A long-serving missionary has donated her car to the Free Church of Finland's mission arm, SVK Missio, to support colleagues travelling between assignments across the Nordic country. Kikke Klaver, a language development worker who has served since 2004 in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus, and Finland, handed over the Skoda Fabia Combi on Monday at Teopolis, the WWES partner seminary in Tampere. The vehicle was originally funded by her sending church in the Netherlands to meet the critical transport needs of her work in Finnish Lapland.
Since 2018, Klaver has been based in Inari, assisting the Inari Sámi Bible translation project — one of the most linguistically significant indigenous-language Scripture efforts in northern Europe. With her transition to new assignments that will keep her outside Finland for at least two years, Klaver and her Dutch sending congregation chose to gift the vehicle to SVK Missio rather than let it sit unused. The handover was received by SVK Missio director Nanna Rautiainen and SVK's finance and administration director Kimmo Kaartama.
"This is a really good donation, because missionaries returning to Finland for summer or home assignment often have a great need for a car. The first users of this car will already be behind the wheel next week," said Rautiainen. The gift highlights the quiet, practical infrastructure that sustains mission work across Finland's vast geography — where a reliable vehicle can make the difference between reaching a remote community and not. The Inari Sámi translation project, which Klaver supported, serves one of Europe's smallest Indigenous language communities, numbering only a few hundred speakers.
(Originally published in Finnish. Summary translated by CC / Connexion.)
Source: Suomen Vapaakirkko / Suomen Viikkolehti — svl.fi
