

in the evening we took a tram back to gabys place and saw the beautiful lighted budapest and its bridges. Jesus, bless this city and this nation.

days in sarajevo

so we did some shopping, and in one shop met this
lovely nejragirl (and bro, no Im not bringing her as a souvenir :))

we sat in a park for a long time.
and get to know two bosnian men,
bosnians are amazing, so friendly and kind.
they bought some corns for us to eat
and just sat with us and chatted.
we heard something about the ethnic situation from them.
the whole bosniawar is quite messy and a long story
but briefly said it was cause of ethnic problems,
serbiand wanted a own country and then there were
the croatians and bosnians and mess was ready to begin.

we went to the historical museum.
so much injustice, hopelesness, blood and murder.
massacres and civil victims.
couldn help but cry.
and if my heart of stone can feel like this,
how much must the Father be suffering.
but then, from the pictures the children from the war
looked me with a smile on their face.
I think hope in the middle of desperation is one of
the most beautiful things I know.

back at the hostel two italians made some pasta for us.
Jesus really fed us good that day :)
we also heard about the situation in italy.
never quite understood that his berlusconi thing
is so strong there. also played an international game of strikes.
and I did not like bosnian beer. so far the slovakian has been best,
though didnt enjoy even that too much. bosnian coffee was great.

last day in sarajevo we met with nejra.
she is a young muslmim girl and so kind!
we just talked with her about what girls our age
talk about and hanged out.
milka and tytti ran into some dutch christians doing dramas
at one of the main squares. kind of encouraging to think
that weve been there also to prepare ways with praying.

also had a good time as the body of christ.
its learning, this being different and open and honest.

beautiful sarajevo waved us off with a thunderstorm and rain.
sad to go, but as one of tyttis friends texted her,
you need to go in order to arrive.

budapest

ah SO lovely.
we are at gabys place, and this place is an oasis!
she said that no problem we can stay here for two nights
and just gave us a key and lets us be like home.

we just woke from a nap, and soon will be heding to town.
to eat and also maybe attend somekind of a fellowship group.

arrived to budapest this morning by night train.
we had about zillion passport controls during the night
(well, ok maybe 4)
also they woke us up around 6 to say: intercity budapest,
which meant that we had to change trains. we almost got in
a hurry, cause we had just spread everything around in the train compartment,
we even had our laundryrope the hanging.

then met a norwegian and bosnian guy in the ic train.
the bosnian was a doctor to be, and on his way to be an exchange student
in budapest. we might meet him tomorrow still.

it was almost a shame to leave sarajevo.
people there were so kind and the city beautiful.
and there is more to tell about that still, but Ill do that later,
cause we have to get going soon!

love you all and miss you!

and then, sarajevo

as I mentioned, our train ride to sarajevo was quite rough,
one really starts to feel like an ameba or something after
few hours in a hot train. we sat there seven hours.

but the sweeter the redemption then!
we hadnt reserved any hostels or anything,
but they have it well planned here in sarajevo!
there was a pick up at the station and before
we noticed we were in somekind of an appartment
like hostel, where a guy who spoke only croatian
showed us how the lock of the door works.
(and its a really tricky one!)

oh, and in the train we met a sweet croatian man.
its weird how many people here speak german,
and so we were able to communicate with him a bit
with mine and tyttis poor german skills.
but I love it, how they dont mind about
the language barriers here, they just talk!
he got quite fond of us and asked if we would continue
the journey with him, but we decided to stay in sarajevo :)

sarajevo is amazing. rounded by mountains and hills.
full of mosques and churches. old streets. people.
and then, it seriously is kind of a shopping paradise as well..
Im still kind of tryuing to settle my mind to all this.
Jesus, just do what you want.

oh, and we met the sweetest bosnian girl working in one shop.
we might spend some time with her tomorrow.
today she has to work for 24 hours.

in zagreb again

so our journey to zagreb was ok, and not too hot.
(the trip from zagreb to sarajevo was a bit too much)

and the wonderful sticks were a blessing once again. while waiting
our train to zagreb from rijeka we met miki, a bosnian man living in
croatia. he tried our sticks and we gave him some coke. and he helped us
to carry our bags to the train. he told us that his mum had been in finland
during the bosnian war.

