Tanja @tanjaostman@dingdash.com

This is so sad, especially when his background is worship leader and Church planter. His wife Lisa grew up in a charismatic church, and they were leading worshipin such environments. They are extremely talented musicians! I'm not American so I don't fully understand the (Church) culture over there. Is it common that people leave the Christian faith for some kind of interreligious belief? I have read that young people/young adults are frustrated with the American Christianity, and leave churches en masse. Especially frustrated with megachurches with more focus on strong leaders than on Jesusbeing the head, and putting up shows etc. Some leave for house churches, some for more liturgical churches, and some lose their faith, and some get into yoga, mindfulness and eastern philosophies. What's your experience or perception? Do you know what happened to Gungor?

Continues here: In September our government will discuss the covid passport. Mrs Henriksson, has been pushing in this direction. I wrote very kindly to her, for instance “we are many parents that are very worried about giving vaccines to 12-year-old children, as there are documented risks, like heart inflammations… it’s vaccine (Pfeizer) that is not even approved yet… I hope that our society won’t discriminate people [the passports] who choose not to have the vaccine… There are many highly educated people I know that are skeptical, but keep a low profile about their opinions, since they risk to be discriminated or bullied."

I am so sick and tired of all this. I belong to a minority (even among Christians), who is not vaccinated. Of course, I believe the virus is for real, but there are bigger things going on in our world in the political arena. Some days I feel low, exhausted, anxious and frustrated. We need to pray for and encourage one another!

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/pm_marin_vaccination_of_12-15-year-olds_set_to_begin/12048065

Summer pictures part 5. From the Finnish archipelago.

Summer pictures part 4. These are from the Finnish archipelago.

Pictures part 3. My husband's third youngest cousin William's wedding. Pictures were taken of the guests with a Polaroid camera.

Pictures part 2. From a scout camp in Vasa, Finland.

I have had a break from DD and enjoyed vacation. Our summers in the Nordic countries are bittersweet – beautiful and too short. As soon as the sun is shining, we want to get to the beach/be outside. In the southernmost city of Finland, Hangö (Swedish)/Hanko (Finnish) there are 30 kilometers (19 miles) of sand beaches. We were there by the beach at a Christian family camp for a few days. I have also been a leader at a scout camp, where everything was simple and done outdoors, including cooking on fire. We have had an unusual warm summer, so I think I have been more outdoors than indoors. Next week it’s time to go back to work, and I don’t look forward to the dark autumn and winter – except from the last part of winter Feb-March. Hope you all are doing well! (I will share pictures in several postings, since it’s possible to share only four pictures at a time).

We were picking organic strawberries 🍓 at a lower cost than buying them picked. Do you have that system in your countries? I have never tasted sweeter strawberries than these Nordic berries. We need to store up vitamins and sunshine for our long, dark winters. 😉 We mashed them and put in the freezer.

Mark 12:31

Enjoying vacation. Today we brought our bikes by car to a part of of the archipelago that we hadn't visited before. We were biking around and swimming at a small secluded beach.

We went to my in-laws' summer cottage by the sea last night, since it's so warm this weekend (26-30°C = 79-86°F). The pictures were taken at 23:45 (11:45 PM). The first time I woke up because of the light was at 4 am. We have better curtains at home. That's life on latitude 63"...

I recently watched a documentary about the Britney Spears conservatorship. It was so sad. It just confirmed the idea of an evil behind the system of the "Hollywood industry". Ok, the power of evil cannot have a grip on you if you don't sell your soul to the system. But for many it's about giving them an inch but they'll take a mile. Then it's too late for regret. I don't know about the state of Britney's soul, but apparently she used to belong to Christ and give him the glory. Bad things happened along the way. Sometimes we don't acknowledge that people suffer, just because they have money - as if money could buy them love or freedom. As Christians we should know better, and don't be jealous of the rich. Britney has zero control over her own money. Money that came at a high cost. A daughter to a movie star, said that her father was put under conservatorship, and her experience is that they want to keep them under their control til their death. I pray for Britney. #britneyspears

I am happy that we have Asian stores in our small town in this corner of the world called Finland. This is from our favourite, called Asian Market. Today we had dumplings for dinner, and different snacks after. We use to buy ingredients for Thai food as well. I once watched a documentary about real Chinese food in China. They said that Chinese food is much more diverse, rich and tasty than we are used to in the West. That's true for our city. I prefer the Thai restaurants here. They said in the documentary that those who start restaurants here haven't got the right education by real Chinese chefs, and usually aren't chefs at all.

Happy midsummer from Finland! 🌸🏵 We are celebrating Finnish-Swedish midsummer when the sun never sets. I know it sounds exotic for foreigners with midnight sun, but we are so used to it. It's the opposite in the winter, when the sun never rises for a couple of months above the Arctic circle. Where we live we see the pale sun for a few hours a day.

I just finished this working week and am a little exhausted. I have interviewed (on Zoom) around 80 persons that have applied to become teachers. My ratio of their total points is 25 %. I picked this bouquet of wildflowers in our neighborhood last night. I love this time of the year in Scandinavia! 🌸🌷🌼🌻

At my in-laws' summer cottage. Swimming and Finnish sauna. Most Finns love this! Pictures taken at 9.30 pm and it will be light all night! It's nice in the evening but not so nice when it's hard to fall asleep or you wake up at 4 am.