Graduation / Valmistujaiset 2009

Well, the time came to bring this school to an end. We've had good time... Just thinking back - the DTS brought us to five (!!) countries (in addition to Finland) and gave us all so many friends, so many experiences, we learned so many new things...

Be encouraged to join us next year – to know God and make Him known!




Tuli aika pistää saattaa tämä koulu päätökseen. (Sniff.) Oli hieno DTS jälleen kerran. Jälkeenpäin on mahtava ajatella, että tämä OP-koulu vei meidät viiteen eri maahan (Suomen lisäksi) – saimme kaikki paljon uusia ystäviä, kokemuksia ja opimme niin paljon.

Tule mukaan ensi vuonna – tuntemaan Jumala paremmin ja tekemään hänet tunnetuksi!!

Well done!!

Isä Taivaan, tätä kaupunkia kädelläsi siunaa!

Well done? Was it well done...? Did we even do our best? Even if it did, would that have changed the world - or the Baltics? Could we have achieved more, worked harder (despite the rain), been more persistent in prayer, been more courageous...?

We'd sure long to hear the Lord say: "Well done!" But, towards the end of the training/outreach some of us felt that we maybe did not reach what we expected of the outreach. We did not see great revival spread accross the Baltics like a wildfire. We did not have too much thrill all the time... even the car was working perfectly the whole trip. And as for ourselves ..."I was not as courageous I wanted to be. I was not as good leader as I dreamed of being..."

But He replied: He said He was sad that we felt disappointed and unable to celebrate on what we had done during the outreach trip. What...?? God himself felt sad that we were disappointed to ourselves! THAT'S QUITE AN ENCOURAGEMENT!! Even though we did not see many impossible things, God said He was more happy to what we did than we were ourselves! That is something, dude! Our Papa is simply so good!!!

Hyvin tehty!

Hyvin tehty? Oliko se sitten hyvin tehty? Teimmekö edes parastamme? Annoimmeko kaikkemme Baltian hyväksi? .. Niin, olisimmeko voineet saada aikaan enemmän jos olisimme olleet ahkerampia, rohkeampia, sitkeämpiä?

Me kaikki haluaisimme kuulla Herran sanat: "Hyvin tehty sinä uskollinen palvelija!"... Mutta, aktion loppua kohti muutamat meistä kokivat, että emme ehkä tehneetkään parastamme, emme onnistuneet... emmekä saavuttaneet kaikkia niitä (epärealistisia) tavoitteita joita matkallemme asetimme. Emme nähneet suurta herätystä Baltiassa, eikä aina ollut suuren seikkailun tuntua... autokin toimi moitteettomasti koko matkan... Ja olimme ehkä pettyneitä ennen kaikkea itseemme: "En ollut niin rohkea kuin olisin halunnut olla... en ollut sellainen johtaja, jota haaveilin olevani..."

Mutta Hän vastasi! Hän sanoi, että Hän oli surullinen siitä, että koimme pettymystä, emmekä osanneet täysin sydämin iloita ja riemuita siitä, mitä kaikkea saimme tehdä ja kokea aktiossa. Jumala itse oli surullinen siitä, että olimme pettyneitä itseemme! Mitäähh? Mikä rohkaisu!!! Vaikka emme nähneet kovin paljoa mahdottomia asioista aktiossa, Jumala sanoi, että Hän oli tyytyväisempi meihin kuin me itse! Se on jo jotain! Wau!

Rukouskävelyllä Liettuassa

The last weeks in Estonia...

Well, one word could say more than thousand pictures, but I'll try to cover the activities of 3 weeks in a few pictures and words, too...

After a short break in Saaremaa we drove to Turi in central Estonia. There we stayed at and worked with a local church. That was a little bit difficult time for us as a team as there was not much work to do and it was difficult to even do anything outdoors as it was raining almost all the time. The difficult time, however, brought us somewhat closer to each other as a team. We also made good friends with some of the youth in the church.

In Tallinn did some cleaning and minor maintenance at the base. We also did prayer walks in Tallinn and an overnight prayer "marathon", during which God spoke to us many things. That was a great night! We also visited the city of Narva in the east (and we saw Russia!!) and did another visit to Turi. Many different people shared of their insight and visions for Estonia and we were really thrilled to hear of many interesting stuff. In total, during our trip we drove some 7000 km.

The last days we spent in the base in Tallinn for debriefing etc. Even though some of our expectations were not met, we were really delighted when, on the very last day, God shared His heart about the expectations, encouraging us that even though we might not be happy as we did not see all the great things we were expecting, He was still rejoicing over our trip and work more than we did ourselves! Wow! Our Father is so Good! The Baltic countries still may need a lot of "preparing the soil" before greater things can happen. Let us pray that the greater things will happen on God's time!!

...going all the way...

Rainy days' blues

Some of the days it seemed that rain was our constant companion...
Well, thank God for the rain - it's good for the plants!
Let it rain...
let it rain!

We indeed had a rainy summer.. sometimes it changed our plans, but we also enjoyed some sunshine, especially during the Lootuse fest.

a missing post from Narva

Due to limited internet access, I couldn't post this. I promised the girls we met at a Russian speaking church in Narva that this will go on the blog, so here we go!

Narva is a very interesting place as it was situated by the borders of Estonia and Russia. I'm really thankful that we came to this place. It is very rich in history and has a great scenery - the castles on both sides facing each other, and the river in between. We also went to the biggest church in Estonia, where you can have an overview of Russia and the city, Narva. We didn't only play as good tourists but made sure we spoke blessings over these two nations.

