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Let your song echo the fire of God.
Set your torch ablaze.
Head in the clouds, feet on the ground.
BLAZE
Today's guest is a 90-year-old dean, missionary veteran, -
a man who I greatly admire, Mr. Päivö Parviainen.
He exercises regularly, and after the program he'll go to a masseur.
Right now he sits in front of me. Welcome, Mr. Parviainen.
I'm very happy to have you in our program.
I'm also happy that you'll be answering the question -
I usually pose to my guests first.
Which passage of the Bible sets you ablaze?
Lately I've been thinking about the verses from Luke 16:11-12.
These verses create a problem for me.
I'm looking for an answer -
and waiting for God to teach me.
You said your eyes don't see very well anymore.
I'll read Luke 16:11-12.
"Therefore if you have not been faithful" -
"in the unrighteous mammon," -
"who will commit to your trust the true riches?"
"And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s," -
"who will give you what is your own? "
I have come to understand that mammon is a bad thing.
It can be written with a minus sign.
Jesus uses the expression 'unrighteous mammon'.
It can be interpreted as an opposite of evil.
It should be written with a plus sign.
What is the use of unrighteous mammon?
I have come to understand that it is the use of money and wealth -
according to God's will.
The Lord tells us to make friends by unrighteous mammon, -
that when you fail, -
they may receive you into an everlasting home.
Therefore we are users of unrighteous mammon.
The Lord has told us, how to use the gifts we were given -
according to His own will.
But what is faithfulness in using the gifts?
There are two possibilities.
One is to be unfaithful and use the gifts wrongly -
for one's own good and not for God's glory.
The other is to be faithful in operating the gifts.
Once you come to this understanding -
and start to use money or other wealth according to God's will, -
you should be diligent.
You shouldn't hide the talent in the earth.
One should try to double the talent.
The Lord can say: "Well done, good and faithful servant."
"You have been faithful over a few things."
"I will make you ruler over many things."
Therefore if you have not been faithful -
in the unrighteous mammon, -
who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, -
who will give you what is your own?
My understanding is that you still travel and preach.
What kind of things fill your days and weeks?
I usually to go the morning prayer meeting -
in Kallio church hall on weekdays from 7 to 8 a.m. -
and on Sundays from 9 to 10 a.m.
This is the 13th year.
No matter whether it was winter or summer.
On Mondays and on Fridays -
I go to the chapel of Helsinki Cathedral.
The prayer group meets there from 7:15 to 8:30 a.m.
These meetings have been so rewarding -
that whenever I'm in Helsinki I'll be there.
Is there a place for new members, -
if somebody wants to join?
The meetings are open.
Sometimes there are two or three people.
Sometimes there have been 11.
Perhaps once there were as many as 12.
The more people there are, the longer we stay.
Everybody gets to pray aloud in turn.
That's what inspires you today.
If there was a book with 34 000 pages, -
the book would cover the days of your life.
If we would go back to the first pages of the book, -
in what kind of a milieu and a family would we find ourselves?
We would go back to 19th June, 1912.
As far as I know my mother gave birth to me -
in our summer house in Männikköniemi near Joensuu.
The summer house is located at Lake Pyhäselkä.
There were already 7 children in our family.
After me came twins.
We were a family of ten children.
Did your family members know Jesus?
No, as far as I can see.
No one had Jesus in their life.
My parents were members of a church.
Of course they believed in God.
They weren't believers in the sense I understand it.
How did you become a believer?
How did Jesus approach you?
Because we were so many, we had a nanny.
Her name was Anna Luukkonen.
She was an orphan since she was very young.
Her parents had been believers.
Most certainly, they had prayed for Anna and her siblings.
One time we went out in Helsinki - my mother, me, the twins and Anna.
We went to the movies.
Mr. Urho Muroma had an evangelical meeting in the Mission Church.
Anna felt that she should go there.
When we came home, she asked a permission to go there.
My mother answered, that she's free to go after putting us to bed.
Anna went there and met the dean Urho Muroma.
Mr. Muroma led Anna to Christ that night.
Anna joined the Bible study group in the Mission Church.
I noticed a change in her. She became more vivacious.
She had a money box at her table for missionary work.
She also had a red Bible which she read at times.
I asked her to give me a Bible.
She bought me a Bible for my 9th birthday.
I came to Christ.
It is said that faith comes by hearing, -
and hearing by the word of God.
I didn't go to Sunday School or to church.
When I read Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, -
I believed it was true.
I received the Holy Spirit through faith.
And there we were, Anna and I, two believers.
There was unity in Christ.
Amen.
When you grew up, -
did Anna or someone else lead you to the Faculty of Theology?
Anna decided to move forward after 10 years.
She wanted to become a midwife.
There was no one in our family, -
who would have supported me in the early walk of faith.
I turned away from God.
Then my oldest sister died 19th September, 1928.
The Lord started to draw me closer.
I came again to Christ in the second year of the high school.
I joined the confirmation class.
In the Communion service I felt that the Lord took me back.
I joined a missionary team.
We had meetings on Saturday nights.
I felt again the same unity of Saints as with Anna.
Then I went to the Faculty of Theology.
I had already bought a book, The Triumph of Technology.
I read it in the last year of the high shool.
I had made a decision to become a naval engineer.
Back then I didn't knew that -
my father and grandfather had been shipowners in Joensuu.
One day before the last exams I went to school.
