Introduction

This method seeks to provide an integrative, cohort driven, mentored, service oriented discipleship resource for Estonian young people. The idea is to disciple 6-8 young people over the course of a year using their own summer projects as a context for practicing what we learn together and committing to communicate and meet throughout the year to solidify the summer’s lessons.

Observations and Method

• Discipleship is a shared, lifelong journey
  Focus energy on a core group of handpicked young people and work with them over the course of a summer/year. Shared experiences over the course of this year will hopefully forge mutually supportive relationships that will continue to grow as youth grow older and learn to exercise their call to service both in the church and in their community.
• Estonia has enough projects but not enough discipleship
  So rather than adding another project to the table, this method seeks to be the thread that weaves existing projects together and embues them with a deeper level of meaning and effectiveness for our cohort group. With mentored supervision and intentional participation of the cohort, these otherwise unrelated projects become the context in which discipleship and leadership training can occur.
• A commitment to mission starts at home
  Rather than sending our youth away for specialized training, we seek to build up a commitment to the local church AND mission THROUGH cooperative service in group members’ home communities. Each cohort member will be presenting the needs of their own community to the group. In this way, we build up both a servant’s perspective on one’s own community and at the same time develop cross cultural skills for serving in communities other than our own.

In Short

The project would start with a week long intensive Adventure Camp Spring Immersion which would introduce the goals and topics for the year and bond cohort members as they overcome obstacles along the journey.

Participants would then commit to serve alongside one another in local ministry projects at least once a month for three months through the summer. During each project, mentors (2 per group of youth) would focus on supporting, teaching and ministering alongside the youth paying particular attention to each person’s gifts, personality, strengths and weaknesses and giving personal feedback.

The summer would end with a commissioning ceremony sending each of the young people into ministry in their home context (whatever that might be) for the remainder of the year. Personal mentorship and mutual support from team-members would continue throughout the year. Young people who complete such a program would then be elegible to apply for future Alongside Internship opportunities with our churches in the US.

Implementation Tasks

• Identify potential mentors (2 per cohort group means 3:1 ratio of disciples:mentors)
• Identify first cohort group members (with help of regional leaders)
• Develop or find an existing curriculum to work through with cohort
• Identify existing projects in cohort member’s home regions OR begin to develop a project that fits the region’s needs.

I just had a comment written on my blog the other day from an “Adam”. He mentioned some common names of people we apparently knew and gave a generic line about warm memories and requested I get in touch. The email looked fishy and I couldn’t think of who this Adam might be so I deleted the comment. Just too vague to be real. If you want to avoid spam, you have to consistently say “no”.

I think there is something in all this for understanding the current global economic mess. I think it is true that we are becoming aware of systemic evils - what the Bible refers to as “principalities”. But the question is always asked, how do you get from personal sin to victimization under evil systems. Are the people in these systems just more evil and combine forces to predate the rest of us? I don’t think so.

Systemic evil is like spam. It only grows if you say yes. A predatory lender cannot predate if potential customers are circumspect enough to analyze their own income and outflow and to check their hunger for advance. It is interesting to note that even given all that God created for them, Adam and Eve still hungered after the one thing they could see but could not have. Our systems have indeed become evil but this is only true because we incrementally and consistently said “yes” to the offer for one more serving … or at least did not say “no”.

Saying “no” would have meant simpler lifestyles. Less comfort, less style, less leisure. It would have meant a slower economy and less innovation while the rest of the world seemed to sprint ahead. Given the opportunity to avoid this dull reality, I don’t think many would turn down the offer. I don’t know that I would. In fact, I usually kick myself for reacting too slowly when I do. But restraint on the part of individual consumers at all levels of our economy would have meant that the offers that we now know got us into this mess would have expired on the shelves.

The analysts saying that we’ve only just begun to right these wrongs are telling us the truth. Getting back out won’t just require policies and bailouts, it will require those of us at the bottom of the pyramid to consistently say no. It may be important that we say “no” to corporate bailouts (though I think it’s too late for that given that this is the basket we’ve put all our eggs in). But more importantly it will take me saying “no” to myself and to my own inquenchable thirst for the one thing I can see but cannot have.

So … here’s the deal. From now on, you can find our latest clips of the kids (and of other things too though I doubt they’ll be as entertaining) on a new page I’m calling “Media”. Kind of a lame name for something so close to the heart, I know. Offer me something better in your comments and I’ll change it. This page will include both our Photo Albums and Video Clips. From time to time I’ll change the featured video in the upper-right hand corner of the navigation column so you can see what’s new on the front page.

That ought to do it. No more emails everytime I post a new video!

Note: If you intend to print this letter, it has been formatted for legal sized paper. If you intend to read it in Adobe Reader, it will need to be turned 90 degrees.

