Revitalizing The Blog

It seems that this blog has been sleeping for some time, so now is a good time to ring the wake up call. What has happened during the past two years or so?

The monkey king in the picture is not the answer to the rhetoric question above. Two years has included a lot of things, especially in the mind-buzzing high-speed ever-changing environment of China. Maybe it's good to simply summarize, maybe just a few highlights or learnings, if it can rightfully act as an extended memory picture.

1. The biggest thing in the past two years: a transformation of mind. Towards the end of our stay, I felt that I have become a local person. I followed the local news, knew the tricks in dealing with various issues, checked traffic condition from the map before going out, checked regularly air pollution forecasts and planned our life accordingly. Everything was normal, part of life. It felt good to belong, but it also became exhausting. Life in a big city is not easy nor relaxing.

2. The Funniest thing in the past two years: there were so many, perhaps mostly related to our kids. But for me personally, some great colleagues at work have brought a lot of fun into everyday life. The jokes, the discussions, the attitude with which we handled our dwindling job. Very professional, mostly, and definitely unique in many ways. And I find it funny.

3. The happiest moment: This is a tough one, because I tend to find happiness often and in everyday lives. I am often thankful to God for minor details, and satisfaction brings a lot of happiness. Perhaps the major happy moments relate to the assorted meals I managed to enjoy all over the places, heh. Then again, the single most happiest moments relate to seeing and knowing that the lives of some of our dear friends have experienced God and changed. Simple as that.

4. The saddest moment: The saddest moment was, when the husband of my aunt was diagnosed with lung cancer at late stage, but he was kept unaware of the seriousness of it. I went to see him, but could not tell it to him, and could not openly discuss death with him. A couple of weeks later he died, only one day after finding out about the cancer. I think I should have boldly talked to him about things, now it's too late. The saddest moment is the wrong decision / lost opportunity, which can only be regretted. And to learn from.

5. The most touching experience: This also relates to sickness and death. A close family friend was diagnosed with pancreas cancer, went through couple of successful surgeries, but suddenly the cancer spread wider and he died after few months of hospitalization. He was a successful man in his career, artistic, sensible, and has a wife and daughter. He was sporty and tall, and owned a healthy frame. But towards the end, he was stripped one layer at a time, one title at a time, one thing a time, until he was weak, thin, hopeless. His wife stayed by his side until the end, but inside his thoughts, he had to surrender everything that used to be dear to him. I had couple of occasions to visit him, talk with him, pray for him, and tell him about salvation in Jesus Christ. He was willing to receive Jesus into his heart. Was it a desperate grasp of anything that could save him? I don't know. God knows. When I gave him a hug before leaving, he pulled me to himself and gave me a long hug, with tears. I am thankful I could be there for him.

6. The most beautiful thing: The smiles of people, the beautiful creation of God, the growing children, the tears of repentance and salvation. For me, the most beautiful things were minor details I observed through the mundane daily routine. And there were many!


An old man playing guitar and singing old tunes.



A train station right before heavy rain fall



Childhood delicacies: buns with chili, and Tofu with chili sauce



Sea side

Self-Deception - Best Friend and Worst Enemy

The landscape of our hearts? Open peaks and hidden valleys.

Now I am arriving at a topic that has long been acutely interesting to me. The reason for this interest is due to the paradoxical and multi-layered nature of the issue.

Self-deception, as Wikipedia defines it, is "highly debated and occasionally argued to be an impossible phenomenon" (accessed 18th Nov. 2012). Through this difficulty, Wikipedia has chosen the definition for Self-deception as "a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument". I will provide another aspect to this.

First of all, the opposite of self-deception could be defined as "awakening". This is my proposal. The concept of awakening implies that the self-deceived is in a state of sleeping, or living in a dream world, away from the reality and truth.

Okey, Matrix or MIB kind of movies have done a good job of enlarging our perception regarding what is "true" and what is "The Matrix". However, our capability to conceive and handle these concepts is an ample proof of our ability to live in self-deception. According to one of Triver's theories, self-deception is a side-product of our ability to think abstractly (Wikipedia). However, debate still exists whether self-deception is an innate characteristic of human nature or it is a learned trait through experience to achieve certain goals (Wikipedia).

