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Nordic / Baltic / Eastern European Newsletter
February 22, 2009          Issue 4           
 
In this issue
Feast of Tabernacles October 2-10 in Saaremaa and Tartu, Estonia
Johnnie Lambert Attends Feast Coordinator Meetings in Dallas, Texas February 10-11
From Paul and Kira in Sweden
ESL for Street Children and Orphans in Ukraine
Would you like for us to come and visit?
Finally...
Greetings,  
 
We have good news about the Feast of Tabernacles this fall! Our plan is to hold it once again in Estonia and meet together in two picturesque locations. This past week we arranged for accommodations in two excellent places -- one on an island of Saaremaa in the Baltic Sea and the other in Tartu, the oldest city in the Baltic Republics.

We have submitted our promotional announcement to the United News. The text in the next story below will appear in the March/April edition coming out in about a week. 

Beverly and I are still reflecting back on a wonderful journey to some of your areas when we visited with many of you from January 13th through February 2nd. We always enjoy our time to visit, talk and pray together. 
Johnnie Lambert will be leaving this coming week for nearly a one month's stay in Tartu. He will visit in both Estonia and Latvia. 

We would like to hear from you and if there is anything you'd like to share with those who receive this newsletter (we have more than 130 on the list), please let us know and we'll include it. Photos are welcome, too.
 
                                                       In Christ's service, 
                                                       VK signature
                                                       Victor Kubik
Feast of Tabernacles October 2-10  in  Saaremaa and Tartu, Estonia  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plans are underway to experience the Feast of Tabernacles at two locations in Estonia this fall. Estonia is nestled between Russia, the Baltic Republics and Scandinavia. It is known as part of the land of the Vikings. 

We plan to bring brethren together from these areas along with transfers from the United States and other places.  Estonia Feast site map
The first half of the Feast (map location 1) will be on the beautiful, historic and strategic island of Saaremaa, which controls one of the sea gates to Russia.
  
We will spend the first four full days of the Feast at the luxurious Georg Ots Spa Hotel which overlooks the Baltic Sea.  Scandinavians love their spas, and this location was very popular with Feastgoers in 2007. Children and adults alike will love it.

Double room at the spa will be a very reasonable $75 per room per night. This price includes a buffet breakfast, unlimited access to saunas, pools and fitness center, use of a personal bathrobe and sandals, Internet connection in the hotel rooms and all taxes. See their Web site at http://www.gospa.ee.

On Wednesday October 7 we will travel by bus from the Island through picturesque countryside to the lovely city of Tartu, Estonia's second largest and oldest city in the Baltic States (map location 2).  Tartu is first mentioned in an ancient Russan chronicle when it was attacked by the Kievan Prince Jaroslov the Wise in 1030. In the 13th century Tartu  joined the Hanseatic League and the oldest university was founded here in 1632 by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. 

We have reserved rooms at the upscale London Hotel.The rates for accommodation at the London will be single room $54, double $74, double deluxe $93-$105 and suites $124. Rates include all taxes, fees and buffet breakfast.  See their Web site at http://www.londonhotel.ee.

You will not need to rent a car at either location as many restaurants and sights are within walking distance. Taxis are plentiful, and you can still get almost anywhere for about $5.

Median coach airfare from the United States to the capital city, Tallinn, is about $1,300 per person.  There are two flights daily from Tallinn to the Island of Saaremaa for about $40 one way. Additional information about other charges for bus, excursions and a few group meals will be made available on our Estonia Feast Web site at www.kubik.org/estonia.

First Service will be Friday evening, October 2nd at 7:30 PM. 
Location of Services:  All meetings will be held in the hotel conference room in both Saaremaa and Tartu.

Reservations: You may request an application by e-mailing Festival coordinator

Victor Kubik at estonia@kubik.org
or by writing to
3707 Turfway Court
Indianapolis, IN 46228-2095

or by calling (317) 216-0802.

Please come join us for a memorable and enjoyable Feast of Tabernacles 2009.
 
(If you would like to know more about the observance of God's Holy Days and Feasts, please contact me at victor_kubik@ucg.org and I will send you the booklet about them in English).
 
Johnnie Lambert Attends Feast Coordinator Meetings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To help us plan a Feast that is not only physically pleasing, but spiritually refreshing, our associate pastor Johnnie Lambert attended the Feast Coordinator meetings in Dallas, Texas on February 10 and 11.
 
In its historical aspect, the year 2008 marked 75 consecutive years of keeping the Feasts of God, from 1933 to 2008. In the meetings it was noted that it is important to increasingly involve younger people in helping and serving at the Feast. 

