Brand New Proud Auntie

On 6th of August 2009 God sent the cutest little bundle on earth as a blessing to my brother and his girlfriend - a BEAUTIFUL baby girl was born to this world.
49cm tall and 3344grams - the cutest little package ever!!



Here is the proud brand new daddy with the bundle... :) It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that my brother truly is a father now! He'll be the best of them all.



We have been praying for this tiny treasure for months, and praise God she is healthy and well! What more could one ask for?

This little miracle has completely stolen my heart from the first glimpse across the globe.. How I wish I could be there to hold her close and sniff her sweet little head.. The wonder of a new life makes me stand still in awe!

-Brand New Proud Auntie Päivi

Holidays & Intensives

Ok so it's been forever since I last wrote, I know I know! Let's take a look through the past 5 weeks or so that have passed ”unnoticed”...

So we had holidays for a whole 10 days – I didn't go anywhere but it was a great opportunity to rest, rewind and catch up with people I normally don't see!

First couple of days I spent pretty much alone just unwinding from JAM – for once I was quite happy not having anyone around! All the girls went to Blue Mountains for a couple of days so I had the whole flat for myself – pretty good!

We had Lisette's sister Nicke staying with us, and for the holidays also Rachelle's sisters Janel and Abby stayed with us – you can imagine the line to the bathroom in the morning with the ratio of 7 girls in an apartment with 2 bathrooms.. :D it was hectic but lucky enough we had no strict schedules since it was the holidays! :)



We threw a surprise birthday dinner for Lisette's 29th birthday when everyone came back from Blue Mountains – it was awesome! Plenty of food and good company.. I got back into the cake making again! ;D





Janel cooked all the food (except for the cake which obviously was my duty) – she is a really great cook and has such an hospitable and generous spirit. We were all blessed beyond measure throughout the weeks they stayed at our place!! It also challanged our spirits towards such a genuine generosity.. :)



It was a great night to just hang out with the flat and all sisters – one of the last nights we had together. It was like one big family and I found myself fitting into the American crowd very well which surprised me extremely – I always thought I didn't understand their humour but I found myself grown used to them and chatting away, teasing them and sharing in their experiences.



I had to put up this picture of Rachelle, I just though it portrayed so well how much the Finnish cakes are appriciated here! :D



During the rest of the holidays I learned to relax and take it easy – even though I had no money to do anything extravagant I found an appriciatian to be able to meet people I haven't had a chance to see so often throughout the semester! We caught up with Ashton a good couple times :) We did the beachwalk one night, and got caught up in the rain in the middle of the two hour track! :D In the beginning we saw quite a few rainbows in the horizon, but above us spread to it's full enght the biggest and brightest rainbow I've ever seen! We were stunned and stood there our mouths wide open in awe, then shouting with joy! (it's not the one in the picture). I love it when God manifests Himself to us through nature, and that whole walk was one big God adventure! We passed a huge graveyard and I felt the Spirit whispering to me to avoid crossing it – the urge to go around grew so strong in me I gave in and abandoned my normal behaviour patterns that would have taken me through the magnificent scenery there. We sat on the beach talking and listening to God, and He totally used used to minister to one another.



I also went to the hairdressers finally with the money my amazing friends back home sent to me to be used only for PLEASURE – I hope they'd be glad to know I did obey their instructions :) On Monday Lisette moved out, I spent the whole day taking apart beds, moving them around and putting them back together! God answered my prayers for a bed that I could not afford to buy and someone sent me a text message that one night that she was moving out and God had told her to give away her bed to me! What a blessing... It was not just any bed, but really pretty white bar princess bed... I was blown away!! However it felt strange to fall asleep on the first night in a normal single bed after 6 months of staring the top bunk and prayers written in slips of paper, taped to the top bars... I missed Lisette so.



I got a new roomie, her name is Mana (which in Finnish means a curse, what a great start! :D) and she is 20 years old and from Japan. She's a really kind girl, a little shy and quiet compared to the rest of us in this flat but she fits in so well! She has defenitely opened up and I am so grateful that God sent someone like her to replace Lisette. No one could ever take Lisette's place but this girl has defenitely made the transition much easier and I think we'll be good friends!



