once upon a weekend

the girls slept late and wore their pyjamas until one in the afternoon.
they enjoyed some autumn athmosphere with hot chocolates and good finnish music.
and the walls of stone radiaded cold.

they saw their palestinian little brother, gave him some food
and rejoiced over seeing his asthonished face after receiving.

they spent the night in beit jala, where a patient arab girl taught them
to pronounce the numbers and the girls found their finnish throats not to be able so say such words. they slept not so well after drinking arabic coffee, but were warm under the heavy blankets.

early in the morning they woke up, joined an arab lady to pick some olives at her garden.
they picked and picked and picked and time went by fast.
a taxi took them to the checkpoint, where they didnt fit in, and laughed hard.
they saw men being stripped off from their shoes and waited for the red lights to turn green.

in the bus they met a blond lady, who invited them to work in her hostel she is going to open in betlehem. they marvelled at these meetings the writer of the story keeps giving them.

in the evening they met a friend, walked around, laughed, tasted narkila (the sweet taste tobacco) and teased their brains with some riddles.
then walked back home really close each other to avoid the coolness.

back home they needed to switch their blankets to thicker ones.

its autumn.

ministry of queueing at the check point

went to betlehem today.
there was a long queue there.

"everyday like this" a man said to us.
"they dont ask for papers from you,
you are foreigners, not enemies like us"

a soldier came out and saw us there lined up with others.
"come here" he said.

"no, we can wait" we insisted couple of times before he let us stay in the line.

after going through the man said:
"today I respect you, you teached the soldier a good lesson
about how we are the same"

I think standing in the line with those people has been one of my highlights so far.

roadtripping

haifa 21.10.2006

saw the beautiful haifa from mount carmel.
the city is nowadays known as the centre for bahai religion.

father, when will elijahs mock the prophets of baal again?
one man of God would be enough,
are we really Gods, or what is going on?

a fancy temple they do have, the bahais.
and a beautiful garden.

but still daddy knows how to make things even more baeutiful.
nothing compares to the waves of the mediterranean.


nasareth and mount tabor 22.10.2006

two thirds of nasareth are arabs.
souks and the smell of coffee.
and a church, again. build on a holy place where the angel appeared to mary they say.
if I had to choose, this churchbuilding would be my favourite though.
the doors proclaim the gospel with its pictures.

sea of galilee.
I wonder if I would have taken those steps of faith peter did?
will I?

mount tabor, where Jesus spoke with elijah and moses.
this place was something else.
you could actually sense the holiness. prescense.
ones soul really rested.

we climbed to the highest point of the mountain to see the sun go down.
on top of an arch made by stones.
I seriously wasnt going to climb, cause im not so fond
of high places and climbind steep walls,
but susanne and petri wouldnt give up.
I took a hold of petris hand almost hyperventilating,
and even to my own amazemend did go up.
with their help.

and the view was breath taking.
and the whole episode spoke to me about church,
fellowship, weakness, sharing and faith.

the beach of haifa and akko 22.10.2006

lovely day,
spent time on the beach.
collected shells.

saw the nice city of akko,
its an old port town,
quite an important city
from the crusader times.
so far its almost my favourite!
the sea and kind of the same athmosphere as the old city in jeru.

great trip we had,
but boy it felt good to come back home.
back home to jerusalem.

yes, about jericho

it was amazing.

george took us there to do some drama to muslims.
we showed them the mask drama, and shared about
how God loves us as we are.
told them about finland, the light nights and cold winters.

answered questions like: how do finnish people relate to palestine?

they called us barbie (obviously tytti with her blond hair)
and doll.

God is so good.

and to see how they just are encouraged by us being there.
its something I just cant understand, but frim what I am grateful for.
again I can learn that being proceeds doing.
its not about ministry. hooray!
(I have quite a process with ministrystuff going on,
have to write about that some other time)

have to go now.

jericho

sitting and eating with a bunch of muslim youngsters
when the first allahuakbar released ramadan from that day,
hearing their eager questions about finland,
seeing the boys dance.

arabic coffee and songs that rise deep from the heart.

I face a lack of words.
how can Jesus answer my wordless prayers so good.

and Ive lost my heart.
how can I ever leave this place?

a sermon the wall gave me

thick air in the old city today, last days of ramadan.
something in the air,
cant quite put my finger on it.

we went to pray to the wall.
also to show it to karoliina, who is visiting us from finland.

there praying and staring at the wall and the people praying besides it
I thought how much hope the jews must place to that pile of rocks.
and then in contrary how much hope does God place on us,
the living stones. he has placed Jesus, the hope of glory in us.
that we could be the sign of hope to these.

and I like the white dove sitting in a crack of the wall.
Ive seen it everytime Ive been there.

the loved hated culture and some other stories.

