
“Dear friends, brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, residents of Karelia, all people who are watching this video, it’s a great joy for me to greet you on the occasion of the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist.
“On this day, we remember John the Baptist. He was a special man of God, a prophet of God who preached Christ. He was a forerunner of Christ. As he witnessed to Jesus Christ, he said, ‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I. . . He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’ That’s why there’s a very popular folk custom to make bonfires on the Day of John the Baptist.
I wish you God’s richest blessings! And I wish you to keep warm in God’s sunshine, listening to spiritual songs, heeding to God’s Word, which also talks about John the Baptist, a herald of Christ. Amen!”
(The English translation is based on the Russian translation from Finnish by Oksana Dyba)