Goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend

Tampere, Finland, the 14th of July 2009

I've been back in Finland for over a month now. I wanted to keep myself as busy as possible the final two weeks. I knew that I was heading back quite soon and wanted to enjoy the States and my friends instead of starting to look forward to leaving. So we had a lot of fun times and late nights; I didn't sleep too much.

I got to visit Fremont again and because Rachel and Myk play in the band of the church, they asked me to join them as one of their singers. It was really nice coz that's been something that I've been wanting to do but have never had a chance to do. Everybody was so friendly and kind; they sure made me feel welcome. On that weekend I got to experience some Philippian treats and meals. Good stuff! And then Rachel and Myk introduced me to this thing called five-five which means taking turns in back massaging. Myk's special was to give five-zeros..I didn't agree to that.

On my last weekend in America me and Rachel headed to Portland Oregon. We drove there for good twelve hours to visit friends and to go to an Emery concert. The weekend was great and it was so nice to get to meet new people and see some friends again.

It was funny that Rachel kept on saying how beautiful it was in Oregon. To me it was nothing special; everything looked pretty much the same than in Finland and I'm all used to that. Almost the only difference was the mountains with their snowy tops. They looked awesome!

On my final whole working week Hannah put me up to hold a Bible group meeting. At first I was like no way..I don't want to do that even though I knew that it would be a good thing for me. But Hannah was persistent and I gave in quite easy. And it was a good thing for me and made me realize that I don't have to be perfect in order to be used by God. God uses me if I'm willing to do what He wants me to do. And especially in those moments that I'm weak, He shows He's power.

We spent a lot of time just hanging out, talking and watching movies. I was enjoying it all and trying to make the most out of it. One night me and Rachel went for a late night walk around the city. We went up to a place at Yerba Buena Gardens where you can take a look over the park and some parts of the city. It felt as if somebody was strangeling my heart; it felt so hard having to say goodbye to the city that I have so felt in love with and that had as fantastic as San Francisco had.

On my last days in San Francisco I got to explore the Mission street with its Mexicans and restaurants. I still got to have some Oreo milkshake and garlic fries. Hilton Hotel's pool was a place to rest in. Frozen Yoghurt shared with the staff is something to remember.

On my last day we still wanted to go for a bike ride and this time our destination was Castro. I hadn't taken any photos of that place befoore and still wanted to do that. It was a good thing to get to exercise before sitting on a plane for hours.

Goodbyes were quite hard for me. It felt so weird to leave all the people that I had been spending so much time with for the past almost three months. But on the other hand I had a feeling in my heart that it wouldn't be goodbyes for good; I'm gonna see it all again and hopefully very soon.

Casey and Rachel saw me off to the bart station of Powell. It felt so weird and strange that I wouldn't be walking on those lovely San Francisco streets the next day. On my ride to the airport I tried to keep my eyes as wide as the tears falling down from my eyes let me to see San Francisco's beauty. I wanted to inhale San Francisco as long as possible. I want to treasure it all. Good bye San Francisco, good bye my friends, thank you for letting me experience it all, thank you for getting to know you. I love you, see you soon again!

The sound of a normal life

San Francisco, the 27th of May 2009

Weeks pass by too fast. I keep saying that all the time. I've been working with the video project and it's going good but still have a lot to do before it's done.

I've started to live a night life. We always stay up till late at night having kitchen parties with french toasts, crepes and all other treats. Quite often we have movie nights at the basement of next door. We have a big screen there and couches. So it is a good place for movies. I tend to fall asleep sometimes but it's fine. And it's a fun thing to make jokes about.

On Thursday I got to spend a while with my American Finnish friends Saara and Sami and Sami's brother Miika. They stayed a night before heading down to Los Angeles. Originally i was suppose to go with them but then I started to run out of money and time too. So I decided to stay in San Fran which was fine cause I love it here and want to enjoy the company of my friends as much as possible before heading back to Finland.

We had a lot of people coming in on Friday to do Hot Chocolate evangelism. Christina asked me if I could take one of the teams out to do Hot Chocolate. That is what we call it when we do the ministry, "to go out to do Hot Chocolate". So it was nice to get to share God's love by giving hot chocolate and coffee to people on the streets.

After Hot Chocolate Myk, Rachel, Casey and me headed to Hilton hotels rooftop pool and hot tub. It was exciting and so relaxing. it was nice to be in warm water especially cause it was a bit chilly outside. When we were done with swimming and bathing we headed to Lori's diner to play cards and eat some good food. And yeah, we had Oreo milkshake too.

On saturday I headed to Fremont with the family of Ancheta's. Myk and Rachel had a band rehearsal on Saturday and they asked me to join them and so I did. I got to sing at their worship band which was to lead worship at the Sunday service the next day. It was funny how normal I cold be there. I usually tend to be nerves about that kinds of things but maybe years exercise has finally done a difference in me. the time in Fremont was good. It was so nice to spend a relaxing weekend out of the big city. And the family was so nice. They were so generous and hospitable at all times. It is such a blessing for me to have them in my life.

