HAPPY VALENTINE`S DAY!!!

God of the Second Chance...

Today as I was reading the book of Jona from the Bible, I was caught by the thought of how God is the God of the second chance. In the beginning of the book God spoke to Jona to go to Nineve, because He had a task for him to do there. However, Jona responded to the call from God by running away from Him... He took the boat to a completely different place. “How crazy is that”, we might think... but then we look at ourselves and we see that maybe we are in the same situation. There might be things that God has spoken to us about, and we have tried to ignore that still small voice we have heard... “No, that can´t be God...”, we might think.
We see that by running away from God´s plan or calling, Jona ended up in a storm and eventually found himself inside the belly of a big fish. Have there been times when you have found yourself in the storm and you see the huge waves of life around you? Have you ever felt so isolated in a dark place where you think, “This must be the end of the world”. It might not be so drastic as to say that we find ourselves in a stomach of a fish. However, every time we are trying to run away from things that God is calling us to do, or even from God himself, we always end up in some stormy weather... There is no place where we can run and hide. God sees us, He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He knows our pain, flaws, and our problems. Maybe you are trying to run away from a problem, a bad relationship, an intimate relationship with God... whatever it might be, it is not the best way. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Only when we walk on that road, living in the truth, then we can live life and life to the fullest...

Maybe you say, “You don´t understand...I have messed up so badly! I cannot go back”. Listen, I have good news for you! There is no circumstance, no sin, no darkness that is too dark or too difficult for God. Maybe you realize that you cannot do life alone, then the direction to run is towards God, not from Him! He is standing there with open arms, ready to love and embrace you. When you ask Him for forgiveness, He will forgive you and all the past is wiped away! That is our loving and graceful Father God! Maybe you have been hurt, maybe you feel that there are people in your life that you cannot forgive, or you feel that your life is so broken and you are full of pain... That is what God is there for!!! He wants to meet you exactly where you are and turn your situation around! We have nothing else than God to cling to! He is the only hope in this world! He is the God of the second chance! He wants to save you, love you, forgive you, help you forgive, heal you, restore you, restore broken relationships, restore broken families, etc.... He wants to flood your life with blessings!

When we continue to read the book of Jona, we see that he asked God for forgiveness and surrendered. He did what God told him to do and he was given a second chance. God spoke to him again and this time he chose to obey and follow the road God had for him. And not only did that affect his life, but it saved the whole city of Nineve, with 120 000 people, from destruction! That is what God wants to do in your life. When you walk the road that God has for you, not only will you see your life restored and healed and saved, but you will also see people around you turn around and follow Christ! So I want to encourage you- God is for you, not against you! There is nothing that can separate you from His love, if you only turn to Him and choose to follow Jesus and the exciting life He has in store for you! He loves you with an everlasting love and He gave His life so that you could be saved and live a life in freedom - all the way into eternity! Don´t let go of Jesus! He is the only hope we have! He is the way, the truth and the life! God bless you! Jenny :-)

(This is an little thing I wrote for our Youth webpage http://www.kaev.net/elusonanoored and I thought I could post it here as well... Hopefully it will bless someone...)

Wonderful Weekend!!!:-D

This weekend has been really amazing! It has been so great being back here with friends and church!!! Friday was youth evening and it was really good and an amazing evening! And the really cool thing was that we had our new lighting system for youth!!! yeeeeeeee!!!!!!! It was really good and cool, cause the lighting hasn´t been the best, so now it was really great to have that new piece of technology there!!! Praise God!! You can see yourselves how cool it became!!! Adds some colour in our lives!!! Yeah, that´s what I´m talking about!!! Andrus and Triin had worship, I got to share some things, Julia shared some things and Tom was preaching. It was a really nice evening!! :-)

Friday Youth Meeting...:-) Colourful, yeah!!! :-D

Julia speaking...

Tom preaching...

Saturday was Helina´s birthday!!! Yeee!!! Happy Birthday one more time sweetie!!! We celebrated her at my place. It was a nice, fun and relaxing b-day party. We ended the evening by watching a movie... A nice time...:-) ...as you can see from the pics!:-) Helina then stayed at my place over night and then we went together to Church on Sunday. The table is laid...


Vivia, Helina (the birthday girl!!!) and Liina...

Eeva, Joona, and Liina...they look a bit surpised...he he..:-)

Eeva and I...

Movie night...

Beautiful Liina and Viivo... :-) Girl time....
Guy time... Andrus and Aaron...

