Sharing Bible Truths

I wanted to share what I had learned with other deaf people, and the best way to reach them was with sign language. At first, I zealously preached to the deaf in my hometown.

Soon I moved to Tampere, a large industrial city. I searched for deaf people there by going from door to door, asking if the householder knew any people who were deaf. I started Bible studies this way, and in just a few years, Tampere had more than ten deaf publishers.

In 1965, I met a lovely sister, Maire. We were married the next year. Maire learned sign language quickly, and she proved to be a loyal and industrious companion in the five decades that we served Jehovah together.

Two years after our marriage, we had a son, Marko, who is hearing. At home, he learned Finnish, his mother tongue, and Finnish Sign Language. Marko was baptized at the age of 13.

In time, many new ones joined our sign-language group in Tampere. Therefore, in 1974, we moved to another city, Turku, where there were no deaf Witnesses. We again searched for deaf people by making door-to-door inquiries. During our years in Turku, 12 of my Bible students got baptized.

Organized to Help the Deaf

In 1997, a sign-language translation group was established at the Finland Branch. Because we lived nearby, Maire and I were able to help prepare sign-language publications, which I still occasionally do today. We worked together with our son, Marko. Along with his wife, Kirsi, Marko also later helped train sign-language translation groups in other countries.

Additionally, the branch office has organized courses to help hearing publishers to learn sign language. Thanks to these courses, many have joined the sign-language activity, supporting the preaching work and meetings and taking up responsibilities in the congregation.

My Desire to Help Still Burns

In 2004, Maire and I helped form the first Finnish sign-language congregation in Helsinki. In three years it became a strong and zealous congregation with many pioneers.

Again, we started to make plans to move to an area with greater need. In 2008, we moved near Tampere and went back to the sign-language group that we had left 34 years earlier. A year later, that sign-language group became the second sign-language congregation in Finland.