Yes i know... My blogs are like buses none for ages and then 2 come at once...
Just a quick one! A prayer request / financial need
On the 20th-22nd of November in Östervåla, Sweden the Salt & Light Nordic Region has a conference! We (Me, Maarja and Alari) would really like to go and strengthen our relationships with Salt & Light churches near to us and see and hear what is going on in Salt & Light in the Nordic/Baltic Region!
We don't have money in our budget to get there the tickets are in total around 60gbp + buses at both ends (roughly 100gbp total)!
If you feel that you could help us get there please pray about supporting/sending us there! it would be a massive blessing and a wonderful birthday present for us all (Me, Maarja and Alari are all November babies)
As many of you will know we spent much of the summer in the UK for my dads wedding and my brothers 18th! September and October are now past which means you are well overdue an update the good news is we have been really busy here is a what we have been up to since we got back!
PowerPlace (youth club): Since we got back we have been getting back into the rhythm with our little team and leading worship, preaching, praying, planning and the likes, the youth group has grown a little in numbers and some of the young people are really stepping it up and getting much more into God which is awesome!
Youth worship band: The youth worship band has been really blessed the last few months the church did its second guest service this time with the youth band leading worship and doing a performance song, in preparation for this the band have been doing 3 practices a week and writing, translating and learning new songs (1 practice a week has been in a professional practice room which we somehow get to use for free (praise God) which has been really really good to get an understanding of where we are at)
Sunday mornings: For the weekly meetings Maarja has started doing a church newsletter to help keep the church informed etc the youth band leads worship every week and we occasionally preach the church has been hearing from God lately about a “next level” and chewing over as a family what we can do to take the church to the next level.
Small groups: The girls groups are both going nicely and the boys have found a common passion for nerdy computer games (praise God) so the boys group is starting to get together regularly (praise God)
Prayer Breakfasts:Have been faithfully continuing and we have a really good core group of church members get together for fellowship and pancakes every Saturday
UK trip: We had a great time in the UK, it was good to catch up with lots of you and my family! While we were over I did wedding photos for my dad who insisted on paying and for the money I somehow managed to get a 800gbp discount on my dream guitar which was such a massive massive blessing(praise God)
The Place (outreach): In October we had the place which is part of the reason for the lateness of this update we had loads of little problems but in the end it all worked out (including glow in the dark dancers) we had about 400-600 young people in the local concert hall! I ended up doing sound! We also had a tight deadline for writing and handing in a project to get financial support for theplace from the council we made it by the skin of our teeth and will find out soon if we will get support for the second year running!
Guest meetings: the second guest meeting went well we had around 20 guests and lots of positive feedback the next guest meeting is in 2 weeks and apart from a change of venue everything is coming along nicely
Celebrate recovery:On Thursday evenings we have committed to helping Alari with the running of celebrate recovery with a group of mostly homeless and ex homeless men which is a challenge for us(we enjoy it alot) but is going really well.
Personal life: Maarja is working full time with the church (until/unless another non-secular job appears that could work alongside church) and we now have one free day a week (praise God) lately church has been a big blessing and is changing from a place where we give out a lot and don’t get much back from to being a place we really get filled up and encouraged at! (praise God)
Prayer points for the next month then...
Continued provision (on Gods terms)
PowerPlace is every Friday and prayers that we can provide a place for people to belong and grow in and that we can teach our young people well in, We really want the youth meetings to be filled with the power of God! And to see more and more young people getting off the fence
Prayer Breakfasts are a big step of faith for us as we are feeding a big group when our finances are tight so provision and continued spiritual growth for the church
Health! We have both been ill lately and we can’t really afford medicine on a regular basis (missing the nhs) so it would be great if we could be healed and not fall ill :)
The church is looking into investing for the first time in over 15years in some new sound equipment as the 15yr old second hand sound system is on its way out pray for provision and get in touch if you would like to help the church financially with this…
Please pray about supporting us financially if you feel that might be something you might like to do, Even what may seem like a small amount each month helps us out massively and is a huge blessing to us and the church here, if you feel you would prefer to support specific needs financially in the church please feel free to get in touch about what they might be and how you might help
PS. We are now set up with Stewardship so we can claim gift aid on support given to us and get extra money from the UK government on top of your support! Attached are all the details you need to register to support us via Stewardship!