One of the highlights of the holidays was the day we went to donate blood with my Norwegian friend Liv and ended up spending the afternoon in Luna Park, the small amusement park in the harbour! Instead of a full day of fun we bought a couple single ride tickets and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine!



and what would a visit in Luna Park be without Cotton Candy/ Fairy Floss? :) This has been a tradition to me ever since childhood and so I stayed true to myself making sure not a single visit to an amusement park would pass without this special pleasure :)



We spent hours in our favourite ”ride” - Coney Island which is a huge FunHouse filled with different little rides and experiments! I woud say the best one out of all must have been the exit hole of aircondition air that made our hair stand straigh in the air like those of x-men!! Cheap are the joys of the simple.. luckily!! ;D



The utmost highlight of the holidays was our RDG day out – we took most of our youth group out for a picnic with Jenn! It was a beautiful sunny day filled with laughter and giggles in the light atmosphere amongst friends..



It is such a big thing for both me and Jenn what we have been able to establish in these girls in the past 6 months – from the day they were given into our hand, having been abandoned for several months without a leader to look after them and love them, they were were suspicious towards us and broken inside. We could see all the scars their previous leaders had left by poor transitions and it broke our hearts too. We decided that our greatest goal was to make these girls feel appriciated, loved and safe with us. Today we can both testify that this is exatcly their state on this very day!!



Jessie Patmore was from the beginning one of the ones I knew would need us the most – her parents have recently separated and her mum has a new boyfriend who now lives with them. Coming from the background I do I knew God was going to use my hurt and survival story to bring hope to her too! There is so much more than meets the eye with Jessie, but I am so glad she has been able to stay her joyful self and we both hope to have brought at least some kind of stability to her life.



Our hardest nut to crack was Felicity – she had had a really great relationship with their previous leader and was so hurt by her departure that for the first months she only kept pushing me and Jenn away. Many night we would pray for her in frustration, on the verge of giving up on her. By the consistency that we have been able to show her through the grace of God she has slowly opened up and allowed us into her world. Her sister keeps telling us how much she loves and adores us, but she never really shows it to us. God has been teaching me so many things through her and our love for young people has only grown through the frustrations we have been through with her! On that day in the park, she stood on a pole, calling me to her. As I walked to her she extended her hands down to me and I grabbed her, asking if she trusted me. She said yes – and I tested her trust by allowing her to lean on me, kind of hanging in the midair me as her only support. She laughed and screamed but loved it. On that moment I knew we were in – it meant the world to me. All the hard work, extra time and money invested to her life was making a difference and slowly healing the wounds in her heart.



God has taught me the most through these bautiful and so different girls – they are my world. I have learned with them more I could ever learn in a classroom – and am so thankful I was trusted with so much from the very beginning. I carry them in my heart and take the full responsibility of shepherding them well, and I could not hove done this without Jenn. She has been an amazing support and source of inspiration to me and our teamwork has become seamless – we compliment one another in a way no one similar to me could ever do! Where I am weak and inadequate, she shines, and I carry her through her wobbly bridges :)



And as one sows, so does she reap... The time and resources invested into the lives of these girls has both increased our faith in God and allowed Him to brovide us literally our everyday bread.



In the beginning of the term we sat down with Jenn to talk through what we are expecting from this semester, setting goals for the group in general and for each individual girl personally. We established some new ”culture” elements such as a prayer wall to highlight that we truly are a fmaily and will stand in faith for one another in their needs, as well as being able to encourage one another through the praise reports in our lives! Everything we do is very pusposeful and our hard work has been recognized by all our youth Pastors, even moreso by our fellow youth leaders and God! I believe we are setting and standard and example worthy of following.



Since the new semester started I've made a few new friends from the new intake – Jared, Donny, Lazarus, Josh and Riley are fun to be around but people I believe to build me up and strongly impact my life and challange me! Jared is an amazing man of God, who has a powerful testimony of how he got saved after years of drug addictions and jail. He embodies the saving grace of God and inspires me beyond measure! We have the best chats with him and I know this is one of the friendships for lifetime. His faith and generosity stirrs me to a new level...



