Last modified 15.3.2011 at 13:19

Just dare to come along

Text and photos: Susanna Siironen

Hurry and stress are almost daily life for students. It is sometimes good to get off this rat race. As an alternative the church offers spiritual nourishment and also free times activities. A shoulder to cry on when life is hard can also be found from the church.

Árpád, the priest for international work came to Finland from the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

Evangelical-Lutheran parishes of Oulu arrange special activities for foreign people. Árpád Kovács who works as the priest for international work says that foreign students are of course very welcome to come along.

- We have two church services in English, different kinds of trips and pastoral care services. Especially pastoral care services are very much needed today, Árpád verifies.

Care for soul, mind, and body

Studying is hard work and hard time. Life can be confusing and sometimes a student may feel that he can not keep on track of his own life. When you have hard time for any reason, it is good to chat with someone who is listening. Árpád tells that pastoral care discussion may be private or done in a group. It is important just to dare to come along.

-It is not a bad thing that people find the church when the situation is bad enough, Árpád says. He tells that church tries to help also students as well as they can. The only problem is that students are difficult to get hold of. Contact address for priest for international work is found from the school and from the Evangelical-Lutheran Parishes of Oulu website.

Helping does not end at the pastoral care.

- We also have here an emergency packet for people who do not have enough money for food. The Church does not usually handle this kind of situations, but if people do not get help from anywhere else, then of course we help them, he tells.

Trips and chapels

The Church arranges different kinds of trips together with the deaconess institution.

- We have for example trips for different language groups. In March we will have a trip for Sudanese, Árpád tells. For the students trips are usually cheaper than for others.

If one is used to go to church every Sunday it is nice to carry on the habit also abroad. Evangelical-Lutheran parishes of Oulu have two services in English.

- The other one is a little bit more freeform than the other. If needed we also arrange services in other languages, for example a service in Arabic is arranged regularly, Árpád says.