Jay Peregrine Visits Finland

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Kalevi Eklöf & Jay Peregrine

Finnish book storage

By Jay Peregrine, Executive Director, Urantia Foundation, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Recently I spent a week in Finland where I visited Kalevi Eklöv, the manager of Urantia Foundation’s branch office in Finland, and his wife, Marja. They live in Klaukkala, near Helsinki. Kalevi is the third office manager in Finland, following Seppo Kanerva (now a Trustee Emeritus of Urantia Foundation) and Kristina Siikala. While I was there, Kalevi and I examined and counted the Foundation’s inventory including approximately 1,000 copies of the Finnish translation. The inventory is stored in a barn that was converted into a clean and secure storage area by the son of a farmer.

Kalevi, Marja and I had a delicious lunch with Joel Renström, the translator of Urantiaboken, the Swedish translation of The Urantia Book. Joel and his wife, Eeva, live on the coast southwest of Helsinki in an area where there are many Swedish speaking people.

After spending two days in the “lake country” with Associate Trustee Irmeli Ivalo-Sjölie, I attended the annual Summer Day Conference of the Finnish Urantia Association where I gave a talk about Urantia Foundation’s origin, history, current efforts, and future plans. Seppo Kanerva translated and added his own perspective from time to time. I attended a study group in English, and on Saturday evening at a dance, I toasted Joel and thanked him for his work on the Swedish translation and for all his efforts since 1966 to spread the teachings of The Urantia Book in Finland.