Dear congregation members and friends,
We have a lot to be thankful for. The main thing that we should be thankful about is that our congregation, on both home fronts, has been successful at avoiding infection of the virus. In addition, we all have a roof over our heads and we have enough to eat. I hope that everyone has also had social contact through daily conversation. Michael and I have tried to keep in telephone contact with our elderly local members, and we have also given this call list to our Council members and a couple other trusted individuals. It is especially important that no one be left all alone.
We are eagerly awaiting the opening of the church to group gatherings. Our hope is that we could re-open on Pentecost Sunday, but only if it is safe to do so. In May we will be preparing some rules that follow the guidelines of health officials for possible summer gatherings. They will include social spacing and other restrictions. For the time being though we still have to wait patiently, and hope that this situation will calm down.
There is a lot of interesting things to read in our May newsletter. In our guest column this month we have our good friend and credited writer Timo Vainionpää. His writing tells us about Corona virus news from Istanbul in his unique style. Council president Pertti Pietarinen in his column emphasizes that we should not fall into despair in times of crisis and suffering, these are just the facts of life which we cannot avoid. Trusting that God will always take care of everything is a Christian’s privilege and obligation, says the president. The column from our volunteer, Teppo Honkanen, touches on the realities of life in the neighborhood surrounding our church. Music director- Michael’s writing justly thanks our excellent musicians and ponders the new challenges of doing services over the internet.
On my behalf, I challenge everyone to cling to this moment, a moment during which the circle of life has unintentionally slowed down. Do not let this momentum go to waste. Listen to what God is speaking to you about. Let's use this time to open our hearts and eyes to see and appreciate His creations and the incomprehensible beauty around us. Let's use this time to marvel over life's big mysteries of love and suffering, and thank and praise our living God, regardless of the situation. This is the moment to say thank you, I’m sorry, I love you. This is the moment to be present for life and for God.
With Blessings
Pastor Mia
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A big, warm thank you to everyone, who participated in our Easter Lily Campaign! On Easter morning, the alter was filled with fifty lilies. After the service, these lilies were brought to the Rest Home and our senoir-aged congregation members to bring them cheer.
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”We have suppressed the existence of evil. We assume that modern humanity has gotten rid of evil like viruses. Science does not free us from evil, death and the cursed path of the human life.” This quote is from the French Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévyn. I fully agree with him. If only he had added that our Lord and God will deliver us from all evil through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.
COVID-19 overshadows life all over the globe. Fear and quarantine haunt people and our normal life is just a memory. We easily forget that pandemics have also existed in the past. The media and politicians actively intimidate the public. Even the worldwide Christian Church has not voiced the message of hope loudly enough. Christians should always remain clear in their trust in God and trust in His care. Let us remember that God has not promised us deliverance from worldly afflictions or the immortality of our earthly body, but He has given us hope and faith in eternal life. Our own congregation is trying its best to proclaim this good news even amidst the present circumstances. Together we can get through this.
Our congregation has learned new ways of working. The council works and meets normally, but partially remotely via Skype. Personal encounters are few, but services are offered online, and actually, the overall offering has grown as we now have weekday prayer / devotional events produced by Pastor Mia and volunteers via the parish Facebook and home pages. Welcome aboard! I believe these services give comfort and strength to all of us. Florida members are also served by phone calls.
If you get bored and are craving a good movie and you are a Netflix subscriber, I recommend you try the movie Miracles From Heaven.
While waiting for relief from quarantine restrictions, I wish you a blessed spring!
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“These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming."
(1. Peter 1)
Pertti Pietarinen
Council President
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It is difficult to write about school happenings when there haven’t been any! The school was closed for the entire month of April (our last day open was March 13
th
) and it looks like we will probably be closed through May. We are hoping that conditions improve and that we will be able to safely reopen sometime this summer. We truly miss our students!
Church volunteer Teppo Honkanen has been staying at the school during this time. We are thankful to have had him there keeping an eye on the school and especially grateful for all the repairs and projects that he has done.
