Winter camp-Talvelaager!!!

Last weekend I spent at the Elu Sõna Youth Winter camp 2007! We were staying at this beautiful place in Koke, Võrumaa in Southern Estonia. You can see a picture of the main building here... It was a great weekend with lots of fun and activities, but most of all a time to draw closer to God. There was over 60 young people there from different places in Estonia. We had wonderful weather, with -10degrees and sun all weekend. We were grilling and had sauna Friday evening after the meeting. Saturday we had the opportunity to go skiing, sledging or ice-skating. I went skiing and it was really nice! In the evenings we had meetings with worship and preaching and sharing. The theme for the camp was spiritual warfare-being a solider for God. So on Saturday morning we got to taste a bit of being in the army, and we were woken up by the fire alarm, and everyone had to get dressed and go outside, where there was "an army call". Talking about waking up alright!:-) During the camp we were also divided into eight groups, and we gathered with our groups in the morning to share the Word and stuff. I had the privilege to lead one of the groups together with Karolina. It was a blessing.:-) It was just simply a blessed camp and God worked in people´s life, as the Sunday meeting could testify when alot of people gave testimonies... It´s so amazing to see what God does in people´s lives! We serve an awesome God!!!

One Year Older and Wiser...

So, today 24 years ago I was born in Grankulla, Finland... Looking back over all these years, I must say I have had a really good life so far... Through good times and rough times God has been faithful, even in the times when I didn´t recognize that, He was watching over me...and still is! So, this is a celebration to life! Thank you mom and dad, Hanna, relatives, my wonderful friends, but most of all my Wonderful Father in Heaven and my Beautiful Lord and Saviour Jesus, who gave me life and life in abundance!Thank you Holy Spirit for being my helper! What would life be without all of you? Empty and non-excistent!

And thank you all for all the greetings that I have received in many shapes and forms!

Yesterday, while my parents were still here, we went out to eat to celebrate my birthday. Anette and Sigurd were also there, and we had a blessed time! We enjoyed some really delicious beef rolls, with gratain and vegetables. And then Sigurd sneeked away at some point and told the people at the restaurant that we were celebrating my birthday. So while I has taking my time deciding what dessert to take, the owner came with a beautiful birthday dessert for me! I was so surprised!:-) So yeah, it was really good! You can see some pictures from this event...:-) And in two hours I am heading to the Youth Winter Camp for the weekend! What a great way to celebrate my birthday! :-) Be blessed!!! The best is yet to come!!! :-)

Updates, updates :-)

Wow, time flies! What do you know, now it´s Monday again and a new week has just begun...

So some updates... On Valentine´s day in the evening I went to Vanemuise Concert Hall to see Vivia play in a "Loved Classics" Concert. It was the final concert of the "French music week" that they had here in Tartu. It was a concert represented by students from four different countries and music schools. It was really interesting and lovely to be there and to watch and hear Vivia play...:-)

Thursday I had Anette over for dinner and we had a great tie as usual! We talked and talked and talked and what do you know...time just flew by once again,as it does when you´re having a good time...:-)

Then on Friday, Anette and I decided to go to Aura Keskus, which is a swimming center. We took this "health card" which allows you to go to the swimming pool, the water park, the bubble baths, the aroma sauna, the steam sauna and the regular sauna...We spent 4 hours in there, swimming, relaxing, and having fun! It was so great! :-) Then in the evening there was youth meeting and Urban Vikström from Sweden was preaching. He was preaching about unity and how we need to love and accept each other across the denominational lines. The Church has been "separated" for too long! We need to focus on what we have in common and not on the differences. We have so much more in common than we have differences! There are different ways to serve and worship God, but we all serve the same God and Jesus is our Lord and Saviour and the Holy Spirit can move in different ways! He talked about how we need to live in love and not judge people, but to love them and show mercy! It was such a great message!

At the moment I have my parents visiting. They arrived last Saturday and are staying until Friday. They have their winter holiday now, so it´s cool that they came to see me. And also they get to know this place better! :-) On Saturday we had dinner when they arrived and then in the evening we went to this "going up" event...

Sunday at church, Urban was preaching another amazing message about "seeing" as Jesus saw...We need to see things not merely with our natural eyes, but with our spiritual eyes. When Jesus saw the people he was moved with compassion. Compassion MOVES you, it´s not just seeing, but you act upon it.. Jesus had compassion, he healed the sick and wounded.. There are so many places in the Bible where it talks about "seeing"... We need to reach out to the people, to see their needs, to look deeper than the surface... This message really stirred up something fresh once again... But the challenge is not merely to be a hearer of the word, but a doer!

