Rod and Elai­ne Ni­ku­la came to Fin­land on a mis­si­on trip from Rock­ford, Min­ne­so­ta, USA. They sta­yed for three weeks, du­ring which time Rod ser­ved in many ser­vi­ces.

– It is great to be here, Rod said.

– The spi­rit is the same on both si­des of the At­lan­tic.

Rod star­ted as a new emp­lo­yee in the LLC (La­es­ta­di­an Lut­he­ran Church) of­fi­ce a few weeks ago. His du­ties inc­lu­de Chris­ti­an edu­ca­ti­on, home and fa­mi­ly work, and mu­sic.

– It is a great gift of God to be ab­le to work with ot­her be­lie­vers, he said.

– We have many cau­ses for joy and thanks­gi­ving.

One of Rod’s fo­cal are­as is the plan­ning of Chris­ti­an edu­ca­ti­on for North Ame­ri­can cong­re­ga­ti­ons: to pro­vi­de sup­port and to pro­du­ce re­sour­ces for day circ­le, Sun­day school, and con­fir­ma­ti­on camps.

– This work is ref­res­hing for my own faith and co­vers all age groups from child­ren to se­ni­ors. We need the inst­ruc­ti­on of God’s word eve­ry day.

Home and fa­mi­ly work is a new branch of work that is still un­der de­ve­lop­ment.

– We aim to pro­du­ce sup­por­ti­ve re­sour­ces for fa­mi­ly and di­a­co­nal com­mit­tees. We must first un­ders­tand what fa­mi­lies and ho­mes need. Af­ter that we can fi­gu­re out ways to de­ve­lop the work, Rod exp­lains.

LLC is com­pi­ling a book of ar­tic­les that have ap­pe­a­red in their month­ly pub­li­ca­ti­ons The Voi­ce of Zion and Shep­herd’s Voi­ce. There is al­so coo­pe­ra­ti­on with SRK in Fin­land, for ins­tan­ce on the trans­la­ti­on of writ­ten ma­te­ri­als in­to Eng­lish.

– The needs of home and fa­mi­ly work are lar­ge­ly si­mi­lar in North Ame­ri­ca and Fin­land, Rod conc­lu­des.

Rod’s third fo­cal are is the de­ve­lop­ment of LLC’s mu­sic prog­ram. He is res­pon­sib­le for or­ga­ni­zing mu­sic com­mit­tees and choirs in cong­re­ga­ti­ons, to ac­comp­lish the re­cor­ding of all songs in their new song­book. Se­ve­ral CD re­cor­dings are being plan­ned.

The new song­book is al­re­a­dy in use, and a cho­ral book for ac­com­pa­ni­ment will be pub­lis­hed in the 2016 Sum­mer Ser­vi­ces.

Rod was hap­py to have been ab­le to come to Fin­land so soon af­ter star­ting in his new job.

– I have le­arnt a lot about the work being done in Fin­land. I am glad to know pe­op­le who can help and sup­port me.

The Ni­ku­las at­ten­ded the Sum­mer Ser­vi­ces in Swe­den on May 6–8 be­fo­re re­tur­ning home.

At the time of this in­ter­view they had not been tra­ve­ling long yet, but Rod had al­re­a­dy ser­ved in many ser­vi­ces in the Ou­lu re­gi­on.

– We have en­jo­yed our vi­sit so much. We have ex­pe­rien­ced a lot of love, and it seems we have known for a long time even those pe­op­le whom we on­ly met now, Elai­ne said.

For Elai­ne this was her fourth trip to Fin­land. For Rod, whose grand­pa­rents were Fin­nish, this trip was his se­cond.

The Ni­ku­las said that they have had many Fin­nish vi­si­tors in their home in Ame­ri­ca. They were ab­le to meet se­ve­ral of these friends du­ring their trip.

Päi­vi Mar­ti­kai­nen

Trans­la­ti­on: S-L.L.

The ar­tic­le was pub­lis­hed in on­li­ne Päi­vä­mies on 21 Ap­ril 2016