Kristinestad church

The Corpus Christi Conference held it's big meetings in the new building of the congregation that built this church in 1700, which was built after the original church burned down in the mid 17th c.

Very intricate wooden shingles:

A view into the heavens:

Some of the pews had been rebuilt (not many), but most were original:

See the handhewn beams:

Wooden chandalier:

Kristinestad, Finland

Kristina and I were asked to participate in the 2011 Corpus Christi Conference by presenting a seminar on the creation of mankind as male and female. We had an amazingly great time (pictures to come in the next post) in Kristinestad. The city was beautiful to walk around in and has one of the best preserved collections of wooden homes in Finland. Here is a farm compound that dates to 1761:

Old carved dog:

The entrance to the farm:

The conference put us up in a really neat old home, whose foundation was laid in 1812:

Here it is from the courtyard, which looked all the way down to the old church building (pictures in a later post):

Midsommar - food

I volunteered/was asked to smoke some meat for Midsommar. In Finland, fish is really the only meat (mostly) that is smoked in this way. So, we decided to smoke two whole chickens and four pork tenderloins:

Keeping an eye on things in the homemade smoker:

The cold and fog didn't last all day, but it was interesting to see how quickly and thickly it came in:

Roll Tide!

Lookin' mighty fine!

The chickens turned out particularly well. The pork was a bit dry, but not too bad:

Midsommar

We were so happy to be in Finland for Midsommar again! Here are a ton of pictures of the kids. First, Miriam with Moffa:

And Joas:

Elis:

Nadia holding Miriam:

All of the kids!

Hannah:

Ellen:

Strange signs in Finland

While traveling abroad, one often sees things one doesn't see at home. Here are two examples.

Back in Finland

Well, we're back in Finland for a long, long, long vacation, and we couldn't be happier! Here is a view of the sunrise from Kristina's flight over:

This summer there will be lots of playing with nephews and nieces, such as Nadia:

and Edgar:

Uncle Weslie with Nadia and Hannes. Interestingly, these two have the most amazing "pouting fits" I've (Weslie) ever seen. Hannes opts for the classic laying-on-the-ground-and-kicking-the-floor while Nadia folds her arms, closes her eyes and turns her face towards the heavens in the most earnest attempt to wish oneself were somewhere else. Here, though, they're being very cute:

Bröllop - Wedding

Dagen efter att jag kom till Finland gifte sig en av mina bästa vänner. Vilken underbar dag! Jag är så glad att jag hann vara med. Tyvärr missade Weslie bröllopet med några timmar, då hans flyg blev inställt. Johanna o Paki såg i alla fall mycket lyckliga ut, och Johanna var en jättevacker brud.

The day after I arrived to Finland one of my best friends got married. I'm so glad I was able to be there. Unfortunately Weslie missed the wedding with a few hours, since his flight was cancelled, and he arrived a day later than planned. Johanna and Patrik got married in the same church as we did, almost exactly a year after us. What a joyful day!