so when we arrived to zagreb around six in the evening we found out that
there isnt a train going to sarajevo anymore. one leaving only in the morning.
so we decided to hed to the same park we spent half of one night earlier.

though now the park seemed a bit more scary than before. so we pondered
that maybe it would be better to sleep at the trainstation.
but its a funny thing, this being scared or having fear.
cause as it says in the letter of john Gods love drives fear away.
so are they opposite forces? and if Im in a park where there are some
people who maybe look a bit suspicious to me, would I need to be afraid,
if I could just be freed to love.
but well, we sat in the park and some really nice dutch came to speak to us and
we talked with them a bit.
then there was this croatian boy who came to sit with us.
and he ended up sitting with us quite many hours.
at first we really didnt know what to make of him, but in the end
I think all our hearts were on his side so to say.
his name was anto and we talked about many things.
and it just so happened that he had just been to some church for the first time,
so we talked a bit about that. then we prayed for him and he was quite
touched for that. he was saying how he doesnt deserve such things and wondering
why we did it all. but is was such a blessing!

after that we moved to have bit of sleep at the trainstation before our train was leaving.
not too good a sleep though, but we did get some rest anyway.

finally, internet!

goosh, dont know where to begin..
so far weve drunk about 65 litras of water and sat about 39 hours in trains.
now in sarajevo, but Ill tell about that later.

pula was amazing. the mediterranean is so beautiful,
and the cliffs were awesome. on friday we arrived there
very tired, cause we spent the night in the park in zagreb and half
of it in the train. the hostel was very far from the station
and it was something like over 30 celsius..
but oh the joy when we got there and had the chance to plunge
in to the sea!
that day we just chilled, and as I mentioned earlier got to know
to the sealife with some locals :)

saturday we enjoyed some beach life and heded to the town.
pula has the history of being like this holiday city to the romans,
and it has biggest amphitheater and some other ruins from that time.

after sitting about three hours in one cafe we thought about getting back to the hostel.
milka and I took the stuff we just shopped (for example 9 litras of water)
and stayed to wait for the bus and tytti and lotta walked.

after we had waited for the bus for about 20 minutes we started to get a bit irritated,
so we ended up trying one thing. just to have something to do, we started to have a conversation with speaking in tongues. it was way cool! milka said something with her prayerlanguage and I responded. we did it and started to walk to the hostel. and so for the whole journey we talked to each other with our prayer languages. I seriously have no theology to back this up and we dont even know if that kind of a thing is approriate to do, but wow it was encouraging!
our spirits were strenghtened and couraged so much! and also it was good practising, cause it opened up the gift of translating the tongues. and its funny how sometimes the spirit understood what we talked about though our minds didnt.

after being back at the hostel I was at our tent (we slept one night in a dormitory (bed-hooray!) and the second in a tent) I heard some guy talking to his phone about how his friend had hit him and hed lost a tooth. he really was pissed off. I hoped he could end the talking so I could ask if I maybe could pray for hi, but he didnt.

so we went to hang out near the beach (the hostel practically was at the beach).
I have my sticks on this journey with me. the kinds you can throw in the air and whirl around and do all cool things, and they surely have been a blessing!
we were just sitting and playing with the sticks and people came to ask if they can try them.

and a guy came to look for his shirt and he ended up being the guy who bunched the other guy who was talking on the phone earlier. they were two boys from england and we ended up talking with them. I asked the phoneguy if I could pray for him, but he didnt want me to. but we seriously had quite a conversation.. he really had passion for the stuff he talked about.
we shared our thoughts about God and a bit of our life stories. he had a really hard time understanding that Im not religious though I believe in Jesus :)
tried to expalain the difference between faith and religion to him. its just so hard, when people have this one image of the church and they think thats what Jesus is.

then still talked a bit with some really nice scottish before going to have some sleep.
we had an early train to catch the following morning. the plan was to get a train to zagreb and change for a train to sarajevo.