See the bird flying
It doesn't worry about the future
See the world made by God
Everybody praise The Lord
Reach The Maker to able to touch Him
Hallelujah our Father!
Welcome to the program Pelastusarkki!
Together with the cameraman Niko we're going to travel to Lithuania.
We'll travel via the Pärnu hospice and will see how people celebrate
Midsummer in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Our aim is to deliver aid to the Samaria unit in Lithuania.
We will also donate this van to them
which has been left over from the finnish Samaria.
We started our trip together with Samarias director
Ismo Valkoniemi and our goal was the Samaria unit in the
town called Siauliai in Lithuania.
Our mission was to drive through the Baltics to Lithuania
with Samarias van loaded full with useful goods and we would also
donate the truck to the Lithuanian Samaria unit.
The Lithuanian Samaria is it's own administrative unit
and operates separetaly from the Finnish Samaria
so the trip was a also useful way to check the situation
in the Lithuanian unit.
”Via Baltica” is a word in the modern Latin and means ”The Baltic Road”.
The route leads from Tallinn through Estonia, Latvia
Lithuania and to the Warsaw city in the north Poland.
The lenght of the route is almost 1000 kilometers.
Via Baltica is the central route for the traffic in the Baltics
and is also a drive through route for the Central and South Europe.
There are lots of interesting things to see
and to experience along the route.
Our first aim was to reach the harbour in Helsinki
and take the boat over the Baltic Sea to Tallinn.
We arrived just in time and drove our van inside the boat.
We had a chance to rest a bit
and gather strenght for the long drive
through the Baltics to Siauliai.
There was also a chance to think the trip properly
and try imagine what we would experience during the ride.
Now we're starting our ride to Pärnu
It's the 24th of June, the official day for the Midsummer in the Baltics
It will be interesting to see how everything will go.
The first part in the Estonia was drive to Pärnu.
We would have some food and rest in the Samaria hospice
and also would have an opportunity to exchance news with the local unit
While driving through Tallinn, it became clear that because
of the holiday there wasn't so much traffic
and only few people were on the streets.
Now we're driving to the Pärnu hospice and it's Midsummer here.
Kalju Pöldroos, a pastor in the local Pentacostal Church
speaks Estonian and I don't speak Estonian.
We will see how we can communicate with him.
Their Finnish speaking worker is in Finland at moment,
working in the local hospice.
Because there wasn't so much traffic along the route,
our ride went on smoothly and we arrived to Pärnu as scheduled.
Life in the Pärnu hospice went on it's own peaceful way.
We had a delicious meal and also talked about the news from Finland.
The hospice has different tasks, e.g. producing and selling firewood,
the city of Pärnu being their biggest customer.
We said goodbye to Pärnu hospice
and the next part was to drive to Riga in Latvia.
We arrived to the border area of Estonia and Latvia
and although we knew that nowadays you can cross the border freely,
the complete lack of inspection in the border
was quite confusing to us.
You don't necessarily even realize that you have crossed the border.
Via Baltica moves in the vicinity of the coast in Latvia
and when we found a good place to stop, we went to lovely beach
and admire the magnificient views.
We couldn't enjoy the peaceful feeling of the beaches for long
because there was still so much driving ahead for us.
During the long ride we experienced different weather conditions,
were amazed by the local traffic culture
and also stopped several times for roadworks
because the conditions of the roads were so varied.
The road has been patched many times! Patch after patch!
It's like driving in the potatofield. Luckily it's getting better.
While driving through such roads, you will easily start to think
how durable is the van because the car was relatively old.
We arrived to Riga without problems and while driving through the city,
we had a chance to admire beautiful scenes and also monitor local people.
The city was nearly equally quiet as Tallinn was
so if you're seeking experiences, do not necessarily travel to Baltics
during their Midsummer time.
We have been driving the longest straight road in my life!
We don't know how long it is or when it ends.
I could take a nap and switch on the autopilot, but we don't have it.
After Riga the road changed very straightforward and after 20-30 km
driving it still remained same and there was no end in sight.
It was quite confusing for a finnish traveler
who is used to many hills in his home country.
We are still in Latvia, but driving into Lithuania
and near the border is a place with millions of crosses.
If a cross is so dear to a person, it's a very good thing.
Saint Paul said: I don't want to know nothing but Christ and his cross
It's the cross and the Christ which are the central things.
Hill of Crosses is a religious place and a popular attraction.
It is first mentioned in the written sources in 1850.
When the amount of the crosses was first counted in 1900
there were 130 crosses in the hill.
Under the Soviet rule between 1961 and 1984
the crosses were destroyed with bulldozers 4 times.
The lithuanians practiced nonviolent resistance against the Soviet rule
by placing new crosses for the destroyed ones.
The amount of the crosses has increased significantly.
Nowadays there are 100.000 crosses and new ones can be set up freely.
There are also big crucifixes and statues of the Virgin Mary.
In the year 1993 Pope John Paul II visited the hill.
Now we're watching crosses. But there's a deeper meaning
behind the crosses: The Christ.
There's an enourmous amount of handwork behind these crosses.
Here's milllions of crosses!
Memorial crosses, crosses where people ask for help or thank God.
People have brought them in here, wanting to show the power of masses.
Faith is a very important thing to us.
There's catholism a lot, but also true faith of the heart a lot.
