FACTFILE: Old-school missionary work
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Aune Hyny belongs to the generation of Finnish mission workers for whom work in the target country meant a life-long commitment.
"She sacrificed herself to this work. It required 100% of her. It was a monumental decision", describes Finnish teacher Asta Tillander from the western city of Vaasa, who is writing a book about Hyny.
"She had a mission. Her employer was God."
For the biography Asta Tillander has at her disposal Hyny's archives that were found in India in an iron cupboard beyond reach of the ants.
"Her bookkeeping was very accurate. She accounted for everything and kept all the papers, even though we first thought they did not exist."
Some of her letters to Finland, however, were destroyed in a fire.
Tillander also knows that in the past 50 years Aune Hyny has become a near-mythical figure among the Finnish Pentecostals, to the point that there are now stories about her that are simply not true.
Tillander herself met Aune Hyny twice in India. Hyny's favourite place was on the terrace of her home, from where she could see the schools and one of the seven orphanages plus the new church.
"I had all those buildings built!" Aune Hyny, said seemingly satisfied.
But when the city fathers of Machilipatnam would have erected a statue for her she said a firm "No".
"She had a halo around her. You should have seen her when she prayed! Heaven descended right there and then. The Indians came to her and asked her to bless them", Tillander describes.
Fida International, which is owned by the Finnish Pentecostal Churches, has 437 missionaries in 48 different countries. Some of then have been in their target countries for over 30 years.
The Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church has 240 mission workers in 20 different countries. One of them is Kirsti Kirjavainen, who is stationed in Nepal. Rauli Virtanen's next TV documentary is about her.
"I take a critical attitude towards converting or proselytising in any shape or form. What right do we have to try and change other people's religion? But the social work Hyny and Kirjavainen have done is absolutely fantastic", Virtanen says.
Alongside traditional mission and parish work now flourishes normal development cooperation activities: schools, hospitals, agricultural information, AIDS and HIV counselling.
Machilipatnam's Hynylä is now run by Mirja Kaukiainen, who has been there since 1974, together with Marja Viitanen and Ritva Suhonen.
"Ammagaru lived for the children of India unreservedly. This was her purpose in life. God called her to come to India and she followed the call", Kaukiainen writes in her email from Machilipatnam.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.6.2004
More on this subject:
 Mother Hyny (1914-2004)
Helsingin Sanomat
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