When I read the Bib­le I no­ti­ce the rich­ness of the lan­gu­a­ge and the mul­tip­le me­a­nings of the words. I can un­ders­tand some Fin­nish Bib­le texts more cle­ar­ly when I read the Rus­si­an Bib­le.

In 1991 I was as­ked to in­terp­ret a ser­mon in­to Rus­si­an. When I en­te­red the in­terp­re­ta­ti­on booth it felt like I had lost all my Rus­si­an words, and te­ars came to my ey­es in that see­ming­ly ho­pe­less si­tu­a­ti­on.

A now de­ce­a­sed spe­a­ker hap­pe­ned to walk by and he com­for­ted me: “Don’t cry, Pau­la, God will help.” These words are etc­hed in my mind and I re­mem­ber them whe­ne­ver I’m pre­pa­ring to in­terp­ret. I can pray to God and ask that I would be ab­le re­call the cor­rect words when in­terp­re­ting so that they would con­vey the gos­pel mes­sa­ge to the lis­te­ners.

When I read the Bib­le I no­ti­ce the rich­ness of the lan­gu­a­ge and the mul­tip­le me­a­nings of the words. I can un­ders­tand some Fin­nish Bib­le texts more cle­ar­ly when I read the Rus­si­an Bib­le. Be­lie­ving na­ti­ve Rus­si­ans, many who al­so know Fin­nish, have been a great help as I have stu­died the lan­gu­a­ge.

In­terp­re­ta­ti­on si­tu­a­ti­ons are al­wa­ys dif­fe­rent. In­terp­re­ters at Rus­sia’s au­tumn ser­vi­ces help when pe­op­le want to dis­cuss with each ot­her. The hap­py gree­tings, “Smi­rom Boga” (God’s Pe­a­ce), of be­lie­ving friends who have ar­ri­ved from afar and ra­re­ly see each ot­her are touc­hing.

At home ser­vi­ces or in a nur­sing home there may be a few el­ders among the lis­te­ners who have ar­dent­ly wai­ted for the ser­vi­ces. Many ti­mes at ser­vi­ces we sing to­get­her in Rus­si­an and Fin­nish the songs that have be­co­me dear to the Rus­si­ans: “De­a­rest Je­sus, on Gol­got­ha show Yo­ur wounds of love to us” and “With His blood the dear Lord Je­sus, paid my debt and set me free”.

When we are le­a­ving we of­ten hear: “Don’t for­get us; come again.”

Du­ring the ser­mon I have to con­cent­ra­te on lis­te­ning and in­terp­re­ting. What if I don’t re­mem­ber the whole sen­ten­ce spo­ken by the spe­a­ker or I don’t know how to in­terp­ret a spi­ri­tu­al exp­res­si­on? Do I al­wa­ys un­ders­tand the thought even in my own lan­gu­a­ge? In such a si­tu­a­ti­on I try to in­terp­ret the thought as un­ders­tan­dab­ly as pos­sib­le wit­hout chan­ging the me­a­ning of the spo­ken words.

The lis­te­ners can help me if I grope for words. On­ce a na­ti­ve lis­te­ner told me the cor­rect Rus­si­an exp­res­si­on for the word “sheep­fold”. Af­ter that I felt there was no need to be ner­vous in such an at­mosp­he­re of love—I could be free to ask and the lis­te­ners were free to help.

Much time is spent tra­ve­ling on ser­vi­ce trips that last se­ve­ral days and it is ne­ces­sa­ry to try to be on sche­du­le. If not be­fo­re, then on the way home I re­a­li­ze how jo­yous and ama­zing it is how God cal­ls pe­op­le from very dif­fe­rent si­tu­a­ti­ons in­to his king­dom and has gi­ven many the gift of faith. At mis­si­on ser­vi­ces the gos­pel is pre­ac­hed to them to ref­resh and en­cou­ra­ge them on their jour­ney.

Text: Pau­la Kont­ti­nen

Pub­lis­hed in its en­ti­re­ty in the on­li­ne ver­si­on of Päi­vä­mies, 31.5.2018

Trans­la­ti­on: KK

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä kie­li­liit­tees­sä tam­mi­kuus­sa 2019