the immigrant child

And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. Ruth 1:16-17


This verse has always made my eyes water … it reminds me of our little family’s immigration to Canada … the final good-byes to dear ones - some who we would never see again … leaving the familiar behind to face an unknown future in an unknown land … the life of immigrants … always having your heart divided by the land of your birth … and the land of your choice … I’m so glad that our heavenly home won’t include a divided loyalty of any kind!

they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  Hebrews 11:13b　

My parents were only in their 20’s, my brother and i just youngsters, when we arrived in Winnipeg, Manitoba … a prairie city . .. So different from Finland … the land of lakes and midnight sun

We were born Lutheran … most finns are ... the church was the very centre of everything … all family life recorded in the church books … and the teaching depended on the preacher’s own state of grace … but we always believed in God and never doubted that we lived in His creation …

In the new country, we had no church base … or close knit family circle to help a troubled young couple cope with the language barrier and strangeness of the culture … dad’s drinking grew worse …

When we moved to a rough and tumble mining town in northern Manitoba, the fate of my parents marriage was sealed … it ended after 10 years …

At this time, a longing for God was planted in my heart … ( click here for longer story ) … i knew i was a sinner and that Jesus had died for my sins …

When i was 11, Mom married a man who came from an evangelical background … he was open to going to meetings and church … at the age of 12, i went up at a Billy Graham crusade in Winnipeg … it was a long scary walk to the front, from way back in the stadium, but one i am so thankful I made … a hunger for God’s word was born inside of me and we even started attending a wonderful little bible centred church … this immigrant child had finally found her home in the person of Jesus Christ- i may continue to be a stranger and pilgrim here on earth … but Jesus said:   Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.  John 14: 1-3