Saturday 22 November 2014

A Long Overdue Update (Oct. - Nov. 2014)

Greetings to all :-)

So I thought it is time I should write a long overdue blog update, I am not sure where all the time really goes, but it is going quick! Miska's first semester will be over before we know it and it will be Christmas :-)

We have been here in America just over four months now, in some ways it feels longer than that, we definitely feel a lot more settled here now and like this is our home for now.

At the annual TMS banquet - Novemeber 2014

Miska has been busy with his studies, which he is still very much enjoying, it is getting towards crunch time as he has many assignments due at the end of the semester and although he has been trying to work on them throughout the course of the semester, time seems to have flown by and there seems to be a lot to do in a short period of time. By all accounts, talking to other seminarians and their wives this is normal seminary life. Prayer would be appreciated for Miska over the next month that he would be able to work diligently and get all the assignments done to the best of his ability.

Some of Miska's Hebrew flash cards

We are also so thankful to God for the provision of a job for Miska at the seminary library, Miska was working in the church events department serving at weddings and memorials and although he very much enjoyed this work, the hours were not regular or for as many as he would like to get enough fincancial income. The library job gives a secure 20 hours a week (the maximum Miska can do on international student visa), he is very much enjoying being there, it is a great opportunity for Miska to meet many people and he loves being around the books. There is also an opportunity to buy second hand books from the library, so as you can imagine, Miska comes back most weeks with a few books in tow, this always makes my heart sink a little as I imagine the number of books we will be taking back to Finland, but the prices are very cheap and it's a great opportunity to build up his personal library, especially when you think there is not exactly a huge abundance of good resources in Finland, and if there are they are so much more expensive.

TMS Library leaflet

We have joined as members of Grace Community Church and also settled in a fellowship group called FaithBuilders. FaithBuilders meets between 8.30am and 10.00am, then we have main service at 10.30 and an evening service at 6.30pm. With three sermons on a Sunday it can be a lot to take in and digest, but we are thoroughly enjoying our time at Grace Community Church. We have become involved with the FaithBuilders fellowship group, Miska has volunteered to help with sound on Sunday mornings every now and then, so is currently being trained up. We also attend a local small group Bible study two Friday's a month, which is very conveniently held in out apartment block, Miska will also start teaching in the Bible study come the new year as we start on the book of Ephesians. Faithbuilder's also has a men's and women's Bible study once a month, both groups have been reading through Tim Challies' book 'The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment', we have both found the book very helpful so far, it is a nice easy read but also challenging and I would certainly recommend it. We have been building up good friendships in the church and within the fellowship group, we even house/cat sat for a couple of weeks for a couple in the group, it was nice to have a garden to sit out in and enjoy the cooler sunny weather. Miska has been out once with the evangelism team on a Sunday afternoon and would like to go again, but as yet the timing has not been right. I must admit, when you first go to Grace Community Church you can be overwhelmed by the huge size of the church, but I must say, when you plug yourself in and get to know people, it soon feels a lot smaller in a good way :-)

Harvest pot-luck dinner with our church fellowship group

Baby Wilhelmsson is doing well. A huge answer to prayer came in the result of my medi-cal (government provided insurance) coming through. This means I am fully covered for my pregnancy and delivery at no cost. It is a huge weight of our shoulders and we are both so thankful for this provision. My pregnancy is developing well and he is growing on target. I feel very blessed to be having a straightforward pregnancy so far. Every so often I get the anxious attack and start worrying that he is not moving around in there, but then he soon gives me a reassuring kick :-) Miska has been able to feel him move a couple of times also. All being well, he is due on February 19th 2015. A good friend of mine here is also due on exactly the same day, we are both having boys and are under the same doctor, who knows we may be in the hospital at the same time :-)  My Mum and Sister have booked flights for a few weeks after due date, which I am very excited about and also Miska's Mum will come out soon after they have left, so it will be great to have family around us here in L.A. when the baby comes.