Here I propose another root cause analysis: the human nature in its original perfect state did not comprehend false or true, because all things were true and the environment was perfect, because God the Creator was perfect. Due to the choice to disobey God, in a seemingly positive desire to learn more (about good and evil), Adam and Eve broke out from perfection and entered into so-called "abstract thinking". This new state is called "the fallen state of mankind", and it can as well be described as "the state of sin".

Now, so much about the definitions and root cause analysis, I will give some applications of this item. Applications of real life implications, let us start with a well-known psychological concept, the Johari Window:

The implications here are obvious: both the Hidden Self and Unknown Self areas of ourselves are more than vulnerable to self-deception. Of course some can argue that the Unknown Self area lies more in the sub-consciousness, thus cannot be classified as deception - how can one conceal something if not even aware of it? But looking from an objective point of view, or frankly, from Divine point of view, the facts are there even though the person is not aware of it, and it is also self-deception since the person is not aware that he is not aware of it. Getting confused? Please don't, following examples could help to clarify.

Let's take a Western lady as an example, purely imaginary. Aged around 60, she has gone through a multitude of life situations. As a Christian, she has heard about all the Biblical truths there can be preached about.
PUBLIC SELF: she is fully aware of her way of talking to others, how people perceive her as a nice lady with a tender heart, which she certainly is and knows it herself.
PRIVATE SELF: she knows things about herself which others do not know, such as a tendency to dress properly according to situations, caused by the fear of being humiliated publicly. Or, that she is a huge fan of a young and handsome pop-singer but dares not to admit it.
HIDDEN SELF: she does not know this about herself, but everybody around her observes it clearly: she is obsessed with speaking in a "correct" manner, always stressing certain vocals or using certain expressions. She might not like herself doing it if she realized it.
UNKNOWN SELF: she might have some childhood dreams which she has already forgotten, but which still affects her desires and causes her to get excited at certain thoughts or ideas, e.g. traveling to a far country somehow attracts her but she has never stepped out from her home country. Another aspect is mostly cultural, she might not be as individualistic as younger generation, but she blindly believes in the goodness and truthfulness of public authorities and media.

Then let's take a Chinese young lady as an example, purely imaginary. Aged around 20, she just started university and is dating her childhood adoration, a popular young man in the neighboring university.
PUBLIC SELF: she is successful, attractive looking, good in her studies and a good girl at home. Everybody agrees about these.
PRIVATE SELF: she has some bad habits such as chatting online with unknown guys hoping to get some fun out of it. Also, she might really hate living with her parents but cannot show it publicly because it is held as inappropriate. She might dream about running away with her handsome boyfriend but definitely cannot say it aloud.
HIDDEN SELF: others see the proud side of her, a bit arrogant in dealing with other people and some issues. Still others see her tendency to be a spoiled princess, being selfish and self-centered. Usually nobody tells her these things, even her boyfriend, because he thinks it is cute, so far.
UNKNOWN SELF: she does not recognize the imbalance inside of her, due to the culture she is immersed in. For example she used all her attractiveness to entice her current boyfriend to leave his ex-gf, and she did not pity the other girl at all, because all these seem natural to her. She will also devout herself to love her bf totally, surrendering everything to him because he is so handsome and good etc. She does not know why she loves in this way, or is this even real love? In short, she does not recognize her behavioral patterns as right or wrong, but just follows them, as everybody else does.

All the examples above might not be orthodoxy according to Johari model, but they are my applications. As this text nears its end, I am finally approaching my claims and reasons.

If the road is clear, it will be good to travel.

All over the world, I have met people from different social classes, backgrounds, age groups, religions, and family conditions. I have seen many positive traits in many people, but I have also observed many negative characteristics of many people. One of the most painful traits/characters that I have seen/experienced is Self-deception.

Self-deception is so subtle that it tarries with us long time, deceiving us, drags us from true freedom and happiness. Self-deception is not caused by others but rather by ourselves (of course the spiritual adversary and the surrounding world have their parts to play). Self-deception is the single most destructive force in individual lives, preventing us to see ourselves as we really are, putting us on a misty mountain road that is full of pits and falls. Self-deception is the single most dangerous enemy we are facing in ourselves. And we are not facing it.

Ignoring to know myself is to ignore my true self, negligence has a price to pay, if not now then eventually. How, then, can I detect self-deception and overcome the pitfalls and destructive effects it brings to my life? The answer is simple but multifaceted: Jesus. Jesus is the only man who has NOT been tangled in self-deception, and He has meant us to learn from Him, to imitate Him, to follow Him. As the perfect man and perfect God, His divinity does not take away His "accomplishments" as a man, thus here are some clues for us to challenge ourselves, to fight against self-deception：

• Acknowledge that you are vulnerable to be self-deceived
• Have motivation to become "awakened"
• Check your life, objectively compare to Jesus, and see what will you notice in yourself that you have missed earlier
• Be honest with God, and you will hear His honest words to you
• This activity requires the Holy Spirit of God - without Him this will lead to desperation and further deception
• Become teachable, find trustworthy friends/pastors/teachers/mentors to help you
• Let them tell you the truth, they are very helpful especially in the HIDDEN SELF area
• Let them instruct you according to the Bible, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Paul's letter to Philippians, 2:12-13)
• "To work out what God had worked in", live in a way that manifests the saving work God has done in you. (p.42, Roger, 2004, Opening Up Philippians)
•  Find out about cultural issues that hold you back from truth
• Such as behavioral patterns, thought patterns, wrong value system, or missing links of truth
• Remember, it will be a process, but a rich and profitable process! Oh, and it takes the rest of your life time. :)
• You forsake self-deception to gain spiritual and personal growth
• You forsake falsehood to gain truth，and the truth will enable you to be free from bondage and lies
• You might loose a couple of seemingly good friends, just to gain more real good friends
• You might loose some fun, but you will gain everlasting joy and happiness

Self-deception is your best friend, when you want to embrace yourself with self-pity and indulge yourself with temporary relief of pain.
Self-deception is your worst enemy, when you want to be true to yourself and everyone around you. It is also your worst enemy on your road to personal growth, blocking your way to spiritual maturity.
Self-deception is your worst enemy if you want to fully enjoy life and have some everlasting impact in this world.

Only by knowing myself better can I better surrender myself to God.

Recent developments

It was hard to come up with a title for this blog post, so I apologize for the mundane title it now has. However, hopefully the pictures in this post compensates for your interest.

Life has indeed progressed most rapidly in recent months, so rapidly that I have not had time. Yes, not had time. This is of course a concept worth to be reviewed with more details, I mean the concept of "not had time". Here it acts just as an open excuse for the negligence this blog has experienced in recent months.

May went by with travels, grandma's funerals, busy working weeks, and relatives visiting us.

June went by with some travels, some busy working weeks, some visiting relatives and related bureaucracy, some self studying, and some preparatory works for small group studies.

July went by with seeing off wife and baby, intensive self studies, frequent hospital visits (non-serious nature), emergency business travel, and traveling to the other home country on earth.

The past 2 weeks has been busy with meeting friends and family, traveling, camping, re-capturing our previous life, and partially meditating on our future life. Still ahead is the last part of this holiday trip and then returning to the current home country and the everyday life there.

