Merry Christmas to all Dingdashers! ππ The "most important" day of Christmas is Christmas Eve, Dec 24th, when we have Christmas dinner and give presents (in the evening) in Finland and Sweden. We celebrated with relatives today, and will continue tomorrow with other relatives. It's been snowing heavily today, about 40 cm. So fun to play in the snow! β
We were on a Christmas tree hunt today, in my mother-in-law's forest. The trees are far from perfect there but we found one that is not too big for our living room. (My parents in-law are not rich, but it's not uncommon for a Finn to own a little or a bigger area of a forest. 75 % of the land area of Finland consists of forest. In addition it is a big country with a small population).
Anyone who can confirm this is true? Anyone who has a trustworthy source on this? I donβt have time to search right now, and I don't know what American newspapers/ -websites are the best. If this is true, it gives me hope! I am so sick and tired of all lies and unrighteousness that we are facing every day. I found this in the Instagram feed today, but no source.
Last night we participated in a house church meeting in our city, hosted by a man who is considered "controversial" by others, incl christians (even pastors), because he is vocal about his opinions (against c-vax and c-passports, same sex marriages etc). Nobody was wearing masks, nobody was vaxed, we were hugging, we were eating together. The host was so happy and enthusiastic, and didn't want it to end, so we were going on for 5 hours (!), which is very uncommon in Scandinavia. We are not allowed to Christmas concerts in churches in our city without c-passports. So we enjoyed the fellowship with others that are turned away from churches. Somehow I felt like a rebellion - participating in a "forbidden" underground house church meeting (even if it wasn't forbidden or underground). π It was far from ordinary 1-2 hrs Sunday morning services. We kept going for 5 hours, eating, praying, singing, sharing, discussing... PS. I warmly recommend the book in the picture.
A walk in our neighborhood before sauna with my family (everybody's got a sauna in their home). @sinbach I bet you're gonna miss Scandinavia at Christmas. π
My phone can't capture what the eyes see... would need a real system camera. These views would be great Christmas cards. π All of Finland doesn't look like this... a 10 min ride from our village is the city center with concrete buildings.
Swedish-speaking Finn from Finland. Wife, mother of one boy (2008). Teaching special education at the local university. I belive that the Organic Church/House Church is the NT way of doing Church. I'm interested in what's going on in the underground Church and I pray for the persecuted Christians.