Joe almost turned back more than once.

The Sabbath morning he first came to OIKOS House in Helsinki, everything inside him resisted going. Though he had recently begun his journey of faith, anxiety pressed hard as he left his home, walked to the train station, boarded the train, and then walked again toward an unfamiliar house.

“It felt like every step was a battle,” Joe recalled. “I didn’t know about spiritual warfare then—but I know now that something didn’t want me to come.”

The final walk from the station should have taken five minutes. Instead, it took fifteen—and three prayers.

Standing outside the door, Joe hesitated. What if this is the wrong place? What if they don’t accept me? he thought. He pressed the doorbell, telling himself that if no one answered within five seconds, he would run home.

The door opened almost immediately.

With warm smiles and a genuine welcome, the fear that had followed Joe all morning vanished. “It was like crossing a barrier,” he said. “The anxiety disappeared the moment I stepped inside.”

For the first time, church felt different.

Joe’s journey to that doorstep began long before Finland. Born in Thailand to a Finnish father and a Thai mother, Joe spent much of his childhood attending Adventist schools. He learned Bible stories, sang hymns, and prayed before meals—but faith felt distant.

“I believed God existed,” he said. “But I didn’t know Him personally.”

When Joe was 13, his mother passed away. Though she had found Christian faith shortly before her death, the loss left Joe deeply confused and bitter. A youth group that had once felt like a refuge dissolved soon after, and his questions about God went unanswered.

“I didn’t understand why a loving God would take my mother, and then the youth group,” Joe said. “So, I walked away.”

For years, he searched elsewhere for belonging through parties, alcohol, and later alternative spiritual paths. Nothing lasted. What once numbed the pain eventually deepened it.

By his late twenties, Joe felt empty and exhausted. Depression and anxiety weighed heavily, and a painful breakup only intensified his despair.

“One night, I felt like the world had nothing left to offer me,” he said.

As Joe reached the lowest point of his life, a single word impressed itself on his heart: Pray.

“I knew exactly who that prayer was meant for—the God I had learned about as a child,” Joe said.

That night, Joe prayed honestly and desperately, asking God to take away his pain and give him life. Exhausted from months of sleeplessness, he fell asleep.

When he woke, something was different.

“The depression was gone,” he said simply. “I knew it wasn’t me. It had to be God.”

Days later, biking to work in the cold winter darkness, Joe felt joy rising in his heart. “It felt like the sun was shining just for me,” he said. With a grateful heart, he committed his life fully to God.

Not long afterward, Joe followed an invitation to OIKOS House.

“I had never experienced church like that,” he said. “People listened. They wanted to know my story. There was no judgment—only belonging.”

Joe stayed late that first Sabbath, sharing his testimony again and again with people who genuinely cared. From that day on, he knew he had found a spiritual family.

“What struck me most,” Joe said, “was that OIKOS doesn’t just talk about Jesus’ teachings—it tries to live them.”

Encouraged by the community that believed in him, Joe began to sense a new calling. Today, he is studying theology, preparing for pastoral ministry. His dream is to serve at OIKOS House and help plant new churches—places where others searching for belonging can encounter God just as he did.

“This house is just a tool,” Joe reflected. “What matters is God’s kingdom—and helping others discover the love that changed my life.”

Looking back, Joe sees God’s hand in every step, from seeds planted in childhood to a long, difficult walk toward a house where he finally found home.

Joe’s journey reminds us that finding faith often begins with finding community. Through ministries like OIKOS House, God is creating spaces where people burdened by loneliness, doubt, or fear can encounter genuine belonging and the healing love of Christ. Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will support OIKOS as it expands its outreach and prepares to plant new churches for the next generation. Thank you for your faithful giving.