After church we went to our "Sunday lunch place" La Dolce Vita with my parents and Anette. You can see some pictures from there here as well... :-) We had a little Swedish-Norwegian time in an italic environment...:-) Good times:-)

Today I was back at school, diving into biochemistry, basic nursing and anatomy...I had a nice long break in the middle of the day though, when I went out for lunch with my parents...cool with a little different break...and then I went back and literally was "picking the brain", as I was trying to remove the blood vessels and pia mater from the cortex...very interesting...but oh, so complicated and detailed!!! ...and once again I am amazed at how wonderfully and fearfully made we are! Wow! What a Creator!!! :-)

Happy Valentine´s Day!!!

Happy Valentine´s Day to all my wonderful friends across the world!!! I hope you have an amazing day and that you are surrounded by people you love! And even though you might not be, I pray that you will be reminded of all the wonderful and precious people God has put in your life! And most of all I pray you will be reminded of the One Who "so loved the world that He gave His only Son..." I pray that you would be surrounded by THAT love that goes beyond all reason and understanding! So I send my love to you wherever you might find yourself! Be blessed dear friends!!! And don´t forget the One who IS LOVE!!!

"We love because He first loved us!!!"

1 John 4:19

Weekly Update...

Wow, another week has passed by! That is, my last week of holiday! It has been a real winter here in Tartu lately!Yesterday it was -20degrees Celsius! Brrrr...but it has been so beautiful, with sun!!! Well anyways...tomorrow the spring term starts! I am actually really excited about that!!! :-) So yeah...but now some highlights of the week...

Last Tuesday Vivia and I went to the Old Anatomicum where they have the Medical collections of the Faculty of Medicine. There are some really unique things in there! Quite fascinating! There are preparations of anatomy, embryology, pathology and forensic medicine... A really interesting place (that´s coming from a medical student) for all those who can handle it... :-) I was soo proud of Vivia! She did sooo well!!!

Anette was sick most of the week, and so I visited her both Tuesday and Wednesday, and we also watched some preaching and a movie as well...just chilling...

And then Friday I had my music lesson with Vivia- so good once again! A real blessing! :-) And Friday we were gonna have cell, but it ended up being only Julia and I. We had a good time, chatting and we had time sharing most of our life stories with each other...a really good time!Thank you Julia!! You are an amazing woman of God!!!:-)

Saturday Anette and I had planned to go to the Gospel Awards in Tallinn, but as she was still not quite well, I ended up going with Vivia! And we had such a great time together! We did some serious laughing alright! She is so funny! :-) And it is just so great hanging out with her, and the funny thing is that we are so much alike in so many aspects! So anyways, we went to the Gospel Awards...and my friends from Tallinn, Rael and Kati, their band Septem, was nominated for the Awards, as one of the "newcomer bands"...And they WAN it!!! It was sooo great! So once again- CONGRATULATIONS GIRLS!!! Oli nii hea! :-) You can also see some pictures from the Gala... Then afterwards Joona, Vivia and I were gonna catch the bus back to Tartu. We got a ride to the bus station, but when we got there we found that we had a little over an hour time to spend before the next bus left...so we went to a pizza place and we had a good time, again with lots of laughter...:-) And finally we got back to Tartu at 1:30am...It was just a really blessed day all in all!

Today, Mart Metsala was preaching at our church. It was a really good service!Both amazing worship and preaching! Alots I could say about that, but not this time...Then after church a few of us went out to eat, to celebrate Helina´s birthday,which was last Friday. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELINA!!!:-) Anette, Joona, Helina and I went to La Dolce Vita and had a delicious lunch! Again, I think we easily could say that the theme was...laughter! :-) Well, it was again a blessed day...so now tomorrow, another beautiful day awaits! Praise God!

Wonderful Weekend!

Well, what can I say? It has been as amazing weekend! On Friday morning I had a music lesson with Vivia, who has got it in her heart to help me move forward with my music;singing, piano, and music theory. It was so great having lessons again! My music, it seams, has more or less been on the shelf lately, but now I feel it´s a new season! It´s so good! Thank you Vivia!!!

Friday afternoon I spent at Anette´s place, just chilling (and helping out carrying her new washing machine). Then in the evening there was Youth and Rune Borgsö, a Norwegian from Sweden, was preaching. It was such an amazing night, and God really moved in that place among the youth!