Proverbs class with Dr. John Street

I've been enjoying going to the Seminary Wives group mettings and have a lovely group of ladies with whom I share a table with. The teaching has been great, as well as the book we are reading through - 'One with the Shepherd' by Mary Sommerville. The meetings have just ended this week for the Thanksgiving and Christmas break and I am already looking forward to starting up again in the new year. I have also been doing a 6 week Logos Institute course with Dr. John Street on the book of Proverbs and especially how the book can be used for biblical counseling purposes, this has been great, I only wish it could continue, though God willing I will also undertake a biblical counseling course at some point in the future while I am here. I'm also very much enjoy going to a knitting group that occurs on a Friday afternoon at the local library, I have learnt there is a whole world to knitting and crochet I never knew exisisted! The ladies are so talented and friendly, also so patient to teach me new knitting skills, I have successfully knitted my first sock... now I just have to knit the other one!

On another note, I passed my driving test, and now have a Californian driving liscence, makes me feel a little bit American! I am also having to adapt to using American phrases, I tried my best to stay strong and use my British terms, but have to concede to American terms, quite simply because otherwise people do not have a clue what I am talking about!

I am also very excited as my best friend Miriam will be arriving here tomorrow :-) It will be so lovely to have her here for two and a half weeks, we have a few exciting things planned but to be honest it will be just great to hang out together properly.

So, things on the whole are going very well. Financially, we have learnt that things are a little more costly than we first though but we are learning to budget our money as best we can. The use of coupons here is something I am getting used to as well as shopping around at different stores to find the best deals. This does mean at times doing my food shopping at three different stores but the savings are worth it. One thing we would value prayer about is our apartment living, we realised we could save some money in this area by dropping to a smaller apartment - pray for wisdom in this, potentially we could move within our apartment block or more likely it would be when our contract ends next July. We love living where we are and have a lovely home, but we are trying to be wise with finances, so we would value prayer in regards to housing situation and saving money.


We have had a little bit of downtime too and have enjoyed getting to know the area in which we live in a little better. I still maintain that Wales and Finland are more beautiful than here in the desert but there is still natural beauty to be seen certainly. We have enjoyed exploring some of the local canyons for short walks, many of which have been seen on film sets and this past week Miska and I had a whole date day where we went to Santa Barbara Zoo and also the city centre, it was a lovely place and I enjoyed my day there and know it is somewhere to bring visitors. At the Zoo I got to fulfill a life long dream to feed a giraffe :-)

Having a 'zooper' day at Sanata Barbara Zoo :-)

I do hope all is well with everyone who reads this, wherever you are in the world. Remember you can always contact us at either of our email addresses or at thewilhelmssons@gmail.com we would love to hear from you and also let us know if there is anything we can be praying for you. I do miss the UK and Finland, though also thankful I am now feeling settled here in L.A.

In summary here are some things you can pray for us:

Praise God for answered prayers:
  • Miska has a job in the library
  • We feel more settled here in L.A.
  • We feel settled in Grace Community Church
  • Baby Wilhelmsson is growing well and my pregnancy so far has been nice and straightforward.
Current prayer requests:
  • For Miska and his studies, especially getting all his assignments in the next few weeks
  • For wisdom on our housing situation as an opportunity to save money
  • For myself not to be anxious about the baby at times and learn to trust God in all things
  • That I (Alison) will be able to put into practice the things I am learning in Seminary Wives and the Logos class and other Bible studies into practice.

Until the next post (or video),

Alison (and Miska)

Thursday 18 September 2014

Brief update and mindset for Finland (+video)

Miska in class (front row bright blue shirt) with Dr. MacArthur.
Greetings from sunny and hot Los Angeles (it's been up to +43 celcius at times this week!). We have now been here about 8 weeks and are now much more settled into our new surroundings, we are thankful for those who have been praying for us. Miska has now completed about 5 weeks of the 1st semester at Seminary and he is managing to keep his head above water with the big amount of studies, reading and homework. It is encouraging for me (Alison) to see his dedication to his studies and the real joy and pleasure he has from attending The Master's Seminary.

Dinner with Tom, Linda, Nathaniel, Daniel & Julie and family.
Even with all this change and adaption to our new environment for the next years, we have not forgotten where we have come from and especially our goal (God willing) to return to Finland and continue the work at International Baptist Church (Tampere, Finland) started by Tom and Linda Ruhkala. We are thankful to have Pastor Tom and Linda now here in Los Angeles and it was a joy to meet up with them about a week ago, along with another church member Nathaniel who was visiting from Finland. What a pleasure to have a reunion of church members from Finland here in Los Angeles. Tom and Linda will be based here until March 2015, using it as a base to visit many supporting churches around the state of California.

