Wonderful addition to Oulu

(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)

On Friday, Annikki and I got a chance to take part in an event to welcome the new pastor and his family to the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Oulu.



Mika Forsman studied in the Philippines and then worked as a pastor in Finland, Pakistan and Thailand.



He married a beautiful lady from the Philippines, Gina, and they have a lovely 12 year old daughter, Fia.



Eila Maunu was the Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening.



Several of the Church Elders and Members took turns to welcome the Forsmans and give them some advice of life in the north.

Yrjö Väyrynen, the church elder from Oulu:



Jouko Minkkinen, another senior member of the Oulu Church:



Markku and Elina Mäkkinen (and their son Johannes, not seen in the picture) came from Utajärvi to welcome the Forsman family:



Pastor Kalevi Rullo also gave his advice:



The elders of the church prayed for the work of the Forsmans in this area:



A trio of young ladies sang a beautiful song to welcome the Forsmans (our photographer, Anja Husa, is on the extreme left):



Eila then gave them a Floral welcome:



After the welcoming proceedings, Annikki and I went to meet Gina as I thought that she would be the right person to take part in helping foreigners in Oulu. I was surprised to hear that although she had only been three weeks in Oulu, Gina had already tried to contact many foreigners and she had successfully established contact with a few.

I then explained the role I had played in helping the foreign community in Finland and especially Oulu and I introduced her to the wonderful work being done by Ildikó Hámos and Mervi Heikkinen in SINNI on women’s empowerment and the Oulu branch of Monika on handling the problems of immigrant women.

It seemed almost as if I was directed by an unseen hand to be there and meet this wonderful personality who was already striving to establish contacts to do exactly this form of work.

We talked at length. Gina gave me her email address. I have emailed Ildikó Hámos so that they can start working together, a prayer of Ildi being almost answered to the fullest by the arrival of this dynamic young lady from the Phillipines.

As Pastor Forsman’s work extends all around north Finland, Gina will have an opportunity to meet with several foreigners in this region and extend the helping hand to all of them, not just to those in Oulu.

I invited Pastor Forsman, Gina and Fia to attend our weekly CHAFF meetings. I am sure that one of these Sunday’s they will join us to see how we work quietly in our small disorganised, but highly effective way of helping both Finns and Foreigners.