A task force to examine Festival Youth Instruction recommended that parents take more of the initiative to teach their children at the Feast. A  Festival Youth Workbook will be given to children and youth this year. We may have as many as a dozen young children with us in Estonia this year and we want to make sure that they are included in every aspect of the meetings and activities. We should remember the definition of the ZONE at the Youth Camps-it's the environment where God can change people's lives. There are seven elements to it - fun, challenge, support, success, positive relationships, inclusiveness & structure and you want the same atmosphere in a family and also at the Feast. 

UCG President Mr. Kilough concluded the sessions quoting Psalms 27:13, "I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." So our job is to create the best environment possible in order for the purpose of the Feast to have the maximum impact.
From Paul and Kira in Mjölby, Sweden  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
For us it is always exciting to follow along the travels of ministers in God's Church as they visit people around the world, making new contacts and seeing old friends as they stop off on their routes to visit with people. This is of course what God's ministers have always done. The book of Act's is full of such stories. We do of course take a special interest in Victor and Beverly Kubik's travels and it is great to follow along on his blog.  We know that we become a part of the blog, maybe you can too!
 
On this trip their was only time for one stop in Norden and so we invited people to come and spend the Sabbath with us, along with the Kubik's we had three travel down from Oslo to be with us. We had a nice service and sang several hymns and had an interactive  Bible study on  the subject of faith. We each shared stories and experiences that have strengthened our faith and also realised our need to grow in faith.

In the last few weeks we have also been encouraged by the number of literature requests we have received and the way the Good News mailing list continues to grow.

Now that this e-newsletter has been started we have included all of you who have written in requesting literature and asking question's on our list. We hope you will enjoy these regular updates and that you read the news letters you have missed.

                                                                     Best wishes to all of you
                                                                     Paul and Kira Spenser
ESL for Street Children and Orphans in Ukraine ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For the second year in a row LifeNets, working with united Church of God members, will Bev with girlsconduct an English as a Second Language Program in Vinogradov, Ukraine.  Last year's program was a marvelous success for a model orphan care program and children coming to a Soup Kitchen run by a Sabbath-keeping minister and his wife. On the left is a photo of Beverly Kubik with two of the children coming regularly to the Soup Kitchen.

 
Vasyl Polichko and his wife Irina, having no children of their own, feed street children in a soup kitchen that LifeNets has supported since 2001. Last year they expanded into an orphanage that provides a family atmosphere as groups of children are made into a "family" cared for by adults who become their "parents." It started with eight children last year and a second "family" has been added this year. 

We plan to have 40 children participate in a two classroom ESL program that will run from July 5-17. The program is headed by Cindy Harper who currently lives with her husband Dan in Cherbourg, France. Dan will come along to help teach and manage sports activities at a day camp held simultaneously with the ESL program.  Also coming are school teachers Ken and Cherie Zahora from Indianapolis. Ken was here last year and can't wait to get back this summer. You can see the story of last year's program at http://lifenets.org/vinogradov/summer08/menu.htm

The background for our work with Street Children and Orphans can be found on the Internet at www.lifenets.org/vinogradov. Beverly Kubik has spoken about these children in various women's seminars and you can see the transcript of one of her presentations at  http://lifenets.org/vinogradov/seattle/dyhc.htm.
Would you Like for us to come by and visit with you? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We travel regularly on a route visiting our members and readers of the Good News magazine through all the Nordic countries.  If you would like to meet with one of us and ask any questions about the Bible or the Work of the United Church of God, please email us at visit@kubik.org or write to one of the addresses in the Contact Information below.
Finally
Holy Day Booklet~~~~~
We could go on and describe more, but will leave it until the next newsletter.  We are happy to be publish our new booklet about God's Holy Days in Russian.  We are printing 1500 copies in Ukraine, half of which will be left there and the other half will be sent to Estonia for mailing in the Russian-speaking world. The cover of the new booklet is on the right.

We could tell you about our wonderful visit to pastor Robert Schultz in Smiltene, Latvia where we kept the Sabbath with them. This visit is recorded on our last Travel blog that can be reached at
 
See you at the next newsletter in about a month.
  
If you would like to be put on the mailing list send me an email with your name and email to iwantnews@kubik.org
 
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Contact Information

Victor Kubik
3707 Turfway Ct.
Indianpolis, IN 46228

phone: 001 317 216-0802 
mobile/sms: 001 317 679-7676

Johnnie Lambert
562 Sing Sing Road
Horseheads, NY 14845
 
phone: 001 607 796-2660
mobile: 001 607 765-1969 
email: jlambert49@gmail.com
   
United Church of God | 3707 Turfway Ct. | Indianapolis | IN | 46228