Our religion teacher was Lauri Pohjanpää.
I met him by chance in the staircase.
He looked at me and said: "You could become a priest."
Then I joined the Faculty of Theology.
You became a priest.
You also became a missionary.
Eventually your path led you to China.
How did it happen?
It was my last year in university.
I can't remember if it was December 1934 or January 1935.
I was reading for an exam in a restaurant here in Helsinki.
It was morning.
Suddenly I saw a vision of myself packing luggage to China.
There were seven packings of different size.
I heard a voice saying: "I'll take you to China and bring you back."
"I'll be with you until I bring you to my glory."
Suddenly the vision was gone.
I had never experienced something like that before.
I've written it down in my diary, -
but the diary is lost.
I'm not able to remember the exact date.
25th February the same year Erkki Kaila ordained us to priests.
I had visited the head of the missionary committee, -
and he had asked which one I choose, Africa or China, -
I answered: none of the two.
At times I had been so depressed, -
that I said to myself, who wants to become a Christian -
after seeing such a downhearted missionary.
But the Lord started to grow me. 11 years passed.
Then I went gladly.
I had an urge to go.
What was the year you left?
We left in the turn of May and June in 1946.
It was right after war.
How long did you stay in China?
About seven years in mainland-China.
After that I came to Finland for a couple of years.
Then I went to Taiwan.
I spent 12 years in Taiwan.
I have been away from Finland about 19 years in total.
What did the years spent in China teach you?
During the first three years of my stay -
China was under Christian leadership, Chiang Kai-shek.
I learned a bit of the local language.
I remember saying to myself, -
that if I hadn't been born in Finland, I would go back to China.
The Chinese were very pleasant.
But then the time of Mao Zedong began , -
and he established his reign 1st October, 1949.
Some of us stayed in the missionary stations at our own risk.
We stayed to see what was going to happen.
The next four years were extremely difficult.
But I also saw how the Lord maintains His people.
He doesn't leave us even when the times get rough.
I cherish these memories.
The Lord has strengthened my faith.
Sometimes I felt that my time goes in vain, -
because I wasn't able to help Finland.
Now I understand that the Lord has made up the time.
He has given me time of mercy and prolonged my time -
and given me work possibilities here in Finland.
What was the message you gave to people you met in China?
The message was that -
Jesus is alive. He loves you.
He is your best friend, even if you don't know him yet.
But the more you learn to know Him, -
the more you want to follow Him.
The more we are bound in Him, -
the more free He lets us feel ourselves.
The thirty years after coming back to Finland -
haven't been resting on laurels.
You have stayed active.
How do you cherish China and the Chinese in your heart?
Now you don't have to travel to China anymore -
because there are so many Chinese students in Finland.
On Sunday I'll be witness to the confirmation of a boy -
whom I grafted in Christ through baptism 15 years ago.
He is now 15 years old.
I can be there with him.
I can go to his home with his parents and thank God gladly.
There is a Chinese congregation in Helsinki.
This year I had a privilege to meet again a woman -
who was a 4-years-old daughter of a Chinese missionary -
when I left from her hometown in 1949.
She came to visit Finland this year.
Now she is 62 years old.
She came to my place and prepared a Chinese meal for me.
I can believe it was wonderful!
Most certainly.
How do you see China today?
We hear of revival and of China's growing industry.
How do you see the China of today?
It's a growing nation.
There are many effects of the enemy's work.
The countryside is becoming slowly desolate.
People are moving to big cities.
There are many bad and rough things, -
but the revival has started.
It is probably the biggest in church history.
There are Christians who aren't afraid of martyrdom -
or going to prison.
The street evangelism is forbidden for Chinese.
There are many who can't resist telling people about Jesus.
They are ready to go to prison.
Then they preach in prisons.
Some of them go abroad to be a witness of our Lord.
We have so much to learn from them.
We are in our infancy in preparing for the martyrdom -
in the church of Finland compared to Chinese Christians.
I thank God that He is with them, and we can learn from them.
You have taught us.
How do you see us, the Finns and Finland?
What do you see?
The Lord has led a man from China to the western countries.
The Lord has set him free from prison and healed him.
He has visited Finland many times.
The book 'The Heavenly Man' tells about him.
He has come to thank the Finns for spreading Bibles to China.
He also appeals that we should follow the Lord wholeheartly.
This is what I wish for myself, too.
I'm not sure if I'm ready to face martyrdom.
However, I pray that God gives me the gift of discernment of Spirit.
I pray that God gives me the grace, so that I won't worship the beast -
or take his mark in forehead or in hand.
I hope I'll be ready to suffer whatever Christians have to face, -
so long as I enter the Millenium Kingdom, -
where the Lord Jesus will reign in this earth, -
and Satan is bound in the bottomless pit, -
so that he can't deceive people during the thousand years, -
when Jesus reigns in Jerusalem -
and guides the mutual relationships of the nations.
There will be Helsinki and China.
Perhaps then I can go back to China -
and learn to speak Chinese better than now.
This is what I'm expecting.
The passage of the Bible you have chosen relates to this.
It's Matthew 24:31.
Here Jesus tells us what will happen on His second coming.
Mr. Päivö Parviainen, thank you very much for being here with us.
I'll read the passage of the Bible you have selected from Mt 24:31.
"And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet," -
"and they will gather together His elect from the four winds," -
"from one end of heaven to the other."
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