It was again time to resign
I resigned from Oy Wärtsilä Ab and was unemployed for about 1 month without any temporary employment. Since I did not want to live without paying the rent, I also resigned my apartment in Konala with one month's notice. One evening I went to the IV Salvation Army departement in Helsinki and there went to the altar to pray. The prayer woman asked, "What's the matter?"
I replied: "My heart is pure and cleansed in the blood of Jesus, but I am unemployed, penniless and from tomorrow onwards also homeless. I'm not begging you for money, because I know that you all here are poor people, but please, pray for our Heavenly Father that he'll give me an apartment, a job, and food at the latest by tomorrow night."
She prayed for those things and promised to continue to pray for me at her home too. I thanked her.
That evening I could not sleep at all. After a while, I felt like a miniature sun descending on my head and slowly moving inside my head. From there it moved slowly into my heart and radiated from there to everywhere my body. I felt the immense love, grace, and power of Elohim flowing in my body internally. Then the fear of tomorrow disappeared and I fell asleep. I rested all night like in the hands of Adonai.
The next morning, when I woke up, it was the last morning in my apartment. I was unemployed, penniless, without apartment and had only one travel stamp unused on the HKL 10-way ticket for buss. I prayed for guidance. Soon after that, the phone rang and a man called me. I didn't know his voice at first, because we weren't very familiar and months had passed since our last meeting.
He was a true Christian, Leonard, whose home meeting I had once attended with the Jesus House team while he was still living in Turku. Because he knew Veikko and Lahja Hursti, to whom I had given my phone number, he must have received my phone number to that my apartment from them.
Leonard had a surprising thing to talk. He asked, "Leif, I was with my wife and with widowed Hilja in prayer this morning and I got you on my mind. Can you come over here now, at the latest within an hour?" I replied, "Yes, I can. I have time to come, because I had just packed all my stuff I own, into a shoulder bag, and I'll be there in under an hour."
The apartment ( two rooms+kitchen+bathroom ) was in a block of flats on Fredrikinkatu, near Kamppi. I had never been there before. When I arrived there at the appointed time, I was asked to sit down and Leonard explained the reason:
"Leif, I and my wife have queued for a city rental apartment in a recently completed city-owned apartment block in Turku. We got a call from there the housing company that we had to go there today to sign the apartment lease by 4pm, otherwise our queue number there will expire and then the next person in the queue will get it."
Leonard continued: "We have been lived with this beloved believer Hilja sister in this dwelling and helping her as she is paralyzed and cannot get up herself of bed or go to bed. We do not want to leave her unaided and therefore we prayed together before the Lord asking who he would lead to help her after we have moved Turku. She also queues to Koskela's nursing home and can get there anytime.
Then my wife and I remembered you and I had got your phone number, so I called you. If you agree to take on this job, all you have to do is raise Hilja from the bed to the couch in the morning, act as her priest, and lift her back to the bed in the evening. A housekeeper comes here three times every day to cook food for Hilja and you. She then help Hilja to bath and she cleans the apartment too. You can live in another room for free while you're here."
I said to him, "I see this is from the Lord and therefore I accept the assignment. I have worked as a young man at the food stock and brought very heavy flour sacks weighing as much as myself. That's why I can take the right hold on Hilja and lift her up and put her down."
Hilja was pleased to hear that, we prayed briefly, and then Leonard and his wife left by train to Turku, where they got their queued apartment in the newly completed high-rise. I visited there years later. It was located on Iltatähdentie in Iso-Heikkilä. Very neat and beautifully located high-rise, as far as I remember in the 4th floor.
I lived at Hilja's apartment and helped her as was agreed. Hilja was tall and weighed 90 kg (198 lb). I was well able to lift her into the couch in the morning and in the evening back to bed. He was 76 years and had been in the faith for about 60 years. I remember she had six adult children, two sons and four daughters.
The alias names of the daughters were Hellä, Hilla, Heli and Heljä. The boys alias name were Amos and Eeli. At that time, I only met the youngest of the siblings, alias Eeli, who was about 40 at the time. All of them had their own families, so none of them could not help their mother enough. All they have already moved to eternity.
I remember how Hilja prayed daily for Eeli her son, who was her most beloved because he had given up his faith after moving to the United States, Florida, where he worked as a real estate agent. It is obviously difficult to maintain a good conscience in those works and you cannot have faith without a good conscience.
