God works in mysterious ways

So I have to admit that when I moved to Turku I was quite tired. Church tired that is. And not tired from going to church but from all the responsibility I had in my church. The last year in Helsinki I had been: coordinator for the Action festival, head-dishwasher for Women’s brunch, leader of [...]

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Action and old friends

So this weekend it was time for the annual Action festival at my old church. And of course I went!
Beautiful people and music by Hillsong Stockholm and Fila’s own band. Plus Andreas Forsberg with band, who was forcing everyone he saw to buy his new CD.
And I even saw my cousin’s daughter Elin! Either I’m getting [...]

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My day

We’re having a lecture series at work. About animal imaging. And I came to the conclusion that I know nothing about it. And that you soon have to know way too much about computers to be a scientist.
One of the lecturers was from Gotenborg. He was a Chinese with a very obvious Swedish accent. Except [...]

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My day, John 14:27

Today I’ve taken it easy. Yes, what’s the rush!
I drowned some flies in ethanol and wondered if that would be a good way to die, with 100% EtOH in your lungs…
Then I took some pictures of mildly distorted wings. I was trying to read the book Babes in Beijing at the same time, I got through about 5 [...]

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What to talk about while checking flies

Conversation at work:
I: So why do Greek Orthodox pray to saints?
V: We don’t, we only pray to the holy trinity!
I: So why do you have saints then??
V: An example: Saint Nicholas is the protector of sailors.
I: Ah, so they are more like angels, protecting you from things, but if you are really in trouble you pray [...]

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Everyday hero

I like any movie, but I love super-hero movies. Stories of people who can fly, stop time or throw balls of fire from their bare hands.
But when you think about it – all Christians should be super heroes. We have the power to read peoples thoughts, to see into the future, to heal the sick or even wake [...]

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My identity

Shinya came back to work today after a 3 week long vacation in Japan. I am so glad and he was happy too. He said: “I’ve confirmed. I’ve confirmed that I’m Japanese.”
And I thought: Yes, how wonderful. To be able to feel that you belong somewhere, that is truly a beautiful sensation. To find your identity anew.
And [...]

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Christmas worship

I just thought this was so sweet! And I know that we have many wonderful and powerful Christmas songs, but how often do you find a Christmas worship song? Can we please please please sing this next Worship night!?

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Viikki church

Ok, so you know that you are in Finland when someone lyrically describes a church as being “like a sauna” – AND everyone listening gives out a happy sigh of recognition.
But I get the point. It’s not only that the church in Viikki is built entirely out of wood that gives it this atmosphere. For a Finn the sauna is [...]

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Action 08

The annual Action festival was this weekend and approximately 300 youths gathered each evening to listen to music and the word of God at our church. I thought it went really well, but don’t take my word for it, since I was the head coordinator of the thing I basically ran around like a headless chicken for [...]

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Halleluja

This weekend we opened our church after a one year long renovation. It has taken a lot of money but I think the greatest sacrifice has been all the time that the board members have put into this work. Planning and organizing the whole thing, making the tough decisions and still having another job to go [...]

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The life of a Christian

This week Zhao told me a story.
In the 20s, Christian missionaries were sent from America to spread the gospel in China. They came to a country struck by conflicts between the white devils and the local citizens and many Christians were killed because of it. The region with the highest mortality rate was the one that Zhao [...]

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