Rachel in Fremont.
If you look closely, you can see a lemon
tree behind the car. I was so excited about it!

We had a day off on Monday this week because of the Memorial day. In the morning I wanted to sleep in cause I haven't done that enough lately. It felt so good. In the afternoon I headed to the Haights with Rachel. The haights is a part of the city where the biggest hippy communities live. It was nice but still in some ways feels a bit strange to me. But i got to buy some cheap strawberries and raspberries there. And the best part was when we headed to a huge record store named Amoeba. I bought a new Mewithoutyou cd and Copeland's newest album.

The Amoeba

Cable wires at Haights

Later on me and Rachel headed to do some grocery shopping and made dinner. Wow, doesn't my life sound like a pretty normal life here?

I got a good laugh one day when this one homeless man came up to me while I was working in the office. He wanted to know if I did karate cause my body was kicking. I was laughing so bad. That was probably the cheesiest pick up line ever!

Lovelovelove

San Francisco, the 21st of May 2009

On last Thursday there was a free movie night at the Dolores park. The movie was Amelie which is one of my all time favorite movies. We rode our bikes there after a chai explosion inside my back bag of which my leather jacket still hasn't recovered. I think chai is going to be the new odor of my perfume from now on. If I even get my jacket to look decent anymore and get to wear it. I so hope that I do cause I love the jacket.

The view in front of us at the Dolores park

Anyway, about the movie night. It was so fun. Everybody was sitting next to each other on their blankets on the grass. some people had snacks with them some people just prefered smoking pot. I'm not used to seeing people smoking pot infront of my eyes and I didn't like that. Neither did I like the smell of it. But inspite of that the night was beautiful and the movie made me smile once again. It never seizes to do so.

Cherise, Dillon and me enjoying the movie

I fell in love on Friday. It is official now, I'm in love.. with Lori's diner's Oreo milkshake. Myk and Rachel took me out to Lori's. It's kind of a tradition to take people hotel hopping an to Lori's to have garlic fries and Oreo milkshake. Oh my gosh, I've never tasted anything like it. I couldn't stop talking about the milkshake and now I'm craving some more of it everyday. I'm definitely gonna have it again before leaving back home to Finland. And I'm gonna miss it so much and look forward to our next meeting.

Me, Myk and Rachel,
we love Oreo milkshake


Lori's Diner

Tae bo is still something that we do here at the base with girls. It's good work out even though I'm not the biggest fan of it. We always have such a great time doing it. This week we expanded our arsenal into pilates. It's a lot less swettier but still good for your body.

This is some serious work out

The weekend was so nice again. Jesus just loves pampering me. We went to Luke's pool on both days and now I get to say that yes, I am tanned and I'm so happy for that. As if it was the most important thing in the world but I still like it.

The roof pool

On Saturday on our way back from the pool I wanted to video tape a little piece of the life on Ellis Street of Tenderloin. You can see it down here. It's not a very long video and at the end of it the footage is not very good material cause I got a bit scared and wanted to get inside the base quite quick. There was a woman on the streets that didn't like me using my camera and was getting quite angry and shouting at me to put the camera down. You can actually hear some of it on the video piece.

The Ellis street of Tenderloin

I just love the Ancheta family. It is so easy to be around them; they make me feel so at home and they're so sweet people. On Sunday Myk, the son of the family, came to pick me up to go to the Yerba Buena gardens. We hang out there with their family. Afterward they took me out to the Old Siam which is one of my favorite restaurants here since I love thai food. They've been such a blessing to me. I think that even though I still don't know them that well, they might be a bit similar to me than the Caruana family in Australia is for my roommate.

This week I started to edit the video project. It's been fun but I still have a lot to do to get it done. This far I've worked with iMovie but will continue to work with Final Cut express next week. It's a better program and easier for me to use.

I've also started to run every day before our morning meetings. My body doesn't like that much of running right after waking up but I've heard that it's good for your body and i like to get it over with right in the morning. And it's not that big of a project cause the only things you need to do is to put on your jogging clothes and you're ready. When jogging later on in the day you always need to change clothes and take a shower and make yourself ready to continue the day looking decent. So in many ways it is better to do it in the mornings.

My Rolls Royce and me on our
way to the Bottom of the Hill

On Tuesday, oh my, I'm so excited about this, me and Rachel headed to the Potrero hill and to a club called the Bottom of the Hill. Manchester Orchestra was about to play there that night. We tried to get in even though we knew that the concert was sold out but no, they didn't let us in. We were so disappointed cause we really wanted to hear them play. Well.. at least we had a good bike ride and got to see the financial district out from the distance. But the story isn't over yet. Two hours later we along with Laura wanted to try to get in again and that was when the fun part started. The porter took us in and said that he would take care of us. So we got in for free. The tickets would have cost 14 dollars each and Manchester Orchestra hadn't even started to play yet. So we were very lucky.