I am good at giving long lists of what I have done, here comes a short list of what I have found out or pondered about:
- Life in China is very hectic, too hectic. We need to do something about our life there to get things rolling smoothier.
- Life in Finland is very nice, but we do not belong here no more, at this phase.
- There are tremendous opportunities for "doing good" in China.
- There are marvelous friends in our lives, which we will treasure and appreciate.
- Loving parents and family are gifts from God.
- The Creation is so beautiful, after spending 6 months in BJ, the appreciation of pure nature grew tremendously!
- Positive attitude and a clear purpose help to sustain us, all based on the goodness and immanence of God.
- I have learned to use more superlative words to express myself. Perhaps I have now had more superlative emotions? :)

Coming and going, now we are kind of used to it. People meet us and ask when we will leave. It does not feel bad, rather very encouraging: the short moments spent together are much appreciated, and we all know that our family does not belong here, for now. Knowing where we are and why we are, it is very assuring. God is a God of assurance. He does not leave anything uncertain.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Paul's first letter to Timothy, Chapter 1, verse 9: He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. 

Paul's letter to Philippian church, Chapter 3, verses 13 and 14: Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

The letter to Hebrews, Chapter 3, verse 1: Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.

Scenery (notice the magnificent clouds)

Picnic in the park, with dear friends

Picnic / swim in the beach, with dear friends, and wonderful weather

The tasty table at a birthday party. Wonderful makers of the cakes and snacks. :)

Earth and sky

Awe struck. "How great, how awesome art Thou!"

Greetings from Afar

It so happened that the month of May went by without a blog post. Perhaps I could catch up in June.

Recently we have received few greetings from back home. These greetings have come in different formats, some emails, some letters, some cards, some as useful utensils. We have been very grateful for these greetings, and they have brought tears to our eyes.

Today I received an email from an elder lady, whose family I have met only a couple of times. We have served together in her church when I have visited the town she lives in. We are not that close, but this is what made her letter so special: she was so caring and sharing, that I really felt the hearty love she and her family have towards us. Far away, they are praying for us. We share same faith, same Spirit, same God. We each have our challenges and hardships, but together we march on. Soldiers of Christ.

Yes, being far away is special, and those greetings from afar are the diamonds shining the light from above into our dusty everyday life. I treasure these greetings, I treasure these people. I treasure the family I have in Christ. What a width, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ! (Ephesians 3:18)

Thank you, and just to let you know: you are dear to us, and we also pray for you.

The fields of my home village, where I visited for grandma's funerals

A Little Bit of This and That

Somehow the inspiration to write occurs often during the silence of the night. After the busy goings of the day is over, and all rational people are sound asleep, I felt the urge to write.

Our past month has gone by like the wind: quickly and in a clean manner. I do not know if our life has become too simple, or just that we are still in transition. Perhaps all that and even more.

The picture at right side is an ancient sun watch, perhaps invented in China, I don't remember. It reminds me about the uniqueness of time: though ancient, it is still valid; though immeasurable, still measured; though in the past, still in the future; though equally possessed by everyone, still weighing completely different for different people.

I'm sure about it, now: we are in transition. To settle into this new life currently means that we still have questions unanswered, things pending, processes ongoing, and sights unseen. The biggest question currently is: what should we do here? In such a vast city there are all kinds of people, huge opportunities and possibilities, huge needs and at the same time many resources available. I feel like a small detail in the midst of this buzzing society. Perhaps this is the reality I've been exposed to? Is it actually a win or a loss when I forget this feeling and get the answer I want?

All in all, I'm certain that this period of time will pass. We will figure out more about God's plan for us, and we will be busy going about the "official" business. In the mean while, we are learning to pitch our tents for His glory in everyday life. Day by day, the fragrance of Christ will spread from us to our colleagues, neighbors, friends, relatives... That is our prayer.

Life tastes good. Growth takes place also during silent periods. I learn, if I just mind to learn. God speaks, if I just mind to listen. Simple, isn't it? :)

The State of Leaving

"Breaking up is hard to do", says good old song. We are not breaking up, just moving, internationally. We have been living a time of changes, saying goodbyes, packing, unpacking, looking through our stuff and choosing which we want and which to be thrown away. It isn't easy, and we already hope that this period of time will be over.

Yes, it will be over. Every day is closer to the final move, and the transition is always only transition.

Leaving a place is all about inventory, whether be it material or mental garage of life. The moments of joy and sorrow, familiar buildings and surroundings, precious friends, wonderful family (also church family!), everyday meals, nominal routines... Let them be, let them be. Life will continue without us, everything will move on.

