someone wants to volunteer in hell?

thats actually the sentence i heard when people where speaking our opprtunity to go to the gazastrip. might be we have a chance to go, please pray that Jesus could open the doors if its his will.

we just finished the session with palestinian youth in betlehem. there is just so much something I love in arab people! we got invited to couple of homes in ramallah and got photographed a lot :) thanks Jesus for bringin me here, i love this. though its awful how hard it is for me to remember what a different reality these people live in. after I told the youth that in finland we have few muslims and jews as well, a boy asked a question about how these groups relate to each other. after my answer he confirmed: so there are no troubles?
no, no troubles.

we saw the wall. tytti said someone had written Jesus wept on it.

tomorrow might hed to betlehem again, to visit some people. though Im not sure if they allow us there, it was said in the news that its prohibited to move outside in the west bank area. so dont know, we'll see.
they are being quite strickt now, cause its the first friday of ramadan, and its only few days to yom kippur.


and this evening were gonna meet with a palestinian guy who works for the UN. I love this, I love this. meeting people, getting to know them and hearing their stories!

hebrewing

life here goes, and I enjoy the days.
we have had a blast with tytti, hebrewed (that is translated in to hebrew)
U2 songs and making up hebrew words.

we have actually learned something real as well.
azov oti! leave me alone
lailatov good night
manisha? how are you
and many more.
the man in our near shop said to us today:
dont talk too mych hebrew.
I guess he likes to talk to us in english,
but we would like to communicate in hebrew.

just finished a youth meeting.
I just love the youth here.
and the team we are working with.
ruut, a finnish lady who talks hebrew with her two beautiful girls,
paul, a british f u n n y guy,
george, the most gentle and also funny arabian man.

and the youth, from argentina, from dutch foster parents speaking hebrew, arabic, english and dutch living on the palestinian side but going to school in jerusalem, girls originally from kazakstan, we have it all.
was this the multicultural practical training..? hmm, Im not sure.

tomorrow Ill hed to betlehem again, Im going to speak in couple of the schools.
then on friday we go to betlehem to do one hour with palestinian young people
and then on saturday Ill go to betlehem to visit the refugee area and a blind lady and something like that. might be going to betlehem on sunday as well.
and by the way, just so things wouldnt by any chance be easier, they have changed the time already in betlehem. they are one hour behind. weirdest.

its something inside you

amazing evening.

we just decided with tytti to hed to the bazaars of old town.
shabat was beginning and the bazaars closing.
we just wandered.
to the arab quarter.
thats my favourite. (well, to be honest everythings my favourite)
but the excitement and chance of fear is biggest there :)
ok, sometimes it gets even frustrating,
cause our blond heads tricker many shouts, but nowadays we know how to respond:
azov oti! leave me alone.

so today we got a bit lost.
but as tytti put it, the best way to get to know the town is to get lost.
walked among the cars in the via dolorosa.
tried to check from the map where we are,
and then ayman came.
an arab guy, who offered to take us to the roof of jerusalem.

and so he did.
I cant even describe it.
he took us all the way up.
we stood over the bazaarstreets, right in the middle of the old town.
saw the jewish quarter, the muslim quarter with al aqsa and the dome,
the christian quarter with its churches and the armeanian quarter.
heard stories from ayman.
history, facts. about the palestinians and the arabs and about the fact how they actually are one and the same, and still are not. about the fact how in the arab identity cards they are nobodies, and their nationality is marked with stars. about how the armenians actually fight more with arabs than the jews do, cause the armenians were driven out from their land by turkish who were muslims.

and this wasnt even enough, ayman showed us more, told us more.
we walked to the zion gate, formerly knows as the king davids gate.
he showed us the three mountains up from the roof of the building where Jesus had the last supper. he explained about the zionists who sleep by the gate. he showed us the wall, they are building to divide jerusalem. he told us about the golden gate, wich cant be used, and how the al-masiuah will come one day from that gate. he told us why Jesus hasnt come back yet (cause he is waiting at the checkpoint on the israeli border :) )he told us about ramadan, that might start tomorrow, and about how religion is only a set of rules. (oh how many people are so fed up with religion, Jesus, let us present something living)

and he told us, that once youve settled in jerusalem you cant leave the place.
its something inside you, you cant leave the place. you always end up back.

yes, a good night indeed.

shana tova!!

