The RESCUE

Did you know that to this very day there is a war waging on Northern Uganda? This was has gone unnoticed for the Western countries for too long – a war that is still continuing after 23 years of unthinkable horrors that leave the residents of this country wounded, living in fear from day to day.. thousands of children have been abducted from their homes as they lay to sleep and forced to become child soldiers, as young as at the age of 5. These children are forced to commit the most horrific assaults, terrorizing their own communities by killing and torturing. All this is taking place because of one man – Joseph Kony. This man has destroyed the lives of millions of people living in Uganda and the surrounding countries.. Can you believe this really is happening in the 21st century right under our noses without any action of justice being taken??



Three young american men were on a holiday in Uganda six years ago when they discovered the injustice and terror that was taking place. These guys were just average kids but they have become fighters for justice for Northern Uganda, rising awareness of the problem in America. They have established the organization called ”Invisible Children” that started from the film they made on their holiday – and they carry on to this day, fighting to bring justice and end the war in Uganda.

It is about a time the Western countries wake up from their ignorant sleep to come alongside to fight for peace and justice for this war torn country! Please visit the website www.invisiblechildren.com, for more detailed story and ways to get involved in saving Joseph Kony's Child Soldiers! You can watch a 30 minute short video to hear the story and see to yourself the horror that is taking part in our world today. (On the website, click ”the rescue site” and choose ”english → enter site”. Click on ”watch the video” and prepare yourself to see things you could have imagined people would have to go through in today's modern world...)



So Invisible Children organized a overnight rally called ”The Rescue” last Saturday 25th of April on 100 cities around the world in 10 countries. I was priviledged to take part in this event to raise awareness to the problem right here in Sydney.

The event started by a march from Milson's point to Botanic Gardens, over the Harbour Bridge. Thousands of young people walked across the bridge holding unto a rope, ”abducted” and removed from their families to the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army – Joseph Kony's army) camp. The idea of the whole event was to ”abduct yourself” and represent one child abducted in Uganda.

The main part of the event took place in the Botanic Gardens at Flinton's steps with a breat taking background of the harbour, Opera House and Harbour Bridge as the scene for this! There we camped out to film the event and the masses of young people coming together to demand justice and involvement of the government of this country in ending the war. We had a lot of fun alongside – group singing, dancing, mingling aound and meeting new people – but most importantly, we wrote thousands of letters to the governmental organs pleading for their involvement.

As we waited in the ”LRA camp”, we were waiting for both the media to come and broadcast the problem to the whole nation, as well as waiting for our ”rescuer” to come and rescue us – a person of great influence such as a governmental official or a celebrity. We were rescued later on by one of the well known actors in Australia, Damien Walsh Howling as he showed up on the site and declared that he'd use his voice in the media to raise awareness to this problem.

As people wrote letters we also made a collase in the share of New Sout Wales of the family pictures that people had brought with them, circling the ”abducted” on the photos to give face to the voices, which would make it a lot harder to ignore and was pressing the poin – is their life as valuable as mine?

We were not so successful with the media – all the major medias promised to be there but did not show up regardless of the phonecalls made to them during the night. This only proves to us how hard it is to make people aware of such injustice in our Western world.

For the night we changed city and gathered next to Hyde Park to sleep outside. It was a lot of fun- we played games and got to know each other a little better, and then we all laid down in our sleeping bags on top of each other to keep warm. Believe me or not but the nights here are freezing already! However, we did not care of the cost which was nothing compared to what the children in Uganda live through everyday.

Early in the morning, at 6am Channel 7 finally showed up to film us – too bad most of the people were fast asleep at this time!

So we marched to stand outside Channel 7's studio's glass windows during their 3 hour morning news flash show ”Weekend Sunrise”, hoping to be given a few minutes in the show to share the issue. I had to leave before this took place since I was serving at morning church, and even we felt a little defeated with out media success it is encouraging to know that there are 100 cities doing the sae, and the world cannot ignore close to 100 000 people standing up to say
”WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH – STOP THE WAR!”

Zack Efron

Im not quite sure if I have already told you guys that we have a celebrity in our school.. My favourite cutie from High School musical & 17 again: Zack Efron!!
Now seriously, at Summer Retreat the leaders called him up on the stage and I was seriously fooled to think this guys truly was Zack! May I entroduce to you: Scott Parker, my fellow Fuel leader! So Scott really is in our school and truly looks like Zack.. so ever Friday I get to have my dreamtime staring at Zack/Scott! :D It's way cool. He's a great bloke and is obviously flattered by the constant praise he gets from all our teenage girls (and not so teenage anymore leaders!) for just looking the way he naturally does! Just wanted you to know :D To you who see a potential dating situation is this, throw away your hopes - this man is happily married and is only the pleasure of our eyes! :)

a bunch of updates!

