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Trip Highlights

July 3, 2009 in Estonia 2009 with Comments Off

Today we had an event with the youth group of the church here in Elva. It was a great handoff point to be able to connect the students to the church and hopefully see them continue to come to the church and learn more about God. There are so many students from the camp that are searching, many for the very first time. There was even a handful that made decisions to trust in Christ! I could share so many cool things that have been happening, but instead I thought I’d give you a quick video of the team sharing some of their highlights of the trip:

Parents, as you can see you kids are all safe and doing great. They have all been incredible this week. I am so proud of them and you should be too.

From here we depart to Tallin crazy early in the morning. We have a day off and will be walking around and sightseeing in Old Town. In the evening, however, is the real highlight. We’ll be going to the Song Festival. There will be over 125,000 people there all singing together. The choir leading it is made up of over 30,000 singers. Sunday we head to the airport and begin to make our trip back.

I’m not sure that I will have another chance to blog till we get back to the States. If that is the case, thanks for following along and we’ll let you know when we arrive safely back. Continue to check back here in the coming weeks. I will post some more pictures and photos from the trip. Thanks again for all your prayers- God has definitely answered them.

Camp Day 5

July 2, 2009 in Estonia 2009 with 2 Comments





Today was our last day of camp. We have been looking at the Story of God all week long. Today was a pretty powerful day as Jesus enters the story. In going through the story the way that we did, it is so clear to see where Jesus fits in light of all the stories leading up to today.

Our team had great conversations with the students this morning. Some students said at the beginning of the week that “there is no God.” Today those same students said, “I think that there is a God.” Other’s have expressed interest in the Bible and church and wanting to find out more about Jesus. Still others said that they believe in this for the very first time. To say it was an encouraging day doesn’t even come close to accurate.

We had to say goodbye to the students and load up to head back to Elva. We arrived to the hostel and had an incredibly relaxing evening as a team. Tomorrow we are hosting an event here in Elva. This event will connect them with the church and the youth group here.

Camp Day 4

July 1, 2009 in Estonia 2009 with Comments Off

It is 2:30 AM as I type this. I have just come in from four hours of solid conversation with a handful of different students. All week long has been a process to build up to conversations like these. Our team reported of so many amazing things happening today as they talked with the students in small groups. As Jesus has now entered the story, things are beginning to come together. Now they can see the way that God has been at work through human history. It has been a truly incredible day of ministry and as I look longing at my bed I am encouraged. God’s hand is so evident.

I thought you might enjoy a few pictures of some the fun ministry we’ve been doing:

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I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is our last day of camp. We have a meeting in the morning and then we say good bye to the students in the afternoon. But not for long… they are all invited to join us for the final piece of the story on Friday night at the church. You can pray that all of the students come and join us for that night.

Quick News from Day 3

June 30, 2009 in Estonia 2009 with Comments Off

This is going to be a quick one. I wanted to just share some encouraging news from the day.

Many of you have been praying and we have really seen God working in some great ways today. Today in our teaching we made it through the story of God’s deliverance of the Israelite people from slavery in Egypt. In our small group time there was a really good vibe and the students really opened up and began to share and talk in some ways that we haven’t seen yet. This is exactly what we have been praying for. God is clearly answering prayers and we are excited to see the ways that He will work tomorrow.

A View of Cafe

June 30, 2009 in Estonia 2009 with 1 Comment

Just a little glimpse of our cafe tonight. I’m gonna warn you… it is a little loud. You may want to adjust your speakers accordingly. Consider yourself warned.

Areas of Prayer

June 30, 2009 in Estonia 2009 with 1 Comment

Last night I mentioned that we were feeling that there were many things that have continued to hinder our work here. It has often felt that our planning has been met with resistance and challenges. I wanted to give you some specific areas toward which to pray:

  • Nobody on our team has ever experienced a travel experience quite like we experienced to get here. Every check-in counter was a struggle to get our tickets, every flight that we were on time for was delayed, every flight that was on time we had to sprint for. At every step we felt as if the enemy was hindering us to even getting to the country. As I shared here, even in the difficulty we could see God at work. Pray that our team would look back at His working in our travel challenges and that they would trust Him to work through our camp challenges.
  • With our late arrival, we missed the whole day scheduled for training. When we first arrived at the school building where we are hosting the camp, there was a surprise second group that was still using our building. We were delayed getting into the school and again we were missing some training and overview time. We had to reschedule the whole evening. We know that God is bigger than our schedules and that He works in His time. Pray that our team would continue to trust in that timing. When we feel thrown off our game, we know that God is not thrown off His in the least.
  • Lastly, the group dynamics of our Estonian students started out extremely rough. Many of the small groups had a very difficult first night. One thing that you have to understand about Estonians, they are very slow to open up and let you into their life. But once they do, they are are extremely friendly and very deep. Even knowing this, the first night was a hard hit of reality that this was going to take the full week to develop the type of trust we are looking for. Already on day 2, however, we have seen hearts begin to soften and we know that God is at work even if we don’t see it just yet. Pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to soften hearts and draw these students to Himself. As we have been going through these stories of God’s Word, at least a dozen have never heard them ever before. Certainly Satan does not want them to hear it. We know that our God is bigger and he can transform and work in miraculous ways. We are trusting him to do just that.
Parents, your children are doing an incredible job. With each new obstacle, they smile and take it on without a worry. I don’t think that I have heard one complaint out of their mouths this entire time. You can be very proud of them. So far they are off to an incredible start.

