芬兰米凯利市（Mikkeli）一处，劳里·赫尔南斯阴郁地站在他好友的坟墓前。

三年前，与他同龄的好友因为血凝块从心脏转移到大脑而病逝。

“我可能成为躺在坟墓里的人”劳里心想。

他感觉到自己内心有声音说：“你明白自己按着现在的方式生活，将会有什么结局。你真的想要那样的结局吗？”

当时45岁的劳里回答不了这个问题。但是这个问题日复一日地在他的脑海里盘旋：“如果你死了，你知道自己的结局。如果你死了，你知道自己的结局……”

他害怕地想起儿时听到的关于耶稣复临的事。他被告知，坏人会被扔进永远不灭的炼火地狱之中。但是他没有一个朋友是基督徒，他也不知道有谁愿意倾听他的恐惧。

更糟糕的是，当他因耳部感染去就医时，被查出患有前列腺癌症。现在他的时日所剩无几。

于是，劳里鼓起勇气和一位基督教牧师谈话。牧师为劳里祈祷，求上帝赦免他的罪，并且邀请劳里也祷告祈求得到上帝的饶恕。

他们祷告时，劳里的内心发生了改变，他把自己的罪弃在十字架下，接着，他心里充满了平安和喜乐。

于是，劳里开始认真地读《圣经》。在路加福音里，他惊喜地发现周六才是安息日。他反复研读了新约三遍，尝试找出安息日从周六改成周日的证据，但是他一无所获。

大约在那时，他在报纸上看到本地安息日会展开布道会的信息。不到一年，他就加入了教会。

劳里的妻子很反对他的信仰，提出了离婚。几年后，劳里与一位安息日会的姐妹帕伊维结婚了, 并且搬去了她的老家拉赫蒂（Lahti）。

劳里想方设法要给拉赫蒂的人传福音。在许多次祷告以后，他受到感动，准备在拉赫蒂的安息日教堂里开一间食品储藏室。

“大部分芬兰人都不关心宗教，他们追逐物质财富和世俗的享乐，”他说道，“他们的生活中没有上帝的容身之地。因此我在想，怎么才能接触到他们。食物储藏室就是一个接触到他们的方式。”

一周两次来教会食物储藏室取食物的，有建筑工人，有老年人。很多都是芬兰人，其他都是俄罗斯人。一些人正面临财务困境。他们大部分都很孤独，在寻求友情，就像劳里渴望与基督徒朋友聊天一样。

“在芬兰，大家很难和别人交心谈论自己的私事，更别说是信仰。”劳里说。

一开始，只有几个人来食物储藏室。但是五年后的现在，每周一和周三都有40人会来。 这个食物储藏室走进了上百人的生活，而且至少一人已经受洗了。

食物储藏室还吸引了不活跃的复临信徒。一些原本好几年没参加聚会的教友开始主动慢慢地重新融入教会。

劳里今年60岁了，他的癌症被治好了，而且他现在健康状况良好，也不再害怕死亡了。

“现在我的生命掌握在耶稣手中，而且我急切地等待祂的复临”他说道，“我不害怕死亡”

备注：食物储藏室是一个免费分发食物的地方。

Friend to Finland’s Friendless

Lauri Herranen stood somberly at the grave of a friend in Mikkeli, Finland.

The same-aged friend had died three years earlier when a blood clot moved from his heart to his brain.

“I could be the one in the grave,” Lauri thought.

He sensed an inner voice say, “You know where the life that you are now living will lead. Do you really want that?”

Lauri, who was 45, couldn’t answer the question. But it echoed in his mind day after day: “If you die, you know what will happen to you. If you die, you know what will happen to you.”

With fright, he remembered hearing about Jesus’ second coming as a child. He had been taught that the wicked would be cast into an eternally burning hell. He didn’t have any Christian friends, and he didn’t know who would listen to his fears.

Matters grew worse when he went to the doctor for an ear infection and was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Now the prospect of death was very real.

Lauri worked up the courage to talk to a pastor at a Christian denomination. The pastor prayed for Lauri’s sins to be forgiven and asked Lauri also to pray for forgiveness.

During the prayers, something happened inside Lauri. He left his sins at the foot of the cross, and peace and joy filled him.

Lauri started to read the Bible earnestly. To his surprise, he saw that the gospel of Luke referred to Saturday as the Sabbath. He read the New Testament three times to find a place where the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday, but he couldn’t find any.

Around that time, he saw a newspaper advertisement for evangelistic meetings at a local Seventh-day Adventist church. Less than a year later, he joined the church.

Lauri’s wife disapproved of his interest in God, and she filed for divorce. A couple years later, Lauri married an Adventist woman, Päivi, and moved to her hometown, Lahti.

Lauri longed to find ways to share Jesus in Lahti. After much prayer, he felt impressed to open a food pantry at the Lahti Seventh-day Adventist Church.

“Most Finns are quite secular, and their lives are centered around material goods and worldly pleasures,” he said. “They have no room for God in their lives. So I asked, ‘How can we reach them?’ The food pantry is one way.”

Those who come to the church for food twice a week include construction workers and the elderly. Many are Finns, while others are Russians. Some are facing financial struggles. Most are lonely, looking for friendship, just like Lauri when he had longed for Christian friends to talk to.

“In Finnish society, it is difficult to talk to others about personal issues, especially faith,” Lauri said.

Only a few people visited the food pantry at the beginning. But now, after five years, 40 people come every Monday and Wednesday. The food pantry has touched hundreds of lives, and at least one person has been baptized.

The food pantry also has attracted inactive Adventists. Church members who have not attended worship services in years have volunteered and slowly rejoined the life of the church.

Lauri, 60, who has been successfully treated for cancer and is in good health, doesn’t fear death anymore.

“Now my life is in the hands of Jesus, and I am waiting eagerly for the second coming,” he said. “I am not afraid to die.”