My best greetings for friends around the world!

It's been a while again since I've sat down to debrief you all about the happenings that have taken place here but that's all right, I am convinced that you must know by now you are in my thoughts daily even thought you may not hear from me for weeks!

Life has been full of Fuel lately – teenage kids everywhere! :D Our RDG has been gathering and I've hanged out with the kids at my freetime too – a few weeks ago I went to Annika's place for a proper Finnish sauna! You should have seen Jenn's face when I promptly announced that Finnish people go to the sauna naked! She didn't know should she laugh or cry, and she was not taking me seriously. In the end I ended up in the sauna, wrapped in a towel since she simply refused to be in there with us if I was naked! :D The thing is though when I packed my gear to go the tought of bikini's didn't even cross my mind, because I was thinking in my Finnish mode :D How funny are all culture diffrences eh?

Easter celebrations were absolutely incredible here, – church all weekend for me! Sunday church was held in the city again at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and we had a wicked ”Art from the Heart” festival where people from our church had the opportunity to express and display what the cross ment for them through their artistic eyes! I had a master idea for our RDG meeting and so our precious girls Jessie, Isabella and Felicity got all artsy in order to submit our RDG artpiece to the festival! Cute isn't it? The climax of the festival was the short movies screenings – we truly have some talented people in our church for sure! Here is my favourite piece of artwork – all our inadequaties and pain nailed to the cross. Praise God, He is risen!!





I've spending a lot of time just sitting at God's presence lately, learning to quiet myself and allow His Spirit to strenghten me in my weakness. The battle of finding friends has been waging on and I have learned to come to Jesus on those times of loneliness and weakness. It's amazing how the fellowship with the Son refuels the soul and pushes away all fear and anxiety. I've been given great words of advice and have actually started to focus on the people I have already met instead of looking for those potentials on the rear. I really am starting to realize that the friends God has for me hear are not the ones I would have chosen, not the obvious ones that would ”fit me”. I think this is a phase of learning to give unconditionally and look beyond what I can see, allowing different people to teach me lessons about life. I listed down my friends on a piece of paper and all the sudden had the revelation that God has actually given me a whole bunch of amazing people to hang out with, but I have just been looking elsewhere and haven't been appriciating these peple as much as they deserve. It feels like I am learning to fight the battle in my mind and through that my eyes have been opened to see all the friends I am surrounded by!






I love my flat – honestly Jill, Rachell and Lisette have become my best friends here as soon as I started to invest more time and effort into our relationships! One morning when he girls were out changing the world through Street Teams, I baked an appli pie and left it on the stove with a note for them to find. It was probably the best apple pie I have ever made, and we were all happy to devour it!



Our flat hang out time on Sundays is always a time to look forward to – it's funny how you can live in the same flat and not to really have time to spend with one another if you don't reserve it! Last week we went to this amazing mexican restaurant for dinner – the legendary Mad Mex! The other week we had knitting club – I taught everyone how to knit! :) Our all time favourite is however the good old group nap on the floor!! :D



RDG has been the most amazing – we baked cupcakes the other week and talked about Jesus – man do I love these girls and just thank God for how much He really has entrusted in my hand with these precious pearls... I love em so much!

We took all the Fuel girls to the movie the other week – we went to see oh so cute Zack Efron in 17 again which turned out to be quite a flat movie BUT was surely worth $8.50 for being able to stare at the gorgeous high school musical star. This time there was no singing, but he hasn't got ridd of the basketball playing yet.. :)



Crazy enough, couple weeks ago my past was thrown at me unexpectedly as my ex-boyfriend Gary sended me an email. He was wondering what his life would be if only he had followed his heart to Finland with me and wanted to get in touch through email again – a sugar coated message about love.. It really was like a wet cloath tossed right at my face, I had not expected anything like this after the way we broke up and especially afte a whole year of silence – I simply tought we had both moved on with our lives. WRONG! Someone stil seems to be stuck in the past mistakes and choices he himself made. However, I knew I had moved on and no matter how much I once loved him, I have moved on with my life and so would he have to learn to do. I simply pressed ”delete” and walked away without regrets.

I had one of the most fun nights last night after church when one of my Fuel leaders Chris invited me to hang out with a bunch of people at Glebe! Yes, so I headed back to the scene of many memories, but didn't allow any of them to affect me. It was about the time to make new memories and let the past be past.



On that note, history is repeating itself in a great way – my mom is coming to visit me for my birthday!!!!! So Im getting ready to host for my mom for a whole week in my flat in as short time as four weeks!! I cant not even start to describe how delighted and excited I am – now it's time to work really hard to finnish all school work early in order to spend as much time with mom as I possibly can! This means I get to ”order” some winter clothing from my wardrobe back at home and the best of all, have afternoon naps with mom if we so wish to!! I LOVE MY MOM.