Camp Day 2

June 29, 2009 in Estonia 2009 with 2 Comments

Today was our first full day of camp. Let me tell you what a typical day of camp looks like:

  • 8:30 Student leaders meeting
  • 9:00 Breakfast
  • 9:40 Meeting (teaching, games, and small groups)
  • 10:45 English environment
  • 12:00 Lunch
  • 1:00 English environment
  • 2:30 Free Time (we have planned activities for the groups)
  • 6:00 Dinner
  • 7:00 Meeting
  • 9:00 Free Time
As you can see, much of our day is filled with conversations and relationship building. This is what allows the student to connect so much with the Estonian students and get to that place of opening up with us.
This year, in the teaching for the meetings we are working through the whole story of God. Last night we began with the creation of the angels, world, and humans. This morning we talked about man’s fall from a relationship with God. At tonight’s meeting we worked through the flood and God’s promise and covenant with Abraham. After each teaching the students in small groups spend time working through questions that pertain to the story. With each session we are seeing the students engaging even more. We look forward to moving on through the story till we get to the place where everything will finally make sense- the cross of Christ.
Please continue to pray. There are many things that continue to hinder our work here. It is clear that there is some major spiritual warfare going on. Clearly Satan does not want this to be a successful week. Thank God for his grace and power.

The End of Travel and the Start of Camp

June 28, 2009 in Estonia 2009 with 2 Comments

Sorry for the lack of posting during the last day. We have been on the move and didn’t have access to the internet. Let me give you a rundown of what’s been happening up to this point since we last updated from Chicago…

We departed out of O’Hare around 11:00 AM, Friday for Newark. In Newark, we connected to make our big hop across the ocean to Copenhagen. The flight was around 8 1/2 hours long. The team tried to sleep though I don’t think that most of them were able to really get any good sleep. We were a little delayed leaving Newark which made our connection in Copenhagen even more difficult. Due to the rerouting of our flight plan, we had to pick up all of our luggage and recheck-in to make our final flight to Tallinn. It was definitely tight, but God was good and we made our final connection. It felt SO GOOD to have the whole team and all of our luggage heading to our final destination!

We made it to Estonia on Saturday afternoon! Our bus was waiting for us to make our 2 1/2 hour drive to the hostel that we were staying at. The team caught a little rest till we arrived in Elva. Elva is the home town of half of the students that are at camp this week. From the time we left the office till we arrived in Elva it was 47 hours. Definitely a travel experience that our team hopes to not repeat any time soon. We grabbed some dinner, did a little training for about an hour, and crashed into bed. I don’t think that a bed ever felt so good.

Despite our difficulty, God is so GREAT. Let me tell you why:

  • In our delay, we got an incredible night of sleep in an extremely nice hotel.
  • Even in all of our transfers we didn’t lose a single piece of luggage.
  • Our team handled each new obstacle so well and ended up being a fun little adventure.
  • With the extra day, the team here in Estonia got some much need extra time to work on some last minute surprise details.
  • Our bus driver was “for some reason” available to come and get us the next day, which apparently is rare for him to be open on a Saturday.
  • Everybody made it here together in plenty of time before camp began.
So that brings us to today. This morning we joined the Elva church for their worship service. CrysAne and Taylor shared their testimonies with the church body. (They did a great job) After church we met up with the Elva students and loaded on the bus to head to camp. We were joined by students from Pärnu. As I type this, the students are meeting with their small groups for the week. They have jumped right in with establishing relationships with the Estonian students.
We are ready to see God work in some mighty ways this week. He has already answered our prayers in the way that the students signed up. There are a total of 47 students here at camp. Of those 47, there are only 15 Christians. So, that means there are 32 students that are not following Jesus. Many of them have never heard the Gospel before. In a couple of hours we will have our first session. We will be sharing the story of creation, learning of his power, holiness, and care for His creation. All week we will be working our way through the story that the Bible tells.
Thank you for all of your prayers. Thank you for being patient in getting this first update. Now that we are here, we should have plenty of opportunity to continue to update.

Awake and On the Ground in Eesti

June 27, 2009 in Estonia 2009 with 1 Comment

Hey dudes,

Thought y’all would like to know I just chatted with Dave in Estonia. He and the team were sitting down to dinner in Elva and gearing up for an evening of training with the folk from Going Up.

Apparently they’re tired? Don’t worry, I chastised him over the phone for their lack of commitment.

Just kidding.

They’re all good and excited for camp to start.

Later,

Pastor Josh

Updated Flight Itinerary

June 26, 2009 in Estonia 2009 with Comments Off

Parents in case you’re hoping to follow our flights:

Continental 122 to Copengagen
Estonian Air 0142 to Tallinn

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