We won't, the life of now stays in our minds as a still picture, which we will treasure and zoom in to look at whenever missing home. We will enter another sphere, new rhythm and melody, our life will join the millions of other people in the busy metropolis of China.

What do we take with us? The still picture of current life, the pain of transition, and the excitement of new life.
What do we leave behind us? The possibilities we did not live out, the Finnish childhood Viivi will not have, the events in friends' and family's lives we will miss, and the steady life that would have continued.

Regrets? Life does not give opportunity to regret. There is no if, there is no but. Life goes on, the state of leaving is part of it, and we live through it.

During these times, the words of Paul comforts me:
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Paul's Letter to Philippians 1:20-21)

Let it be a transition that exalts Christ, let it be a change that glorifies Jesus. To live is Christ, He does not change.

Living by faith includes leaving by faith. No matter where we are, we long for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefor God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:16)

In that heavenly country, we will rejoice forever. No need to transit, no need to leave.

Ja "hyvästi" -sanaa ei tunnetakaan. ("Viimeiset veneet", Lasse Heikkilä)

A Trip to the Holy Land

The definite benefit of studying is to have holidays. For that matter, holidays are also the treasures of working life. We had one week Autumn "holiday" from school, which we used to travel to the Holy Land - Israel. Just to make things clear: we didn't do any pilgrimage stuff, simply holiday, and Israel was a  perfect place for that!

Wonderful warmth (btw 20-30C), beautiful sunshine, interesting places to visit (history, sightseeing, multi-cultural food, religious significance), and good company (wife+baby+parents). The only downsides were rather expensive hotels/hostels and general cost level being similar to Finland, but those money issues were resolved by savings and sharing the expenses. :) Mediterranean, Sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea were great waters to visit and take a dip, unfortunately we didn't manage to swim in Galilee due to time restrictions (welfare of baby).

Here are some pictures that hopefully transmit a bit of the atmosphere and experiences of our trip. By the way, images are captured with Nokia N9. :)

On the way to Israel we had an overnight stop over in Kiev, Ukraine. It made travelling with Viivi much easier. While in Kiev, we really enjoyed Slavic hospitality (you can take this either way) and magnificent Slavic food! The Blinies pictured here were delicious and rather cheap considering it was room service. :D

In Israel the sun set already at 17:30, here is a picture looking at the old Yaffa with some Mediterranean waves. We actually did not notice the 1 hour time difference btw Finland and Israel, thus the first day in Israel was spent in Finnish time.

Some older part of Tel Aviv. As said, weather was terrific for holidaying. Rental car was working well and GPS navigator co-operated seamlessly, until we went to West Bank. :D

Old Roman Aqueduct in Cesarean, besides the sea. We heard this was the only "sight seeing" place in Cesarean with free entrance. :)

Let the Mediterranean flow... 

Beach under the ancient aqueduct. Warm, nice, holiday. :D Viivi was actually afraid of the sounds that waves produced, otherwise she did really well!

On the mount Arbel overlooking the Sea of Galilee. It's actually a lake. We were first in the city of Tiberias, then visited the national park of Arbel. 

The hordes of people in the street of Old Town of Jerusalem. Actually there were groups of dancing Jewish men carrying Torah and singing something. Traffic jam, polices patrolling, and the atmosphere was a bit tense. This was actually at the Arab quarter of the Old Town. :)

Best meal for me during the trip: Arab shashlic (meat on sticks). 

The Garden Tomb, the only place I actually enjoyed in Jerusalem, besides the hostel. :) Quiet and beautiful, one could spend whole day there meditating on life and the Word of God. Thumbs up for recommendation!

One of the slogans on the wall of the hostel we stayed at. Perhaps meaningful for some of you? :)

Overview of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. While going up there the car tyres actually slipped several times at the steep hill of ascension. I really wondered how those buses managed to get up! Also, the GPS failed us miserably as this area obviously belonged to West Bank. 