To give an update about their missionary work in Finland, Tom and Linda have produced a short (about 15 min) video explaining some of the work they have been doing in Finland for over 35 years, we feel it gives a great insight into the work in Finland and the need for sound biblical teaching and solid biblical churches. We are glad to share this video for your to watch and hope you find it interesting, informative and encouraging. It also provides an insight to what we will be doing Lord willing after Miska finishes his seminary training here at TMS.



Tom and Linda are serving as missionaries under Baptist Mid-Missions. We would also like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the 'leadership training fund' they have set up to help support Miska's theological training here at The Master's Seminary. Without this financial support for Miska's tuition fees we would not be able to be afforded this wonderful opportunity. We would like to thank all individuals and supporting churches of Tom and Linda who have kindly donated to this fund. We would also like to extend a huge thank you for your prayer support.

As a side note, please take this opportunity to visit our updated 'Supporting us' page if you're interested to know how you might be able to support us through prayer and also financially should you wish to do so.

Warmest greetings,

Alison & Miska

Sunday 24 August 2014

Video Update #1 (August 2014)



Hi everyone! We have just recorded and uploaded our first video update (20 minutes long), talking about our first two weeks here in Los Angeles. You can watch the video here above or by clicking this YouTube link: http://youtu.be/hetB_gTcBtA

Summary of topics covered:
- First week tiredness
- Culture shock
- Sorting practicalities
- Moving to our new appartment
- TMS orientation week
- Course with Dr. John MacArthur and Dr. Steve Lawson
- Study workload and books
- Learning Hebrew
- Joining Grace Community Church
- Bible-study groups
- Prayer requests

Monday 4 August 2014

Short update: Baby Wilhelmsson!

T-shirt for the baby and the 9 week scans.
We are excited to publicly announce the little but growing baby Wilhelmsson! The baby is now almost 12 weeks, the scan photos are from 9 weeks. While having the scan, we saw the baby wiggling it’s body almost like some dance moves ;-)

Due time is mid February, will be wearing this Finland coloured shirt in America, whether it’s a boy or a girl :-)

Miska & Alison

Thursday 24 July 2014

Two weeks to go!

Wow, time flies when you're busy!

Last time I blogged, we had been in Finland three weeks, now we just have only two weeks to go! We fly out on 7th August, taking off from Helsinki at 7am local time and landing at 17.30 L.A. time.  Someone else can do the maths to how long our journey will take, too confusing for me with the time difference.

Not really sure where the time has gone or where to really begin writing an update.

So news in terms of preparation for The Master's Seminary/Los Angeles:

First thing I guess, is a huge answer to prayer that we got our visas to USA easily, quicly and with very little problems. The biggest concern for me was that Miska's arrived on a Friday and I had to suffer the weekend waiting to see if my arrived on the Monday (which it did!). I know patience and learning not to worry are two lessons God needs to teach me!

Our visas :-)

We have also secured an apartment, we will be living in Newhall, Santa Clarita. It is about a 30 minute drive from The Master's Seminary and Grace Community Church - which in L.A. proportions is quite close! It's an area heavily populated by seminary couples and families, with even a few families living in our same apartment complex. This is great for car pooling to and from seminary for Miska and also lovely for me as I will be more free to use the car - when we get one ;-) It is also a nice area to go out and about and has amenities nice and close, including by the looks of google maps a sewing shop - so I can get a nice supply of wool to continue my knitted Noah's Ark animals. We visited this area with our friend John Hester when we visited in October last year, he took us to The Egg Plantation, which sells over 101 different filled omelette's, this is just a five minute walk from our apartment so I wander how many we will try over our three years :-) So our apartment has two bedrooms, so visitors are more than welcome - that is an honest offer, so if you fancy a holiday, just get in contact. The apartment comes unfurnished, but we have been very fortunate to have been lent lots of furniture from our good friend Jeanne, and also our great orientation leaders Curtis and Christa have also organised items for us. We have been overwhelmed by the help from our orientation leaders, they are certainly making sure our move to Los Angeles goes as smooth as possible, which helps so much with my anxiety and nerves.