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Our teachers have been taking turns going to the school to do some cleaning and organizing. This has been a good time to do some of those things that there is never time to do during normal school hours- like cleaning out the garage, closets, etc.
We have been surprised and pleased that many of our families have been mailing us checks (they are not required to pay tuition when we are closed). We have even received donations from parents whose children have graduated and from grandparents. This has helped us pay bills and we have been able to give teachers partial paychecks. Stay safe and keep praying!
Pirjo Komonen Campitelli
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St. Andrew's-congregation congratulates
Sarai and Rodney Paavolaa
on the birth of
Little-Lucas
on April 22, 2020.
God's blessing and grace
for the whole family
!
(Picture: Rodney Paavola)
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April has been a month of new experiences and life changes for all of us. While we are still working in the office and doing our services, everything is quite different. We are faced with the challenge of a service which is done for an empty church and a camera. Doing these services has been a learning experience for all of us involved, and there are a new set of requirements for these broadcasts.
Everything from lighting to sound, as well as filming the services requires a different set up than what we are used to on a normal Sunday with the congregation present. This is not always easy, but we are getting better slowly.
During the past six weeks we have kept some music traditional, especially at the Finnish service, while introducing fresh new music and different ways of playing hymns at the English service. This gives the viewer at home the opportunity to experience our services in a new light. The musicians play a big role in bringing this music to our parishioners at home, and we are thankful for the small group of singers and instrumentalists for their service to the church and God.
Our job is more important than ever now as we try to reach out long distance to our congregation, through the use of modern technology. Feel free to sing along with our services on Sunday from your homes and feel the power of Jesus through these wonderful songs and musicians.
Worship has truly become very personal and solitary, as it takes place in our homes now. Hopefully, this gives us time and space to reflect more on our personal relationship with God. It only takes one person to be close to God. When we are forced to spend time apart from each other, we really appreciate the togetherness that a congregation provides even more now than before.
In times of crisis, togetherness is comfort, and even though we are separated from each other physically, through prayer and through watching and singing along with our online services, we can be together spiritually. We will get through this together and be stronger in our faith.
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Let’s praise our Lord and be thankful that he has given us the gifts of song and music.
With Prayer & Blessings
Michael
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English language, live mid-day prayer moments are available for viewing on our Fb-page, which you can access through our website(There is a link on the bottom of our newsletter to our website). Move to the bottom portion of our webpage and you will see a picture of our fb-page. Click on our church name, this brings you to the site. If you receive a message to sign up for Fb, just click cancel.
Let's be together through prayer!
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Timo and Nezihe Vainionpää - Greetings from Turkey
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Timo and Nezihe Vainionpää are awaiting better times in Istanbul, a trip which they began in the middle of March. The couple’s purpose was to continue on to Finland after taking care of business in Istanbul. Timo and Nezihe’s third home country is Turkey, where Nezihe is a native. Nezihe’s 92-year-old mother lives in Turkey’s largest city, of 14 million residents, so trips here have become regular.
The flight from Miami to Istanbul in mid-March was still fairly normal. Arriving passengers to Istanbul were monitored by heat sensing cameras, and a health assessment card given during the flight was collected for inspection.
A few days after arrival in Istanbul, health officials stated that the corona virus had spread throughout the world at an alarming rate, Turkey included. Turkey’s somewhat hard-handed government took a hard stance on trying to slow the epidemic by imposing different kinds of limitations on daily life routines. Schools and concerts were shut down, open times for offices and businesses were limited, and work is being done at home.
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Restrictions on outside movement were allocated first to elder residents, 65 or older. Restrictions on the movement of seniors was treated very gently at first, by invalidating their free use of public travel, removing all park benches, and banning a very popular activity in Istanbul – fishing from Bosbori straits and the many bridges over Goldenhorn bay.