happy new year everyone!
its the year 5676 here, starting from tomorrow.
hmm, I wonder who ever invented to start calculating time from the birth of Jesus. funny, what way is the wrong and whats the right one?
what way does God calculate the years, whats His way of seeing the world? what IF my western christian way isnt the way He sees things?
I heard a man once say: the best way to change your world view is to take risks.

this is crazy, I think I could write a book about every day here,
but dont have time to sit here so much. so youll only get glimpses.
Im so sorry I cant communicate to you all the great taste of hummus, the shouts on the jewish market, the birds singing, the cars honking, the people smiling and all that.

yesterday I went to betlehem.
paul, a great british guy with a scoobydoo watch and one of the warmest hearts took me at the back of his scooter and off we went.
paul visits about 5 different schools, most of them disabled schools.
he sings in them and gives short speeches, kind of like morning devotions. then he visits for example one man, and delivers his post (they dont have post running in betlehem, so the man gives his letters to paul, who sends them from jeru) and also we went to visit the boy I wrote earlier about, the one who cant come to jeru anymore, cause he is 16. his permit is now under asking, so lets pray it comes through.

needless to say, I loved it. the kids just stole my heart.
and just being there. it felt right.
though not in the moment when we were sitting at the fine sofas of one christian center (woops, I dont want to mention names or anything, or even dont want to sound like Im critizing, just telling my own thoughts, please dont be offended anyone, Im sure they all do good job in the area, its just not what God is maybe calling me to) and the palestinian "refugee street" was on the other side of the road. are we christians like this, seriously? must say, Id rather been sitting there with the people.
who needs a wooden desk anyway?

then in the evening we met with that arab salesman I told you about earlier. he took us to some cool hill, where we could see the whole jerusalem lighted in the night. a m a z i n g . he is very nice, and I guess this relationship falls in the category of changing our worldview :)

living dead?

the other night we went to sukat halel -thats like a 24-7prayer place here in jerusalem. they have like a "slot" for the young people every week, so ruuts (our mentor here) lovely daughter ruhama took us there.

it was a good evening.
the young people here are amazing, such hearts, passionate and devoted.

as we were worshipping, one of the girls of the band started to sing like an inspirational song, where it said only couple of sentences:
all I want is you, all I crave is you.

and Jesus spoke to me about the cost.
its funny, I think that the maturity of these young peole is the result of the pressure they are living under. Id be so glad to welcome some tribulations to finland, if it would make us a bit more alive..

Jesus said that its going to cost you. maybe even your lives. but he who endures until to the end will have a crown of life.
and the scripture from revelaton came to my mind
"they defeated him ( satan that is ) through the blood of the lamb and the bold word of their witness. they werent in love with themselves: they were willing to die for Christ" (from rev12)

its just that we are so used to this safe life. eventhoug I as a finn notice it in myself. and even to speak about something like martyrdom is a bit absurd. usually people respond to it with .you are more useful alive.. aah, dont try and be such a martyr..you cant save the world..

but then again, if Jesus is actually asking me to lay down my life as a sacrifice, not only to donate my time for him, wouldnt it mean he is in control. in everything. every area of my life. its no longer me living, cause Ive died already, and my life is now hidden in God with Christ. Could it be?

what would happen if I would actually start living this way?
its coming, and I cant wait.
AND in the middle of all these thoughts Im so grateful, that Im known by God and loved even in my weaknesses.

from revelation again:
letter to the church of smyrna
I can see your pain and poverty-constant pain, dire poverty-
(I guess suffering and glory go hand in hand many times.)
but I also see your wealth---
fear nothing in the things you are about to suffer-but stay on guard! fear nothing! the devil is about to throw you in jail for a time of testing-ten days. it wont last forever. dont quit, even if it costs you your life. stay there believing. I have a life-crown sized and ready for you. (according to the Message)

and anyways, its nice that even this one can practise. as we were singing a song with the words: I will soar with you above the storm, father you are king over the flood. I will be still and know you are God, I just realized again how Jesus calls us to worship him with our lives so that we live these songs out in the middle of our headache, lost keyes or depression.

its so interesting. this all, finding life with Jesus.

please, discernment

I sit here very irritated and decided to try and write something.
dont actually know why I am so irritated, this has been a weird day.
it started with me broking a plate and loosing my keyes. (luckily they werent lost at all in the end)
maybe its all because we actually started some kind of work stuff this week.
ok, ill try to cool down and understand the deeper stuff under this I feel.
it just seems one needs to learn it here quite a lot.

