This summer Lea and I had the priviledge of serving Alongside Eerek and Pilvi Priesfreund and their boys Andreas and Mattias in Avispea, Estonia.The purpose of our time in Avispea was to begin to express a vision for youth discipleship that has been on our hearts and developing in our minds for the last few years. The goal of the project was to invite Christian youth primarily from the communities surrounding Avispea to join us in the adventure of growing as disciples by learning, serving and leading together as disciples. Our journey together was full of surprises and challenges. But it was a wonderful affirmation that God does extraordinary things through ordinary people who choose to serve together in his name in ordinary ways.
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Dear friends,
We arrived in Tallinn on St. John’s night – the longest day of the year and Estonia’s biggest national celebration – and were deeply satisfied to be back in the land of family, friends, dark bread and weekly saunas. There wasn’t much time for rest though. Our first two weeks were full of preparations for our partnership project with Pastor Eerek and Pilvi Preisfreund who minister in the small town of Avispea.
Both Eerek and Pilvi grew up with Lea in the Viimsi Church. Eerek has been pastoring the Avispea congregation for seven years. Avispea is a small farming town in North-East Estonia. In a rural church with 24 elderly members, there is no money to pay a pastor. So Eerek works as an engineer at a local dairy. His job keeps him busy all week and is frequently demanding—the Soviet-era machines break down! Pilvi cares for Andreas (7) and Mattias (2), and also is studying to become a primary school teacher. A week after our mission with the Preisfreunds finished, they will have taken their first vacation in three years!
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As many of you know from first hand experience, we arrived in North America this June with nine of our Estonian youth in tow. Together we embarked on a truly epic journey through Washington, Oregon, N. Idaho and Montana for the better part of the month of August. Along the way, we witnessed the love of congregations who welcomed us in every town we visited. We participated in youth events, children’s events, potlucks, Vacation Bible schools, church retreats and even saved a boy from drowning in the waters of Ingall’s Creek in Washington. The Lord forged deeper relationships in our group and opened our eyes to realities that often lie beneath the surface of appearances. When we debriefed our trip in Spokane Continue reading →
For the last four years, Lea and I have been committed to strengthening the youth and children of the Viimsi Free Church, Estonia. In this final year of my formal partnership through Alongside Ministry with the Viimsi Church, we were encouraged to hear people tell us that they wanted us back in ministry and in Estonia for the long term. But rather than renewing our commitment to the Viimsi Church or agreeing to partner with other churches who have expressed interest, we’re taking this opportunity to split our time for the next four years between focused study at Regent College (a seminary in Vancouver BC) during the school year and youth discipleship projects in Estonia in the summers aimed at developing our vision for future ministry.
We hope that the following pages will offer you a glimpse of the Estonian Church we love and long for, along with the vision God has given us for how we can most effectively build it up through the discipleship of Estonian youth.
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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.
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