We have 10 days of holidays before mum comes – I haven't even started to plan anything yet! I will defenitely use some days to do my school work, and I don't have a lot of extra cash to travel heaps (nearly everyone from the College is taking off to go to New Zealand) but Im sure I will enjoy the time off even if it's pouring down with rain the whole time as it has been lately! It might be just a perfect time for a day trip and some cozy chats one-on-one :)

Anyways , hope you are all well and loving the spring - I love you and miss you all!
Lots of Love,
xoxo P xoxo

Look-A-Like

I have been told I look like another student, Beatrice, about a thousand times by now, and it's been so bad that lecturers confuse us and come talk to me about the things they ned to discuss with Bea! It's been frustrating yet hilarious, and even as I don't agree that we look that similar I must say we have something in common - however, judge yourself!

Hopefully still unique in your eyes too? Now I can start to sympathise how identical twins must feel all the time! :D

Lots of Love,
-P

Nackered!

Hey ya my loves!

Colour is over now and man are we all exhausted! It has been so so good and I didn’t even feel too tired during the conferences, but today as we’ve had a day off from school the physical tiredness has been rushing over my poor little body like a wave! Im so happy to be able to sit down and scribble down everything that has happened during the past week – so many WONDERFUL things have taken place in such a short time!!

So on from Sunday to Tuesday, a few days before colour Jonna spent her last days in Sydney here with me – we had the best time ever!
We got to just chill out in the park, go to church together, chatter about life.. On Monday we went to Coogee beach and it was such a warm, lovely day on the calm beach!! We went a little crazy as always with our pictures, it’s always fun to have such memories :)

On the last day we went to to city and went through probably every single tourist shop in whole wide city! :D Jonna bought finally the UGG-boots she’s been craving for and I got a pair of cute ”roman-times” sandals – how funny that I bough a pair of summer shoes now when autumn is upon us here in Sydney and she bought a pair of full on winter boots as she returns back to Finland’s spring! After all the shopping we sat down at Hyde Park for a picnic – it was so yummy!! I got a VENTI caramel latte – man that amount of coffee kept me going till the early hours of the morning!! We also bought chocolate eggs to celebrate easter a little early :)

We finished the night at the oh so famous Pancakes on the Rocks, ordering ”the usual” and enjoying both nachos and pancakes with Lemon,Lime&Bitters.. the best possible way to finish our time here together according to the good old times :)

Then started the craziness of the past week – am I glad I got to rest in Jonna’s gracious company to gain enough strenght and energy for the week to come! Wednsday we were ”bumping-in” to the Sydney Entertainment Centre – we got to prepare all kinds of things for conference and set-up the venue! After we were ready I went down to the pool with a few of my friends just to chill and then early to bed!

On the first days I was helping with the Registrations – Helping women to get their conference passes and registering their kids to kids programs!
The opening ceremony was absolutely adorable, and such a large crowd of women gathered to fill the entertainment centre that there were not enough seats for us volunteers to sit down!

2nd day of conference I got down to the business: I served in Pamper (giving manicures and hand massages!) and also hung out at the CarPark ticket sales desk the times I was needed at the Pamper! During the nights I got to do ”New Christians” –team and greet new Christians after the altar call to give them a bible as a gift and chat with them! It’s so cool to meet people who have just been brought to the Lord!

3rd day the same pattern repeated and the closing ceremony was stunning, breath taking and so much fun! We had the Sisterhood morning which is all about how we can be the change and do our part in making this world a better place – the Sisterhood Vision video that the team had prepared was inspiring, heart breaking and breath taking! I never knew of some of the issue people still face in the 21st century, such as HUMAN TRAFFICKING all around the world, especially in Europe, and CHILD ABDUCTION in Uganda.. I am convinced we all must play our part to change these circumstances to those who are the victims of these terrible human crimes and so thankful the Sisterhood offers a pathway to step up and make a difference. The seed was sown into many women’s hearts and I am confident those seeds will grow and we’ll see great victories in those areas!

This year we received knitting needles and a ball of wool – a gift that can keep on giving! I have been knitting for the Sisterhood lately and am so excited now Im not the only one! Knitting is hip! (I know I know, you all think Im such a grandma but it’s not true – knitting is in and young people can also contribute through hand skills such as! Our dance team had prepared a hilarious knitting dance prior to the gift moment which was heaps of fun! :)

Then on Sunday we had the FABULOUS live album recording – We accommondated the floor with all youth groups from church and I got to hang out with both Fuel kids and Powehouse fellows! This is my Fuel tribe leader Nicky – she’s an amazing woman of God and so good to be around!

