Report and Photos by Victor Kubik
Part 1                

From October 2-10, 2009 a record 89 people from Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada and the United States came together to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. We started on Saaremaa, the largest island in the Baltic Sea where we met at the Georg Ots Spa Hotel. This was particularly enjoyable for our 20 children who enjoyed all the various pools. 

From Latvia we had 20 come from a church that now keeps the Sabbath and Holy Days. A few of them spoke English. Their pastor Robert Schultz spoke to us about they came to understand the some of the Fundamental Beliefs of the United Church of God through the Internet.  The 2006 Israel Lebanon war motivated them to find the booklet Middle East in Prophecy. That led to the Good News and the United Church of God.  
 
Our Festival Theme this year was "Christ-Centered Servant Leadership in the World Tomorrow." Sermons and sermonettes touched on the rebuilding and rehabilitation of the earth that will take place in the beginning of the Millennium. We were blessed to have elders Johnnie Lambert, Randy Schreiber, Phil Sandilands and Roland Clark along with other layman provide a good variety and depth in sermons and sermonettes.
 
A highlight event was an evening gathering where some of our remote brethren told their stories. Klogay and Margaret Doh, Karen refugees from Thailand who have been resettled to Finland, told about their life in refugee camps and their new life in Finland. Margaret's sister in North Carolina was featured in the Festival video as one of the refugees resettled in the United States. Other stories were told by Mandy Heathcote formerly from Zimbabwe and now in New Zealand, Artur Aleksandrov, Russian Estonian living in Tallinn, Rainer and Margit Barth formerly from East Germany, Vello Saar, UCG member in Cincinnati who was born on Saaremaa and more Latvian stories. 
 
For the second half of the Feast we travelled to 1000 year-old city of Tartu.

 

MORE: YouTube videos Photos/report part 1 Photos part 2 Photos part 3 Photos part 4 Estonia Home Page 2009 Feast Home Page