Our apartment in Newhall

We have done lots of other bits and bobs in preparation, mainly paperwork and investigating things like medical insurance, which is straight forward for Miska (because being a student) but a lot of confusion for mine. We are also thankful that Miska has been able to secure study aid from the Finnish social security system. Basically, Finnish people are still in the fortunate position that they are able to get support for attending higher education. Miska will get about €300 a month for the months he studies out in Los Angeles, for almost the three years. We are particularly thankful for this money as we in no way thought it was guaranteed because we were not sure they would accept The Masters Seminary as a formal education centre, contrasted to goverment supported universities.

So now to news about International Baptist Church. We have been so blessed to have this time at the church. Miska has been preaching a series on Ephesians 6:10-20 - The Armor of God. It has been a great experience for him in preaching each week regularly and and also leading the weekly Wednesday Bible Study meeting. He wrote a brief post a couple of days ago (see previous blog post) and this is a sample of what Miska wrote:
'It's been a great experience to preach regularly every week, certainly a lot to learn and grow still — even more motivation for my Seminary studies!'
I have really enjoyed the experience too, makes me aware of where I need to grow as a Christian and develop. I have enjoyed the chance to get to know the people in the fellowship further and deepen friendships. We have also had the opportunity to fellowship with Agape International Church which has been a huge blessing. Agape International Church is located about 4 hours to the north west of Tampere and is in the heart of Swedish speaking Finland, the church is English speaking, but most of the members first language would be Swedish. It is pastored by Kyle McCartan, he is from Northern Ireland and has a lovely Finnish wife (Sara) and they have been living in Finland together now for around 15 years, they have six amazing boys ranging from 13-1 years old. Last weekend we were able to get together and spend a weekend of fellowship out in the countryside and also have a joint worship service here in Tampere, the sermon preached by Miska that Sunday 'Prayer for Bold Gospel Proclamation (Eph. 6 : 19 - 20)' was recorded by Don from from Agape Church and is now online, so if you are interested to listen: click here for the sermon link. We were also blessed to witness the baptism of one of their church members. Here are some photos of a lovely weekend together.


The Baptism

Having a great BBQ together.

Group photo after our joint Sunday service with Agape.

What else have we been up to. Well, spending lots of time with friends and family. From the UK we have had three visitors in quick succession which was lovely. Andrew, my parents and Miram. Sadly the waether was not always the best, we seemed to have a lovely May, cold and wet June and now we are having a scorching hot July.

Andrew came for a weekend and we introduced him to many Finnish customs and delicacies including sauna, lake swiming, Reino slippers, squeaky cheese with cloudberry jam, rowing on lake, forest walking and much more.

Should we have left Andrew in the middle of the lake? 

Miska and Andrew being braver than I and swimming.

Coolest slippers in town - Finnish 'Reino' slippers :-)

Then we had my Mum and Dad visit for a week. They came over the weekend of Midsummer, which is a big national holiday here, with people mainly taking to the summer cottages to celebrate. Being so far north, it pretty much does not get dark, the land of the midnight sun! In fact the days have been so long here, I can't remember the last time I saw actual darkness. We all went and visited Miska's mum's summer cottage over midsummer, was lovely time away. The weather was a little cold, but atleast we had some sunshine, some areas of Finland had hail! I also found out that I am rubbish at the game of darts - even my Mum beat me which to me a huge competitor in games was hard to swallow! Miska and my Dad built a shelter in the forest as a playhouse for Miska's nieces, or alternatively a place for Miska to take naps ;-)

Family group photo in the forest in Vaasa.

Fishing

Playing darts

Miska and Isabell in the completed shelter.

Then a ryanair flight flew into Tampere bringing in Miriam and taking home my parents. Had a lovely four days with Miriam. We had a lovely time out at Miska's grandparents summer cottage, where we got to have proper Finish sauna, grill Makkara (sausage), go fishing, Miska and Miriam went swimming despite the cold water. Had a nice girly day on the Saturday shopping and generally was most fun catching up properly with my best friend visiting :-)

Best friends reunited

Fishing fun

Brave swimmer

Funny faces
Also, we have spent time with Miska's family, especially his Mum and Brother's family. This has been lovely, sometimes can be hard for me with the langauge barrier, but nice to spend time with them all and get to know them better.

