Many experiences – the same trust

Hilkka Saulio

The Saulio family at the Kruunupyy Summer Services in 1999. The family’s baby is not pictured, asleep in a stroller by the entrance to the service tent.
From the Saulio family album

During the Christmas holiday, I pulled out a box from among our moving boxes, one that holds photo albums from along the path of our lives. Inside, there are alternating pictures of Christmases, the births of our children, and Summer Services. Our now-grown children leafed through them, pausing in wonder at things like the number of attendees at the Rautiosaari Summer Services in Rovaniemi: 50,000 people. The album includes a newspaper photo of the field, where, as was typical, caravans are lined up in perfectly straight rows. Together we wondered how such a crowd could have fit into Rautiosaari, or how it could be that there were once so “few” people at the Summer Services.

My own thoughts drift back to that time when there was no internet and no mobile phones. I stayed away from Summer Services for the first time, feeling wistful. I was expecting our fourth child, who had already tried to arrive at Midsummer, a month before the due date. My companion at home was our youngest at the time, Annastiina, who could not yet walk. For me, Summer Services lasted only as long as the two hour radio broadcast. For my husband, Antero, that trip to Summer Services was probably not easy either, with two little boys to look after. Caring for the young boys was made much easier by the assistance offered by his sister’s family, in the upstairs room above their porch, right in the middle of the Summer Services site. From there, they had magnificent views over the entire service grounds.

Because of our family’s three children with disabilities, we have usually been able to get a place near the front. Even so, we still had to allow plenty of time for the few hundred meter walk to the service tent. Over the years, to our great joy, Risto-Pekka and Elia learned to walk with the help of a walker. Before that, however, there was a time when everyone needed some kind of ride. At the Kokkola Summer Services in Kruunupyy, there was no longer room for us to fit in the disability access area, but our energetic five year old pushed their big brother’s wheelchair while I pushed the baby stroller, with our second youngest sitting in a seat on top of it. Antero pushed the twins’ stroller. My mother and father admired our cheerful caravan. They said that although being at Summer Services requires a great deal of effort, it is worth it, because this is how children come to love gathering with God’s children.

Over the years, new families have continued to come to the disability access area. We have gotten to know them, shared practical tips for managing everyday life, and experienced a special sense of togetherness. We have marveled at the diversity of God’s creation and, together, have been strengthened by God’s almighty power and his guidance in our lives.

Nowadays, walking along the runway feels like a luxury, as smooth as the surface of a table. Over the decades, I can remember at least two muddy Summer Services. By the end, everything was so covered in mud that when we set out for home, we had to bag up both the strollers and the children’s legs.

From those times, one scene in particular appears before me as vividly as a photograph: a relative family’s caravan camp. There, on a clothesline stretched across a canopy tent, freshly washed children’s clothes hung drying in the pouring rain. The mother of the family sat peacefully under the canopy at the camping table, eating hot soup and listening to the services.

As I leaf through photo albums, a moment from a hot summer services day flashes into my mind. I was in the caravan with the children, and one of them had vomited everywhere. We had borrowed the caravan. I cried as I crawled around cleaning up the mess. Suddenly, Grandma Ester peeked in through the caravan door and asked, “What is going on here?” Without waiting for an answer, she placed her hand on my shoulder and blessed me with the gospel. At that moment, I could not have received greetings from heaven at a better time.

At some point, traveling to Summer Services with the whole family became too difficult. Antero would then go to summer services with part of our family. What made it easier for me to stay behind and keep summer services at home was that we could listen to the services in real time. I often had summer services guests at home, and together we spent the days in the rhythm of summer services, with coffee breaks and meal breaks included. At those times, some dear person would remember those of us who had stayed home by sending us a postcard from Summer Services.

Now life has brought us to a stage where we are once again able to come to Summer Services together. Because of Elia, we are still able to stay in the disability access area, where it is easy for our children’s families to come and care for their little ones during the days of services. And oh, how we all rejoice to be gathered together again as our family has grown!

Published in the Päivämies 22.3.2026

Towards the Kauhava Summer Services Preparations for the Summer Services 2026 are underway in Kauhava. As spring progresses and summer approaches, the arrangements will become increasingly active. Through this blog series produced by the Communications Committee, you can follow the preparations for the Summer Services and thoughts related to them.