Be­lie­vers in Cent­ral Eu­ro­pe have gat­he­red to a Christ­mas camp eve­ry ye­ar sin­ce 2004. This ye­ar the camp was held in Ley­sin on De­cem­ber 4th to 6th. Ley­sin is an Al­pi­ne vil­la­ge of about 4000 in­ha­bi­tants, which lies at an al­ti­tu­de of 1 300 me­ters in the French-spe­a­king re­gi­on of the Swiss “Pre-Alps”.

I spoke at the camp with Il­ma­ri Kor­ho­nen. At the be­gin­ning of the trip, bad we­at­her cau­sed us to be ner­vous about if we would catch the plane to Genè­ve. On the plane we met Han­na Hol­ma, who was re­tur­ning from Fin­land. She pro­mi­sed to be our lo­cal gui­de at the des­ti­na­ti­on.

From the Genè­ve air­port we tra­ve­led to Aig­le by train and then to Ley­sin on a cogw­heel train. Be­cau­se it was dark by then, we could not see out­si­de, but we could ea­si­ly feel that the cogw­heel train clim­bed a re­mar­kab­ly steep slope. The re­turn trip in da­y­light was a me­mo­ry that will stay in our minds.

A pre­ci­ous gat­he­ring

There were about for­ty par­ti­ci­pants at the camp. They had ar­ri­ved from a wide area: The Mic­hel and Hol­ma fa­mi­lies from Al­sa­ce, Fran­ce, the Mei­ers and La­hos from Swit­zer­land. The Tuu­lis had dri­ven for se­ven hours from Ulm, Ger­ma­ny.

PICTURE: MIIKA TUULI

There were al­so au pairs from Swit­zer­land, Aust­ria, Fran­ce, Ger­ma­ny and Den­mark. Two yo­ung men had al­so ar­ri­ved from the place where they study in Ita­ly.

Cha­let l’An­cien Stand in Ley­sin pro­vi­ded good pre­mi­ses for the camp. Some of the par­ti­ci­pants ar­ri­ved al­re­a­dy on Fri­day eve­ning. The at­mosp­he­re was warm and cozy. It was ea­sy to feel how pre­ci­ous this gat­he­ring was to the scat­te­red be­lie­vers.

Fol­lo­wers of Je­sus

On Sa­tur­day af­ter­noon we gat­he­red for a Fin­nish style Christ­mas meal, af­ter which ser­vi­ces and a Christ­mas prog­ram were held. There were about a do­zen child­ren in Sun­day school on Sun­day mor­ning. The camp clo­sed with day ser­vi­ces.

The Meier, Michel and Laho children performed the Christmas gospel during the Christmas program.

PICTURE: MIIKA TUULI

The Mei­er, Mic­hel and Laho child­ren per­for­med the Christ­mas gos­pel du­ring the Christ­mas prog­ram.

At the Sa­tur­day eve­ning ser­vi­ces Il­ma­ri spoke from the gos­pel ac­cor­ding to St. Mat­t­hew’s (16:24) about fol­lo­wing Je­sus. Our Sa­vi­or en­cou­ra­ged those who wan­ted to fol­low him to deny them­sel­ves and to car­ry their cros­ses.

Il­ma­ri as­ked, why have you come to this camp? Why do you wish to be be­lie­vers in the midst of this dark time?

Inc­re­a­se our faith!

Faith is a vo­lun­ta­ry mat­ter. God does not for­ce any­o­ne to be­lie­ve, but He gi­ves us an op­por­tu­ni­ty for it. Faith is a gift from God, but gi­ving up faith is a pri­va­te choi­ce by a hu­man. Faith is al­so a per­so­nal mat­ter.

Il­ma­ri re­min­ded us that there are on­ly two choi­ces: a per­son eit­her is or is not a be­lie­ver. He com­for­ted us that kee­ping our faith is not about how well we can avoid sin but rat­her about our wil­ling­ness to be­lie­ve. We can ask like the dis­cip­les: Lord, inc­re­a­se our faith. With the po­wer of the gos­pel we can ma­na­ge even on a lo­ne­ly gu­ard post.

On Sunday morning Ilmari Korhonen held Sunday school for the children about angels.

Text: Ari-Pek­ka Pa­lo­la

Trans­la­ti­on: J.K.

The ar­tic­le was pub­lis­hed in on­li­ne Päi­vä­mies on 10 Ja­nu­a­ry 2015.