Tom, Julia, Eeva and Aaron...

It was an AMAZING Sunday meeting!!! I was just sooo grateful and happy to be back here at Church!!! praise God for an amazing church with amazing pastors and leaders!!! :-) I was so blessed by the service! Pastor Eino was preaching and it was such a great message about taking our possition in Christ and walking in our calling!!! God spoke straight into my life in a few things!!! We just have to be more bold and step out in faith when God puts something in our heart, and not just wait for it to happen... cause then we´ll be waiting a looong time...:-) When God says go we go... :-) It is just so amazing to go deeper and deeper in our walk with Jesus! And I am so excited for the things he has in store for us this new year and beyond!!! Life with Jesus is so exciting!!! I mean, if you think your life is boring, then try Jesus!!! :-) I so wanna go up to a whole new level... Let´s not settle for anything but the very best God has for us, ok? We have to wake up and understand and get a deeper revalation of who we really are in Christ!!! It´s time for the Church to arise and take it´s possition and really be the Chruch of the ressurected Christ!!! Hallelujah!!! :-) :-) :-) The joy of the Lord is our strength!!! :-) Praise God!!!

Sunday Meeting...:-)

Thankfulness...

Praise God! This weekend has been just amazing and wonderful!! I feel soooo blessed!!! It is wonderful being back here in Tartu! The vacation was great, but it is sooo good to get started with the spring term with everything that holds! I am just soooo in love with Jesus and I am just soooo thankful for all the amazing things that He has done and is doing and all that He will do in my life!!! I really encourage you, that if you feel down or just not full of thankfulness to God, to start praising Him!!! Start worshipping God in the midst of the storm...Start thanking God for all the good things in your life! You will be amazed at how long the list gets!!! He is just soooo good!!! And our Heavenly Father only has good things in store for us!!! Praise God!!! :-)

I am thankful that I can be a child of God, that Jesus has paid the price for me, that I can know Him, that He is everything I need, that all my sources are in Him!!! I am thankful for my family, for my wonderful friends, for my relatives, for my amazing church and leaders and sisters and brothers in Christ! I am thankful that I have been able to live abroad in the countries I´ve lived, I am thankful that I was able to go to Hillsong College. I am thankful that I can study medicine, that I have a beautiful appartment, that I have food on the table, that I have a bed to sleep in, that I am able to pay my bills, that I am healthy, that I have a hope and a brigth future, that the best is yet to come, that I can serve my wonderful Lord and Saviour, that I can have fellowship with the Holy Spirit, that I can worship God, that I can pray, that I can have peace in the midst of the storm, that His grace is sufficient for me and that His strength is made perfect in my weekness, that I can sing and play and laugh, talk, run, dance, jump, feel emotions, breath, live... I am thankful that I can rejoyce and fix my eyes on Jesus, I am thankful that I am never alone, cause he has promised to never leave me nor forsake me, I am thankful that I am the princess of the most high King, that I am the apple of His eye, that I can be free to love, free to dance, free to sing... I am thankful that He has changed my life and continues to change me from glory to glory, I am thankful that God wants to use little me, I am thankful that I have a calling upon my life, I am thankful to be blessed to be a blessing, I am thankful to live in a free country where there is peace and the freedom of speach, I am thankful that I dont have to fear for my life or fear for the lives of the ones I love, I am thankful that there is a greater purpose to life that just to excist and then die, I am thankful for the Word of God, I am thankful for all the people that have spoken into my life and encouraged me along the way, I am thankful for all the wonderful teaching I have received, I am thankful that God has and keeps on protecting me, I am thankful that I can be me, and that God loves me and accepts me for who I am, I am thankful for all my friends that love me, I am thankful for all the people I get to bless, I am thankful that I have a reason for living, I am thankful that God has so many wonderful promises and exciting things in store for me, I am thankful that I have an amazing Father in Heaven that will supply all my needs and who loves me and who gives me so many things to be thankful for that I cannot even name them all... PRAISE GOD!!! :-D

p.s. If you are not smiling by this time you should go and have your smile muscles checked.If you dont feel overwhelmingly happy and thankful by this time, you should go and have your pulse checked out and see if there is anything at all running through your veins...;-)God is sooooo good!!! :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-D :-D :-D:-D :-D :-D

A bit more vacation updates...

So now my vacation has almost come to an end... I am back at Uni on this upcoming Monday... But now some more updates on the time that has gone by...