Isabell and me on a hot sunny afternoon

Miska, Jonathan and Isabell

Emilia

We have also spent time with Miska's half-sister Rosa, she has just moved to Tampere to start at a new school, sort of equivelent to sixth form in the UK, it has been lovely to spend time with her and get to know her a little more. The three of us played scrabble together once, I won, but can't help but think I had an unfair advantage as I am the only native English speaker, I know for a fact if we played in Finnish I would lose terribly!


Me and Miska with Rosa

If I thought I would be bored during our transition time in Finland, I was certainly wrong, I have been so busy, not had any time to be bored! I could write a lot more, but the hour is getting late and I need to head to bed.

We have another busy couple of weeks ahead, saying sad goodbyes and also packing and tying up lots of loose ends, would value prayer that all would go smoothly and would not be too stressed or anxious.

Until the next post,

Alison

Monday 21 July 2014

Short update: Preaching at IBC

Miska preaching on 'Prayer for Bold Gospel Proclamation'
(Eph. 6:19-20) - 20th July 2014.
Next Sunday will be my last time preaching at IBC (www.ibctampere.org) before heading to California. I'll be doing a final overview and summary of the whole series 'Armor of God' in Ephesians 6:10-20. 

It's been a great experience to preach regularly every week, certainly a lot to learn and grow still — even more motivation for my Seminary studies! Three years and we will be back, Lord willing.

Miska

Thursday 15 May 2014

We are now in Finland!

So I haven't written for a while... I guess we have been kind of busy ;-)

View of Finland from the plane

We have now been in Finland for three weeks - moved here on 23rd April. It has been a busy few weeks, but things are now beginning to settle down a little and we can start getting into a more 'normal' routine - well whatever 'normal' is!

In our first few days, we spent much time with Tom and Linda (the pastor and his wife of International Baptist Church, Tampere). It was a bit of a transition time for both of us, to Miska and I as we had just arrived to Finland, and to Tom and Linda as they prepared to leave Finland for their furlough in America for about 10 months. We were blessed to have a lovely service on the Sunday, and also had this group photo taken in front of the church meeting place:

Church group photo - April 2014

We are thankful to Tom and Linda for allowing us to live in their apartment while they are away and while we are in Finland. It's an ideal location close to the city centre and the church. Also has the bonus of an amazing view.

View from the balcony

We have also spent much time over the last week catching up with family and friends which has been lovely and a real blessing. Miska's mum had a week off work, so she spent the time with us in Tampere and also Miska's home town Vaasa. We spent some time too in the Finnish countryside visiting both Miska's grandparents summer cottage and Miska's mums summer cottage. The weather here has been a bit of a mixture, we arrived to lovely warm sunshine for a few days, then Finland appeared to almost have its 'taka talvi' (back winter), which meant on one day it actually snowed!  Seems appropriate I guess as Miska's mum was actually on her 'winter' holiday. The weather is now warming up again, the forcast is for 22 degrees this coming weekend and the days are getting longer, sunset tonight is not until 22.07 in the evening.

Panorama of Miska's grandparents summer cottages

Snowman and sunshine

Outdoor grilling

Miska's brother and family

It's not all been a holiday off course. Miska has take over the church responsibilites, running the meetings and preaching every Sunday, and also leading the mid-week Bible study meetings on Wednesdays. On Sundays he is doing a series on Ephesians 6:10-20 - 'The Armour of God' and on Wednesdays thus far we have been looking at Bible basics such as the Deity of Christ, Why we believe the Bible. and the existence of God. It has been going well. Miska is especially thankful for this time in Finland and running the church as it gives him a brief introduction to what it will be like in the future as a pastor and preaching regularly. He is also so thankful for the three years ahead at The Master's Seminary where he will be able to learn and study God's Word further.

