Tanja @tanjaostman@dingdash.com

Are there any other countries outside of the Nordic countries that have similar red wooden houses? These houses where I live (Finnish west coast) are all 100-200 years old, but thoroughly renovated. We have a lot of them in this village - looks like Sweden, because they are typically Swedish (we were a part of Sweden for almost 700 years). The red paint originated from the copper mine in Falun, Sweden, and became very popular during the 17th-19th century. They wanted the houses to look like the more "luxurious" tile walls in Europe. Most houses in Sweden were wooden.

I'm not very used to ordinary secular Swedish-speaking Finns in Finland come to faith and openly confess their faith in Jesus (even if most are formal members of the Lutheran state-church). Most believers have grown up in Christian homes. Frida Rosengård used to be my student (to become a special ed. teacher) for a couple of years, and then quit. She tells here about her perfect facade, but the first time I met her I sawbehind her facade that she struggled. She missed out on lots of classes and I had a couple of meetings with her to help her fix her courses, but noticed that she didn't want to be honest about how she was doing. I was worried about her. Last year she attended miss Finland, and ended up top ten. She quit that before the final. This clip is long, but her English is perfect even if she hasn't lived abroad.
https://youtu.be/3sSmA9SuLJ8

https://youtu.be/D2piELUi9sY

I like helping my son (grade 6) with his English homework... but he doesn't need much help, it's quite easy for him. He has learned a lot by playing Minecraft and following youtubers.

Photo by Petri Leinonen. I just shared a YouTube clip with the Northern lights (aurora borealis). This is real, not photoshopping!

Have you seen aurora borealis - northern light? Did you know susch exist? I didn't know it was special when I grew up... now I know that only few people live where you can see it. "Aurora borealis (and its southern sister aurora australis) are phenomena that really only appear in the skies near the North and South Poles. In the southern hemisphere, it’s a privilege almost entirely confined to the frosty plains and mountains of Antarctica. Up north, however, auroras grace the heavens above Alaska, northern Canada, northern Scandinavia, and Russia."
https://youtu.be/jZqbgN1ZhtM

Frank Viola: The Insurgence- Reclaming the Gospel of the Kingdom

https://youtu.be/oJOuO9IxTdE

Beautiful testimonies! We can learn much by listening to them. They need both love and truth. Not hatred. Their struggle is real - often even long after they have been saved. But it's also about choices. Most of them got into the HBTQ-lifestyle because of confusion, abandonment, dysfunctional families, gender confusion, sexual, mental or physical abuse. Change and healing is possible by the power of the Holy Spirit. https://youtu.be/v--BuHXVA70

The social gospel is NOT the same as the gospel of the Kingdom, Frank Viola writes in Insurgence - Reclaming the Gospel of the Kingdom. You don’t get the whole chapter, so I take a risk. But people don't read long texts on social media...