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
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
Nina, Holly and me riding a muniOn 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 inalmost every pillar of the Little Italy
Coit TowerI 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 homerun 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
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