We have also been busy preparing all paperwork for our visas and having the interview. This involved visiting a lot of different places. First I (Alison) had to visit the police station to register to have Finnish residency, then I had to visit the magistrate to enter the population register and also I had to visit Kela - to enter the social security system. I can't help but think this is a long and complicated system for someone who as a EU citizen has the right to live in Finland (and is also married to a Finn), but I guess it has its positives. I just don't recall Miska having to do almost any of this in UK! Then the visa application to the embassy which I guess went smoother than I thought (thanks to a kind Finnish lady who processed my residency nice and quick), from filling in the forms and having our interview at the consulate in Helsinki, it took about a week. The interview went well, appears like we had all the correct paperwork and the lady said we should have our visas and passports back in a about a week. Lord willing this will be the case.

So what's it like living in Finland? For Miska, the transition I feel has been quite easy, he loves his home country and it's not hard to see why, it is clean, beautiful, everything seems to run efficiently and for him it is home. For me, at present I still feel a little like I am on holiday, I guess we have been so busy it is only now that things are starting to settle down and go at a slightly more relaxed pace. I do enjoy very much being here and am happy to be here, I love the environment, being able to cycle safely on the wide pavements, no traffic jams, and of course seeing family and friends here. I am also excited about sharing the gospel to these quiet, gentle Finnish people in the future.

I am though of course missing my friends and family in the the UK, thankful for Skype and modern technology (and also that some of them are coming to visit us here next month). I do also find the language barrier hard, especially with Miska's family, I would like so much to commuicate with them and not just mainly through Miska, even though he is a great interpreter. Also, it's just my general nature that I like to be in control of things such as money and paperwork and knowing what is going on... made very difficult when you can't read the paperwork. I must admit I don't miss work at all... eek, I mean I miss my work friends and I guess to a degree I miss being a Nurse, but I am enjoying being a housewife, having to time to clean the house properly, cook food, plan meals, go shopping, read, knit, etc. I think I will work again at some point in the future and Lord willing as a Nurse, but for the moment I will enjoy being unemployed :-)

So I guess that's it for now, I'll try to keep this blog updated more often now. I can give my musings from this strange land of Finland :-)

Until then, here are some things you can pray for us:
  • That visa may come through quickly and without any problems
  • For Miska as he prepares and proclaims God's Word every Sunday and Wednesday
  • That I (Alison) don't get too homesick now when everythings settles down a bit more
  • Further preparations for moving to L.A. such as finding housing.

Every blessing,

Alison

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Let the Packing Begin!

Well April has arrived, this month we'll be moving to Finland! It's finally drawing very close and all becoming very real indeed.

Crossing the border from Wales to England.

A couple of weekends ago, Miska and I travelled to Herefordshire to meet up with my family for a weekend away. We were staying in a house that was a converted barn on a working farm, complete with loads of sheep and baby lambs and many cows. It was a lovely chance to spend time with my Mum and Dad, my sister and her family and my brother and his family. We had a lovely weekend, ate lots of food and had a nice time together as a family. Though reality hit home especially on saying goodbye to my nephews who are aged one and five, not knowing when I will see them again and knowing how quickly they change at such a young age is at times hard to come to terms with.  Fortunately there is Skype and many other forms of communication open to us these days and I believe sometimes when your far apart you make more of an effort to keep in touch than if you lived in same country.

Visiting a local town, Ludlow.

Lambs, only a few days old - so cute :-)

Archie and Miska ready to battle with swords :-)

Another big change that occurred was my last shift as a nurse on 28th March. It is with mixed feelings that I leave the job. I thoroughly enjoyed working with with all my colleagues on the ward and I will miss them loads. I enjoyed nursing on the whole, the ward at times is highly stressful and both physically and mentally demanding, too much paperwork and not enough staff to look after patients and I do hope that minimum staffing levels will roll out in the very near future. The ward I worked on is a medical ward, mainly with elderly patients, there are many challenges but also rewards and I have learnt alot in my two years there. The end of my shift marks also an uncertain future in regards to nursing for me, I am unable to work in America as the nursing degree does not transfer (and also my visa doesn't allow me to work) and although my degree transfers to Finland, there is the matter of being proficient enough in Finnish. On top of this, my registration will likely lapse if I don't practice in three years meaning I would need to do a return to practice course back in the UK. I am thankful though that I have the profession there to fall back on, when and if I need it - I know it is all in God's hands. I know too, that even if I am not working as a nurse, I am still a nurse by a profession and the skills gained I will use throughout my life.