Donny had a birthday and he was feeling super homesic, he's only 19 and it's his first time away from home, and Jared decided that he would buy keys to Donny to cheer up his birthday!!! We threw a surprise party for him, and since he refused to leave to house for any great excuses we made up I had to talk to my security guard friends and include them in the plot, so they called him down and we set up the piano in the middle of the living room, lit up candles and waited! It was a great success and Donny teared up when he saw all we had set up for him.. he nearly passed out when he realized the keys were for him!!



So here are some of my new first semester friends –
Top right: Jared,Donny,Riley and Jade. Bottom right: Me, Lazarus and Joshua.
They are all cool and most of them do Fuel with us too! I've had the priviledge of walking them into the college/Hillsong culture – they are catching up with it so quick, I am so very proud of them!



We hade a trip to Ikea last week with our flat to shop for some essentials – since Lisette moved out we are mingling furniture around and trying to make it look more consistent and pretty! Weve done pretty well by covering the ugly yellow couch with a natural white sheet (it seriousy looks brand new and pretty amazing!!) and we have set a Japanese style low table into the living room! I will put up some pictures in the next post, I have none right now and it's way too late to start taking any :p





Of course we had to go a bit silly in the kids section and have some Swedish meatballs for lunch.. It was a great trip all in all! Victorious we returned home with selected bits and pieces :)



We've been focusing on hanging out with out kids heaps more with Jenn and one Sunday I invited Grace to hang out with me between the services – we had luch and then she came over to my place to bake some rasberry & white choholate muffins! We had so much fun and the muffins were delicious even though flat since we didn't have a cupcake pan! :D



I had a great opportunity opening up for me this week – I got to share the offering message in Chapel as a first first year student for years!! It went so well, God totally took over and communicated with a passion and clarity only He can.. Even our principal was impressed with the word that was brought forth! God is opening up many doors to me in leadership and I feel like everything I touch just flourishes!

I learned so much from our Intensive lectures of youth ministry introduction and teamwork, both so practical subjects that fire me up for the work that awaits back in Finland with UCC – I am gaining more and more tools for effective ministry! The new subjects for this term blow my mind – Christian doctorine, World Religions, Spirit Filled life, Church History and Personal Evangelism are going to fully change my life!! I am so excited for what God has in store for this semester and am rady to grap it with both hands and run with it!

Well, I quess that would be the biggest events from the past weeks, I try to update more regularly since it feels impossible to write all the great things that have happened the more time I wait.. :)

Check out my new cutie nice!

Lots of Love,
-P

JAM 09

We'll, here we are recovering after a hectic Conference week, enjoying the company of sisters in the house – Lisette's sister Nickey has been entertaining us for a couple of weeks now and today Rachelle's sisters Abby and Janel arrived for the holidays! They are so much fun, bubbly and as much chatterboxes than myself :) The house is buzzing with 7 girls in a tiny flat with only 2 bathrooms... :D but it's so much fun to get to know each other's families, you learn a lot more about each other as well!

We ended up staying in this flat, since college actually released the flat we were planning on to move. So my address will remain the same and all of that, and on the other hand we've got kind of cozy here anyway :) however, in a weeks time Lisette will be moving out and that'll be very weird. My new roomie Mana is from Japan!! Im so excited for her to come, her arrival day will be hectic since Lisette is moving out on the 20th too.. I don't know how on earth Lisette is going to pull off this move, since she hasn't even started to pack and the whole house is full of her stuff in every corner and cupboard! It shall be interesting.. ! :D

It's Lisette's birthday on Wednsday, and all the girls are going to Blue Mountains tomorrow. I can't go, I really don't have the money for it. Makes me a little sad, not that there's anything that special to see there but it's one of the last times we get to hang out together as a flat. But oh well, whatever. Can't always have everything hey?

