Hans Pe­täis­tö

Se­ni­ors from all over Sout­hern Fin­land gat­he­red at the Mai­toi­nen camp cen­ter to en­joy the prog­ram or­ga­ni­zed by Es­poo Rau­ha­nyh­dis­tys. Char­ter bu­ses came from Es­poo and Hel­sin­ki. There were a to­tal of 137 se­ni­ors and staff from six­teen cong­re­ga­ti­ons.

Name of a child of God is im­por­tant

One of the camp le­a­ders, Jaak­ko Sil­lan­pää, ope­ned the camp with sa­fe­ty inst­ruc­ti­ons and ope­ning de­vo­ti­on. We sang hymn 479. Nii­lo Rau­ha­la's words re­mai­ned deep­ly in my mind: "I know one day new earth and he­a­ven will be cre­a­ted by Yo­ur might; that po­wer car­ries me this mo­ment when I be­lie­ve in You, O Christ! With You in pe­a­ce I long to stay un­til the new cre­a­ti­on day."

Sil­lan­pää mar­ve­led at the num­ber of tra­vel friends gat­he­red at this camp. Many were well known to him, but there were al­so new ones. The camp par­ti­ci­pants were re­min­ded of how im­por­tant it is to be a child of God. At the very be­gin­ning, we he­ard what we nee­ded the most, the gos­pel of the for­gi­ve­ness of sins.

Love yo­ur neigh­bors

Be­fo­re Juha Kaa­ri­vaa­ra's pre­sen­ta­ti­on, we sung hymn 431, which is cal­led a hymn of neigh­bor­ly love. Kaa­ri­vaa­ra kept his pre­sen­ta­ti­on on the to­pic Do I no­ti­ce and va­lue my neigh­bor?

– Be­cau­se God cre­a­ted the world and eve­ryt­hing in it, we can­not af­ford to qu­es­ti­on the hu­man dig­ni­ty of our neigh­bor. Just sa­ying hel­lo can have a big, mi­rac­le-wor­king im­pact on the views of the per­son clo­sest to you. We must love our neigh­bor as our­sel­ves, and we must not for­get the ad­vi­ce about lo­ving our ene­mies. May the en­coun­ter with our neigh­bor be gui­ded by the thought of how we would like pe­op­le to re­la­te to us, Kaa­ri­vaa­ra re­min­ded.

The pre­sen­ta­ti­on was very en­cou­ra­ging and const­ruc­ti­ve, and it spar­ked a li­ve­ly con­ver­sa­ti­on that went on for the rest of the mor­ning. Eve­ry­o­ne had a turn hol­ding the cir­cu­la­ting mic­rop­ho­ne. Many sha­red their own psalms, ot­hers told about their grace of re­pen­tan­ce, va­ri­ous en­coun­ters, life ex­pe­rien­ces, and abo­ve all about the way and the jour­ney.

Hope of he­a­ven re­mai­ned

Af­ter a de­li­ci­ous, he­alt­hy meal, the par­ti­ci­pants exer­ci­sed in the main as­semb­ly. The ses­si­on was led by Ar­ja Ha­ku­li­nen.

Ar­ja al­so lec­tu­red on ba­lan­ce, musc­le strength and ways to inc­re­a­se the mo­bi­li­ty of the feet. The ses­si­on inc­lu­ded the­o­ry and gym­nas­tics with cloth bands and bal­ls. Many pe­op­le felt that they mo­ved more in that exer­ci­se ses­si­on than in the whole be­gin­ning of the ye­ar. The ma­te­ri­al used by Ha­ku­li­nen was dist­ri­bu­ted to eve­ry­o­ne by email.

In the fi­nal de­vo­ti­on, Sil­lan­pää re­min­ded us of the de­ceit­ful­ness of the ene­my of the souls – but al­so of the hope for he­a­ven.

– So­me­ti­mes we sad­ly hear that a lo­ved one has re­cent­ly, or in re­cent ye­ars, gi­ven up their faith. We got to ex­pe­rien­ce at this day-long camp that it was a warm fee­ling to be ab­le to talk about faith to­get­her. Abo­ve all, when we be­lie­ve that our sins and faults are for­gi­ven, we all have a won­der­ful hope for he­a­ven.

Pub­lis­hed in the Päi­vä­mies pa­per 5.2.2025.