One of the eight natural wonders of the world: the Dead Sea. We arrived at Minerals Beach and spoke Russian to achieve mutual understanding with ticket officers. The place was well worth the visit: floating, mud, cleaning facilities, sulfur pool, children's pool... Dead Sea is a wonder. 

The mountains surrounding the Dead Sea at its western side. The Qumran was only 20km away from this place in North, Masada some kilometers towards South. Impressive views.

The Sabbath meal cooked together by the residents of the hostel and enjoyed together. It was great meal!

The Shrine of the Book. This is in the Israel Museum, and contained some portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Qumran. It also contained the introduction of the Aleppo Codex and also the Codex book itself! Very interesting place to visit. A sense of sacredness certainly dwelt there, though same cannot be said of the Israel Museum in general. Nice Museum nonetheless.

On our journey back we had another stop-over in Kiev, Ukraine. This view is from the hotel we stayed at. Our taxi driver to the airport happened to be a believer! He had Hillsong music playing in his car, and it was good to hear his stories about Ukraine...

The trip was pleasant. Now getting back to the books and essays, only 6 weeks left of school this semester...

Changes in Life

August, 2011, a new beginning in many ways for our family. After 11 years in Tampere, it is the time to move on. We moved house to the central Finland in the beginning of August, the purpose is to study in a Bible college, and the duration is still uncertain.

The move was much anticipated in many ways: excitement for the student life, interesting study topics, the quietness of a smaller city, more free time to spend within the family ...

The move was of course also dreaded in some ways: the moving is always dreadful, leaving familiar routines and things and people behind and starting anew, a bit uncertain future, and the basic question that how Viivi (1 year old!) is going to feel about moving.

Well, after two weeks of staying in the new home, Viivi is feeling great! The studies have turned out to be more interesting than originally anticipated, and the enthusiasm is arising. Hopefully the essays and exams won't kill the enthusiasm, haha. The floorball season has not started here yet, and the basic information sharing events at school have taken more time than we expected. However, we look forward to starting the routine, to study, to learn, to share, to experience, and to be thankful. This is going to be a great time to re-kindle the passion and fire for God, to meditate, equip, re-focus in life.

There is already one great learning: it's such a blessing to be able to study the Bible and draw close to God! And it's such a great thing to HAVE TIME to spend with God! :D In Tampere the past many years have been full of activities, which themselves were good and useful, but there just haven't been the quietness and time to be near God. Now I can, now we can as a family, learn to find the routine to spend time with God, to bath in His presence, to enjoy His immanency.

We will treasure this period of time. :)

And hopefully I should be able to update the blog in a more regular manner. Autumn cheers!

Summer Loving

Hah, anybody recognized the topic without googling? :P

Summer loving comes from the song Summer Nights, which in turn was a part in the musical Grease. Grease is a must if you want to learn about american (US) culture.

This post is not about US culture, nor about Grease. :)

Summer is now, Finland is experiencing exceptional humidity and temperatures. Kinda nice. In the beginning of July we visited relatives and friends in Eastern Finland, and popped in the Saimaa - the biggest lake of Finland (the land of thousand lakes). The water was COLD! Must have been less than 15 degrees, while the air was ~30 degrees. All the adults were intimidated by the coldness, only Viivi, our bold baby, went against all the odds and enjoyed the clear water and sandy beach. A hero since her small age.

Despite the Summer season and seemingly quiet surroundings here in Finland, I've had a lot of experiences and thoughts about life, living, cultures, people, future, God, faith, family, friends, aging, food, joy, sorrow, pity, pain, stupidy, wisdom, growth, responsibility, fun, happiness, money, work, career, freedom, creativity... just to list a few. ;)

Hopefully I'll manage to find time to finally download my pics from Asian trip (beginning of June) and post some of them here to share. Also, I've listed several topics I'd like to blog about, so hopefully I'll get to them eventually.

We are moving house, next week, to another city. More details later. Summer continues, just another day.

And psst: Viivi has recently learned to walk, still 2 wks till her 1 year birthday. She has also learned to annoy her parents intentionally. Bright future ahead. :)