Out at a patio after the concert

Tired concert debriefers at
the dining area of the base

I really liked the band even though I had only heard some of their songs earlier. I felt so at home there. And actually I feel so at home in this city and with these people too. Rachel is one of the best girls here. I love hanging out with her. We have the same taste in music, we love riding bikes, doing stuff and she's so easy and fun to be around. She's definitely my best friend here.

Rach playing Manchester Orchestra;
notice the cool vinyl player she has

I just realized a couple of days ago that, wow, I think I have learned to love myself a bit more. It's not that I haven't loved myself but in many things I tend to be very strict to myself and always strive for perfection. On many things I'm quite hard on myself and almost never let myself go easy on anything. Since I've been here in a way I've been on a holiday. I've allowed myself to eat things that I never allow me to eat back home and in general taking it a bit easier. And it has felt good and something that I want to keep up with in Finland too. But I think it might have something to do with this culture too cause to me it seems like people are not as hard on themselves here than in Finland. It's so sad that back home especially girls tend to compete against one another when it comes to weight and beauty. Maybe I'm a bit exaggerating now but in some ways it is like that. And it is so easy to go with the float and let all that kinds of things start to affect to you as well. But I'm so glad about this change in me, and I know that it's something that God is rejoicing of too. Actually, He commands us to love ourselves.

Love your neighbor as yourself
Matthew 22:39

If we don't love ourselves how can we ever love somebody else? And if we only love ourselves a little, we will love others as much too, or should I say as little. And I do want to love a lot! Oh man, this was like some really deep talk.

New, different, weird

San Francisco, the 15th of May 2009

In the States vacuum cleaners are different from Finland. Here you pull the whole big machine when in Finland we only pull the tube and move the machine every once in a while. Here you get more arm muscles when vacuuming.

In Finland we don't use garbage disposals in the kitchen. They're actually quite convenient but before coming to America I had only seen them in the Flintstones movies. You know, they have an animal eating all the food waste. I'm glad that we don't have an animal for that here.

In the States you always have to add taxes on the price that's on the price tag when buying something. It doesn't apply in restaurants but there you have to tip the waiter. So I'm used to counting the price without tax and taking off some dollars so that's pretty much what the item costs in euros.

Here we never hang our clothes to dry out. People always use driers. That's a good way to use your clothes quick after washing them but I don't like it that much cause not only it makes your clothes look ugly much faster it also is such a waste of energy and money.

The insurance system here is much more complicated than in Finland. My roommate wanted to get one for herself and it took like days for her to find one and still she has to pay a lot more money than what I pay for mine back home. I think she still has to pay something when she wants to give birth unless she gets a more expensive one before that. Unless we in Finland don't have to pay anything for delivering kids into this world.

When it comes to cleaning, bleach is the thing in America. Almost all cleansing agents have bleach in it. I think it is quite efficient but it also takes colors out of your clothes. I've become familiar with that here.

Time to say goodbye

San Francisco, the 14th of May 2009

I was invited to go up to Redding to visit my friends and to see a dance performance. I decided not to go cause last week was the last full week that I got to spend with the dts. It's time for them to take off to Italy for their outreach. I would have loved to go to Redding again but I'm probably never gonna see some of these people again so wanted to stay here in San Fran.

Another reason for my staying here was that I wanted to throw a surprise goodbye party for the dts before they go. Yeah, people back home know that that is something I love doing. Just wait till I get back :). So I told about the party to the staff and dts leader Steven said that he could sett up a meeting for the dts so that they wouldn't be in our way while preparing the party. So we sliced up some fruit, baked brownies, put out Reese's butter cups and soda. I made a card for each dts student with their name and photo on so that everybody could write something on them. It was kind of a yearbook thing.

Allie, Savanna, Linda and Laura
writing on the cards

We had some video games to play with too. Everybody was so happy about the party and I got lots of hugs that night. It was so good to get to spend a night with all people together. But it was also a bit sad night for me cause I started to realize that I would have to say goodbye to all these so lovely people and wouldn't see them any time soon. Some of them I will definitely see again so it isn't gonna be like a goodbye for good but still. I'm gonna miss them so much and the base is gonna be so different place without them.


It's funny how people can become so close to you in such a short period of time. I think it's partly because we all live together and pretty much spend our days and weeks together. I'm used to having all these people around me 24/7. It's gonna be so weird not having them here. I'm so glad that one girl, Rachel, is staying here cause she's probably the closest of them all to me.

Weeks go by so fast here. To me it feels like if it was weekend always. That is a good thing but also a bad thing because soon my time here is up and it feels weird. My eyes have started to get used to all these things and views that surround me here. I've seen them tens or hundreds of times already. But many times I still look at these hills, plants and buildings with a big smile on my face.

On Sunday we headed for Fremont which is a smaller city South of Oakland. The Ancheta family, that lives here at the base, have their church there. The church consists of mostly Philippines that live in the area. The Anchetas' are Philippines too. They are such lovely people and they have an amazing family. The mom of the family is in a way a mother of this base too.
You can check out a video here below. It was made on our way to Fremont.

