North!!

Here we are - in Rollo [= Rovaniemi]!!!

Thursday: Ari helped me to pack the van [not the one in the photo though]- and I don´t believe how he did it. Anyway, I was able to start my trip with everything I own in the litte van. Table, 4 chairs, bike, bed, 3 extra matresses.. and so on. Ari is the MacGyver, I could say. I drove to Huittinen, where I met some lovely, new and old, friends from Turku and Huittinen-area. And oh boy, we ATE a LOT!!
Then I continued with Petra to my parents place, we un-packed the van and went to sleep.. So, I´m living in Helsinki anymore officially for some more days..

Friday: After short and not-so-good-sleep we started our trip to the NORTH!!! On our way to Oulu, we stop by to pray for Ruurikkala, that´s the place we believe is going to be YWAM´s very soon... In Oulu we stayed at Sinikka´s place; she´s a lovely woman of God, and now days friend of mine as well. :) Friday evening we went to the youth evening [Lift Oulu ] and shared about 24-7 prayer and so on. And I could say that I got really excited ;) Those who were there know what I´m talking about. Funny thing was also, that the preaching was about "Missions" and there was also one American girl who is working in YWAM Norway.. Cool. Small world. And her testimony spoke quite much to me.. And I got to meet my lovely friends from last summer´s Mission Adventures.

Saturday: What did we? We ate and talked and spent the whole morning/afternoon around the kitchen table.. Really relaxing. And good time! In the evening we went to the youth camp of Free church and got to share about 24-7 prayer again.. And to courage the youth there. I like it when it comes to stuff like this, I just love children and youth and I know God has amazing plans for the coming generation.. :)

Sunday: We woke up. And we went to the Free church. And surprise, surprise, they collected the offering for the Missions :) Cool. Missions never leave me alone. And it shouldn´t, cause you are always in the Mission field, where ever you are!!
We also met Marjo, who works in YWAM Oulu. And we had planned to leave 17.00 to Rovaniemi. 20-15 minutes before we were ready to leave. We packed the van [legendary YWAM van :) ] and started it. I put on the 1st gear and - it did NOT move at all! One of the tires was STUCK! It didn´t move. It seemed everything was okay.. I called my friend Janne and while waiting he to come, we went to the shop. Janne came with his future wife :) and his brother. It seemed there´s nothing wrong in the van. He tried to drive. We prayed more. And then suddenly - it just started to roll!! It worked again!! It so cool what prayer can do! :)
So, then we drove through Kemi to Rovaniemi. And finally got in to the church there (we had to wait outside of the building for some time). So we joined Alice for the last 2 hours of the 24-7 prayer week there. And after it we helped to clean the place..
When we left from Oulu, we didn´t know for sure yet where we are going to stay in Rovaniemi. But God had a great surprise for us. We got an own apartment!! With two (!!) beds and internet :) The girl who owns this, is doing her DTS abroad and I really love her style of furnishing, so this is such a blessing for us!! She has on her bathroom even the word-magnets in Swedish :)

Monday: Sleep in -morning. We went to the down town and ate SUPER-HUGE-BIG pizza´s [actually Petra is finishing her now and I will eat rest of mine soon..]! I could say that the best pizza´s you can find from Rollo!! Then we went with Sasha and Senja to meet the Santa at the Arctic Circle . Santa wasn´t home. Sad. And I heard that the Arctic Circle -line they have there, is a fake. The real one goes some kilometers more north.. But anyway, we got to pray for the north area there :)

Tomorrow we will continue to the most northern YWAM-base in the world, Borgen. [Photo from near by..]
On our way we are planning to stop to pray in Levi. There will be 24-7 prayer week in June. From Borgen we will continue to Tromsø. And on Saturday back to Finland..

Thanks for your prayers and please, Keep on praying for us!We really need that!!
Bless you!!