Chapter 52 - Since 1990 part 2/3

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Home purchase and financing

Knocking first on doors

  Adonai Yeshua taught, "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that seeth shall receive, and the detective shall find, and to him that knocketh shall be opened." Matt. 7:7-8.

  I decided to buy an apartment in Turku, either a one-room apartment or a two-room apartment, and started asking some believing acquaintances, as well as mom and dad, whether they could borrow a certain amount of money even at a higher bank rate. I received only from two: FIM 10,000 from my mother and FIM 6,000 from Jaakko & Aira Ruonala. Family Ruonala have been my good friends for over 36 years. All of Father's money was in the investments, so I got nothing from him.

-  Readers may wonder why I didn't have money in my account because I had been working in a well-paid job for more than 5 years? It is because of my principle of supporting people in need, and of supporting Evangelism and Bible Translation. I did not plan for my future but trusted daily in the guidance of Yehowah Elohim. -

  In addition, I received FIM 10,000 from my new employer. I got just the minimum amount of money that OP (local bank) demanded; FIM 45,000. I repaid all my creditors within the agreed time and paid a higher interest rate (10-13%) than what their banks were paying at the time on fixed-term and high-interest accounts (8-10%).

  The OP also demanded a fixed-term credit guarantee of FIM 29,000 from my new employer, which agreed to it because of an earlier precedent in hiring a new employee. Also because they made the employee of their choice more tied to the company.

Two rooms and a kitchen in Turku Varissuo

  One room and a kitchen would have been enough for me, but when I was in Turku before moving, there was only one advertisement in the newspaper about the apartments for sale and it was a 60 m2 two rooms & kichen apartment in the eastern suburb of Turku. 

  Its price was FIM 245,000. I was bidding on four different banks and in 1990 OP offered the most affordable mortgage at a rate of 15.5%. It was also very high due because of unusually deep recession. 

  When I came to sign a home purchase agreement and traveled by car with the sellers to the apartment, I thanked them for acting in a Christian way when selling it at a reasonable price. Then the saleswoman, Cecilia Halme, said something special!

Vision of the buyer

  Cecilia said, "We were in prayer as a family and asked the Lord to guide a Christian buyer to that home. I saw you in those clothes in a vision, and the first time we met you in the OP, we knew you were the answer to our prayers!"

  I was delighted to hear it because I thought it just happened! She told they were Adventists from Tampere and that their son had lived in the apartment for the 4 years he studied statistics at Åbo Akademi (Abo Academy). It was great to know that there was no smoking nor sinful life in the apartment at that time under those 4 years! 

  I met Iris Cecilia Halme' son, Edvin, later on a car ferry. He was coming from Italy, where he had been on IRail. We talked all the trip. He was a very nice young man. HalleluYah!

Move to Finland

  I sold some of the furniture (like a big freezer box) to Christian acquaintances and donated a beautiful white bookcase with glass doors to my colleague Nana in Volvo PV. She had moved with her husband Michael from US to Volvo PV to work there. I also donated and sold other furniture to my Christians friends in Gothenburg.

  For moving to Finland I rented a big van at a Swedish OK car rental company. I loaded it with all the furniture and other things I wanted to bring to Finland. I took also my mother from Borås on the same migration trip because she wanted to visit our relatives in Alajärvi in Finland that summer.

  I could not travel with her to Ostrobothnia at that time because the leased van had to be returned by ferry in the same evening and drive it to Gothenburg, in western Sweden. 

Last minute!

  I had calculated enough driving time for us, plus a couple of breaks along the way. However, the van's speedometer was set to show a speed of 20 km / h higher than what we in reality drove, and I didn't see it until the very end. We were in a hurry to get to Silja's car ferry on time.

  I drove the rest of the 100 km at high speed and luckily the cops didn't watch that part on their radar! I could miraculously drive the most direct route to Värtan Harbor in Stockholm, although I had never driven there before and there were no signposts for the final kilometers! HalleluYah!

  I had used most Viking Line ships in the past because they were slightly cheaper than Silja Line. I and my mother were not rich people with money but we were that in the spirit! (The car ferry trip in 1988 by Silja Line, I made by train)

  So I had most often used Viking Line ferries departing from a different harbor about 10 km to the south. We arrived at the port just before the car passenger lanes were closed, 15 minutes before the departure of the ferry and I was the last one allowed in! Amazing, how cool! HalleluYah!

  I don't even want to think about what would have happened if we were late for the ship. We wouldn't have had the money to stay in a hotel in Stockholm and I wouldn't have had the money to pay for an extra 24-hour van rental. There was a reason for us to pray thanking the rest of the trip and thank you tasted so much better than our like a snack on the car ferry when we got there! Praise to Adonai Yeshua! HalleluYah!

In Turku, Finland

  We slept in the open cabin of the Silja Line car ferry, which at that time was still in common use and was a free sleeping place. I took my mother to my apartment in Turku and took my belongings there alone in the elevator because my mother was already old at the time (almost 73 years old) and tired of traveling. He took the afternoon naps down on the mattress. Then we drank tea and rested for a while.

  Then I took my mother in an empty van to Turku Railway Station, from where she traveled by train to Ostrobothnia, and that evening I left by car ferry from the Port of Turku to Stockholm and returned the car to Gothenburg. There I cleaned my apartment, handed over the keys to the housing company and returned to Finland by bus and ferry. I moved to Finland in early July 1990.

  Varissuo - one of the biggest suburbs in Turku - is beautiful and rich in nature. There were then the best services in Turku and great public transport links by bus to the center of Turku. I lived along the infamous street, Pihkalankatu. I did not know about its bad reputation before I moved there. I hadn't been lived in Turku before. 

  At the other end of the street, there were city rentals apartments for drunks and there were three murders committed in one year! The other end, where I did live, was relatively quiet, with only condominiums. Many people in the area were missing the good news from Adonai Yeshua at the time! 

Meeting with Edvin Halme on car ferry to Turku

  After returning the hired van to Gothenburg for the last time and traveling to Turku, I suddenly met Edvin Halme on the ferry. He had then been on an Interrail trip for 6 weeks in Italy and elsewhere, on a language holiday. He had run out of money and had to fast for about a last week.

  I served him half of my snacks (bananas and cheese sandwiches), because I didn't have extra cash at the time. Edvin came with his friend to chat with me years later and brought some presents. It was nice to meet him again. May Adonai Yeshua bless and protect they both! 

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