Rev. Simojoki answers call to serve in Africa July 27, 2024

Imagine all the issues involved in moving a household of ten (pictured above) — and now imagine moving a family that size more than 6,000 miles, across continents, climates and cultures.

It would be such a daunting task that many families would say “No thanks.” But the Simojoki family is thoroughly undaunted!

With the partnership of LHF and The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Rev. Tuomo Simojoki has accepted a call extended by the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland to serve in Kenya for at least 5 years. In answering this call, Rev. Simojoki will continue to manage LHF’s translation projects in East Africa.

“We initially moved to Kenya in 2018 with plans to stay there longer, but the Covid pandemic brought us back to Finland earlier than anticipated,” Rev. Simojoki explained. “When we returned to Finland, we were expecting to return to Kenya soon. Now it seems that, from God’s perspective, this is the right time.”

Tell us about your family.
Our family has been blessed with eight children: Charlotta (18), Selma (17), Esther (15), Märtha (13), Elin (11), Matthias (8), Oscar (6) and Beata (2). Also, we are expecting an addition to our family. God willing, we will welcome a baby boy at the end of October in Nairobi! Charlotta graduated this spring and she will be staying in Finland. Selma and Esther will join us for a year in Kenya before returning back to Finland to finish their school here. The other children will be enrolling at an international Christian school in Nairobi. It’s the same school they attended before, so it is familiar to them.

What motivates a large family to move so far?
We have a clear call for mission work. The work and the environment are natural for me, having been brought up as the son of a Lutheran missionary (the late Rev. Dr. Anssi Simojoki, former LHF project coordinator for African projects). But working and staying in Africa has really gripped the whole family! It is an amazing opportunity to work together with the Africans, supporting the local churches as they grow in numbers, but also grow deeper in their spiritual roots. And it has to be said that we actually really enjoy living in Kenya; it somehow feels like home to us. It takes an adventurous spirit and possibly a pinch of craziness to move to Africa with such a large family, but maybe these are the characteristics that the big families typically have anyway!

What’s it like to move to Africa as a large family?
Well, fortunately this is not the first time, so doing it the second time round is a little bit easier, but admittedly it is quite an operation! You have your work permits, dependent passes, school admissions in Finland and Kenya, housing issues, packing, insurances, contracts, vaccinations, farewells, etc. We have said many times that it would be great to bypass this phase of moving and just already be in Kenya. But there is wisdom in things happening in steps. It allows us to prepare psychologically for the new phase. It also gives us a healthy mourning period for all the good things we need to leave behind here in Finland.

What will you be missing from Finland as you leave?
The biggest thing is our eldest daughter Charlotta, who will be staying behind. And soon we will be missing the next two, Selma and Esther, as they leave in a year. It is a big enough step for a child to leave home, but it is even a bigger one when the parents are over 6,000 miles away. We will also leave behind other relatives and friends. The children will leave behind their friends, hobbies and schools. For the kids, this move also means giving up their freedom of movement. In Finland, it is safe for them to walk and cycle independently wherever they want. In Kenya, this freedom is lost, and we parents need to take them everywhere. We will also miss small practical things like being able to drink the tap water, electricity without power cuts, clean vegetables, etc. And ironically, as we move to assist others in getting spiritual materials in their own mother tongues, we ourselves forfeit that right as we leave our Finnish congregation behind. Our youngest kids also say they will miss the snow, but for us parents that is no problem at all!

What are you looking forward to in Kenya?
We are really excited to get back to working every day together with our Nairobi staff. We have very close relations with them and have missed them dearly. We are also looking forward to the communal way of life that is so typical in Africa. From a work perspective, we are looking forward to advancing some projects that have been waiting for us to be there in person. On behalf of the kids, we parents are happy they will be returning to a Christian school. We are looking forward to them having an hour of Bible every day and just having a school where the Word of God is present in every topic and in the whole operation of the school.

How can we pray for the Simojoki family?

• The move to Kenya is a large operation that really takes a lot of energy. We ask for strength and perseverance during this move.
• For the children, we ask that God would prepare good friends, teachers and hobbies in Kenya. For the children staying in Finland, for them to have a sense of security and to find their own place in the world.
• Giving birth in Kenya is a new and slightly worrying experience. We ask that everything would go well and that we would get a healthy baby and that Leena would stay safe as well.
• Experience has shown that spiritual work invites the devil to really attack hard. So we ask for protection in dangers, perseverance in times of trials and for peace in Jesus Christ.