Dinner at Craig and Reena's on Sunday Night (9/9)

See photos from our dinner at Craig & Reena's on Sunday night. Craig & Reena (ray-na) from Risttee Church hosted our team and the college students at their house for a night of planning, preparing and connecting. It was awesome! More details to come when we have a chance. We have been going non-stop! Love to you all. We are having a great - and fruitful - time here in Tartu.

Love and Blessings, Shannon

Yea! Finally, we had a chance to breathe, giving us some time to share more details. Thanks, Wes and Jamey for sharing more about our experience on Sunday night and introducing some of the great people we are working with this week.

Sunday evening we met at Craig and Reena’s house to meet the Estonian Ristee church team. Their place was warm and inviting and their children beautiful reflections of their mom and dad.

We started the evening with introductions, including sharing an interesting fact about ourselves. We quickly found out one Estonian team member had quite a sense of humor. After introducing himself, Daniel said he was a part of the Estonian Summer Olympic Curling team. To Americans unfamiliar with the sport, it is held on a frozen rink, so the notion of it being a summer sport should have been a dead giveaway. But gullible as we can be, he had several of us Americans going. That was a good one Daniel. We’ll have to watch for you in the next Summer Olympics!

After introductions and before dinner and preparations for the following day and the week to come, Peep spent time talking about his vision for Risttee church and provided an overall strategy for our activities throughout the week. We are all excited to be here and to serve in whatever capacity needed to help Risttee. We pray the lord will bless our efforts and make our time here a success for His glory.

Our team and the team from Risttee had such an amazing time getting to know each other through this first experience together, and it was clear to see that meaningful connections are already beginning to form between team members. With that, we thought you might like to “meet” them as well – we apologize in advance to our new Estonia friends if we misspell their names:

Kuldir is a student of environmental design. As Shannon mentioned, he traveled to Tallin to meet us at the airport when we arrived on Saturday. He was a welcomed site in the midst of a foreign country so far from home. Besides having a cool name, Kuldir not only got us to the train platform and onto the right train bound for Tartu, but he also saw to it that we could find our way from the Tartu train station to our hotel near Tartu University. Thanks for all your help with our travels Kuldir!

Innar and Siiri have been happily married for two months, and it’s clear the Lord continues to bless their relationship. Innar is a 3rd year Forestry student, and Siiri is a 3rd year nursing student. Siiri’s spoke such good English, we all thought she was from the United States, which made us ask what brought her to Estonia and how she and Innar had met. She assured us she was 100% Estonian, and she and Innar told the story of how they met through a local youth ministry event that Siiri was leading.

Harri is a young Estonian man who spends time working on his degree in Health and in the weight room. Harri may be the first Mr. Olympia to come from Estonia. :-) Aside from his towering height and muscles, he’s always wearing a smile and is more than willing to help in whatever way he can. Harri tells us he’s the only male in his health classes… no wonder he works out!

Ingmar and Rebeka, another young couple, have been married for just over a year. Ingmar is a 5th year medical student and Rebecca is in nursing. When asked what kind of doctor Ingmar wanted to be, he replied with no hesitation and a wry smile, “a good doctor”. Who could argue with that?!

Daniel is a first year university student who came to Tartu with his family when he was 8 years old. His parents are missionaries from Ohio who have worked with the Salom Baptist church here in Tartu. Daniel has incredible energy and is wise beyond his years. His time in Tartu has made him one with the native Estonians, and his love for them and their culture is clear. Daniel’s sister is Anna, who is married to Peep – the pastor of Risttee Church and our host.

Hanna & Ava are sister, and although we officially met them for the first time on Sunday night, we had actually seen them at Risttee Church on Sunday morning as part of the three person worship band. Ava played the guitar, and Hanna sang. They are both talented musicians, and we look forward to seeing them play again on Thursday when they open for Kristian Stanfill and the band at the concert in the park behind the square here in Tartu.

Vilar is another young Estonian we met at Risttee after worship. Vilar will organize the Pétanque (pronounced peh-tahnk) Pétanque tournament we are holding on Tuesday in the park behind town square. Pétanque is an outdoor lawn sport that is similar to Bocce Ball, which we play in America.

Eleri, who just graduated from High School, is a native Estonian from Tartu and has been in Daniel’s class since he came to Estonia. Their being classmates and friends over the last several years must have had some effect, as Daniel and Hilary are now dating.

Craig, Reena, Oscar and Alex were our hosts on Sunday night. Craig came to Estonia from Ohio as a missionary several years ago and is now associate pastor with Risttee Church and works closely with the church’s high school ministry. He is married to Reena, Peep’s sister, and they have two wonderful boys, Alex (10 months) and Oscar (3). Craig delivered the sermon at Risttee on Sunday morning in English, while Peep (pr Pape), Craig’s brother-in-law and pastor of Risttee church, translated for the Estonians. We sincerely appreciate Craig & Reena opening their home to us, not to mention the dinner and the apple pie that was made from apples that came from their very own apple trees!

And last but certainly not least is Peep, Anna & Emma Saar. Peep is the Pastor of Risttee Church, and his team is hosting us while we are here in Tartu. Peep and his wife Anna have a beautiful 10 month old daughter, Emma, whose brown hair and brown eyes looks just like Peep’s.

Thanks again to all of you who helped make this trip possible! We look forward to sharing more of the experience with you as we continue to connect with Risttee Church and the college students in Tartu throughout the week!

Jamey & Wes

We also want to give a loving and appreciative shout out to Tarmo and Kati who weren't able to join us on Sunday night but have been such AMAZING help throughout the week. They have both helped us serve breakfast on those early mornings this week, as well as helping with the afternoon events and joining us at the pub Tuesday and/or Wednesday nights. We want to make sure that they - and you - know how much we love them and appreciate their support and assistance (and to Tarmo for the rides to the V's and other places!)