A roadtrip to Fremont

The church seen from outside

The service at the church was a special one because of Mother's day. They had little performances and thank you -speeches to mothers. Myk and Rachel had made a song for Christina Ancheta, their mom. They performed it singing and playing guitar. It was so awesome and quite different from what I'm used to in Finland. We don't tend to show our feelings that easily. But that's one thing that I love in this culture. In general the Philippians culture is very generous, hospitable and warm. After the service we had dinner together and just hang out for a while in the church. I really liked the church and especially the worship part of it. Myk and Rachel played in the worship band together with these older men and some other people. All of the songs were familiar to me which was nice and the atmosphere of worship was very free.

The worship band

Me, Eva and Andrea in Fremont

After the service we wanted to see the house that the Anchetas' have in Fremont. The house and actually the whole city reminds me of those films that are filmed in smaller cities in the States. You know, they have this certain feeling.

Anchetas' kitchen

One thing that spoke to me here last week was a night that I spent with three of my friends sharing our testimonies and things about our lives. Savanna told us that one Bible verse had thaught her better how to love the people that have done you wrong or just in general your neighbor. Before Jesus the last supper with His disciples He washed their feet. He knew that Judas was about to betray Him but still Jesus showed him love.

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew
that the time had come for him to leave this world and
go to the Father.Having loved his own who were in the
world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The
evening meal was being served,and the devil had already
prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus
knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that
he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up
from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel
around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and
began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with
the towel that was wrapped around him.
John 13:1-5

Jesus wanted to do this as an example of how we should be acting and doing as well. Sometimes , well most of the times, it's so hard to do anything good to somebody we don't like. But that's exactly what God wants us to do and that is something that should make us Christians different. And if you continue reading this Bible verse you'll notice that there's a promise in the end. God says that if we do so, we will be blessed.

When he had finished washing their feet,
he put on his clothes and returned to his place.
"Do you understand what I have done for you?"
he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,'
and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your
Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should
wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that
you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth,
no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger
greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know
these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
John 13:12-17

Hey, I've finally found good coffee here. It's hazelnut coffee and almost the cheapest you can get out of the city. I don't have to do any tricks with adding water or honey or anything besides milk in it. And actually the place I can get it is just around the corner. It's a place that many people inside the base uses but I've never gone there before last week.

Yesterday the dts took off to Italy. The base is so much more quiet and everybody seems to be a bit down. The base is still the same. Sitting inside the office you can here John playing the same song he always plays on piano. Pool balls hitting each other still make the same sound as they do every day. Life goes on but still something has changed. If not from the outside then inside of our hearts. The dts students have made impacted not only in my life but so many other's lives around the Tenderloin and the whole San Francisco. We will all miss and love them hugely.

I still haven't gotten over my fear of seagulls. A year ago I was jogging and a seagull tried to attack me. So ever since I've been afraid of them every now and then but I've made it into a bigger deal by making jokes about it. Last Sunday proved that I am actually quite terrified of them; it wasn't anything to laugh about. Me, Rachel and Savanna went for a bike ride to the Fisherman's Warf and bought some food at In 'n Out. We didn't want to stay inside the place but take the food with us and eat it in a park. So we did it and while we were eating, a flock of seagulls and other birds started to gather around us. I noticed my heart starting to beat faster and started to be really scared of them until that point that I had to run away. You know, all I wanted to do was to enjoy my burger but no, the seagulls had to ruin the whole pleasure. I couldn't go back to sitt on the grass but wanted to stay under a tree. I probably looked ridiculous and the girls had so much fun because of me. Who wouldn't be afraid of those big birds with such a hard beak?

From routines to exploring

San Francisco, the 8th of May 2009

Back home in Finland I have certain routines for my days that I follow. I'm not like obsessed with them but my normal days have just formed to be something like this: wake up at 7:15 am, spend half an hour with God, do my morning chores, go to school, study the day, come home, take dance class/attend small group meeting/go wall climbing/hang out with friends/go to church, go to bed. So that's pretty much my week in a nut shell. I like having routines but I don't stick too tight with them. So being here has brought many different things into my days. At weekdays we have a meeting at 8 am through 9 am and after that we start working with different things and work until 5 pm. We do have an hour's lunch break in between. The thing that I've been feeling a bit guilty of is the time that I spend with Jesus. He's with me in everything I do but I have had to come up with some other times to really spend some alone time with God. Sometimes it's quite hard here cause I'm always surrounded by people. And don't get me wrong, I love having people around me but I do need my quiet time too. I usually go to a coffee shop to write my journal and letters and spend time with God. Of course I do pray many times during the day but the time that I spend with God is different from what I'm used to. Different doesn't mean bad things but to me it always takes a while to adjust into something new. And that is something that God's been speaking to me of, that He doesn't want us only to stick to our routines. He wants us to be free in Him and not feel obligated to do something. It's not about performing something for God. He loves us for who we are and that's sometimes difficult for us humans to understand.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let
your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27

The sun hasn't been shining here that much for the past week but it's been warm still. I'm hoping the sun to come out soon so that I don't start loosing my tan. Hah, just kidding. Mission adventure staff flew to a conference in Germany so Dillon let me use his bike. I enjoyed a lot and went for long bike rides many times. But then, I rode on some metal stick and the back tire of the bike got flat. So I had to try to find out where to get it fixed. It was good that one of my friends, Rachel, knew this placed called the bike kitchen. It's a place where you can get guidance and instructions on how to fix your bike but you have to do it yourself. So it was a good choice for me and actually really fun. All these bikers were fixing their dear vehicles next to each other.