After my last shift working as a nurse

So April is here, we are busy packing, selling and throwing things out, trying our best to get organised and get other small projects done. Then also comes the sad goodbyes - which to be honest I am not good with - although I can be pretty good at hiding it! Reality is beginning to hit home, but I am not sure it will be fully realised until we are in Finland or even America.

However, I am still looking forward to what lies ahead. I am already enjoying being a full time housewife, I can actually wash up after each meal for a start ;-) Seriously though, I am thankful for the opportunity to be at home and for the opportunities this will afford me. I look forward to being in Finland, to catching up with family and friends and also to having a few months experience of being in the church as I feel this will be invaluable for when we are, Lord willing, there full-time in a few years time. Also, I am also eagerly anticipating our time in Los Angeles and especially being able deepen my own personal relationship with God.

That's all for now, my Mum is coming today to visit for a few days, I am looking forward to this and also her organisational influence :-)

Monday 27 January 2014

Daily photos?


If you have been observant, you will probably have noticed that I (Alison) have been adding one photo each day to my social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) since 1st Januray 2014. My aim is to take one photo a day for the whole of 2014.

You can see my photos here:
http://instagram.com/alisonwilhelmsson

Why? Well I guess the main reason is that 2014 is a year of big change for the Wilhelmsson's and there's the old saying that 'a picture is worth a 1000 words'. I thought it would be a great way of capturing the year and a lovely thing to look back on at the end of the year and also in the future.

The main idea is to be a snapshot of what is occurring on a daily basis. I have two reminders on my phone and so far I have been successful on taking and posting a photo each day. I must admit the days when I am in work and doing a 12.5 hour shift present more of a challenge and hence there's a large number of photos of food, mainly my meal at the end of the day :-)

Ps. Miska doesn't post photos everyday, but he does it quite regularly also, you can check his photos at: http://instagram.com/miskaw

Wednesday 1 January 2014

Goodbye 2013... Hello 2014!

Well 2013 has been and gone. On the whole it has been a very blessed year for us both and we are so thankful to God for blessing us abundantly and upholding us this past year.

Below is a short video with a glimpse of our 2013 in 30 seconds. Highlights include the birth of another Nephew Sebastian, our first wedding anniversary, a trip to Finland including meeting our new Godchild - coincidentally also called Sebastian, fun in the summer swimming in the sea and going on bodyboards, donating stem cells, and of course our trip to Los Angeles.


Here's another little video of our 2013 that Miska made, it's only 15 seconds long so it's very fast, it's compiled of all of his Instagram photos (about 100 photos) taken during 2013:


Now as we turn into 2014 it is time to anticipate and plan the changes that will be occurring this year - it is going to be a big one!!!

We have just booked our flights to Finland and will be leaving the UK on 23rd April 2014, there we will be spending around three months living in Tampere and looking after the church there. Miska will be preaching regularly on the Sundays and also running the midweek meetings. This is because Pastor Tom and his wife Linda will be going on furlow back to America for almost a year. It is going to be an invaluable experience for Miska and I, and great preparation for our future ministry in Finland at Tampere International Baptist Church.

Then around the end of July 2014 is our bigger move to Los Angles, so that Miska can begin his studies at The Master's Seminary in August 2014.

For me (Alison) there is a real mixture of emotions, I am excited and looking forward to the new adventure and I have the assurance that this is where God wants us to be, I am also looking forward to the time to develop my understanding and relationship with God. I am also however a bit nervous, sad, and a little fearful and apprehensive about these big changes. I think this is natural, I am going to miss my family and friends like crazy and I am so thankful for the modern day era, with Skype and emails and even cheap air fare to keep very much in touch with everyone :-)

It is also a very strange feeling knowing I will be leaving the UK for good and never living here on a permanent basis again.

Then there is also the practicalities of packing up and moving things to different countries and selling things and organising everything. This I guess will test our planning skills and also I hope help me not to worry so much.

So there we have a brief update as to where we are. Another hope of mine is that I will keep this blog updated regularly so you can track our progress.

Happy new year to you all :-) Hyvää uutta vuotta kaikki :-)

Alison (and Miska)