Sunday, October 12
We observed the Day of Atonement here in Tartu at Luule Lepik's apartment near the center of Tartu. Seven people attended.
- Ylo Maaring
- Luule Lepik
- Margit Kaljas
- Raivo Kunder
- Darlene Reddaway
- Beverly Kubik
- Victor Kubik
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We had a combination sermon, Bible Study and discussion lasting about three hours.
In my sermon I spoke about the Day of Atonement as a time of introspection and atonement for sins. It was the only time of year that the High Priest in ancient Israel went into the Most Holy Place inside the Temple. It was for the purpose of bringing the sins of the people to God and atoning for them.
I read from Leviticus 23 and 16 which describe the Day of Atonement. From there we went to Romans 5 which speaks of Christ being our Atonement through whom we have reconciliation and justification. Then on to Hebrews 9 and 10 which describe the ancient temple practice on the Day of Atonement being superceded by all Christians having access to the mercy seat of Christ in the Heavenly Temple. But, Christian responsibility does not stop there. In Hebrews 10 we are instructed to consider one another in
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order to stir up love and good works and not forsake the assembling of ourselves together (verses 24 and 25). We then had a lively discussion about how that can be done in Estonia with the small and detached group that has only about four or five ministerial visits a year. What can these people do in the meantime?
Actually, we have provided them with an increasing amount of spiritual information. We have translated 24 articles from the Good News into Russian which they can all read. Over 30 sermon tapes have also been dubbed into Russian. Our first articles have been translated from Russian into Estonian by Ylo Maaring.
Our meeting for seven people was multilingual with no common language. Here is the language breakdown:
- Ylo Maaring - Estonian, Russian, Finnish, German
- Luule Lepik - Estonian, Russian, Polish
- Margit Kaljas - Estonian, English, Russian, German
- Raivo Kunder - Estonian, Russian
- Darlene Reddaway - English, Russian, Estonian
- Beverly Kubik - English
- Victor Kubik - English, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, German
The preaching, study and discussion went through all these languages. When we came to a Bible verse, I'd ask Margit Kaljas to read it in Estonian. But, Ylo Maaring prefers his well-marked Finnish Bible which he feels is more exact. Darlene would corroborate words under discussion in the Russian Bible. Somehow, in the midst of all this we would come to understanding. When Henrikas Klovas comes up from Lithuenia for the Feast we will have yet another language in the mix of things. He is proficient in Lithuenian, Russian, German but not English.
After sunset we went to the Ruudliskelder restaurant in the center of town for an enjoyable dinner and fellowship. We are all looking with anticipation for the upcoming Feast of Tabernacles here in town....
Friday October 10, 1997
Photos in this report were taken Thursday, October 9th.
Bev and I left for two fall festival sites on Tuesday, October 7th. We flew from Indianapolis to Newark, then on to Copenhagen, Denmark and finally to Tallinn, Estonia.
Our driver, Pyotr Bichevin who was returning from St. Petersburg, Russia was held up at the Russian-
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Estonian border at Narva. He was three hours late picking us up at Tallinn airport, but finally drove us 120 miles on the last leg of our trip to Tartu where about 23 of us will be meeting for the Feast of Tabernacles at the Kantri Hotel.
The first person we'd like you to meet who is with the United Church of God is Luule Lepik. Bev and I are staying at her apartment. In the past year Luule has moved into the center of Tartu to be closer to her work which is selling meat at the Tartu Turg, an indoor bazaar, like a shopping mall in the city. It is a collection of shops selling mostly food. There are some newsstands and other types of shops or stalls.
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The Terre Haute, Indiana church has loaned Luule Lepik money to buy a stall location at this market. She has a meat counter area that is six to seven feet wide and about about three feet deep. Over the period of about a year Luule will finish repaying the loan and not have to rely on outside assistance for her daughter and herself.
In the morning Luule had cut up a side of beef weighing nearly 500 pounds that she figured would sell in two days. She spent the morning doing the cutting while she has a lady help sell at the meat counter.
The counter areas of other vendors area attached one to another. Next to Luule Lepik's counter was a vendor selling a counter of smoked fish.
Luule Lepik also does janitorial work a bank every day from 8 - 10 am.
In the afternoon we helped Luule get the wood she needed to heat her apartment with for the coming winter.
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She had a load of birch delivered, but it was wet and would not burn! She said that she could not use it until next year. So, putting a call into another new UCG attendee, Margit, we all went out to a farmhouse about 12 miles outside of Tartu and loaded six cubic meters of split and dried birch onto a dump truck. We brought it back to her apartment, unloaded it and stacked it into a shed. This process took all afternoon. I was amazed how hard Luule works. She had cut up a cow in the morning and worked non-stop loading and unloading a winter supply's of wood in the afternoon!
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