One of the reasons that given that these Russians have been getting their news from Russian sources is that Estonia has not yet provided news in the Russian language (for the record, I have seen one channel which offers an Estonian based Russian language program). This points to one of the weaknesses in Estonia’s conservative language laws. By allowing for only one official language (as opposed to recommendations widely accepted within the EU for primary and secondary state languages) and setting the bar for proficiency so high, Estonia has driven some of its less linguistically able minority groups back to their familiar sources. Rather than encouraging integration into Estonian culture, these laws are reinforcing a linguistic ghetto.

I am highly sympathetic to the Estonian need to preserve language and culture while surrounded and infiltrated by larger and sometimes predatory languages (speaking of both English and Russian here). However, I think that defensive efforts to preserve cultural and linguistic purity will only backfire given that the nation is already composed of a large minority and draws heavily on foreign investment.

Linguistic integration is in fact happening spontaneously among younger populations who realize that multiple languages only benefit their chances for prosperity and social mobility. This is true in both Estonian and Russian populations. Conservative language laws in these fields are really a moot point. Where they do have an effect is among populations whose language learning abilities have stagnated, those in the later half of their life. This population will remain with us for many years yet and naturally will ally with whoever most warmly receives them. Given the current situation in Eastern Europe, can Estonian lawmakers really afford not to reach out?

1. Slippery Language: Russia has stated that its reason for invading Georgia is to protect Russian Nationals who are being threatened there. While the status of Russian Nationals in Georgia may in fact be critical, the language is very slippery and could be used in other, less deserving situations as well … say Eastern Estonia, where the population is largely ethnically Russian. Can Russia invade a sovereign nation simply in order to protect its citizens? Who defines what constitutes a “threat” and is there a forum for determining whether force is in fact a justifiable response? At what point does “ethnic tension” (common to any multi-ethnic nation) translate to “ethnic threat”.
2. Crying Wolf: Both Russia and Georgia are accused by the other of “ethnic cleansing”. Like the term “Axis of Evil” or “War on Terror”, the free use of this accusation has the dual effect of influencing popular opinion via hyperbolic headlines and simultaneously diluting the power of important and specific language to accurately identify the “real thing” and to prompt an appropriate response in the future.
3. Loss of Moral Highground: This is not the first time that a large powerful nation has taken unilateral, pre-emtive military action while disregarding the world’s calls for calm and diplomacy. When the US ambassador to the UN recently condemned Russia’s military activity in Georgia - in particular attacks against civilians - the Russian ambassador fired back that such statements were entirely unacceptable coming from the US given its own military activities. Not long ago, America was in a position to make such statements but because of our hasty and miscalculated actions in the Middle East, we have relinquished the moral high-ground and given the world a new excuse for war with the doctrine of “unilateral pre-emtive strike”.
4. Appeasing the Beast: Both Europe and the US have a vested interest in keeping Russia happy and have slow-footed and acquiesced on similar issues in the past. Based soley on the fact that Russia switched sides in World War II, they were allowed in the time of Stalin to get away with mass deportations and atrocious war crimes against their “near neighbors” with nothing more than a hand slap from the West. When economic interests and self-preservation trump “the right thing to do” osteoporosis begins to erode the spine of world’s “strong nations”. With Russia’s oil and gas resources helping to fuel the energy hungry first-world, nuclear armament still an open question, and a NATO trump card always up their sleeve, Russia is confident that it can keep the US and Europe walking on egg-shells while it makes its own rules in the rest of the world.

Taken together, such facts appear to some of Eastern Europe’s small and recently independent nations as “a cloud the size of a man’s fist”. No wonder people are shuddering.

For more clear thinking and analysis on the current situation, let me reference another expat (of another stripe) living in Tartu: To Die for Danzig?

On Friday June 20th, we brought home Kevin Markus (3) and Miriam Anne (1) to join the Edminster household. We have been visiting the kids for the last three weeks awaiting permission from various departments to bring them home. During that time we were able to get to know a bit about their personalities and develop affection and a basis of trust.

Kevin is a happy little boy with a healthy adventurous streak. We’ve run him through the Edminster gauntlet of nibbling, wrestling and general rough-housing and he’s emerged with a smile on his face asking for more. He is very clever and has been picking up both Estonian (from his mom) and English (from his dad) quickly and seems to be a wiz at puzzles and books. At three Kevin is exploring his new world, identifying what is his and what is not and is exerting his independence. We’re happy all this is happening under our roof!

Miriam is a goofy little primadonna who loves to be the center of attention. She is a compulsive smiler and when she’s fed and dry, she will laugh at almost anything including herself, though she also knows how to play hard-to-get. Her favorite play things are her feet and anything she can quickly stuff into her near-toothless mouth. When not otherwise occupied, she’s content to scratch her fingernails on any textured surface she can find. Miriam is just beginning to toddle around but has about a month to go before she starts walking so we’re soaking up this moment of relative calm before the storm.

Lea and I are very glad to be rearranging our lives, habits and schedules around these little people. We’ve been looking forward to this day for a good while and it seems that God has done his best to match us with a pair of kids who fit in all the best ways. Praise Him!
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