My Trip to Estonia
January 13-18, 2000
For the last three years I've been coming to Estonia to visit with our
brethren in either January or February. I feel it’s
important to come at this time because it’s the coldest, darkest and most
depressing time of the year and when the people need a lift the most. On
this day I spent five days with our friends and brethren. We held Sabbath
services, a Sunday Bible Study, plenty of personal time that included counseling
and socializing with most of the brethren and prospective members. Also, I was
able to finalize arrangements for the Feast of Tabernacles.
It was an ordeal getting to Estonia this time. My flight from Atlanta to Vienna, Austria arrived late and I missed my flight that goes only four time a week to Tallinn. So, I was rerouted from Vienna to Vilnius, Lithuania and then on to Tallinn. To get me to my destination I needed to take four flights on four different airlines passing through three countries. When I got to Tallinn, I took a taxi to the bus station and caught the two a half hour bus ride to Tartu arriving 11:15 at night. From the bus station I walked to the hotel.
While in Vilnius I was approached by an airline official who told me "your luggage is lost!"
"Great," I thought. But, we later discovered that it was sent through Copenhagen, Denmark and it finally got to me the next day. I was a bit concerned because I had packed a laptop computer to deliver to an individual in Tallinn. Also, I had two sets of Estonian to English tapes and lots of CD's from a member in Florida to take to the brethren. But, everything eventually got to where it needed to get to.
On Friday morning I walked over to Luule Lepik's apartment and visited for a few hours with her. She has been sick with bronchitis for the last month and had a bad cough. She has had to miss a lot of work at the Tartu Turg, the enclosed marketplace in the center of town.
After visiting with her I went over to Koidu Üprus's clothing thrift store. It has not been doing particularly well since sales before and after Christmas are down. Hopefully, they will pick up after the first of February. We have been helping supply her with used clothing from the United States. We went out to the warehouse on the edge of town to see the clothing that still has to be sold.
When I came back to the hotel Henrikas Klovas just arrived from Lithuania. He had traveled up to Estonia on three trains and was visibly exhausted. He had left the night before at 11:30 PM, arrived in Riga, Latvia about 5:30 AM. Then waited four hours for the train to Valga, Estonia. There he changed trains again and finally arrived in Tartu at 3:30 PM.
I had an appointment at 4:00 pm with Verni Loodmaa, the manager of the Atlantis convention center, where we will be holding the Feast. Then I came back to the hotel and Henrikas and I went out to dinner to the Central Restaurant, one of my favorite places. We were both barely awake as we walked back to the hotel. We talked a few hours catching up on all the business dealing with our work in the Baltic countries and discussed the messages we were going to give the next day. He was very tired and the next day was going to be full of Sabbath activities.
In the morning we had breakfast and talked for a few more hours. There was so much to discuss about the future of God’s Work in the Baltic countries.
On the Sabbath of January 15th we met at Luule Lepik's apartment. Henrikas arranges for the group that gathers to sing a hymn at the start and end of services by printing the hymns out and bringing cassette tapes for accompaniment. Ten gathered for services around Luule's table in the kitchen. We all sang simultaneously and enthusiastically in three languages: Estonian, Russian and English. The language barrier is always a hindrance, but not while singing!
Then we gave our messages. I spoke about the need to make a renewed commitment to Christ and the Church and to build a foundation on a rock and bear fruit as Christians. I passed out a survey for the brethren to fill out about their expectations about the future of the Church. I was pleased with the responses which showed an understanding for our purpose and mission.
After services I counseled with several of the members privately. Henrikas and I stayed at Luule's apartment with Helga Mägi for some hours afterwards. Luule made us sandwiches and some Estonian soup that tasted great on this cold day. Then Henrikas and I walked back to the Pallas Hotel.
We have an excellent relationship with the Pallas Hotel because the manager, Iris Allorg, has been working with us for the past three years and knows us well. She moved to the brand new Pallas Hotel from the now closed Taru Hotel and we followed her. We have rooms reserved for the Fall Festival. A new convention center has just opened last November. Both the hotel where we stay and the convention center, about an eight-minute walk away are owned by the same person, Verni Loodmaa. I visited with him a few times and was able to arrange for a favorable rate for the meeting room for the Feast of Tabernacles. The meeting room looks out over the Emajõge and the old city of Tartu. It will be an uplifting venue for the Feast.