Nina, Holly and me riding a muni

On our way back home we saw this one nice coffee shop and my body as well as Rachel's was graving for coffee so we went to get some. Sitting in that cafeteria felt so weird cause it reminded me of Scandinavia so much. The interior decoration was alike to many places in Helsinki and in Stockholm. I liked it a lot. It was funny to notice the way that the place made me feel cause I haven't realized that things are different here. But I guess they are cause I totally noticed a difference in that place.

On Saturday night dts organized an event to collect some money for their outreach to Italy. They were still lacking finances so they wanted to throw a silent art auction. I bought some cool photos of San Francisco. I've been wanting to get a new camera for my self and take some good photos and get them framed. I think it's so much cooler to have photos that you've taken yourself instead of buying some at Ikea. I'm not able to buy a new camera now but I was able to buy the photos so I'm gonna frame those. And I got to support dts outreach so the money went for a good cause too. So it was a very good deal.


San Francisco is a funny city cause the diversity is so wide. In addition to normal American areas we have Chinatown, Little Italy, Japan town and Russian hill: the Mission district is full of Hispanic residents. So you can only imagine what kind of things all these nationalities brings in the city. People look so different than in Finland. I'm so amazed with many of their thick hair cause the usual hair in Finland is so thin. And that's what my hair is like too but I'm managing living with it though.

You can see flags of Italy in
almost every pillar of the Little Italy

Coit Tower

I was really worrying for this one homeless man last week. He usually comes in every day unless he works but Last week he only came in on Monday morning and didn't see him after that. So I was afraid that he might have done something to himself or gotten in to jail cause that's what he's waiting for. He got busted dealing drugs a year ago. So we tried calling to the police station in order to find out if he's in jail. On Monday morning we were so glad to see him in good condition. He actually had been in jail for five days and from now on has to go in for five days in every month. Sometimes things in the States doesn't work the same way than in Finland. Well, actually I'm not that familiar with jails or prisons in Finland either but to me it feels odd that he sits inside the bars five days a month and gets to be outside the rest of the month. I'm just hoping and praying thet all the things this man is going through now will teach him something. He used to be very rich running bakeries in many cities. He told me that greed has always been his stumble stones and that was also the reason behind him getting caught. Sometimes God has given us hands and feet and a free will to use them the way we choose to; we can either use them for good or bad. Sometimes we need to go the hard way just to realize the thing that matters the most in the end.

Introduction of the players

The Giants made a home
run and won the game

The Giants is the baseball team of San Francisco. So even though you weren't a fan of sports, going to a baseball game is something that everybody has to do if coming to the States. So that's something that I got to experience on Sunday. It was fun to see all those Giants fans in their Giants caps and clothing. Even though it was my first time in a baseball game seeing all sellers of cotton candy and other things during the game felt quite familiar to me cause I've seen it in so many movies. It was a fun experience in spite of the slow rhythm of the game. And the view over the ocean was awesome. I just love it, maybe partially because I'm so used to living near the sea.

And there you can see it;
the ocean

Hopping and riding

San Francisco, the 28th of April 2009

Last week was my first time to attend the Bible study groups for homeless. I was amazed by some homeless to be that aware about God's word and having love for Christ in their hearts. Some of them had a lot more knowledge over Bible than me and the way they spoke about God was so beautiful. It reminded me of God's words in somewhere in the Bible. I don't know what's the verse but it speaks about people we're gonna meet one day in heaven. He says that there will be many that kind of people we wouldn't consider heavenly here on earth and many of those we would assume to see in heaven we won't. Maybe these kinds of people were a part of what God meant by saying so. It's what's inside our hearts that matter, nothing else.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one
who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 7:20

Mushrooms, fresh ones. Yep, we have them in the fridge everyday. That makes me happy and that is what I'm known for. Strawberries, blackberries, fresh pineapple and melon. I love them. So not all food here is unhealthy.

Every now and then I'm so frustrated with my English. I'm a perfectionist in some things so sometimes it's hard for me to not to sound like an American and ha an accent. Even though I do realize that I'm not from here and all the other non-Americans also have an accent. So I'm trying not to be so hard on myself. And people have told me that accents are cool. I'm so glad that I've studied in Finland cause our education system is so great. Here almost nobody speaks a foreign language and I've studied three languages in addition to Finnish. And I got to do it for free and to start in an early age.

