It's been several months since we sent
a Nordic / Baltic/ Eastern European
newsletter. Our attention is now on the
Fall Festivals that are kept around the
world. In our area the
Feast of Tabernacles will be kept in
Saaremaa,
Estonia from
September 22-30. Attendees this year
will come from the United States, Canada,
Estonia and
Latvia.
In this issue we have news reports from
our laborers in various parts of the world
who work diligently to preach the Gospel of
the Kingdom in our various languages.
John Marinkov writes from
Washington State about Serbian
translations, Johnnie Lambert, our tireless
worker in the Baltic States write about his
last visit to
Tartu and we also include a summary
report of our Russian/Estonian Work.
The September issue of our online
Virtual
Christian Magazineis listed
below with links to this month's seasonal
and relevant articles.
Let us hear from you. We always enjoy
hearing from our readers.
In Christ's service,
Victor Kubik
Senior Pastor
Latest News from Eastern Europe /
Baltics / Nordic Countries
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our team of Toomas Schvak, Natasha
Weatherhead, Johnnie Lambert, Carolyn Barker,
Judy Sieker and Paul Spenser continue to do the
Work of God for these areas of the world in
Estonian, Russian and Sweedish. Natasha started
working at the Home Office full-time this
summer. While Estonian and Swedish are not
widely spoken, Russian is the fifth most spoken
language in the world and a second language in
several of the countries that were formerly
behind the Iron Curtain.
We are continuing to build a solid
collection of booklets and articles in
Natasha
Russian and Estonian so that when people
come across the Good News in
English, they can be quickly offered what we
have in those languages. In addition, for
each issue of the Good News, Toomas
and Natasha translate two or three of the
English articles from that GN which are
inserted into the magazine that is to be
mailed. We have a stock of several years'
articles that can be offered continually to
new readers.
We also have the entire Bible Study
Course translated into Russian as well as
Estonian. Natasha is helping design our new
Website which will contain everything we've
ever translated into the various languages
of the Eastern European / Nordic / Baltic
areas. We have varying amounts of
translated literature on our current Web
location at
http://www.ucg.org/easteuropean
in Russian, Estonian, Romanian, Serbian,
Polish and Lithuanian.
Here are the current available
booklets:
Russian:
1. Is the Bible
True?
2. The Gospel of the Kingdom of
God
3. God's Holy Day
Plan
4. The Road to Eternal
Life
5. The Book of Revelation
Unveiled
6. Sunset to Sunset - God's Sabbath
Rest
7. Why Does God Allow
Suffering?
Estonian:
1. Is The Bible True
2. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God
3. God's Holy Day Plan
4. The Road to Eternal Life
5. Heaven and Hell
6. Sunset to Sunset - God's Sabbath
Rest
7. Why Does God Allow Suffering
8. Fundamental Beliefs
9. Who Is God?
10. What Is Your Destiny?
11. Marriage and Family
12. Jesus Christ The Real Story
Johnnie Lambert spends considerable
time in Estonia and sends out some of our
literature from Tartu, Estonia. In addition
to Toomas Schvak, Imbi Kuusksalu and
Estonian prisoner Valdur Vesingi translate
for us. Imbi is translating Managing
Your Finances while Valdur is
translating The Book of Revelation
Unveiled and has finished What
Happens After Death?
This year we are pleased that a student
from Norway, Daniel Hitsman, comes to study at
the Ambassador Bible Center.
The Feast of Tabernacles will be held
in Estonia on the island of Saaremaa. A
highlight will once again be more than 20
Latvians and their pastor Robert Schultz
from Smiltene, Latvia. Johnnie Lambert and
Britt Taylor will come from the United
States.
Long Days and Jaanipäev diaryby
Johnnie Lambert
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The summer Solstice is known as Jaanipäev in
Estonia. It is a long standing pagan sun
worship festival celebrating the longest day
of the year. Literally translated, Jaanipäev
means "John's Day".
Johnnie
Since my name is John, it has been a big
joke to the Estonians for years. At this
time, darkness comes at about 23:00 (11 PM)
and daylight starts at 4:00 (4 AM). This is
Hazel's first trip to Estonia at this time
of the year. She was anxious to see the
"Long Days".
Arriving 3 June from New York, I
decided to rest on the first Sabbath.
Afterwards, I started to update data bases
and prepare for our June mailing. Toomas
Schvak is studying to earn his PHD at
Tartu University. He arrived for some
seminars 7-9 June. I was able to spend some
time with my very good friend at the Tartu
apartment. I went to the airport in Tallinn
to meet Hazel who arrived late on 10 June.
We stayed overnight in Tallinn and met
Toomas for breakfast at our hotel.
The Sabbath of 12 June was spent in
Latvia with the church in Smiltene. Robert
Schultz, the pastor and all the members were
most hospitable as always. Nine of them came
to Tartu for the next Sabbath, and we tried
to return the favor. Visiting with Valdur
in the Vangla (Prison) was a special time.
Valdur was very enthusiastic and seemed
quite happy. He has completed translating
What Happens After Death and is
waiting for the chaplain to return from
vacation so that he can e-mail the
translation to us
Judy, Carolyn, Natasha, and Toomas
continue to work to put our translated
literature into publication. Our Russian
supply of Gospel of the Kingdom is
now depleted, so we plan to "jump the queue"
in order to move it to the head of the line
for publication. Imbi Kuusksalu, now living
in Ireland, has been able to resume
translating literature into Estonian. She
has completed Is the Bible True and
is now working on Marriage and Family:
The Missing Dimension. So there is lots
of new work for the publishers to do.
Before coming to Tartu, along with the
Kubiks, we were able to help Natasha to
become established in Cincinnati. It is
exciting that we now have a Russian
specialist in the Home Office. God did not
make it easy, but He did make it possible.
It is a big step in the growth of this work
in Eastern Europe.
We have a lot of literature to take to
the Post Office just now. All things are
continuing to grow. Hazel and I will go to
Saaremaa on Thursday to meet with Keidi
Hoogand, manager of the G. O. Spa Hotel, in
prep for the Feast of Tabernacles.
Even though the days are long, there is
never enough time to get everything done.
Report on Serbian Literature from John
Marinkov
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Greetings from the Pacific Northwest.
Here's an update on the Serbian work. The goal
for this year is to translate all 12 Bible study
lessons. So far two lessons are completed and
uploaded to the web site.
Good news. Sasha Veljic from Belgrade
has agreed to begin translating in addition
to proof reading beginning in May. Up to
this point he has been proof reading only,
but starting in May he will begin to
translate in addition to proof reading my
work. This is wonderful, it took a long time
for this to happen.
Currently I am translating lesson 4
(almost half way finished), and Sasha will
begin lesson 3 this week. With both of us
translating things should begin to move much
faster now. Secondly, I may be able to
translate a Good News article or
two that are really good, which I wasn't
able to while focusing all energy on Bible
study lessons. By the way, I find the Bible
study lessons are excellent, they are a
wonderful work providing a foundation to
grow on. Also, I haven't been able to take
time yet to learn how to use software to
modify English text from existing pages with
pictures into Serbian. This I hope to begin
to do as soon as we get all 12 Bible study
lessons translated.
I am still putting in 12 hour
days (including work and commuting)
each day, so translating is slow. But now
with Sasha also translating the work
should speed up, at least double. Once the
Bible study lessons are translated then
we'll begin translating booklets that
support the lessons with deeper information.
Hopefully the demand for Serbian literature
will begin to pick up.