Hilja said that many years ago, through a prophecy, she had received a revelation that if she'll pray tirelessly for Eeli, the Lord would bring him back to the path of Life, but only after Hilja had passed into eternity. I helped Hilja and we prayed together for Eeli and I could later see the prophecy come true. It was marvellous! HalleluYah!
Aunt Hilja's death and Eeli's renewal in faith
I had time to help Hilja in her apartment for less than 2 weeks until she got a place in the Koskela Nursing Home. I got permission to live in Hilja's apartment so far. I was looking for a job that I finally got. I'll tell of that later. While visiting Hilja's nursing home, she whispered that she was being over-medicated.
When she put the pills secretly at the base of the flower pot, the nurse noticed it and then the medication was mixed in her food portions. She said that the drugs took away the memory and made her feel very weak. All I could do was pray for Hilja. I couldn't to guard what medications for her were put mixed in the meals, against her will, when I was away.
Adonai heard my prayer, and a few days later I heard that Mrs. Lahja Hursti had received an angelic vision, informing her that Hilja Allas was in a designated room in the Koskela Nursing Home, and told the room number. The Lahja told the angel said to her: "Bring some wine and bread. Give to Hilja the Holy Communion next Tuesday as the Lord'll take her home the next night."
I later heard that Mrs. Lahja Hursti had gone to give Hilja the Holy Communion that very evening, and that Hilja had died the following night. So carefully and faithfully our dear Heavenly Father took care of that His righteous and beloved child!
Then the children were notified that their mother Hilja was dead, and because the family was very temperamental, I experienced many unexpected situations. The brothers and sisters had decided to appoint Eeli as a trusted man to distribution of Hilja's inheritance, because of his best experience in real estate.
Since much time has passed since that event and those concerned have already been called to eternity, I can tell you a little bit about what happened soon after Hilja's death. I tell you this because only it explains how and in what way the Almighty handled Eeli, so that he would return to the path of Life and be allowed to come back from the path of death back to connection with his Redeemer. Eeli flew quickly from Florida to Helsinki and mourned much for his mother.
His face was sad after much crying and mourning and he could not eat anything in many days. I had great sympathy and compassion for Eeli. His siblings called every day from morning to night to catch him on the phone. They started fighting over who would own which piece of furniture.
Eeli said he couldn't accept that the siblings started immediately fighting for Hilja's property and not honored their mother's memory. He said he doesn't want a penny, but plans to return to the US as soon as possible. One day, one of his sisters called about 16 times trying to get Eeli on the phone.
That sister told me that as soon as she saw Eeli, she would shoot him! I told Eeli about it and said that her sister couldn't really mean it. Eli replied, "I know her well and I know she always means exactly what she says!" Oh, such a sister.
Eeli tried to flee back to the United States
Eeli started to get so stressed that he went to Meilahti Hospital and asked for a medicine in poor Finnish because he couldn't eat anything for days. Food did not stay in the stomach. He had diarrhea because of stress alone! The nurse made the wrong assessment. She thought Eeli had used drugs and directed him to a separate room and locked him there. Eeli wondered, what's going on now?
When he moved the curtain slightly aside, he saw the nurse in filling a large container with a large vaccine spike. He was horrified and thought that if he was vaccinated with it, he would die! He opened the window that led to the yard and jumped out through it. He ran in his white patient clothes and wearing wooden sandals to the taxi station and drove back to the apartment where I lived and where he lived too for a while. I saw how upset he was when he told me that.
Then he quickly removed all his belongings, deodorants, etc. from the bathroom and packed his bag quickly and said, "Now I go to the airport and fly back to the US and let my siblings do here what they want!"
I smiled and said to him, "Dear friend, are you really going to travel in those white patient's clothes?"
He, himself, with a camera around his neck, realized the comic situation and suddenly changed his clothes. Then he said goodbye to me, thanked me, bowed down and quickly went out. Shortly after Eeli left, the doorbell rang and two tall cops came to the apartment. They asked if Eeli lived there(?) I nodded that he lives.
They said they had been notified that Eeli had stolen the patient's clothes and shoes, but if he returned those to Meilahti Hospital within 2 days, the matter would be accepted without fine payment. I promised to tell Eeli and the cops left.
Eeli's repentance
About an hour later, Eeli returned with a broken mind from the airport and said he could not leave the country because a car registered in his name had parking fines that had to be sorted out with the authorities and to be paid off. I said two police officers were looking for him while he was going to the airport.