We had a great time with the youths at the Russian-speaking church. I was telling myself, why haven't we come earlier? Anyhow, it was very encouraging to see these youngsters on fire for God and hungry for the Word. It wasn't easy saying goodbyes, especially when you get to connect with them easily. I'd like to take the liberty of saying this to all those youths, "May you continue dreaming God's dreams and living out the life He has purposed for you. Go for it!"

ciao!!!

Light at the end of the tunnel

We all knew, it's coming. One day it is enough and that's it.
If we didn't know we wouldn't have done it. But we knew so we did it.
6 months with strangers. Weird people, talking English and listening to words you've never heard
before. Going to places where you've never been before. Seeing beautiful sceneries and recording important things, not on tape but in your mind. Try to capture every little thing. Every little thing has value and when you think of it, in a while it will have more.
Today is 15th of July and I needed to check on the computer because I lost count.
One thing I know is that we have 6 days to go! It went fast, indeed.
People are waiting now on me. So I am going, going, gone.
For the last time we are heading for Tallin. For the last things!
Changing are lifes, minds and team.

Adieu!

Lootuse fest

Greetings from Saaremaa, the great island in Western Estonia. We had a good but really busy week in Tallinn; we participated as volunteers in the Lootuse fest (well, we thought for a long time that it is about flowers, but the Estonian word 'lootuse' means simply 'hope'...) What we mostly did was that we helped as car park ushers, directing big buses coming from all over Estonia to their right places in the carpark. That was pretty fun...! It was quite big festival, altogether some 30 000 people were estimated to visit the festival during the 3 days. Billy... no, sorry, Franklin Graham, M.W. Smith and Exit were among the speakers / artists.

We also had fun tailgating... You know car park ushers do have some privileges... :)

As for the programme... One interesting, a little bit critical thought that came to our minds is that... why is it so that – once again - the children's programme was so much more fun, entertaining and interactive than that of the adults... Are we too old to enjoy clowns, BMX-bikers and theatre pieces?

The other highlight of the week, of course was the visit of our distinguished school leader, Mr D, as well as Claire, all the way from Finland.

Liettua

Hill of Crosses... there are an estimated 200000 crosses on the hill... But these days it is a pretty touristy place...
Ristikukkulalla on n. 200 000 ristiä... mutta nykyään se on aikamoinen turistirysä.

Läbas! Olemme tosi iloisia ja kiitollisia, että mahdollisuus vierailla Liettuassa aukeni – lähes viime tipassa. Jo Liettuaan saapuminen oli elämys sinänsä: matkalla näimme paljon metsiä ja kirkkaankeltaisia canola-peltoja – niistä piti pysähtyä ottamaan kuvia...

Vietimme kaksi ensimmäistä päivää Plateliaiassa, jossa Liettuan Missionuorten ex-johtajat Randy ja Karen asuvat. Paikka oli todella viihtyisä rauhallinen kylä suuren luonnonsuojelualueen keskellä. Meillä oli myös mahdollisuus ottaa vähän aikaa rauhallisemmin ja niinpä käytimme aikamme puutarhanhoitoon, ulkoiluun ja rukoukseen. Kävimme myös museoksi muutetuussa, NL:n aikaisessa ohjustukikohdassa – se oli aika synkkä paikka.

A local tourist attraction was the remains of the Soviet-era nuclear missile base... That was a grim place...

Kylän laitamilla sijaitsevan kukkulan juurelta löysimme juutalaisten kansanmurhan muistomerkin. Valitettavasti tämänkin kylän juutalaiset surmattiin II maailmansodan aikaan. Surullista Liettualaisten kannalta on – näin meille kerrottiin - että likaisen työn tekivät paikalliset ihmiset... Kuulimme enemmänkin Liettuan historiasta ja täytyy todeta, että varsin sotaista täälläkin on ollut...

Manna-keskuksessa meillä oli mahdollisuus tehdä myös vähän käytännön töitä. We had the chance to do some practical work @ the Manna center.

Plateliaista suuntasimme länsirannikolle Klaipedaan, joka on oikea Baltian helmi. Sanna ja Saulius, jotka toimivat paikallisen City-srk:n johtajina ottivat meidät lyhyellä varoitusajalla vastaan ja majoittivat paikalliseen Manna-nimiseen keskukseen, joka on vielä rakenteilla – siitä on tarkoitus tehdä kirkko/virkistyskeskus/turvakoti/toimisto/... mitä vielä. Rakennnus on suuri ex-hotelli aivan meren rannassa... Oh... ne hiekkarannat!!!

Klaipedassa vierailimme mm. kahdessa paikallisessa koulussa (parhaat kouluvierailut tähän asti), autoimme Manna-keskuksen remontissa, pidimme pyhäkoulua ja vierailimme päiväkeskuksessa. Kävimme myös rukoilemassa paikallisen synagogan (raunioiden) luona. Se oli aika järkyttävä paikka – kaikki muistutti meitä kuivista luista (Hes. 37)



Liettuan vierailumme ei olisi ollut täydellinen ilman pysähtymistä Ristikukkulalla Siauliain lähellä. Siitä voisi kertoa oman tarinansa, mutta kukkula symbolisoi paitsi liettualaisten vastarintaa neuvostoaikana, myös maan varsin voimakasta katolista perinnettä ja uskoa. Tästä voisi kirjoittaa enemmänkin, mutta jääköön toiseen kertaan... Su Dievu!

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