In spite of all these rules, rebellious seniors roamed the city amidst the increasing spread of the virus. Finally, the government was forced to impose house arrest for everyone over the age of 65. Breaking these restrictions comes with a stern penalty of about 500 US dollars to anyone on the streets not complying. This fine is large, nearly an average retirees’ monthly pension.
Despite these restrictions, the virus kept spreading and the government added further mandates to combat this spread. As a new measure, under 20 year old’s were ordered to stay at home.
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Surprisingly there also came an order to 31 of Turkey’s biggest cities to restrict all outside movement for one weekend. The government official in charge of this order had not informed city and public leaders of this new measure.
As the quarantine weekend was announced on radio and television, only hours before it was to take effect, this caused immediate congestion at all the open bazaars, and little portable vegetable markets sprang up on street corners. In the big city of Istanbul, most people prefer to buy their vegetables fresh at local street markets. In all this hurry, nobody had the chance to acquire facemasks.
The quarantine order, which had been issued by the interior minister, resulted in some controversy. The interior minister gave his resignation, which was not accepted by the president, and he is still on the job.
Weekend quarantines have since continued on more subsequent weekends without any major problems. The coming up quarantine weekend will begin on Thursday due to youth celebration day traffic congestion and calming this situation.
After congestions at the bazaars, the order was given that all people in outside public areas wear facemasks. Of course, masks are available in limited quantities, so the government decided to send all work age people five masks per week through the mail for free, as their sale at stores and pharmacies was banned completely.
Senior citizens received their five masks, a one-time delivery, after the president signed an order to distribute well equipped plastic bags to all these homes. Inside the bags were the presidential order, five masks, and a bottle of lemon scented cologne. These types of scent bottles are usually kept in well stocked stores and at home for guest accommodations. It is custom that upon the arrival of distinguished guests, or when shopping at high end retail stores, this strong scented, alcohol-based eau-de-cologne is poured into the hands to cool you down.
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Food and other essential items are available by ordering online, and these services work rather well. Now that these orders have increased, bottlenecking occurs on the delivery side. Food of course can be ordered, but sometimes delivery may be delayed a few days. If internet is not available, you can call your local municipal offices, who will pick up your shopping list and deliver the ordered items.
A bit more difficult during quarantine times is banking business. The person in quarantine must call the police, who send an escort to bring you to the bank, wait while you get your
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money or pay your bills and finally bring you back into quarantine. The aim is to try and avoid hospital visits as long as possible, as the only way to access the hospital is by calling an ambulance if you have an emergency.
Time clearly goes by much slower when we are separated from one another. Turkish television programs are primarily in Turkish language and movies are dubbed, with no subtitles. On cable channels you can view nearly one hundred channels, from which you can select Arabic, Malaji, Chinese or even Kirgistanian programming – there are even a few English language channels. The best way for a non-Turkish speaker to stay in touch with current events of the world is through the internet. Internet speeds are quite good, and there has been no disruptions in service, in our area, during the past month. Netflix distributes country-based programming, which is narrower than in the United States, but larger than in Finland.
Public transit between cities has decreased to a minimum, and using your own car to travel outside of the county requires written permission from the governor. All domestic and international flights have stopped until at least the end of May.
Everything here is as good as can be expected. It would be nice to go outside, but the 500 hundred dollar fine is keeping me on my own property. The air does not even feel as fresh if you have to breath it through a mask. Fresh air is very desired, as in the past few days, blue skies and a bit of warmth are reported in the Finnish news.
With greetings Timo and Nezihe.
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Please let us know asap if we are missing somebody's birthday on our list.
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We warmly thank all those who have remembered and supported our congregation through their gifts. We are living through economically challenging times, and we need your prayers as well as financial support, so that our work can continue year round.
God tremendously blesses you and your gift!
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Greetings to everyone from a not so spring feeling Finland.
My trip to Florida was unfortunately cut short due to the current circumstances. I did, however, get to experience the full scope of what the corona virus epidemic has done to the operations of schools and churches.