Then Eeli's heart was broken and he said humble, "Now I give up! Leif, kneel with me to this bed. Please pray for me, for I want to return to Jesus. I have long been an apostate."
At that moment I experienced the presence of the Spirit of mighty grace and love. I wrapped my arms around Eeli's shoulders, proclaimed that his sins were forgiven in the name and blood of Lord Jesus Christ, and warmly welcomed him back to the Good Shepherd and I embraced him. His tears of remorse were turned into joy. He smiled as he experienced the Lord's grace and love in his heart.
When Eeli returned to the United States, he could no longer work as a real estate agent due to conscience. As his high income ceased, his wife divorced and moved with their daughter elsewhere.
Eeli moved back to Finland and I haven't heard from him since. That was told to me by his eldest sister. I believe everything is fine with Eeli because he made a real repentance and started honestly to follow Lord Jesus!
As a night watchman in the garages of Elanto Oy
I lived in Hilja's apartment until the end of 1975. Fortunately, it didn't take me long to find a job, because I got a job in Sörnäinen. It was a bad job for me, as I had to work as an evening or night guard in turns. It didn't suit me at all, because I could have Sabbath only every second week.
I worked for the last two months of 1975 as an industrial guard at STV (STV = Finnish Industrial Guard). I worked at Elanto's Garages and Residential Properties in Sörnäinen Helsinki. It was very tough in two respects. Every other week was a night shift and two of the three weekends had to work 12 hour night shifts.
Another night watchman said he had been working for years but had never been used to night shifts, but had always fallen asleep in the mornings between 2-3 am when the city was quietest. So he fell asleep for a few minutes. We industrial guards received a 3 day training for our duties. It included instruction on how to use the baton (short rubber stick). Still, I never used it.
One night I got a call from Elanto's residential property that there was a group of men in the lobby drinking and that I had to go in there and evict them. I promised to go there right away. First I prayed for help from above and then I went there. There were about half a dozen men and some of them drunk.
When I opened the front door, a rubber baton in my right hand and said to them with a smile, "Well boys, now is the time to leave here." Then the least drunk man of them said, "That guy has bad things in his mind, when he smiles, so let's go right away." They left immediately and I returned to my guard room. HalleluYah!
Hyacinth wonder
For the first time in my life, I had to work on Christmas Eve until 11 pm. As I sat in a guard place in the guard room next to the corridor inside the Elanto Garages, as the evening went on I prayed to Adonai, "Oh my dear Savior, it is truly depressing to be at work tonight. You could make me happy by giving me a Christmas flower, hyacinth."
I heard a question in my heart, "What colored one do you want?" I pondered in my mind, "White would mean righteousness, blue your loyalty, and pink your love for me." I continued my speech to him, saying, "So now I leave the choice of flower color to you, Lord." You may guess what color of hyacinth he brought to me.
At 10:30 pm, I heard the steps of high heels approaching my security cabin, and the most beautiful saleswoman in the store cars came to me bearing a huge, tall and regular pink hyacinth in her hands and said, "Here is a Christmas flower for you as a gift!"
At first, I was speechless in amazement, because I had not seen such a large and perfectly beautiful pink hyacinth before and after! I received it with warm thanks. The reason for the gift I received soon came to light. She tryed bribe me with it.
The woman asked, "May I go in my shop car and borrow a few bottles of beer?"
It was forbidden to allow any saleswoman or salesman, outside the normal working hours, to enter the garage. It was strictly forbidden to allow anyone enter in the commercial vehicles in the night.
I understood that single-parenting sorrow, especially on that Christmas Eve night, and said, "Go in peace and take as many bottles of beer as you can bear." Didn't have to say twice when she was already getting in to her shop car, whispering to me, "Oh thanks for my honey."
Each saleswoman was allowed to go only to the shop car she was responsible for, as well as its products, so I didn't really do anything wrong by letting her go there. There are too many unnecessary prohibitions in the world.
She soon returned from his shop car and thanked me profusely. She stepped inside the security room, looking at a Christmas card on the wall reading the Bible verse Room. 10: 4.
"Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness unto every one that believeth."
She read it and said, "Beautiful card. I've noticed you read the Bible here. I read the Bible too and can I come to show it to you?" I said, "That's interesting! Come and show it me!"
Because she lived in a house next door, she came in 10 minutes. She showed me his Bible, saying: "I have read only the book of Job, as it has comforted me, that I have had in my life so much suffering. My husband left me years ago and I have been in financial distress."