This last week and a half, I have spent both in Liljendal, Helsinki/Helsingfors and in Turku/Åbo.. and some time in Porvoo/Borgå... In Liljendal I was mostly chilling, going for walks, reading, ect.. You can see some wintery pictures of me and my dog, Funny... unfortunately the snow didnt last for too long...I was already planning going skiing..but no... instead I did try a little of the ice while being out walking that I fell straight backwards in a hill, leaving nice blue marks... he he..but no broken bones... I told my dad, when he said that thank God I didnt break anything, "You´d have to have a motorsaw to break my bones..." I will not proove myself to be right...but at least it is close to the truth, I think, since I have never ever broken a bone in my entire almost 25-year-old body... he he...

Funny and I outside our house in Liljendal...

Winter weather... (isnt she the cutest dog you´ve ever seen??)

Last week Tuesday Jesus Revolution was in Borgå holding a concert in the evening. I got three of "my girls" with me from Liljendal and we went there... It was a nice evening and good to see old and new people..:-)

Jesus Revolution in Borgå...

"My girls" Linnea, Sandra and Ebisse...:-)

Then last week Thursday I overcame myself and got up at 6am to go to Borgå... We only had one car available, so I drove mom to work to 7.30 and then I went swimming in Borgå... It was sooooo nice!!! I was swimming for one hour and then I sat in the steem sauna for quite some time just enjoying life and relaxing!!! Sooooo goood!!!!!!!!!! :-) After that I headed to Maria Åsvik´s place and we had some nice time catching up and pondering on the exciting life with God. We then went out to eat lunch at a Chinese restaurant in town... So great to spend time with my big sister in Christ! :-) After that I just had to go and pick up mom from work (he he sounds almost like picking up the kids, ey, a little backwards..She works at a kindergarden...). I then drove straight to my next "meeting" with Minna at Liljendal Shell. We had a nice catching up time over some tea and chocolate..he he.. That reminded me of how fast time flies!!! I had´t really seen her since last summer we concluded!!! CRAZY!! I have no pictures of her here, cause she refused on me taking any so... Even papparazzi herself couldnt violate that wish...;-) I also got a nice evening that Wednesday with my grandparents! It was great seeing them again and just spending time with them! I cherish each of those moments!!!

Maria at the Chinese Restaurant...:-)

Then Friday to Sunday Hanna and I went to Turku/Åbo for a Network 21 Weekend Seminar. The main speaker was Peter Cox from Australia!!! It was a really great and inspiring weekend and it really challenged me in many different ways!! No words can really describe it... It is like one of the speakers said..."It´s like trying to describe what cinnamon tastes like...". But it was deffinately a special weekend... Here are some pics from there...

WES- Peter Cox, Mats Holmberg and Beni Jaskari having a little show...:-)


Peter Cox speaking at WES...

After the weekend I still went to Liljendal for a couple of days before I headed to Helsinki with all my luggage!!! I stayed at Hanna´s place and we had some more good time together... Tuesday evening I got to see my dear childhood friend Maria and we had a nice catching up time over some evening snack...

Maria :-)

I also got to spend more time with my cousins Eva and Catrin. Catrin (Titti) made lunch for us on Wednesday and I finally got to meet her boyfriend Kalle. :-) We had a really great time together! I also experienced the most strangest thing ever in the kitchen there as I was wipping some wipcream... all the sudden as I was gonna add some sugar and mix it the mashine started going by itself (at least I have no clue if I pushed some strange button) and the cream went flying all over the kitchen... the "wipping machinge" got stuck in the bowl... We were all really surprised and shocked cause none of us really understood what happened. But it all ended happily with no injury, just a big laugh and some cleaning...:-)

A funny picture of the sisters...

My dad and my sis...:-)

I am so thankful for my wonderful friends and family and it has been amazing to have this vacation and just relax and see people!!! On Wednesday evening Hanna had her first cell group at her place. So I got to be apart of that too and I met Aami for the first time and Matilda, that I have met a few times before...:-) We had a nice evening together and it was great to get to know the girls, these wonderful sisters in Christ! :-)

Cell evening... Matilda, Aami and Hanna...

Now I am back in Tartu after having travelled 8hours with 45kg luggage (5bags)!!! I travelled from Helsinki with Eeva and Joona, and it was so great to see both of them again! :-) So now I am here settling back in Tartu and getting prepared for the Spring term!!! It is wonderful to be back here again and I am excited for what this year will bring!!! Life with Jesus is sooooo exciting!!! Praise God!!! :-) :-) :-) :-)