I made a decision to start to wear a wedding ring. Some of the homeless are quite intimidating and asking me to go out with them, bringing flowers and so forth. Sometimes it's even a bit scary. Many of the girls here use a ring and encouraged me to get one. I actually bought a nice silver ring which I love a lot. I can use it in some It's so much easier to tell the homeless not to speak to me in a certain way cause I'm married. And I'm married to Jesus. One day this one younger guy came up to me when I was working at the storefront desk of Ellis Room. He asked if he could stare me for four hours and if he could take me out the next day. I said no and he asked why. So I told him that my boyfriend wouldn't like it. So he told me to tell my boyfriend that he's a lucky man. I looked up and said in my mind: "Jesus, you're a lucky man." Hah, that was funny.

Last weekend was probably the funniest so far. It was full of activity. We had a visitor from Boston at the base for a week and we hang out with her a lot. Sarah is such a lovely girl and I think I'll go and visit her one day to Germany where she's from.

Miriam, Rachel, me and Sarah
at the Dolores park

On Friday night we went hotel hopping which means that we kind of snuck into hotels and took a look over the city from the top levels or even from the roofs of the hotels. It was so much fun. It's weird how you can just enter to hotels here and chill at the lobbies. If you tried to do that in Finland, somebody would come and kick you out immediately.

Hotel hopping

San Francisco seen from Hilton hotel.
The fancy building is Civic Center

Bike riding. that's something that I've done here a lot. So that was also last Saturdays activity. At first we were supposed to go rock climbing but we decided to do it later on. On the week we did some tae bo in the storefront. It was cool and my back muscles were hurting a couple of days after doing it.

Eva, me and Sarah having sushi

I went to a church called the Promised land with a bunch of girls on Sunday. After that we headed to a park to play some music and sing and just to hang out with good company. We took a nap on the blanket and ate some strawberries. It was nice.

Hanging out at the Yerba Buena Gardens

Taking a nap

The whole weekend we stayed up until late at night and slept only a little and I'm starting to go back to my daily coffee habits. I've actually found some good coffee in the US of A. It's mostly iced coffee which was so good on those really warm days we had last week. And you can only imagine how this little girl from the cold Finland loved the heat. I was so happy and enjoying every minute.

I just love the people here. They have become much closer to me these past few weeks. And what I loke here a lot is that people are so encouraging toward eachother. Last Friday i went to do Hot Chocolate evangelism. It happens every Thursday and Friday but that was the first time for me to do it. So we walked the streets of Tenderloin and gave hot chocolate to people and offered them prayers. It was so amazing to see how some of the people were sop thursty for prayer. I was a bit scared to do it cause praying in English is quite hard for me and going up to people and asking if I could pray for them is not the easiest either. Hannah told me that I should do Hot Choocolate more often cause that's how I learn to pray. She was so encouraging, she always is and I like her a lot. So on Friday I didn't pray for anybody but on Sunday while I was wayting this one Rachel outside of the base one woman came up to me and strated to talk. So we talked and she asked if I could pray for her. I put my hand on her shoulder and prayed for her. She almost cried and it was a good moment for me too. It was a little step but it was the first step for me. And I really want to believe that God is able to do miracles in the lives of these people as well as learn more about the changing power of prayer.

In awe

San Francisco, the 21th of April 2009

I'm just so grateful to get to be here. I remember crying to my mother during Christmas holidays because I didn't know what to do with this spring. Somehow I knew that God had something special to planned for me. And now I live in San Francisco. Every week I get to experience so much new things and get to see amazing places. I've just been in awe about everything so many times. I'm starting to fall in love with this city and already planning when to come back here. God is such a fulfiller of dreams. It's funny how you sometimes think that everything is always gonna go the way that they've gone in the past. But God has come to give us future.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares
the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11

That's a bible verse that really spoke to me last fall. Cause sometimes I tend to think that things will never change. Even though I didn't want to think like that but on some unconscious level i did. So I just tried to stick to what is written cause that's the truth in spite of my feelings. And now I think that I've learned a bit more about that. God is a good God and wants only good things for His children.

Performing on Broadway

Last week I worked with many different things. I made some lunches, prepared some rooms for visitors and worked in the office. On Friday afternoon I was signed to go for a prayer walk to the Pacific Heights with Saeng from Thailand.

A look to the Ocean from the Pacific Heights

Up on the hill

The Pacific Heights is an area where rich people live. Because of its beautiful surrounding, hills and awesome houses, there has been filmed many movies also.

This place is known from the movie Ms Doubtfire

It would be a dream place to live. It was almost like in movies; people had gardeners taking care of their beautiful gardens and it was so peaceful all around.

Houses of the area

In the middle of the week I reseived a gift card from the Journey church I visited on Sunday. The card was for Peet's coffee and tea shop which is a local coffee shop chain. They wanted to send it to me and welcome me to their church by having a bevearige on them. And it sure did make me feel welcome and happy. It was so kind of them. That is something that we should also be doing in my home church back in Finland.