been to old jerusalem by now. no words to describe.
still many layers and levels attached to the facts.
the athmosphere is striking.
so different from the rest of jeru.

fear is an interesting thing.
Ive actually even enjoyed it during my stay here.
not to let it have the control over situations,
but maybe to let it linger just a bit and hear what it has to say.
it tells me what I need to learn still.

we were in tel aviv yesterday.
bought me a bikini, and had the whole shop assisiting..
a bit different than what Im used to..
smelled the salty wind, I just l o v e the mediterranean.
saw my bro jari, who is working in tel for still a week.
walked a l o t.

this weeks thursday Im going to get to betlehem for the first time.

oh the days go

Im still here. in Jerusalem.
almost too good to be true.

one awesome thing is, that a friend of mine, Niilo is
in the israeli army at the moment. we saw him the day before,
and first of all it was so nice to see him, and then so interesting
to listen to his stories. he knows quite a lot, and of course has some
different perspectives to issues.

we took niilo with us when we went to see the youthgroup for the first time.
we are going to work with these young people. tytti maybe even more, cause
she will lead a kings kids group for them.
but oh, thay just stole my heart, such passionate, lively people!
and something to pray about, a young boy from the pales area has been
coming to the group, but now as he turned 16 the law says he cant come to israeliside
anymore without a given permission.

thursday started nicely, we had breakfast with a finnish lady who is here for holidays.
she shared some amazing stories from her life, and we prayed for her.
she also prophesied a bit for me. a light breakfast that was..

then we went to the old town, planning on going to the wailing wall (still havent seen the dome of the rock and that) but we got stuck to the bazaars. we met a really nice salesman, and ended up sitting with him for two hours. and it was almost like therapy, how he asjked things about us and our culture and challenged us. talked for example about the differences in familylife. its so cool how God let us to him, and spoke to us through him. and he a muslim :)

and yeah, I ate my first falafel. and some hummus.

last glimpses of vienna, first ones from jerusalem

in vienna we tried to understand something of the city, but didnt quite succeed.
while sitting in a tram we saw somekind of christian center and decided to go and ask for prayer there. some american missionaries greeted us with joy and prayed for us. encouraging!

for some unknown reason we decided to spend the last night at the airport. so we checked in about 14 hours before our flight and spent the night on the floor under the benches. for some reason time really makes things look better in a short, I already think of the night warmly as a good experience, though it was awful, long and cold. early in the morning the sofas in starbucks offered some comfort fo us again.
an iranian yoga teacher started to talk to us. he had some really good points, and it was interesting talking with him. though he laughed hard when I responded to his reincarnation theory by proclaiming that I think I am brand new. its funny though, talking with these new ageish, activistic-kind people. many times I see their lives being more biblical in many ways than christians. and they see so much spiritually. like this iranian guy just said that while we were sleeping on the sofas he saw a light surrounding us. well, no wonder cause the Holy Spirit lives in us. why cant we christians see these things. (oh the blinding power of the seen)

then, Jerusalem, day one.
almost feel unworthy to write anything, cause my words wouldnt express the things that I see and feel and wouldnt do justice for the plan God has for this all.

first day we checked the healtcare. tytti was so ill, we went to eat jerusalem to get her some medicine. in the hospital I lost my heart to the funny cleaner man, to a small aeab girl and many others. tyttis path went from the info to the nurse to the info to the doctor to the info to the lab to the info to the doctor to the info. and she got antibiotics. I love this!

there are so many layers in being here. like just seeing all the cool, beautiful places. loving the people, getting to know them. and then feeling a bit of fathers heart as he aches for the souls and the lives that suffer and are in need of him. I havent been able to deal with half of the emotions ive felt. overwhelmed with this all.

when we walked home as the prayercall sounded and the arab kids played football I felt home and alive. its right to be here.

please pray

were in vienna, and very ill.
got here yesterday,
so far we have been sleeping in the hostel,
sleeping in starbucks and sleeping in a park.
sitting in a tram trying to understand something
through somekind of haze of illness.
come on Jesus!
at the airpost yesterday a man walked straight to us and said:
iran has statred a war against israel on the 13 of july,
dont go there, it will be the third worldwar and you
all or going to be a part of it.
funny thing that he walked straight to us.. heh.

arent we there yet?

soon.
at last, soon.