Heli Säk­ki­nen, Trans­la­ti­on: Sam Roi­ko

Ou­lu

The mee­ting of sis­ter or­ga­ni­za­ti­ons strengt­he­ned the mu­tu­al work even furt­her. The dis­cus­si­ons were open, and the par­ti­ci­pants ex­pe­rien­ced a strong mu­tu­al un­ders­tan­ding of faith.

The coo­pe­ra­ti­ve work mee­ting bet­ween SRK and its sis­ter or­ga­ni­za­ti­ons, SFC of Swe­den and LLC of North Ame­ri­ca was ar­ran­ged in Ou­lu Sep­tem­ber 19–20. Eve­ry two ye­ars, al­ter­na­ting in the three count­ries, the Exe­cu­ti­ve Sec­re­ta­ries, chair­men of the bo­ards and di­rec­tors of work are­as gat­her to share gree­tings and up­da­tes of the work of the cent­ral or­ga­ni­za­ti­ons and to dis­cuss ti­me­ly mat­ters in Chris­ti­a­ni­ty. At the mee­tings, a coo­pe­ra­ti­ve work do­cu­ment is al­so re­vie­wed, where the prac­ti­ces and mo­da­li­ties of mu­tu­al work are re­cor­ded, and the do­cu­ment is up­da­ted as nee­ded.

Mu­tu­al Work Uni­tes

Af­ter the ye­ars of CO­VID, the gat­he­ring was a re­a­son for great joy to its par­ti­ci­pants. Ar­vin Pir­ness, who be­gan his work as LLC Exe­cu­ti­ve Di­rec­tor in June, no­ted that even though mu­tu­al work has been done with the help of emails and re­mo­te mee­tings, when mee­ting face to face one ex­pe­rien­ces a much dee­per con­nec­ti­on.

SRK Exe­cu­ti­ve Sec­re­ta­ry Juha Kaa­ri­vaa­ra, who will re­ti­re at the be­gin­ning of De­cem­ber, sha­res Pir­ness’s ex­pe­rien­ce:

"You get to know yo­ur col­le­a­gu­es on a comp­le­te­ly dif­fe­rent le­vel when you are gat­he­red to­get­her around the mu­tu­al work."

Ar­to Töl­li, who will be­gin as Exe­cu­ti­ve Sec­re­ta­ry at SRK at the be­gin­ning of Oc­to­ber, was al­so pre­sent at the mee­ting. Ac­cor­ding to him, kno­wing one anot­her from the he­art is im­por­tant from the pers­pec­ti­ve of the mu­tu­al work and the work of God’s king­dom.

Goal: The See­king One Finds

Pir­ness to­get­her with Töl­li has mar­ve­led how the event hap­pe­ned to take place right now:

"It’s per­fect from our point of view that we can meet right from the start."

SFC’s Exe­cu­ti­ve Sec­re­ta­ry Veli-Mat­ti Heik­ki­nen has par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the coo­pe­ra­ti­ve work mee­tings sin­ce 2015.

"Mu­tu­al work was close pre­vi­ous­ly, but now it is clo­ser than ever be­fo­re", he feels.

"We have de­ve­lo­ped mu­tu­al work in dif­fe­rent are­as, na­me­ly mis­si­on, con­fir­ma­ti­on, pub­li­ca­ti­ons and yo­uth work. MW3, a joint group res­pon­sib­le for fo­reign mis­si­on work, is one examp­le of the mu­tu­al work of God’s king­dom. Even though SFC is small, we are par­ti­ci­pa­ting in that work with the re­sour­ces that we have."

Anot­her examp­le of the re­sults of mu­tu­al work that Heik­ki­nen men­ti­ons is the song­book app.

Fu­tu­re plans are to de­ve­lop joint web pa­ges for the needs of mis­si­on work.

"The goal is that a see­king one would find God and His king­dom", Pir­ness sum­ma­ri­zes the sig­ni­fi­can­ce of the web­si­te.

Most Im­por­tant Out­co­me

All four Exe­cu­ti­ve Sec­re­ta­ries feel that the most im­por­tant out­co­me of the mee­ting was spe­a­king of mat­ters of faith.

"We have been ab­le to exa­mi­ne how we be­lie­ve and how we think on dif­fe­rent mat­ters", Heik­ki­nen ela­bo­ra­tes.

All four al­so ex­pe­rien­ced that those who par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the mee­tings are uni­ted by the same faith.

"Dis­cus­si­ons have been open and se­cu­re, we ex­pe­rien­ced a strong mu­tu­al un­ders­tan­ding of faith", Töl­li re­ve­als.

Heik­ki­nen con­ti­nu­es:

"We have been ab­le to ex­pe­rien­ce even in the midst of va­ri­ous chal­len­ges that faith has

re­mai­ned the same."

You can read more gree­tings from North Ame­ri­ca in next week’s pa­per.