Text: An­na Pärk­kä

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

Our Opis­to stu­dent comp­le­ted his ye­ar Jäm­sä Opis­to last spring. He was our first child to at­tend Opis­to. With this mi­ni­mal pa­ren­tal ex­pe­rien­ce, I am hap­py to re­com­mend Opis­to to eve­ry yo­ung per­son.

The stu­dents had had a mag­ni­fi­cent ye­ar, and we were ab­le to see glimp­ses of it in the clo­sing fes­ti­vi­ties. They are taught about the Chris­ti­an faith in the way that we un­ders­tand it. They al­so le­arn about self-know­led­ge, wor­king life skil­ls, hu­man in­te­rac­ti­on and so­ci­al com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on skil­ls. These skil­ls help them to as­su­me res­pon­si­bi­li­ty and to be ac­ti­ve ci­ti­zens. The most im­por­tant goal is al­so re­ac­hed: the va­lue of faith is high­ligh­ted and strengt­he­ned. This was ref­lec­ted in how wil­ling­ly the stu­dents at­ten­ded the ser­vi­ces and ot­her oc­ca­si­ons ar­ran­ged at Opis­to.

They al­so le­arn about ap­p­ro­ac­hing adult­hood. Du­ring their ye­ar at Opis­to, our child and many of his friends sur­pas­sed them­sel­ves in many ways. They le­arnt skil­ls that will be use­ful in in­de­pen­dent life, such as kee­ping their rooms tidy, be­ha­ving well with their dorm ma­tes, at­ten­ding clas­ses and many ot­her things. As pa­rents, we are sin­ce­re­ly gra­te­ful for all this. Yet, the most abun­dant thanks go the He­a­ven­ly Fat­her. I re­mem­ber one of the Bib­le por­ti­ons men­ti­o­ned du­ring the fes­ti­vi­ties: ”But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fel­lows­hip with one anot­her, and the blood of Je­sus, his Son, pu­ri­fies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7).

Many of us won­der about the right kind of faith. Is this the right faith? Each de­vo­ti­on and ser­mon shows us that here is the fel­lows­hip, here is the light, here is Christ and the king­dom of light. The stu­dents had al­so felt the pre­sen­ce of the king­dom of light at Opis­to. Eve­ry por­ti­on of God’s word tes­ti­fies that there is on­ly one faith and one king­dom with one king, who is Christ, our Lord. The mem­bers of this king­dom ex­pe­rien­ce the fel­lows­hip of the saints and the for­gi­ve­ness of sins.

You lo­ve­ly yo­ung pe­op­le, go on mee­ting each ot­her and hang on to the gos­pel. When you come ac­ross mis­haps, sor­rows and fal­ls, you will al­wa­ys get over them with the help of the gos­pel. When you have put away yo­ur sins and bur­dens, you will feel hap­py again.

We had a won­der­ful time at the Opis­to when the pa­rents of our child’s friends came to tell us that they had been hap­py to get to know our son. How im­por­tant it is to open our ho­mes to the child­ren and yo­ung pe­op­le of ot­her fa­mi­lies. Li­ving in Nor­way, we have tried al­wa­ys to keep our doors open. I sin­ce­re­ly wish each yo­ung per­son would have one or more fa­mi­lies apart from their own fa­mi­ly where they would feel at home.