I dont remember if ive told this story on my blog, but will do it again if I have.
a year ago when I was in london doing a short term mission thing,
I worked at a turkish church.
there was a korean pastor there.

one day he saw turkish youth on the other side of the road as me and another finnish girl
were sitting with him.
he said that we should go and take pictures with the youth and take their e-mail addresses.
as typical finnish people we were quite shocked about the idea and shy about doing it.

but after some persuasion we did. we went, talked with the youngsters and took a photo with them. as we returned to the korean pastor I said: this really was not a typical thing for a finnish person to do.
and the pastor said:
well, we shouldnt do things the finnish way, we should do them the kingdom way.

here one really wonders what is the good thing in culture, and what is not.
especially cause we are blondish western girls, and there are many men here.
its a struggle. how to meet them the right way.
and also how to liver the kingdom out,
and not to just present this western gospel to the people,
so that they have to be stripped from their own culture entirely.
cause I do see the beauty in these cultures, and how God can be glorified in different ways through them. oh Jesus, come on, just help with this all.

and an example from the living life in jerusalem.
i was taking a walk alone and a jewish man stopped me and asked something in hebrew.
I answered:
ano lo medaber ivrit (I dont speak hebrew)
and he asked in english about the policecars he has seen.
I didnt know about any policecars, so he then asked
if i am from finland.
as I said yes, he said:
oh I know people from finland, they always tell me about Jesus, you belive in Jesus?
with a glimpse of warning in my head I responded yes.
he asked me if I wanted to tell him about Jesus,
if we could go somewhere together.
I offered to give him the number of my pastor,
if maybe he could tell him something,
but the man was not interested in that.
as I shook his hand to say goodbye,
he slipped his hand inside my sleeve and asked me to give my hand to him.
I just wished him a good evening and walked away.
oh come on. how frustatrating is that?
and how much discernment does one need in this?
cause I do realize that Jesus can also work thorough wrong motives as well.
but yeah, waiting to be taught about this by the Holy Spirit.

ayman, the arab guy (one source of our frustration at them moment with these cultural things and where and how to draw lines and stuff)
took us to the mount of olives and to the mount scopus.

I saw the golden gate fot the first time.
(there are eight? gates in the walls of the old city)
the golde gate is the only closed gate, its not able to enter thourgh it.
it lead straight to the temple area, now the dome of the rock area.
the jews expect the messiah to come through this gate,
so the muslims have placed a cemetary right in front of the gate,
cause jews are made unclean if they touch something thats dead.
the muslims expect their al-masiuah to come through this gate as well.
the gate faces the mount of olives.

I think its my favourite gate.
there defenitely is something in it.

(woops, this post is really long)

we went to betlehem again.
to listen to a concert by a palestinan choir.
we kind of entered with faith,
cause people told us there arent any buses out cause of the ramadan.
but Jesus is overgood :)
we actually got a ride back to jeru in a car of a man who has started
an organization called musalah here in israel.
an organization we have wanted to get to know right from the start.
well done Jesus!

streets of betlehem

betlehem again.
driving with pauls scooter
the narrow, steep, wide, messy roads of betlehem.

met sami and heard his testimony.
how he used to hate the israelis,
threw stones at them,
went to jail, met Jesus there and got changed
from inside out.

Visited blanca, a blind lady living in a small appartment in beit jala.

participated to give an english lesson to a young palestinian boy.

saw paul get frustreted at the checkpoint.

it was almost cold sitting at the back of the scooter.
its autumn here.

also went to play snooker in betlhem with nabil.
(by the way, it costs 3 shekels there, 40 in jerusalem)
and just walked around there with tytti.

sat in a restaurant where an old lady came to sit with us
and told to us with sadness in her eyes how her jewish friends
dont stay in touch anymore.
what to do the lady asked, without waiting for an answer.

its funny, how the city where hope has became flesh is now so full of hopelesness.

halas!

six hours in betlehem starting from the morning.
Im exhausted, but it was great again.

I shared the story of the prodigal son.

and my arabic skills were in use:
halas
halas!
thats enough!

a skating jew

yesterday we went to male adummin, a town near to jerusalem.
tytti knows a half finnish-half israeli family there, and we spent about four hours sitting with them. it was nice, to hear their stories about how they met, how he moved to finland and learned to play ice hockey and to hear their lovely kids speak finnish.
moti, the father of the family is a jew, and it was interesting to observe some habits they have. like how the dishes are being washed in different sinks depending if they have been used for meat or something with milk. (this is the kosher rule, part of it anyways..)
also moti explained to me before staring his prayers after the meal, how the jews bless God after the meal. cause its easy to ask God to bless the meal and thank him in the place of need, but how easy it is also forget him after we have filled our tummies.

before going to male we went to the central to see the jerusalem march, they were having a march cause of the feast of tabernacles. the international christian embassy had quite many participants on it as well, and we even saw quite many finnish flags. and it did feel good to see finland bless israel.
in the morning we had a brief chat with one of the workers here at the finnish centre, and we talked about how tense the situation is, and how people are choosing sides. its funny how its rooted so firmly in the human nature, that if someone else gets a blessing, it somehow makes my blessings smaller.. like the man stated: its not like we take anything away from the palestinians, if we bless israel.
and its also funny to see, how individual stuff works the same way on a national level as well. but well, of course, nations are made from individuals.
but how differently God sees it all. cause isnt it almost one of Gods principles, to bless others through others blessings? like through abraham he promised that all the nations would be blessed.