I noticed the pages in Job's book wrinkled because of the tears that had been poured over them. I said to the woman, "My dear friend, I have a good message for you: Even though your husband has forsaken you, our loving God has not forsaken you. He used you this night as his servant when you brought me a big hyacinth because I had prayed it from Him before you brought it."
She listened to me with tears in her eyes. I asked, "Where on earth can you buy hyacinths of such huge size and proportional shape?" She said she didn't know, but that Elanto Ltd used to be given her the most beautiful and largest hyacinth every Christmas Eve.
I told her, its immense size and perfection were as a testimony of the tremendous and perfect love of our dear God for her, and now tonight for me as well. She believed that message!
The woman was truly extraordinarily beautiful, with blue eyes, long black hair extending to the shoulders and lower, with a beautiful face and body in harmony with the best beauties. She was also empathetic and lovable. That is why I was wondering what kind of man could be, who could reject such a treasure?
Unexpected phone call at night to my guard station
One evening I got a phone call from an instrument engineer I had once met at Strömberg Ltd while working there. About two year before that I once had gone to him and talked with him about a thing connected to my job. Before I had left his working room, I said to him, "God loves you and Jesus Christ died for you on the cross at Calvary."
I use aliases about him and his wife, Kalle and Elli. Kalle had found out where I was working at that time and, after getting my phone number, called me. It had been about two years since our only meeting.
Kalle said, "Do you remember me, the instrumental engineer from Strömberg Ltd. You once told me that God loves me?" I replied, "Yes I do. You listened to me without saying a word and smiled at me."
Kalle said, "Now I have a big problem. Me and Elli have two young children and Elli has been admitted to Hesperia Mental Hospital, a closed ward. She became psychotic because after studying at the Ateneum, the course leader took a class picture, where all they were naked. Elli is so shy and sensitive, that she became mentally ill after that."
Kalle was anxious and continued: "My own strength is over because I have to work in demanding positions at Strömberg Ltd and I also work as a talker in my apartment house in the evenings and on weekends. Otherwise I would not have got this rental apartment in downtown Helsinki.
Caring for two young children, in addition to all that, has become overwhelming to me. Therefore, I ask you: 'Would you come with me to meet Elli in a mental hospital and could you help her recover?' "
I do not though too much of myself and therefore prayed for a moment to receive instruction from my Savior. Then I said, "I can't help her, but if I tell her about Jesus, then everything is possible. I'll be happy to come with you. Let's agree a time that is convenient for both of us."
We made an appointment and went there to meet Kalle's wife. I would not have been allowed to go there because it was a closed ward where only the patients' closest relatives were allowed to visit. The Lord arranged that the nurses were on a coffee break, the doors had been forgotten to lock and we had access to the ward.
That closed hospital ward was only for young women. When we got in, a bunch of beautiful young women ran up to us and one of them immediately hugged me and said he was so lonely. I said I came with Kalle to see his wife there and we could talk a little later.
When I saw Elli, I immediately noticed in her eyes that she lacked the light of understanding. On my way there, I had prayed and received the Word from the Bible. So I asked Elli to kneel beside the chair and then I read the verses I received in John 10: 10-11.
>>10. The thief will do nothing but steal and kill and destroy. I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. 11. I am the Good Shepherd. The good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep.<<
After reading verses, I explained to Elli that Jesus Christ is that Good Shepherd who died for everyone on the Calvary Cross, including Elli, and that Elli is his beloved sheep, whom he now heals. Then I lowered my hand over Elli's shoulders and prayed for help from above.
I sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit, and immediately Elli stood up and said, "The evil people crucified Jesus, who is my Good Shepherd." Then I saw from Elli's eyes that the light of understanding had returned to them! HalleluYah!
I told Elli, "You are right. Fortunately, Jesus has risen from the dead and cares for you too. He healed you already." Then I said to Kalle, "I'm sure that Elli would come home soon." Kalle had previously said it would take at least 6 months because the psychiatrist said Elli's psyche was so badly damaged. After that I returned to work.
A phone call from Kalle came to me two weeks later. Elli had already been allowed return home! I went to see that family a little later and was delighted with what Jesus had done for them. They wanted receive the baptism of believers by immersion. I had teached they about it and was very glad, when they obeyed my advice!
They were baptized right away in Siion Congregation, in Helsinki!
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