A Most Memorable Evening With Heroes of Faith by Karen Allwine This was our sixth time that we chose to attend the Feast of Tabernacles in Estonia. While we missed a couple of Estonians that we love dearly, the old friends we saw and the new friends we made caused this to be a most memorable week. There were more people attending this year than ever before. In most years, our numbers have been around fifty. This year, we had almost ninety attending. The majority, of course, was from the United States but people from many other countries were in attendance. I would like to spotlight some of those people. We spent an unforgettable evening on October 4, 2009 listening to some of the stories these people had to share and I would like to include you in their wonderful and inspiring stories. Each person mentioned below was asked to share his or her story. The Estonians are first.
Vello Saar
now lives
The Barth’s attended the Feast in BRNO, Czechoslovakia for ten years. The Feast in BRNO was a very interesting Feast site. Our family attended the Feast there in 1981 and 1984. Rainier related the following information which we also observed while there. The Feast in BRNO was the only place where the East German brethren could attend the Feast. They had to live in another hotel – not the one where the westerners stayed. We could have NO contact with them in our hotel nor could we acknowledge that we knew them. We could go to the lobby of their hotel to visit but we could not visit them after services in our hotel. It seemed very awkward but any closer contact than that could have gotten them into serious trouble. The Feasts in BRNO were two of the most memorable we have had. The Church split in 1995 hit the German brethren hard as it did all of us. Before 1995, there were about 50 people in the Church where the Barths live – now there are only five. Dr. Barth helped organize our opening night service which composed of scripture readings by 3 youth – Jacob Schultz from Latvia, Jamie Murphy from Ireland, and Artur Aleksandrov from Estonia – music by a Latvian trio and the Estonia Feast Ensemble, and – of course – a message by the Feast Coordinator, Victor Kubik.
There are still brethren in Zimbabwe who need our prayers. There are about 30 members there but only a couple of whites – the rest are African.
The Dohs and others of the Karen tribe appealed to the United Nations for help. Eventually, many of them were accepted by other nations as refugees. Mr. and Mrs. Doh were accepted by the Finnish government. They have 2 sons in Canada and one in Norway. There are five Karen in Norway and many (number) in North Carolina. The last group was featured in the Feast film. When the Dohs learn Finnish (a difficult language for them to learn), they can obtain Finnish citizenship. Their hope is that one of their children in Canada can sponsor them and that they can move to Canada. Please pray for Mr. and Mrs. Doh.
To begin their story, I am including some of the notes from a message given by Robert, during the Feast, which chronicles his involvement with the Church. Robert is the pastor of the Smeltine Baptist Church which is over 100 years old. It is a typical Baptist Church. Robert learned about the meaning of Christmas about 15-years ago and, as a group, his church decided not to keep Christmas. Midsummer is a big event in the Baltics and the Schultz family quit celebrating that about 10-years ago. From his message, he asked, “How did I get to know about the Church? His wife, Elita, found an advertisement for a FREE booklet – The Middle East in Prophecy. This (something free) was VERY unusual so she ordered it, of course. The Good News Magazine also arrived. Receiving the Good News was not enough. He ordered booklets as well. He read a lot of information on Internet. As he learned certain things, he taught his church too. He learned about the Sabbath and they kept it. When I taught the Church these truths – that was a shock, of course. The first booklet they used for Bible Study – about the Sabbath. There were arguments in his church. Finally, they all agreed to keep the Sabbath but about ½ left. The next subject they studied was – What happens after death?. The Shultz’s youngest son (Ruben Paul) got cancer, healed, and is healthy now – but when he was very ill, they wondered what would happen to him if he died. Next, was clean and unclean. He had a talk with his Latvian Baptist Church Bishop and asked him, “Do we believe in the 10 Commandments?” The answer was yes then Robert asked about the 4th – the Sabbath. “Oh,” his bishop said. “We would lose too many people.” So, there was a split in his church. Robert, Elita, and their four children Jacob, Esther, Shulamite and Ruben Paul came to Estonia two years ago and kept the Holy Days with us. This year, there were 19 Latvians who came to Estonia to observe the entire Feast of Tabernacles. We met Robert and his family two years ago and we were so very happy to have many more come this year. Antra thought Robert was crazy at first. She mentioned that their church had many arguments about what Robert was learning and teaching. She stated that though their church is Christian, they just didn’t SEE what was clearly taught in the Bible. Eventually, Antra came to understand and we were so happy to meet her. The stories of these people that we were so fortunate to meet at this year’s Feast of Tabernacles were so fascinating that I felt they had to be shared in some way with the whole United Church of God. I hope that you will keep all these people in mind as well as the many scattered brethren throughout the world.
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