Our Saturdays have turned out to be active days here. This Saturday I went for a bike tour with Hannah and Manny. Biking is very popular here and if I move back here, I'll definitely get one for myself. Bikes here are different from Finland's. Almost everybody rides a racing bike and I got to ride one too.

My ride

It was so cool riding the same lanes with cars and buses. We cycled around the city; through Chinatown, through Little Italy, by the Ocean, through many different parks, by the Palace of Fine Arts, up to a very steep hill, down the hill and so forth. I got to see even the famous fog of San Francisco for the first time. It looked so cool. I've never seen anything like that in my life before. It covered almost the whole Golden Gate Bridge and continued out to the Ocean.

The fog covering almost the whole bridge

The fog seen from the North Beach,
I think it was that beach

When riding a bike in San Francisco it's almost impossible to avoid uphills. They were quite killers but it was worth it. And a good work out is always welcome.

The Palace of Fine Arts

There's this one Thai food place callet the Old Siam just a block away from my home. After the bike ride I was starving and went to get some veggies, tofu and peanuts with rice. It was so good. I think thai food is my favorite.

The rest of the Saturday night I spent hanging out with people at the base. We played killer uno and watched a movie. I'm starting to feel more relaxed here around the people and really like them. This place is beginning to feel more like home and that's nice.

My friend Luke lives in a building that has a pool and a hot tub on its roof. On Sunday I headed there with three lovely girls Eva, Mindy and Holly. We spent sun bathing and swimming for a couple of hours. It was so nice cause the weather was extremely hot. The temperature went up to 95 Fahrenheits witch is 35 Celsius degrees. We don't even get that war weather during summers back in Finland. So you can only imagine how much I enjoyed. Hope i caught sun tan on my skin. Yey, this year I get to have a long summer.

After coming back from the pool I headed to the center for coffee and to see some shops with Eva and Holly. They're both dts student. Eva is from Australia and Holly is an American. Me and Holly are quite alike in many things. It was a nice day and I was really happy to get to spend it with such such great girls.

Sunday I was the first time that I pumped into some Finns here. I've met plenty of Swedish but they were the first from Finland. I got to speak Finnish with them for a minute or so but it felt funny. I have wrote and thought in Finnish but haven't spoken it ever since I got back from Redding. I think I even made some tiny mistakes which is weird cause it's my native language. Another thing that I noticed was that I spoke like an American. Here people are more excited and use stronger words when describing something. So I was telling them about me starting to fall in love with the city and hoping that they have a great time here. Well, now that I say it, it doesn't seem like such a big of a deal but in that moment I noticed that this culture has affected me in some way.

Californian film business sneaking into my life

San Francisco, the 16th of April 2009

I was talking with one man in a park a couple of weeks ago. He told me about Lucasfilm and that they have their headquarters here in San Francisco. So I wanted to know what this Lucas films was all about and searched their website. I found out that they have quite an amazing internship program and while performing it, you get even paid. Doesn't that sound good! It would be so awesome to do that. Gotta start finding out how to get a working visa cause that's what I'm gonna need if I want to apply for that program. Well anyways, I'm not gonna apply there right now but if it's God's will, maybe some day.

In any week now I'm starting to edit this one video project here. The base director Tim Svoboda is getting Final Cut to the base any day now. Final Cut is an editing program that I like using the most..well, the only one I know how to use. Me and many others think that it's the best editing program there is. We already have a beautiful Mac with a huge screen on the base, so I have good tools to work with. It is good that we're getting Final cut cause it's something Dillon gets to use here later on too. Maybe I get to train him into using it as well. Yey!

I met today this one guy Forest who's here with one Mission adventure team. After playing killer uno we started talking about different things and one thing lead to another and he told me that he is also involved in film industry. His mother is a production designer and has worked with Terminator and so forth. So Forest told me that he could take me on a tour in movie studios and other places here in California. That sound so great and I would love to see all those places. Isn't is just wonderful to meet new people. I got all excited. What else has God in store for me besides that!

No one will ever do it again

San Francisco, the 14th of April 2009

Another week here is over an a new one's already started. The Easter week passed me by but it didn't felt like Easter until Sunday, cause I'm not used to have this kind of weather around me on Easter.

Last week I was working in the Mission Adventure team as their cook. So I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Cooking is not my favorite but it was cool to get to know all the team members better. That's something you get to do more in kitchen that in any other place.

When working in the kitchen the week schedule is a bit different from everybody else's. I got to wake up every day at 6am, even on Saturday. But I had some hours off during the day to use it for something else. Some day's I tried to hunt for a good cup of coffee with a result of one almost good cup at a local bakery place. This American coffee is just too strong for my taste. But I did like frappuccino which is a total hit in the States. But it tastes a bit like milk shake so it's not like real coffee.

Heading down to Stinson beach

On Saturday we went for a hike. First we drove all the way down to Stinson beach. That's an hour's drive away from the city. The first four miles of the hike was redwood forest and it felt like hiking on a forest of The lord of the rings. It was a good workout cause it was pretty much only uphills.