My finances are actually very challanging for the month, since God really challanged me to give a lot more in the Heart for the House offering than I was planning on to give on the first place. I don't really see how Im gonna make it through but I know that regardless of my circumstances God's always faithful and will come through to me one way or another. I refuse to panic over the future or regret my genorosity and simply choose to trust in His flowing provision as I put His Kingdom first. We raised AMAZING 6 MILLION DOLLARS in the Heart for the House offering and this money will go to change the lives of so many – how blessedam I to get to be a part of it!



Anyway I wanted to write about the Hillsong Conference and JAM – the most amazing and life changing four days since I've been here!! I was serving in the general registrations for the Conference on the first day and totally missed out on everything that was happening, but the three next days I got to spend full time in JAM as a Connect group leader, hanging out and connecting with kids as my mission! It was mindblowing to see the five thousand young people gathering to seek after God...



In the morning we got to hang around in the Acer Arena for the morning rally, since most of our kids had the opportunity to attend the morning session of Hillsong Conference. Then we packed up thousands of young people in shuttle busses and transported them to our very own JAM venue, the State Sport Centre!







Once on the venue, we battled between the four tribes through the Tribal Wars – always so crazy yet so much fun! After trillions and billions of points the kids went crazy, jumping, screaming and chanting.. :)



We had both morning and night rallies, so basically we had our own conference now! It's really remarkable since this is the first year we had our own night rallies for youth and we had the main speakers from Hillsong conference coming to speak in our venue, directing their messages straight to our age group of teenagers!! It was so amazing challanging and life changing.. I know these kids will never be the same.



Since most of my kids were scattered into different tribes in order to hang out with their friends, I targeted to befriend the lonely kids. I met Alisha and hanged out with her the whole day – not the most glamorous or fun thing to do since she barely spoke to me, but halfway through the day when I was about to give up on her she asked with a tiny voice if she could have lunch with me.. my heart skipped a beat when I realized I had actually made her conference even though it might not have been obvious to me until that point. I realized that such small things can change a person's life forever..





The worship was so powerful and the presence of God could be sensed so tangibly.. We had the amazing Chris Tomlin coming to lead worship for one night and as the whole auditorium sang ”How great it our God” the voices of the teenagers echoed into my heart – I found myself sobbing in the wonderful revelation of the faith the next generation has and the change they will bring to our world.



We had electives for the teens too. I attended the combined Justice and Worship stream and LOVED to hear more about how tightly the two are tied together – justice is worship.
Joel Houston said to us:
”Justice+ Worship=Change. If you ain't changing, you aren't really worshipping.”
To see the masses of kids who take the mission of bringing justice seriously made me bowl my eyes out.. To see their determination, faith and love totally changed me too.



For the last night we brought all jammers to the main Conference, where we had priority seating on the main concourse. It was a night to remember! All the amazing messages brought by Louie Giglio, Jentezen Franklin, Phil Dooley, Craig Groeschel and many others spoke volumes both in my life and the lives of thousands around me. I was inspired, challanged and encouraged to push forward for God! These conferences always greatly encourage us as believers to see the reality of millions of fellow believers all across the earth rising up with us – the truth is we're not alone.



The last night we got out of the bump out around 1 a.m, relatively early this year! There was no crazy confetti rain in the celebration finale which we all were very grateful for.. :) isn't it funny how your perspective can change according to your responsibilities? I still remember standing in the midst of tons of falling confetti in Hillsong Conference 2007 as a delegate, admiring the wonder of it, just to sweat in fear of the same two years later as a volunteer responsible of the cleaning up afterwards.. :p



I feel very very blessed to have had the opportunity to see what God is doing amongst the generation rising up, and it truly has inspired me for the things to come and ministry to build once I get back to Finland. I am still praying for God to bless me with an opportunity to get a hold of the Conference recordings, I was planning on bying the whole recording pack not to miss out on the amazing leadership messages that were shared in the main conference, but for now I simply have no finances for it. It is my desire to save up the money in the coming months to get a hold of it! I wanted to buy the Conference pack to bless others during the holidays by hosting the conference again at my place and inviting students who also missed out on the messages to build them up.. but the pack is $200 and I have no such money at this stage.