The amount of the crosses is just enourmous!
There's an endless amount of crosses here.
Here you can find hundreds, almost thousands of crosses in a pile.
It's just an unbelievable amount!
There is a human and a story behind every cross.
You can say that faith is not an insignicant thing
for the people after all.
It's an important thing for them when they bring crosses in here.
The most important thing for us Christians is the Christ in heart.
The cross is important, but we want the Christ into our hearts.
This hill reminds me of the Golgata.
Me and the cameraman Niko are quite impressed of it.
This was a mandatory stop for us. Now we will head to Samaria.
After the fantastic and unbelievable Hill of Crosses, there was 10 km
left for the Samaria unit which is located near the Shiauliai.
Just in the final moment we encountered a certain problem:
The unit doesn't exists on the map, because of the reason we would
get to know later on. We stopped to check the navigator.
After a few indecisive moment, Ismo Valkoniemi picked his cellphone
and called to the unit asking for instructions for the arrival.
We got an relieving answer: We were on the correct route
so we continued to drive and after a moment we curved to Samarias area.
We had finally arrived!
Samaria unit director Vladimiras Karpovas
And his son Andrejus Karpovas met us with joy.
Our aid was much needed.
The Samaria of Lithuania defines itself as a organization of christian
love and compassion. It's main branch is a
Samaria Family Center which is a 8 hectare area.
The unit is located in an old Soviet air-to-air missile base
so that's the reason it doesn't exists on the map.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in the beginning of the 1990s,
the local troops abandoned the area
and the base then shifted into the Lithuanias Ministry of Defense.
Samaria got the area without having to pay anything.
Samaria Family Center offers for the families at risk and
for the lonely treatment and a place to live.
Because of the old age, the houses and property are in bad shape
a thing we noticed when we were visiting the places.
Samaria foundation has got a funding from the EU
for the period of 2007-2013
but the funding is almost ending and there's no info about the extension.
There's a huge shortage of money which is valueable for the unit
and there's almost no firewood for the winter
not having to mention about the broken mainheater unit!
If the unit doesn't get a new working mainheater soon,
the winter will be hard for the families in the unit
The unit gets some money by practicing farming
but all the available aid is crucial for them!
While the unit has continuous problems
and it has to balance with the shortage of financial aid,
we got to notice with delight that the faith for the future
with God and the enthusiastic work with low resources was strong!
At the moment the Samaria hospice was full of clients
so for getting an accommodation, we travelled to another local hospice,
Agapao Fondas, which Vladimiras Karpovas, the director of Samaria,
founded in the past when he was away for a while from the Samaria work.
Nowadays the Agapao and Samaria hospices are working together.
The Agapao unit is located on the other side of Shiauliai
and also operates with the EU project funding.
The director of the unit is Vladimiras Karpovas son Andrejus.
After arriving to the Agapao main building we got to know
the treatment program and the clients at the evening meeting.
We got introduced and there was singing together in Lithuanian.
While the language was strange, it didn't prevent us to participate.
During the time in Shiauliai we got ourselves familiar with the local
food culture and we also noticed how important part is the traditional
agriculture in the Lithuanian culture.
In the Agapao and Samaria units, agronomics and sheep farming
play an important role in living and also in nursing.
There is also solarpanel technology alongside with the farming.
We got a chance to talk a bit with the workers of the hospices
and also explored the living in the Shiauliai.
But all too soon we were facing the start of our return trip.
After leaving our van to the local Samaria hospice
we got a transport for the return trip
and a worker from Agapao as a driver.
The first part of the trip went on smoothly
but there was a surprise ahead of us when we arrived into Latvia:
Our driver maybe was speeding too much
and was called to talk with Latvian police.
I hope there isn't going be a big speeding ticket
but accidentally the speed got too high when we got good road under us.
Our driver speeded maybe too much and the local police stopped us.
The police asked the driver to come out of the car to talk a bit
and for a while we were uncertain what will be happen.
But soon the driver came back and our journey continued.
We were amazed how we could continue without any sanctions.
The driver told to us he had said that he was late
and he had to catch the boat in Estonia.
The police wanted 40 euros payment but the driver had told
he hasn't got money and also he hasn't got any euros.
After thinking for a while the police had let our driver go
but had insisted that driver would have to bring him a bottle of vodka
when he drives back to Lithuania!
After this a bit odd case for a Finnish taste
our journey continued without problems from Latvia to Estonia
where we would quickly visit the Haapsalu hospice.
Thomas Vallimäe, the director of the hospice, welcomed us
and after a tasty meal and exchanging the news
there was time for a yet another nice surprise:
The Estonian Samaria gave a fine aid because there's a shortage of money.
We said goodbye to our driver who returned to Lithuania
with the food donation from Estonian Samaria with him.
After that we travelled to Tallinn with Thomas Vallimäe
and there was waiting our boat to Finland.
Our eventful journey was inevitably approaching to its end
and it was a time to sit down and start to digest
all the things we had seen and experienced.
Thank you for watching Pelastusarkki!
The register plates are the only thing remaining from the trip.
We left the car with the goods and came back without a car.
Thank you for following our journey!
In the next episode you'll see a very interesting interview
about the director of the Lithuanian Samaria and his son.
Be sure to watch Pelastusarkki then!
English translation by Niko Silvennoinen