ESTONIA DIARY (3)

by Tina Engelbart

Saturday, May 30, 1998

What a day! Henrikas Klovas, our only member in Lithuania, arrived at Luule’s for our 10 a.m. services. He rode all night on the train for 9 hours sitting up. It took him longer to get to Tartu than took us to get there by plane from New York. He arrived at 4:30 a.m. and waited at the train station for 5 hours. Then he went to the hospital to see Ylo and came here. For the meeting Tina did an impromptu translation. Henrikas gave the opening prayer and remarks, and then Ozzie spoke about 1 hour 10 min on God’s perspective, the importance of seeing ourselves as we really are, and the importance of doing things out of love for each other and not envy, pettiness and strife.


Luule Lepik and Henrikas Klovas

After service, Henrikas, Luule, Ozzie and I went to Parnu to see if it could be a proper vehicle for Mr. Kubik to give lectures since an invitation had been offered. Two young men who own a floral composition business and school bought an old wooden church which was built in 1763 in Riga and brought piece by piece to Parnu. Now they invite various ministers to give Bible lectures, and because Luule had met them and found out about our church, wanted us to do one also. Parnu is about 2 - 3 hours southeast of Tartu on the Baltic and is considered the summer capital of Estonia. Many foreigners come to visit and in the summers there are many festivals. We felt that this would not be a good place for lectures since it is too far away fromTartu and we would have no support base. We felt that lectures needed to begin in Tartu.

These two young men also had bought some property right on the Baltic which they use for summer camps to teach their craft to students one week at a time. They use only natural things that can be found in the surrounding areas. He showed some examples of their workmanship and as a souvenir gave us natural reed necklaces. Many foreigners come to these teaching camps to learn since Jack’s and Alex’s reputation is well known Jack showed us around this property, with the idea of perhaps having a Feast site there. It is very primitive and facilities are either primitive or non-existing. However, it is extremely beautiful. We walked (hiked) to the Baltic and Ozzie had to touch it with his hands. The strange thing was that there was no sand comprising a beach such as you would normally have at a sea’s edge but grass and reeds went right to the water. On the way back we passed a natural artesian spring well which was pumpless, the source of which is 80 ft. deep. The water was absolutely delicious and is suppose to have healing powers.


Tina, Luule, Anneli

Later that evening there was a spring festival held in a building that these two young men had refurbished with the help of the citizenry. It was an Estonian house of culture which had not been used for 30 years. And that day was the first time it was put to use again. The program consisted of children singing traditional Estonian songs. Their beautiful, clear voices still ring in our ears. After that Estonian dancer performed traditional dances in their colorful traditional costumes. The evening culminated with a general dance for everyone.

On the way home we again drove through the beautiful lowland countryside. Our driver was Estonian but he didn’t let on that he spoke Russian for a long time. Finally I asked him if he did and he grudgingly admitted it saying all of us here had to know it. When asked why Estonians were reluctant to speak Russian he told me a story to illustrate the point. Apparently, during Soviet time an Estonian woman was checking out to see what the line was about—what was being sold and if it was worth getting in line. A Russian pushed her and told her to get in the back of the line. "It’s too bad we only killed 25% of you. We should have killed at least 50%." You can see there’s no love lost for the Russians. I have learned to first ask the Estonians if they speak English. If not, then I ask if they speak Russian, and the attitude is kinder. We returned to Tartu rather late and settled Henrikas in a motel to spend the night, and back to Luule’s.

Sunday, May 31, 1998 -- Pentecost

Henrikas came at 10 a.m. and we visited with him in and we wanted to get his perspective of the Church here and what could be done to help them grow.

Henrikas comes once a month to give the sermon. The services are always held at Luule’s apartment because there is nowhere else to meet. He speaks for about 1 ½ to 2 hours, then fellowships a little. Luule prepares something to eat for everyone and then it’s off to the train station again for the grueling ride home. The trip costs him 500 EEK (about $70) for a non-sleeper; a sleeper costs 800 EEK. But he doesn’t want to spend the extra money even though it is being provided.. For the Pentecost service he gave sermonette base on Acts 10 to shows how God is not a respecter of persons and His Holy Spirit is now available to all people in every nation "whoever fears Him and works righteousness." (Act. 10:35). Tina had to translate into English for Ozzie since everyone else understood his Russian.

Ozzie then explained how it is the tradition of the Church of God, based on Biblical instruction in Deut 16:16 to take up offerings on holy days. This concept was rather new to them and many were not prepared. In spite of this, everyone gave something. We were touched and humbled by their willingness and their giving attitude since they have so little. We encouraged to prepare ahead for the offerings every holy day and that would be very pleasing in God’s sight. God is not looking for a certain amount but to give what you are able and give from the heart.

Ozzie’s sermon then was on how the giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost started a change beginning with the original apostles, and this is the same Spirit which changes us today and how it changes us. God’s Holy Spirit in us is the start of eternal life.

After the service we said good buy to Henrikas since he had to catch the train. The rest of us went to lunch in a restaurant where our fellowshipping continued. Then we had a nice walk around Tartu and went home around 5 p.m. It was a glorious day. That that evening we had a wonderful baptism counseling with Luule for 3 hours. This brought back memories of early years in the church when people were not familiar with the truth and local churches


Terje, Helle, Margit, Luule, Tina, Zoya

were few and far between. God’s word then, as here, had to be explained in detail and depth. We went to bed that night inspired, overwhelmed and humbled. And the sun was still out.

Monday, June 1, 1998

Luule did not have to go to the meat market today, so we basically spent the day with her and her daughter Anneli. The girls went shopping and the man didn’t. He went for a walk along the banks of the river and stopped at MacDonalds for a bite to eat. An interesting aside—in America fish sandwiches are comparable in price to a Big Mac, but here they are considerably cheaper since fish is so plentiful. The girls checked out some open air markets with their handmade goods.We are trying to think of way to raise funds to help the Estonia church to be self-sufficient. We looked into some handmade leather pictures which were reasonably priced to bring them to the U.S. and sell them here at a profit. We are bring some samples to test the market for interest and see if it’s even feasible. Other ideas were selling paintings by student artists, handmade scarves and other handmade items, and maybe amber, etc.

Victor called tonight and we gave him a progress report. Luule is making a special meal. She’s a wonderful cook and would make a world-class chef.

(To be Continued)