Finland January 4 - 6

On Sunday morning, January 4th I set off from Tartu, Estonia for the remainder of my journey which would take me to Tallinn, Helsinki, Oulu and England.

First, I took the bus from Tartu to Tallinn, a 120 trip costing about $5 on a very comfortable and modern European coach. There were only five of us and I was settling in to start writing about the last few days in Tartu but I quickly discovered that my computer died. All I had to stare at on the screen was a notice: "Bios is damaged -- see Service." That completed updates while on the trip. The computer is still being serviced and I'll update the remainder of the Estonian part of the trip when I get it back.

In Tallinn Anne Schotter met me at the bus station. We wanted to touch base regarding her work with delinguent youth, rehabilitating criminals, battered wives and such. We both took a taxi to the port from which I would embark across the Baltic to Helsinki, a four hour float. Anne and I spent about one and a half hours talking more about her work. I will later post more information about her current projects for which we are looking for support from agencies wishing to help her truly marvelous care for the needy in her society.

At 13:30 my ship, the Vana Tallinn set out from the harbor. I was expecting a rough January crossing on an empty ship. Wrong on both counts. The Baltic was as calm as a lake. The temperature was well above freezing with everyone saying that this was most unusual for January. (El Niņo?) The Estonian Vana Tallinn was full of Finns returning home from holidays in Estonia. The duty-free shops were jammed.

As we were getting off the ship a lady fell headlong down stairs from our deck to the one below. She appeared to be in her fifties. Several people stampeded past her. Her face was jammed into a corner at the bottom of stairs. Another person and I


Eerie sight of passing freighter
on the Baltic Sea

helped her up. She was sobbing....and was terribly drunk. Three cases of her duty-free beer fell on top of her. I really felt sorry for this human being. Why was she this way? Who were the people in her life? A man finally seemed to know who she was and they continued on their way out through customs and into the night mist of Helsinki.

I found a cab to take me to the train station where I had reservations from Helsinki to Oulu in a sleeper car. My driver knew no English or Russian....only Finnish. I had lots of trouble telling him I needed the train station. I was told earlier that it was a short distance from the port. No more than a kilometer. But, after driving around a bit he delivered me to the bus station. Seeing that in a few minutes that the taxi meter spun up to $10, I got off hoping that the railway station was near. It was. Only about 300 meters which I walked to with my luggage.

 My overnight train was dubbed the "Santa Claus Express." It left promptly at 19.24 for Tampere, Oulu and points north. It is winter and the trains run slower because of snow hazards.

In my train car I was hearing Russian spoken on both sides of me. In my three-bunk cabin there were no other passengers. I had been hearing Russian all the last week and a half and now more. Who were all these people? I picked up a conversation with a young family next to me. Their names were Victor, Tatyana along with 15 year old son Dima. They were the "new Russians," an emerging midle class of Russians having the means to travel abroad. This Moscow family was on vacation headed for the ski slopes of northern Finland. He was a computer repair specialist; she a bank auditor who lived in Moscow's northern suburbs.

After talking about half an hour we all migrated five cars down to the restaurant car where we snacked and talked another couple of hours. They were full of questions. I was unusual to them. An American pastor speaking Russian on a Finnish train.

What was my faith? What does our church stand for? What does our church do? What are our services like? Is there lots of singing? What do we teach? What do pastors do?

Victor and Tatyana are searching for the spiritual meaning of life following Soviet atheism. But, they are wary about following the herd to the tradional Orthodox church which they see as a religion focusing on the past and tradition. I told them that that we had literature in Russian and that we in the United Church of God were about to launch a website from St. Petersburg with information about our beliefs. Being a computer specialist, Victor was very interested and looked forward to our Work in Russia. We exchanged addresses. They invited me to stay with them next time I come to Moscow.

How did I answer their questions? I told them I was a Christian who was freed from my sins. I told them that Christ came to this earth proclaiming the Kingdom of God which was the heart and core of the Gospel message. I told them that Kingdom was literal and that it was to come with Christ's literal return to this earth. They listened intently. We are now translating the booklet on the Sabbath, but began to realize quickly that we need to also translate the booklet about the Kingdom of God into Russian as well.

We returned to our cabins and retired until my 4:16 am arrival into Oulu.... (to be continued) 

Coming up: