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.
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