Ready for a hike?
Manni, Kristy, Laura and Hannah

The forest of the Lord of the rings

Little and bigger fiords and waterfalls
were all around

The next three miles was oak woods and meadow. It was so beautiful. We got to see many waterfalls and a lot of green plants. Felt like being in a jungle. But hey, I'm a tourist and have never seen a real jungle.

Looks like being in Switzerland

Taking a break and admiring the view

On a rock cliff almost in the end of the hike trail.
Look at the view out to the ocean.

I really enjoyed the hike though it was a lot of work. But it keeps me fit. The hike ended on the Ocean beach. I wanted to see whales and sharks but didn't. But I did see a warning sign about raddle snakes. I'm so glad that I didn't see a living one on a hiking trail. It would have scared me so bad!

Stinson beach

In the evening of Saturday we headed for Hannah and Manni's for a fondue night. It was so nice to hang out in somebody's apartment with friends cause that's what I love to do back home. This was my first time I got to do it hear so it felt like a real Saturday. I really liked it and their apartment as well. If I lived here for a longer period of time, I would love to live in a place like that.

Fondue

On Sunday I went to a church named the Journey with Dillon and her girlfriend Cherie. The place of the church was quite near to TL. I think it's a theater and in some ways it reminded me a lot of the building that Suhe used to have their Sunday services.

At the service they showed this one video they had made. It was a video to which they had been interviewed people on the streets asking about the meaning of Easter; is it still relevant today. The answers took my by surprise. Every person that we would consider as a normal wealthy person would answer something like what's the meaning of Easter, no I don't think it's relevant anymore or I think it's just about bunnies. But then there were these two men, I think they were homeless, who answer so well. They said that they've got nothing else in this world anymore and that they won't give up Jesus. The other man's words were really wise when he said that nothing in this world he's suffering from is not as bad as what Jesus went through. Jesus did all the work on the cross; He carried all our sins. No one will ever do it again. No one will ever do it again.

Is it like this in today's society? That we don't want to have anything to do with Jesus unless were on the bottom? Why is it that people don't realize needing Him even though they had their lives together and were doing well? Is it like this back home in Finland, that people don't even know the meaning of Easter anymore? If it is, we sure have a lot to do; were have a big field for us to plough.

This is a memory verse that was given to me at the church.

Then the angels spoke to the women. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "
I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn't here!
He has been raised from the dead, just as he said would happen.
Matthew 28:5-6

The gate of Chinatown

I got to visit Chinatown on Sunday too. I've read somewhere that the Chinatown of San Francisco is the biggest in its kind in the States. Go and figure. Well anyways it was a lot of fun. From now on I now where to do my vegetable and fruit shopping. The quality is probably not the best in the world but they sure are cheaper and eatable.

Girls doing grocery shopping in Chinatown

This continent is full of things that I've never tasted back home in Finland or at least am not used to eating. Girls that I went to Chinatown with took me this one place they had been telling me about earlier. I got to taste a mango smoothie with tabioca. Tapioca is from somewhere Asia and it is these little jelly balls among your smoothie or tea and on the bottom of your mug. You eat them at the same time when sucking in your drink with a straw. I really liked tapioca, yam.

It's tapioca time!
Savanna, me, Andrea and Kristy

It's amazing how God often speaks about the same thing through different ways and situations. I got a book at the Journey church cause I was there for the first time. So I started to read it one night. The book is about discovering a joy that's more precious than gold.

The Kingdom of heaven is
like treasure hidden in a field.
When a man found it, he hid it again,
and then in his joy went and sold
everything he had and bought that field.
Matthew 13:44

The man in this bible verse was so excited and happy about the treasure that he had found, that he was willing to sell everything he owned just to get the treasure. He had it on his mind in every action he performed after his discovery; his eyes were fixed on in getting the treasure.

The next day after reading this, we had our worship meeting and Steven, one of our staff members, spoke exactly about the same thing and pointed the same bible verse. We shouldn't be storing up treasures on earth, we should be investing on things that have eternal value. Our earthly things will either leave us while we live or we leave it when we die. Either way we will loose it, it's inevitable.

So the man in this bible verse was willing to give up everything he has and that is because he understood that he would gain something much bigger. He made short-term sacrifices to obtain a long-term reward. It cost him everything but it gained him everything that mattered. Everything.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and dust destroy, and where thieves break in
and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where moth and rust do not destroy, and where
thieves do not break in and steal. For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21

Greed and living a wealthy life has also been one thing that I've talked of with one homeless man that I went jogging with the other day. So I think God has been preparing me to have some wise words from His heart to share. And I know He wants to speak to me about this issue as well. His plans and understanding is just so much higher than what my human brain can ever understand. And sometimes it just amazes me to see Him working this clearly and speaking of some certain topic. It makes me smile. Everything is in control and it's so good to know that somebody much bigger than me is in charge of this all.