From time to time I got to experience frustration and slight anger over the non-stop large parties organized by the neighbors. These parties continued nightly, with no limits on the number of people and without any noise consideration for people living around them. This is not the way to love your neighbor.
Doing small renovation jobs at the preschool, I had to learn a whole new way of getting things done, which is “good enough”.
I believe that I’m not the only person who is hard on himself, when things that have to get done do not go the way that you planned them, and you are forced to do them in a different manner than what you are used to.
From my own perspective, this was a good learning moment and I urge you all to be more gracious toward yourselves and remember that it is enough when you do things to the best of your ability, and to not do those which exceed your spiritual and physical capability.
If it can be said that my experience is on the positive side of the scale, after sunset this feeling is moved to the negative end of the scale, when the neighbors were not so pleasant, and I was forced to blindly put all my trust in Psalm 23:
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right path for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
This can all be attributed to the emergency conditions which we are under, and the fact that the problems faced by poor communities spill out from peoples’ homes and into the whole neighborhood.
Despite all this, I will return once this global situation calms down.
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Greetings and Blessings to the beginning of summer.
Stay safe and healthy.
Teppo Honkanen
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Our congregation would like to thank the employees of the Finnish-American Rest and Nursing Home during these challenging times. Thank you for the effective, safe, and excellent care you have provided to all of our loved residents, and that everyone remains healthy amidst this crisis. Blessings, good health and strength to the administration and nurses!
(Photos of the rest home garden by Heidi Seppänen)
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The first Sunday of the month was
Palm Sunday.
Michael had gathered some beautiful palms for us with the help of Glenn Beckman. The altar was a beautiful green color. At the Finnish service we had Hanna Kiuru at soloist and singing and playing at the English service were the Karvonen's, and Suvi-Katriina. Suvi's son Johann and husband Brian read the texts.
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On Good Friday
we celebrated the moments of Jesus death with services in Finnish and English. Our big cross, in familiar style, was draped with a black curtain and on the altar were five roses which reminded us of Jesus' wounds. At the Finnish service the hymn leaders were Hanna Kiuru and Tuula Nordström, who also sang a solo. Tuomo and Kristen Karvonen served at the English service.
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On Easter Sunday
there was a wonderful scent of lilies in the air, as the altar was decorated with fifty Easter lilies. The cross had received it's white garment; Our Lord is Risen! For the Finnish service, we were pleased to get Lauri Kanervikkoaho as soloist and hymn leader, whose beautiful voice we can marvel at in the future as well. At the English service, our musicians were Suvi-Katriina, Kristen, Tuomo and Michael.
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After the services, pastor Mia, Michael and the Karvonen's went out to deliver Easter lilies, with cards, to the Rest Home as well as our senior congregation members living in quarantine. Hopefully these lilies brought them joy and reminded them that Jesus lives!
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Live, mid-day prayer moments
are the highlight of each day, and they bring togetherness and blessing to both the viewer and those making them. We have been very pleased at how many of you have been enthusiastic about doing these prayer moments. All the different locations - from homes, parks, church, and offices, in addition to having all the different personalities, have enriched these prayer moments. Below are pictures of congregation members and friends who have done or will do these broadcasts. We hope to get more enthusiastic people invlolved. Shared prayer and coming together, although through the internet, strengthens our relationship with God and one another.
Below is also a picture of Teppo as our camera man. His trip here was drastically cut short due to the epidemic. We hope to have him back in the fall. Teppo has been developing and building our new web page (the English page is still the old one), and we ask for your comments and suggestions as you view these pages during the summer months. There are a lot of things still under construction on these web pages, so we ask for your patience.
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The ultimate highlight of the month was to get the picture below from Oliver's mom Jessica. Oliver's words of the masterpiece he is holding were: "It's a church!" Hope to see you and your family soon, Oliver!
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Have A Blessed Month of May!
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St. Andrew's Lutheran Church | (561) 582-0554 | 928 South E Street, Lake Worth, FL 33460 | www.standrewsfl.com
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