We leave the Doh's at Kemi at 6:30 am. It is still cloudy and some rain falls in the morning as we come to the aiport. Bev and I are the first to check in and the flight is less than one third full on the one hour flight back to Helsinki.

Today I want to take Bev out on a date in Helsinki . I arranged for us to have much of the day free in Helsinki. Our luggage would be checked on through to Stockholm, Sweden, but I wanted to take her around the city of Helsinki which has a special charm and special meaning to he two of us. It is a beautiful city from the aspect of architecture which spans the 700 years it was part of Sweden. I like the Nordic people with the blond hair and quiet matter of fact manner. The geography of the coastline and outlying islands is idyllic. The port of Helsinki against this backdrop with its cruise ships, ferries is interesting to look at.

On three occasions Bev and I led YOU (Youth Opportunity United) groups to the USSR back in the days of the Worldwide Church of God. Helsinki, Finland was usually the start and/or end of our trip and we often toured Helsinki. The tours included walks to the city market right at the waterfront. It is one of the favorite places we've been to and I just wanted to be there with Bev and myself.

We took the Finnair bus from the airport to the railway station from which we walked about five or six blocks to the market square . The weather was ideal with the sun brightly shining over a harbor overflown by sea gulls. It's almost carnival-like with shops selling notably strawberries, cherries, all other kinds of fruit, flowers, Finnish crafts and much more. There are also outdoor restaurants grilling salmon, chicken and other goodies. It is very Scandinavian: ultra clean and orderly. And it's just a lot of fun.

We spent several hours just looking around and taking in the ambiance of the place.

For lunch we had one of the special salmon lunches and sat next two American tourist families. After a brief conversation they identify themselves as ministers of major denominations - one was from Irvine, California, the other from Illinois. We joked about the probabilities of having three ministers randomly come to a table at the Finnish waterfront market. One of the ministers also had operated a service helping churches identify demographics. We traded business cards and he will let me know about more about what he does . I have a special interest in this area because of our work with media.

Bev and I worked our way back to the airport where we flew for one hours to Stockholm. Most of our trip has been without a glitch, but here in developed and organized Scandinavia, our luggage did not follow us to Stockholm.

Paul Spenser was waitng outside of Customs. It was GREAT to see him. Laughter and hugs.

I hadn't realized just far he lived to the south of Stockholm. The airport is 20 miles NORTH of Stockholm. He, Kira and boys live about 160 miles south of the capital and it took us three hours to drive to their home in Mjolby through the lush green Swedish countryside. It was great to see Kira. We saw Paul and Kira last at the Feast of Tabernacles in Estonia last fall.

Kira served us a Scandinavian meal with herring and other good things. We caught up on a lot of news and are planning our Sabbath Service and Good News lecture this weekend . We are excited about making this start in Sweden and are hopeful of good results.

Paul and Kira are an amazing couple with so much enthusiasm for DOING things. Kira along with UCG member Solveig Hammar in Stockholm have translated three booklets with The Road to Eternal Life being printed right now in Ukraine. We are asking God to bless these efforts to preach the Gospel.

I could not connect to the Internet from Paul and Kira's computer, so I'm not sure when I'll get this on the blog. At Kemi, Finland we certainly were not able to connect from Doh's, so I'm not sure when you'll see this.

Our luggage is supposed to arrive tomorrow afternoon, but in the meantime, it's great to be with our friends Paul and Kira. Tomorrow Solveig Hammar is coming down from Stockholm for the weekend.