On Sunday we had another church meeting at Koidu Üprus's apartment. We had lots more group discussion. My subject was on building a strong foundation and I gave a study on Prayer. Several of the people were not feeling well and the plans for all going out to dinner went by the wayside, however, I was able to visit with Margit for some time afterwards.
On Monday we tried to open an Estonian church account, but the Hansapank Bank wanted a document from the Council of Elders notarized differently than it had been done. They take special precautions because of their proximity to Russia and reputed money laundering that takes place. Tartu is only 40 miles from the Russian border.
An extra bright spot in the Baltic countries is Henrikas Klovas. He is a real leader and carries himself well with the people. He is deeply converted and knows the Bible well and is very well versed in what the United Church of God is all about. His portal of understanding is through the German Good News and the German United News plus our telephone conversations. He is very dedicated. While it was a long trip for me to get to Estonia, it was no less a trip for him by taking three trains and crossing two borders to get to Tartu. When he gave his message on the Sabbath, he had it typed word for word in Russian. It was about the contrast between good news and bad news and he used the story of the Israelite spies going into the Promised Land to see what it was like. In my opening prayer I thanked God for Henrikas' sacrifice. He corrected me afterwards saying that this is not sacrifice, but a joy to be able to serve this way.
Henrikas now meets with a small group in Lithuania. We discussed ways of promoting our literature through his advertising contacts. He works closely with the advertising business in his work. We have made good progress in literature translation with Margit Kaljas and her mother translating 75 pages of literatures since the Feast of Tabernacles into Estonian. Most of it was four lessons of the Correspondence Course.
Also, while in Tartu, I spent Monday afternoon at the Emajõe Kool, which is the only handicapped children's school in Estonia. At the Feast this past year we had some of the children come out on a nature outing with Feast goers. Three of our ladies work at the school. One is the assistant director in charge of curriculum (Helle Rooma). One is a child psychiatrist (Aime Meos) who works at different schools but visits this one, and one is a teacher (Zoya Reiko). We had collected $875 at the Feast to buy the children exercise equipment because the school lacked it. I had another donation of $1000 to LifeNets for handicapped children, so I talked to the Silja Taru, director of the school, about the donation and arranged to have the money transferred, but first wanted to know exactly what equipment they were going to buy for the children. During the Fall Festival there was a little misunderstanding about the gift from LifeNets to the school and we were able to resolve that now.
I was a given a detailed tour of the two school buildings. There are 96 handicapped children from all over Estonia. This includes 30 from Tartu who go home each day and 66 from the remainder of the country who live at the school, but go home on weekends.. This includes all 19 blind children in Estonia. Classrooms have no more than 8-10 students. When I was brought into the classrooms the teachers made the students stand out of respect. Afterwards, I had lunch with the director and the two members who attend UCG, Helle and Zoya.
An interesting sidelight is that through people I had met on my Russian trip with the Indiana delegation in October, I was introduced to one of the directors of Philanthropy at a University here in Indianapolis. She happens to be Estonian and an immigrant. And she knows therapists for children that I had become acquainted in Tartu. Small world.
On Monday night I got together with Tamara Bichevin and her son Pyotr who live on the south side of Tartu. It's always enjoyable being with them.
On Tuesday morning I did some shopping and took the bus to Tallinn and flew to Vienna. I had to overnight in Vienna and then flew back to Atlanta and Indianapolis Wednesday, January 19th. My flight to Indy was cancelled because of bad weather in Indianapolis, so I had several more hours to wait in Atlanta, however, I met a couple just returning from Zimbabwe and we had a great discussion about common areas we had been to.
This was a successful trip...and most importantly, I felt it was strengthening to our brethren living in far-away Estonia.
I'd like to conclude by saying that every Saturday morning we hold a telephone Bible Study with the Estonians. I alternate with elder John Lambert from New York State. It lasts 45 minutes and the people in Estonia assemble at Koidu Üprus's apartment. She has a speaker phone where they can all hear us. The study at their place is at 1:30 PM. For us in the Eastern Time Zone the time is 6:30 AM.