an introduction of me, and how i found the book

first my name is john. the reason for the screen name Jukka, is it means John in Finnish. have always been fascinated with the scandenavia area, and wanted john in my screen name, but it's far to common so picked that.

I have three friends who i call my brothers in christ. Mike, Peter and another Peter. I met them all about 25 years ago when I went on my first retreat. I met Peter the son of the youth minister first, then the other peter 2 months later on my second retreat, and finally Mike 6 months after that on my 3rd retreat. My friend Mike was at the book store I'm guessing a year ago? and found this book called the Shack. He was hoping that we'd all read it, and discuss it, so he bought us each a copy. unfortunately one of my friends has been swamped with work and still hasn't gotten through it yet. Well I started reading it, and couldn't put it down. It touched my heart just as the Joshua books had, but this one was even more special as it had certain special things in it. The view of how humans have put all these rules on what God gave us, just hit home. I was thinking to myself, I can't believe it, finally someone has gotten it right and our views were parallel. This is what I've always wanted to share, and here was a tool to be able to do it.

I gave the book to my husband to read, and told him not to let the beginning of the book scare him. He's very emotional as I am, and he just finished reading it about a month ago and was so touched. I actually just read it again for the second time. My husband and I will celebrate our 6th year of marriage in October, and our 15th year of being together. Being gay has been tough when it comes to religion, my husband found an american baptist church that gives him a place to share all with God, as he's left the catholic church. For me, I've always been spiritual, I would say am still catholic but it's been hard.

This book renewed what I had prayed about for years. I hope that everyone has a chance to read this book, because it's simply incredible. It's also another way to strengthen your relationship with God, and Jesus.

John