Estonia Brotherston Missions Update

ALMOST A YEAR!

The time is flying by now… hard to believe that the girls have almost finished a full school year in Estonia and that we will be celebrating a full 12 months living here!

God has been so faithful… and all of you have been so supportive.
A HUGE thanks to all of you - we are so thankful that we have not had to do this journey alone.

MAJAKAS YOUTH WEEKEND

The youth ministry that we serve at in Tallinn is called ‘Majakas’ which means ‘Lighthouse’ in Estonian. In April we were able to organise the first ever youth weekend for them!

We stayed at another church in our movement in Valga, Southern Estonia and held services, activities, a prayer room and had lots of food and fun together.

The name of the weekend was ‘Kohtumine’ which means, ‘Encounter.’ Praise God that young people really encountered the moving of the Holy Spirit and some were baptised in the Spirit and spoken tongues for the first time.

Two of the smaller churches in the area also joined in with some of the fun - and it was great to connect with each other.

VISITORS

In March we hosted the Cultivate interns from Ireland! They came for one week of ministry and got to join in with many activities in 3 different places in Estonia. It was a joy to host them, and we always love seeing people encounter cross-cultural mission for the first time (shout out to Grace!).

In April a team of 15 people arrived from APA Elim Church in North Belfast. They came with the specific purpose of helping us to run a kids outreach at the church in Tallinn. It was so cool to have some kids on the trip! The kids camp was awesome, and the visiting team had actually put most of the programme together. I love this idea of partnership in the Gospel that transcends countries, cultures and languages! How cool is God’s family?!!

The Belfast team got to visit the ‘Village of Hope’ - a rehab centre run by the Pentecostal churches. To hear the stories of hope was amazing.

WHY ESTONIA?

One reason is that the NEED IS GREAT! The labourers are truly few here. Most of the Pastors, church leaders, kids and youth workers here work full-time jobs, have families and are leading churches and even regions on top of that!

We see the difference it makes when we are able to serve the church here both in enhancing the ministry that is already taking place, but also in leadership development and helping to move things forward.

We feel very privileged to be able to serve the amazing people of Estonia.

MINISTRY

It has been a privilege in the last couple of months to:

Host more and more dinners!
Serve in our church - Toompea Kogudus.
Lead teen boys small group (Craig) and teen girls small group (Abby).
Attend Elim’s Conferences in May.
Partner with two new EKNK churches on young leader projects.
Lead worship in Estonian. (Abby)
Teach two seminars at a nationwide youth leader event. (Craig)
Serve at the russian speaking youth conference with over 6 European nations present.
Organise a joint youth event in Tallinn in 3 languages!

FAMILY

We celebrated:

Craig’s 39th birthday!
Ariela’s 11th birthday!

We all continue to learn language (everyone now learning both Estonian and Russian!)

We are so proud of the girls - almost finished their first school year!!

UPCOMING

Please keep in your prayers:

Pentecostal World Conference and The Send in Helsinki next week. This is a big blessing to the Estonian church to have such events so nearby!

Youth Missions Trip to Vilnius, Lithuania. 24-30 June. We are hosting a team with some young people from Tallinn who are going on mission for the first time!

Paldiski Children’s Camp 7-10 July. The whole family are helping with this camp!

EKNK Suvepäevad 17-19 July. We are running the youth programme for the movement’s annual summer camp.

We will also be serving at youth events in Ireland and England in August!

Among other things happening! So busy summer - we appreciate the prayer.