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)

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

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

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

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