Spring 2003

Dear Friends,

Lea and I realized a few days ago that we’re rounding the corner on our first year of marriage. Can so much time have already passed? It seems like only a few months ago now that some of you were here in Estonia to celebrate our wedding with us. Time has flown! And no wonder – this last year has been an incredible journey of discovery and adjustment.

But our journey of discovery hasn’t been limited to our marriage. Each of us has been exploring and developing our current ministry involvements and together, we’ve spent some time exploring new strategic frontiers of exciting future ministry in the Estonian Church.

As always, Lea has been immersed in all forms of children’s work this year. She spends her weekdays teaching youngsters at a local private school established by the Lutheran Church to introduce an option for faith based education. She’s been involved in everything from teaching and curriculum writing to organization development and fundraising. On Saturdays, she leads the Viimsi Church’s Junior High group and Sundays she teaches Sunday school. Lea has also been hosting a children’s radio talk show on Tallinn’s Family Radio. Every other Saturday morning, she invites young guests to join her in hosting a show on some topic of interest to kids. They’ll talk for a bit, express their opinions and look to the Bible for guidance and then open up the phone lines for callers. It’s quite a kick! And the kids love it. This is actually the second year Lea has hosted the show and each year her audience grows. What a woman!

I’ve also had lots of pans on the fire. But this year, to my delight, I’ve been able to focus my energy on the things I really love doing: discipling, teaching and developing vision. The staple of my ministry diet this year has been a weekly guy’s discipleship group. We began our group in the Fall with a guy’s only “Journey into Manhood” hike and have been meeting together since then to study the Bible, discuss topics important to young men and encourage each other towards Godly masculinity. This high intensity, “full contact” discipleship is something that I just haven’t had the time to focus on in the past. It’s been incredibly humbling, challenging and fulfilling to walk with these young men on their pilgrimages.

Five of these guys and four of our girls will venture out on yet another adventure this summer. Our youth have been involved in a two year “Youth Mission Exchange” with the Evangelical Covenant Church of Helena, Montana. The premise was that the benefit of a short term experience in missions could be amplified by giving time to develop relationships – and therefore understanding – between two cultures and extended by inviting a “receiving” culture to also be a “sending” culture. A team of 8 Helena youth joined us in Estonia last year for two and a half weeks of ministry and cultural immersion and now it’s our turn! We have set aside a month of travel by van from Seattle, Washington to Helena, Montana and back with stops along the way for meetings with churches, opportunities to be involved in various forms of ministry and exposure to a different culture’s experience of our God.

The Helena folk not only initiated this opportunity but have raised half of the cost of our young people’s tickets! We are in the process of raising the rest of the money for our nine youth team members plus a pair of adults. If you would like to help send our Viimsi Youth Mission Exchange team to the US, please consider sending a gift marked “YME 2003” to our account with Alongside Ministries International.

One unexpected delight this last year was the development of new relationships with some men my own age. For the first two years I was in Estonia, I prayed that the Lord would guide me into relationships with other Christian men my age. Elari Tamm has been one of God’s answers to my prayers. Elari is the Youth Secretary for our denomination (the Baptist and Free Church Union) and a dedicated, energetic and visionary man of God. To my delight, our relationship has really developed this last year. Elari has also invited me to advise and participate in various aspects of his ministry which has opened my eyes to more of what is available (or unavailable) on the national level. In late April, I will be co-leading a youth leader training seminar on “Practical steps toward a youth ministry legacy” during Elari’s nationwide youth conference “Turning Point”.

Informed by a combination of national perspective from Elari and other youth leaders and our own experience with youth ministry in the Viimsi Church, Lea and I have begun to develop a strategic plan for ministry that will begin addressing the “gaps” that we’ve identified here. Our planning has been focused primarily on providing practical discipleship resources for local churches. In the past as you know, we’ve sought to fill these gaps with special projects like our Book Translation Project. We are currently finishing off the publication of last year’s book and have begun translation of Doug Field’s book, “Purpose Driven Youth Ministry”. But God has planted other ideas in our hearts. We’ve been intensely researching and discussing the possibility of developing a program-resident camping ministry. It would be the first of its kind in Estonia and the responses we have heard so far have been very supportive. Please join us in praying through the development of these ideas and the possibility of purchasing a parcel of land in the near future. More info to come …!

So many new frontiers! So many exciting directions opening up! Add this one to the list … I have applied and been accepted to Regent College in Vancouver, BC to begin studies toward an MDiv degree starting next Fall. In the midst of all these possibilities and frontiers, Lea and I are certain that the Lord has opened up an opportunity for us to leave Estonia for a season and prepare for the next level of work that he has introduced us to this year. Regent College has a strong reputation as an evangelical, ecumenical, interdisciplinary and intercultural seminary. We are thrilled to have been accepted and we are anticipating a challenging and inspiring four years of study as we prepare ourselves for the exciting ministries God is preparing in Estonia. During these four years, we will continue to visit family and friends in Estonia and be as involved as we can be in the summer months. We will also be laying the relational and strategic groundwork for our future ministries so that we can hit the ground running when we return for our next term of full time ministry.

We need your support now as much as ever – if not more! Lea and I believe that we are on the cusp of exciting new developments in Estonia and for that reason have decided to invest our savings and our energy in preparing ourselves. Join with us in this period of investment. We will be continuing our book translation fund, developing a network of Christian youth and youth leaders, working closely with friends like Elari Tamm to develop vision and strategy, potentially purchasing and developing property and generally seeking God’s guidance for the work he has called us to in Estonia.

Lots of love from the two of us to all of you!