On Saturday I had lunch with a girl from church,Viktoria. We had a nice time together, enjoying both delicious food and desert. From there I went on to Põlva, with Anette and Sigurd. Usually there is a youth meeting, but this Saturday it was for the younger youth, and it was great to see some new faces! As we headed back to Tartu, a sister and friend from Põlva, Mona, came with us as well, as she spent the night at Anette´s place. The two of them went on, so Sigurd and I decided to go watch a movie at the cinema. But as there was none that we wanted to watch, so we ended up renting one movie and having a movie night with pizza and ice cream!

Today, Rune was preaching at the Sunday meeting, and it was another amazing service! The preaching was so inspiring and it really stirred up something fresh in my spirit! He was talking about mission, and how to reach out to people. He was sharing some of his experiences from the mission field. He peached about the temple and the stream from Ezekiel 47, and how we get dry if we only stay inside the 4 walls of church, but how there is a fresh flow in the Holy Spirit when we step out and reach out to the people in need! We don´t need to get so stuck in traditions and how things usually are done, but to listen to what the Holy Spirit is showing us about each situation! He also talked about Jesus and the woman at the well from John4. We need to be like Jesus and look for people in need, and not be so occupied with our fleshly needs, (like the disciples who were hungry and went to find some food). We need to break out from our cultural and social boundaries and reach out to all people! When we do the will of the Father, we will be satisfied! The preaching was so good, but I can´t share all of it here, so you only get a glimps of it! Then he also got alot of words of knowledge, and when people responded, and got prayed for, God touched them and moved in a wonderful way! How amazing is God! The Holy Spirit knows exactly our needs! And He wants to touch us and change us! Let us be open for God to be used and to reach out to others!!!

Daily News and Deep Thoughts...

This morning I watched and listened to some teaching of Bayless Conley about the gifts of the Spirit.It was really good and now I am passing on this tips, that I got from Anette, to watch it. You see the link here to his webpage...:-) We need to really desire the gifts of the Spirit to work through us more! I pray that we will be able to live a natural supernatural life where God can touch people and meet their needs through us!

Later in the afternoon I met up with Kristiina and Anette in the city and we had coffee and talked...Girls, you know...:-) Then after that Anette and I did a bit of shopping, which is always nice:-) And then we went and rented two chick-flick movies and went to watch them at my place...So it was a really nice relaxing day:-)Above you see some pictures from today, at the café and then from my appartment:-)

That was the happenings from today in a nutshell, but now I want to share some deeper thoughts... God has really brought up some things on total dependence in Him lately. You know I really got a deeper revelation on the verse "Blessed are the poor in spirit, cause theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven", when I listened to some teaching by Ulf Ekman. He was talking about your walk with the Holy Spirit. And there he was preaching about how we cannot do what WE want and walk in the Spirit at the same time, but how we constantly need to yield to the Spirit and die to ourselves... And he was saying that we Christians sometimes act like young kids who say " I can do it myself" even though we absolutely cant do it! And then there is this place in Christian maturity that you come to, where you realize that you can do NOTHING without God! And since the Holy Spirit is the helper, it indicates that we need help!:-) When he talked about this verse, Matt 5:3, he said that if you are poor, you have to go and ask someone for help and for things you need. And that is what that scripture shows, that we are in a place where we are poor in spirit, where we KNOW that we have NOTHING IN OURSELVES but everything we need COMES FROM GOD! And what I think is the amazing thing is that the Bible says that those who come to that place, who are poor in Spirit, THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!!! In other words, when we are in that truly humble place all of Heaven is available for us, and then God can TRULY USE US!

At the same time this has to go hand in hand with true confidence, not that we have confidence in ourselves, but OUR CONFIDENCE IS IN CHRIST! And I think that when you combine these two things, true humility and confidence in Christ, then I think you will be a real danger to the devil!Hallelujah! You know that you are nothing in yourself, yet you know that you can do all things through Christ!

Another example that I think is a really good illustration is one that Joyce Meyer used...She said that we are like a little child in its fathers arms in a big swimmingpool. You can see the look in the childs eyes when the father is taking the child into deeper water, how the child clings more to the father.The child cant reach the bottom, but the father is in total control. And we are like that child, but we need to realize that in any case we are in head over water, nomatter were we are in the pool, and we are totally dependent on God in everything!