Anyhow, I better stop here and get out, I want to take a walk with the girls before I need to start concentrating on teaching Finnish online for my Texas mate Stewart :)

Love you all so so much, wish you all could have been here to have a share of the blessings God has been pouring on me!

Lots of Love,
P

The Sickie

So as you may guess, this week I have been really sick. There is a vigorous virus going around in the College world just a week before conference - no coinsidence I say. The enemy is darting us with all his arsenal trying to strike as many soldiers down as he possibly can to diminish what God wants to do in and through our lives during next week, and he will give his very best shot to have a negative effect on the impact to the nations that this conference inevitably has!

3 out of 4 in our flat have been targeted so far, but we all know what is really going on and are praying hard against the forces of the darkness. It's been a lot of sleep, prayer, more sleep, the Word, napping and Lemsip, and we keep trying to tackle the sickness. We're not giving in an inch and it inspires us to know God has great things in mind and we are obviously a threath to the enemy.

We have 2 more days to go, and the recovery is finally starting to take place for me. Though I feel bored to just lay in bed and constantly sleep I know I need to do just that in order to be ready for conference. So more sleep, lemsip and prayer it is.

..and then LIFE happens!

CIAO!

Time flies and days pass by, and we are only one week away from the amazing Hillsong Conference!! Right now we are half way through our intensives, I have the amazing priviledge to intern these two weeks with Kane Keatinge, our Fuel youth pastor and prepare stuff for Friday night programs and JAM, the youth conference that runs alongside with Hillsong Conference! I am so excited for Conference – I get to serve fulltime in JAM (12 to 17 years of age) and this year for the first time EVER, JAM is held in the Sydney Olympic Park at the massive Sports Stadium!! We ALSO have JAM nights at the same venue, so basically we have overtaken the actual Hillsong Conference! :D

Last week was such a good week! Intensives are great because all assessments are done and everyone is working on something FRESH and new, and by doing so starting to take more ownership of the conference ahead! I have only recently started to realize how little people catch the spirit of this house – and how hard it is for many to own the ministry they have been placed in. Many consider themselves too good for the things that have been given to their hands and that frustrates me so! Did Jesus not say that only those whom are faithful with the little they have been given will be entrusted more? It's obvious that many of the students here come from small churches where they have been the big deal and they have hard time realizing that other people have talents too and that they will need to learn to do other things too than just what they love doing/are good at. It is so true that pride is the root of all sin!



Many of my friends outside College have been leaving – Keith left a week ago back to L.A and Florence and Esmeralda are now travelling, but they'll be back before they head home. We had lunch with Esmeralda at the fishmarkets before she caught her flight to Cains, and we had the best time ever! We nibbled on sweet chili crabs, baby octopus and stuffed lobster! Yummy...



We also had our fare share of the terrorizing seagulls :D It was all worth it though when a pelican swam over to pose for us :) It was such a magnificent sunny day in the harbour..!



Afterwards I ended up in the film shooting for our Conference opener, which was way fun! My connect group leader Tylea studies and works with the TV crew in our church so she invited me along, and we had the joy to act high school students chilling out in the yeard of a private school in the middle of the city! Funny thing was that St. Andrew's (the school that is) is also a boarding school, so halfway through the shoot we had gained nearly every students attention and dosens of eyes stared at us through their bedroom windows! :D



We had the Heart for the House offering happening this week – we as College gave our offerings on Tuesday and the rest of the church family throughout the weekend. The Heart for the House offering really stirred me up to believe God fr miracles in the almost impossible circumstances that people back home are facing. I love being a part of a church that does not stare at it's own belly but actively reaches out to the community and nations, and that is what this offering is all about – the corporate miracle that our offerings can produce together. To change a life of a little kid in the streets of Mumbai, to provide for a struggling family in the Sydney area.. the list goes on and on, and the impact this giving will have is inevitably great!



