MILAN NATIVE VISITS ESTONIA
FOR THE SECOND
TIME
Jerry Reece, a former Milan resident, has
returned from his second visit to Estonia, a newly independent country, one of
fifteen republics making up the former Soviet Union.
And he plans to go again. What is he doing in Estonia?
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Mr. Reece is a primary organizer for the United Church of God’s annual Fall Festival and conference in Tartu, Estonia. His ability as a motivational speaker and his lay work in the Church has helped establish a new congregation in a country where religion was, in practice, banned until Estonia became independent in 1991.
Mr. Reece also works with Indianapolis-based humanitarian organization LifeNets that sponsors a number of activities in Estonia including working with a school for handicapped children and projects that help people find things to do in a country with high unemployment.
In 1998, shortly after becoming acquainted with Jerry Reece, I invited him to come and help with our annual conference held in Tartu, Estonia’s second largest city with a population of 100,000. He agreed. Little did I know how our relationship would develop. Mr. Reece quickly became become an integral part of our educational, evangelistic and humanitarian work in Estonia.
This past year 38 people from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada joined with 15 from this small country to hold eight days of meetings and recreational activities in Tartu from September 24 through October 2. All meetings took place in the Barclay Hotel, formerly a command headquarters for the Soviet Air Force. Until 1991 Tartu was closed to all tourists because it was the strategic location of one of the Soviet Union’s largest bomber bases. Today, the Barclay is a charming hotel in the very center of Tartu close to delightful restaurants, coffee shops, museums and appealing places of interest.
This annual conference is important to the fledgling congregation because they have few contacts throughout the year. They have no leader so all the guidance and support for them comes from abroad, mostly the United States. This is challenge to the Estonians and those helping them because relatively few people travel to Estonia. The language is unlike any in Europe. It vaguely resembles the Finnish language, but in the world, only a little over a million people speak Estonian. The second language is Russian that is rapidly declining and yielding to English. This represents the changing sentiment of the local population that is distancing themselves mentally from the nation that has dominated them off and on for hundreds of years.
Jerry speaks to the people about practical Christian living both in his formal speaking and in his personal relationships with the people. Some of the people do speak English and he quickly finds a way to have them translate to others a message of optimism and hope. The Estonians have embraced him as a friend and mentor and always ask him to return.
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Each year our conference is held at the peak of the colorful fall foliage. One afternoon we went out into the countryside and asked 13 children from the Emajõe Kool to come with us. “Kool” means school and this is one for handicapped children.
It was a delightful day out in nature as our entire group of 50 hiked around a lake. We came upon an area with playground equipment. The children immediately sprang for the swings and the jungle gym. Some had never seen anything like this. One of our members who is a teacher at the school told me that the handicapped school for nearly 100 children has only two swings in the courtyard. Jerry immediately led a drive to collect funds to help the school install some of the same play equipment in the schoolyard. In a few days nearly $1000 was collected. A story about this appeared on the Internet at http://www.kubik.org/estonia/fot99report.htm and another $1000 donation was received. In the spring the children will have something to play on. We learned that there is a factory in Tartu where the gym equipment is manufactured. The school is going through some renovation and the equipment will be purchased after the work on the facade of the building is complete.
Tartu's
Emajõe Kool for 100 |
Our other project in Estonia is working through LifeNets. LifeNets mission is to help needy people in practical ways and help them become self-sufficient. The Baltic countries have a high level of unemployment. Because of despair over the gap between expenses and income there is a high rate of suicide. Lithuania has the highest suicide rate in the world. Estonia is close behind. LifeNets tries to help provide opportunity for people to find work to help themselves.
One such means is to send used clothing for the people there to resell in thrift shops. LifeNets sends them an 18 ton container of clothing which they sort and then sell the used clothing. They repay LifeNets the cost of the shipping and survive on the rest.
LifeNets has also helped with halfway houses for youth and helped support a home for battered women. You can learn about other LifeNets projects at www.lifenets.org that also works in Ukraine, Africa, Jordan, Central America and soon in China.
Jerry Reece looks forward to going to Estonia each year. He is much needed for his heartfelt support of a tiny nation that is still struggling to transition from the controlled economy of the Soviet Union to the free market of the West. The news is good and bad. Under a controlled economy there was certain work. The government took care of its people. In the free market there is freedom. Unfortunately, the free market has born such a high price that few can live comfortably in it. The people need guidance not only in the physical, but also in the spiritual sphere. Holding our fall conference with stimulating lectures and sermons gives the people hope for the future. Living in their midst for a week and a half gives them confidence that they are not alone and that there are people who care for them. This is why he goes to the great lengths he does to come to Estonia yearly and do what he can to help these people.
You, too, can become a helper for these and other needy people through LifeNets which is constantly striving to find ways to provide hope to people in emerging nations to find themselves. Check out the LifeNets Web site at www.lifenets.org. Or write to them at
P.O. Box 88165
Indianapolis, Indiana 46208
Victor Kubik founded LifeNets which was originally an informal network of churches, relief groups and concerned individuals across the United States. LifeNets was formally organized as a non-profit 501 (c) (3) humanitarian relief organization in 1998 to better serve needy people around the world.
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The roots of the organization can be traced to 1996 when Victor Kubik, LifeNets executive director joined Maurice Frohn, a retired English surgeon and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgery, for an investigative trip to the Chernobyl region. They confirmed horrifying report of rising rates of thyroid cancer in children irradiated by the Chernobyl disaster.
Determined to do something to help, Mr. Frohn and Kubik returned to the West where Mr. Frohn found The International Chernobyl Children's Trust in England, Kubik, a full-time Christian minister with the United Church of God, returned to the United States where he began informally organizing relief shipments to the Chernobyl area. This work expanded in scope and became The Chernobyl Project.
Today, Kubik continues his pastoral work, but devotes much of his free time along with other volunteer in developing aid programs, and gathering and shipping relief supplies in the United States and around the word.
In addition to the Chernobyl Project, LifeNets currently has projects in Western Ukraine, Estonia, Africa, Honduras and the Philippines.
Kubik draws no salary from LifeNets funding. Virtually 100 percent of all contributions are used for relief efforts. All donation to LifeNets are tax deductible in the United States, and all donors will receive a receipt for tax purposes.