The church did something remarkable – we had a project called ”Kilo of Kindness” and everyone from church brought with them a kilo of non-perishable goods to donate to our CityCare who take the food, packs it and contributes it to the poor in our city who are lacking in such basic needs as food! So as an result of this request from the church, on the night of album recording 10 tons of non-perishable foods were brought to us!!! CANT YOU BELIEVE!!! I love the fact the people in our church commit to actually being the church and carrying what is in the hearts of Bobbie and Brian with such passion!

The night was amazing, the songs so powerful and Robert Fergusson’s (He’s my all time favourite preacher and teacher here at Hillsong) altar call so INCREDIBLE that my heart must have left a beat and streams of tears soaked my face – and hey, I am saved so you can imagine what it was like to those who have not yet met the Lord Jesus!! I had to take notes afterwards, his words just captured me!

We grabbed some Subway and Gelato icecream with Esmeralda, Florence, Keith and Ashton at Darling Harbour and sat there chatting away – such a good night it was! Was great to be able to catch up with Ashton again and we got to encourage each other in our walk here - I believe God connected us beforehand to make sure we’d both make it through and would have someone to lean unto when days seem too hard to bear alone. His friendship has saved me from many harmful thoughts and other way round too! It’s a perfect balance of compassion, challange and companionship that keeps us both going no matter what happens!

Then Colour 2 started: Registrations on Monday and since I knew I’d be sitting around the whole day, I went to donate blood at the red cross donation truck that was parked next to the venue! It was great to be helping again since I haven’t been able to donate for a long time because of certain medications I’ve been on, but from now I can do it every 3 months and I most certainly will! It’s such a simple thing to do and can save lives ! So many people who’d like to donate blood can’t because of their medical conditions.. But I CAN! ..and do I will :)
It was great to see that many people took the chance!

God has been so generous with me – I received so much support right before colour with my finances, adding up to nearly $1000!! And on the last morning of colour a girl came up to me to deliver $80 which anonymous fellow college student had felt God wanted to bless me with! Money is so not the issue when you are doing what God want’s you to do and when you give generously to Him and His people even when you yourself are in need! God has all the money in the world and the amounts are nothing to Him, He just want’s to see where our hearts are at!!

On the 2nd day of Colour 2 God really started to work with my personal things – Sy Rogers was preaching and his words unlocked in me the feelings I had still held unto agains my dad – the bitterness of the loneliness and abandonement he had left me to and the secret wishes that he’d have to go through what he put me through. I realized God was not condemning my feeling and by no means devalidating the hurt I’d been through, but he whispered into my ear: ”Daddy sees it and daddy’s sorry you had to face it”. I broke down and wept as I realised God had already placed the horror of abandonement I had wished over my dad over His own Son when Christ was crucified and I woke up to realise that loneliness was not what I wanted to find my dad in, even though the he right now is in the very middle of it. God touched my heart with His healing hand and uprooted the last unforgiveness I had had in me toward the past..

Also our other quest speakers stirred me up – Lisa Bevere’s magnificent sermon about the ”lioness” we are called to be as women and Marilyn Skinners inspirational life story of how one woman could change the world in the way she and her husband Gary have. Full of fire and faith, the woman of Provers 31 is ready to rise in me!

It was pouring down on the 3rd day like crazy as we got up in the early hours of the morning – streets were flooding so bad me and my roomies picked up our shoes, rolled up our pants and went barefoot, making our way to church in the hammering rain! Autumn has officially arrived..

The sight of Volunteers on the last night was not surprising: everyone felt so tired that people simpy just laid down in the volunteer area and went to sleep whenever they had a chance! However, the packdown was not even too bad and we all got the next day (today) off from school to recover, so it’s been very gracious and not as exhausting as I thought it might be! I’ve been running around the whole time of both conferences and album recording, and I quess that’s what kept me energizised – I had no time to be tired! Serving also brought me so much joy and satisfaction that I found it hard to complain about anything at all!

Well, I quess that would be it for now, it’s beautifully only 9pm and I hope to take a little walk before I head off to bed. Tomorrow life’s returning back to normal, with amazing classes at school and Fuel at night. I am also popping into my old workplace – I got a call from the new manager today and Im going to meet with him to see if I’d still like to work there. If I can raise the pay a bit and change my hours a little I think Im up for it :) Saturday we’ll meet with Jenn (my RDG collegue) to chat about RDG stuff and we’re also invited over to Nicky’s place for dinner, which will be great!! Life’s just so good, don’t ya reckon?

Heaps of Love,
Hugs and Kisses,
-P