It's also been a great week of taking a little ”me-time” - a bubble bath, a long walk in the park, reading a chapter of a good book and going a little silly in the park whilst no one else is watching :) You know me – one part of my heart will never grow too old to swing in the swings watching bright night stars.





It was Jenn's birthday this weekend – we of course celebrated ahead of time with our RDG on Friday (another great excuse to have something sweet!). We totally surprised Jenn with all of the girls – I faked the whole week like I didn't remember that it was her birthday on Sunday and called all our kids to make my masterplan work – all my little ”partners in crime” were delighted to be of a help!! So we decorated the RDG area with Jenn as normal and then I sent her home as we were way early. Then my little helpers appeared and we tossed and turned some ice cream and skittles into a cake :) The girls had the most fun throwing the skittles around and trying to catch them with their mouths wide open.. :D



Then we redecorated the RDG area with balloons etc. And made sure Jenn did not walk in before it was time! The girls went off with their funky birthday whistles right on Jenns face! :D It was so much fun! ...and the cake was yummy as always... :)





We've had the priviledge of hosting Lisette's sister Nicky here for a couple of weeks now – she is staying the total of 6 weeks and has fully integrated into our flat life by now :) They look dangerously alike.. :) After Conference we'll also have both of Rachelle's sisters visiting us, such a delight! I think it has really deepened out relationships too, being able to see a glimpse of a life from back home through the loved ones we have had visiting! :)





On Sunday me,Lisette and Nicky went to do the Coogee to Bondi beach walk :) Bright blue skies, warm sunshine and a gentle breeze in my hair.. OH MY, it was so BEAUTIFUL!



As we walked, we saw breath taking scenes and I seriously started to consider if an hour bus ride to school every morning would be that much of a pain if I lived right next to the beach... :)





I also have bittersweet news – we are most likely moving to another flat in the Meritons complex which is great since the new flat will be bigger & better! However, Lisette Marie Carrillo, my dearest roomie, will be moving out as she has found a way cheaper accommondations within the Meritons. I've been quite sad thinking about it lately, since we have bonded so well and she truly is like a big sister to me! Lisette is the voice of wisdom in this flat.. so it's weird thinking about what our life will look like without her.



Not to even mention that this will mean that I will have a new roomie within just a few weeks or so! We are having someone from the new intake, since I figured this was God's way to pass on the blessing I received when I first arrived – to move into a all ready flat with amazing people who know everything from the bus routes to assessment tips. It makes me smile when I think of it :) The only drama in this is that Lisette will most likely take most of the furniture with her, and so I am right now desperately trying to find at least a bed for myself.. Our new spacious flat might look even more spacious as I really dont have the money right now to buy anything at all – but Im sure God will bring it abouts and provide just what we need in whatever form He chooses to. He has always come through to before, and I have faith that He will in the future too!

Talking about provision.. We had the most fun happening at the Sisterhood last week! We had a cloathes SWAP – everybody brought their good conditioned non desired goods and we organized everything to a mall looking fantacy! I got some great bits and pieces to myself too – this pretty dress was actually a skirt size 44 but with a belt and some magic it turned into a dress for me! :)



We had tons of cloathes and shoes! :D The fun thing was, our Senior Pastor Bobbie Houston wanted some items to be brough on the stage whilst she was entroducing the cloathes swap – and a moment later I found myself in the toilet changing with our youth pastors and only minutes later from the stage with Bobbie with a hilarious combo of a wetsuit, pink wedding hat and a huge winter scarf! :D Fun times... You never know where you end up whilst cordinating a cloathes swap at our church! :D

I don't have much here but I've learned to love the simplicity of life – the greatest things that can not be measured or bought! Walking in taped shoes to be able to support someone in need has become a lifestyle once realizing there is a cause and purpose much higher than myself!

Biju Thampy, an ordinary man whom has changed the lives of thousands of children in Mumbai, India shared with us something remarkable last weekend at church, something that has impacted me greatly and will continue to shape the way I live my life:

"I believe that the love of God can never be measured - but it can be demonstrated."

Lots of Love,
-P

P.s. My return flights are now officially booked, I will arrive back to Finland on the 4th of December!