today has been a bit of a weird day again.
i think that recently i have been struggling with my emotions quite a lot.
both of us with tytti feel quite easily irritated and the athmosphere can be sometimes a bit tense. but well, Jesus is inviting us to learn how to communicate and be open to each other. the hebrew word balagan (meaning chaos) has defenitely made itself known to us. somehow the spiritual athmosphere here is the kind, that you cant quite put your finger on anything. like sometimes naming your own feelings is an impossible task.

i havent been in betlehem in a long time, and have faced a lot of weird feelings about that as well. cause i defenitely want to go there, and feel called to go there. but then everytime a chance rises, i start feeling very passive and anxious about it. for a ling time i just wondered and almost felt ashamed for thinking and feeling that way. one day, when tytti and i both were feeling irritated, i just told her about this as well, and she prayed and it really helped! God did something, and I felt so relieved! and a chance rose again, and im going with paul tomorrow and im going to speak in couple of the schools.

sukkot

the feast of tabernacles started on saturday.
we danced hora after the service we had in the sukka and ate delicious foods. and in the evening went to the central and saw a group of orthodox jews dancing on the zion square. it was so cool! only stupid thing was, that the women werent allowed to dance!
the verse where it says that in christ there is no female or male really came to my mind..
but i just love the israeli dances, cause even from that you can so spot the mentality of the people. relaxed, outgoing and yes-the sometimes irritating no need to be so precis with everything attitude.

in work we have mainly been cleaning the bombshelter and helping with practical stuff.

Gods been so good to us by bringing so many cool and blessed people to our everyday situations. here at the finnish centre, were we are staying, stay also people who are visiting israel for a holiday. this week an older lady just wanted to pray for me and tytti and it was so blessed! its funny, that we need to come to israel to meet some spiritual mothers and fathers from finland :)

we also saw our friend who works for the UN, went to the museum of jerusalem with him. nice times. cant believe its a month when we left finland. and wont think that its two months when we need to leave israel.

shavua tov

it was so confusing, but great though, yesterday cause a bunch of finnish friends came to jerusalem.
they have been here for a week, first visiting mount carmel and now couple of days in jerusalem.
its so fun and encouraging to have hanna and mia staying with us.

this morning we woke up early to walk to the dome of the rock.
we could actually get in to the dome, nor to the al-aqsa, but did have some time
in the mosque area. we met an old muslim lady, who asked for money.
so we gave her some and sang a finnish song to her. she kept on hugging us.

then we left for jericho with tytti and paul. we went to see basma, took some toys for her children and food for her and her friends. it was quite rough, but also very blessed.
basmas situation is not one of the easiest, and its so hard to imagine that she is only two years older than me.
jericho is by the way the oldest city in the world. and also the lowest one. its on the palestinian side. we had to go through the check point again.
the soldiers are always nice to us. western girls with western looks and western passports.
its striking to realize over and over again, that its not about politics, not about the media, not about religion, its about people.

something shocking

i washed our clothes today.

and got them coloured to this baby blue-ish.

thank you Jesus for clorite!
and how it reminds that your blood does the some for us.
makes us white again.

betlehem at last!

ive been sick, and missed two visits to betlehem cause of that.
but today, finally, went!

but to start from an earlier point,
we met than guy working for UN, and that was interesting!
again God introduces us to someone who knows interesting things
and wants to share them with us :)
also went with him to the holy schepulture (oh whatever something like that) church.
you know, where they think Jesus was crusified and buried and all of that.
a lot of fancy stuff there. shrines shrines.
he did tell an interesting fact, that its a muslim, who is in charge of the locking of the door.
that is cause in the time muslims invaded jerusalem it was a muslim as well.

yesterday was one of laziest days so far. though i was sick as well, so couldnt even do anything. we just watched movies. finished actually one of them today. quite a romantic doze it was.
after that spoke a bit with susanne ( a finnish volunteer here at the centre ) about the complexity of dating and so on. though she is already married. this topic has been coming to the discussions quite often while our stay in here. even had some cruel and good jokes around it. its been fun :)

today went to betlehem. we saw boulos, who works for ywam in betlehem. we joined him in the church he goes to. and were really happily surprised to see two of "our own youth" there as well :) that was so great. we saw the boy, who cant come to the meetings here in jerusalem, cause he is 16. the permission hasnt yet come. after the holidays they say.
i also heard i look 12 year old. and well, we did have an awful giggling scene in the church with tytti, launched by twin babies. sometimes we might act like 12 as well.

after the service we went to boulos' home and had dinner with his family. have i recently said that i like arabic people?

and it seemed that the stuff about not being able to go to the west bank and move out there wasnt true. so all safe and sound here.