This might seem exceptionally late (even by our standards) but for half of May we were in the UK and the last update went up to the time at which we left Estonia so this is kind of an on-time (by our standards) update for the running month of May-June lets call it Mjune for the sake of clarity.
Mjune has been very good, we have been keeping busy and clocking up some respectable mileage and in Mjune we had a really encouraging and… interesting time in the UK,
So anyway here is our quick list of what the church, youth and we personally have been getting up to!
PowerPlace (youth club): Summer is here, and to celebrate the fact that we now have sun, long days and youth with a 3 month break! We have started "a summer of adventure" which is much more catchy in Estonian (honest)… So we have been doing bbqs, football, swimming and meetings on the beach etc each Friday which has been really good so far…
Youth worship band: The youth band is on a break as everyone is working for pocket money over summer so me and Karl have been doing acoustic worship on Fridays.
Sunday mornings: Me and Maarja have been leading simple worship all month... Risto has been leading a series on our relationship with Christ which has been really good…
Small groups: The girls groups are both going nicely and the summer and Euro2008 have been good for the football group its not very formal but its happening regularly and since we have so few boys we have to play with strangers lots which is great
Prayer Breakfasts:While we were in the UK we got inspired to instead of talking about wanting to be a praying church to start opening our home on Saturday mornings at 9am to do breakfast and prayer with the church its been going great each week more and more people have been coming meaning this week we face making pancakes for up to 20 people which should be fun.
UK trip: We had a great time in the UK we went to a lovely wedding and managed to cover 11 different cities in 10 days we were really encouraged by so many people and got to catch up with family some whom we hadn't seen since our wedding and some who we hadn't seen for even longer, We also experienced something strange everywhere we went we seemed to be in the middle of road works and noise (bar our lovely break in Scotland) we had near constant headaches, we really felt God was telling us that Estonia(and its peace and quiet) is the place for us right now and that God was hardening our hearts to England (which believe it or not I sometimes miss)
The Place (outreach): Mjune has been a mixed month for The Place team straight after we got back we put together a show for another local church which went well and at which I was both the MC and the lead singer (BoB is not quite dead) but also 2 events have fallen through this month with the first one the school whose garage we were promised changed their mind at the last minute and the second was a tour for which we couldn't get a band in the end! In some ways it's a blessing in disguise as the place team is small and work very hard so these events not happening allow for a much welcome break for the team!
The Bus: The Bus is not up and running yet and we don't exactly know what we will be doing with it yet but in July expect more news about it!
Prayer points for the next month then...
Continued provision (on Gods terms)
PowerPlace is every Friday and prayers that we can provide a place for people to belong and grow in and that we can teach our young people well in, We really want the youth meetings to be filled with the power of God! we are continuing "Jesus Season" but at outdoor and generally more summery locations with a cut down preach more testimonies and acoustic worship
Prayer Breakfasts are a big step of faith for us as we are feeding a big group when our finances are tight so provision and continued spiritual growth for the church
A Job for Maarja! In August we are in England again for a longer period (family weddings etc) and Maarja had a word previously about non-secular employment so we took a leap of faith and left a month sooner than we would have had to giving Maarja July free but meaning when we are back Maarja will be looking for a more fulfilling and meaningful job
The situation with the church and the old hall is still in a big mess pray the God will guide the church leaders and provide whatever it takes to solve the dispute (wisdom, money, a free lawyer)
Please pray about supporting us financially if you feel that might be something you might like to do, Even what may seem like a small amount each month helps us out massively and is a huge blessing to us and the church here, if you feel you would prefer to support specific needs financially in the church please feel free to get in touch about what they might be and how you might help
PS. We are now set up with Stewardship so we can claim gift aid on support given to us and get extra money from the UK government on top of your support! Attached are all the details you need to register to support us via Stewardship!
