Busy, busy, busy - morning, afternoon and night!

Hey to friends and family from Estonia. This week was absolutely amazing and absolutely jam packed! We're sorry we didn't have a chance to share more with you along the way, but we were pretty much going non-stop from 7am to anywhere from 11pm to 1am at night - and for some even starting earlier and/or finishing later. All that aside, I think we are all very fulfilled by the experiences we have had here in Estonia, and I want to take the opportunity to fill in the blanks on so many cool details about the week. I am going to do that in separate posts by topic, so they will be easier for you and others to reference when you come to the blog. With that, see additional blogs entitled "Serving Breakfast on Campus to Promote Bear Week" (Sept 11 posting), "Afternoon Competitions Bring Great Interactions", and "Evening Events Bring It All Together" for more details on all our comings and goings, the amazing relationships we've built and what we truly believe is God at work in Estonia! I hope more will also be added to these entries from other teammates who were on the trip as we come back to reality and have a chance to sit down and reflect.

Afternoon Competitions Bring Great Interactions

As part of Bear Week, a unique competition was planned for each afternoon Monday through Thursday as an opportunity for the university students and people from Risttee Church to have some fun together and hopefully connect if even in just some small way. Winners of each competition won things like 512Mb Flash Drives/Memory sticks loaded up with a Kristian Stanfill song, Bear Week Festival t-shirts, t-shirts that our team brought over from America, Passion CDs and more. To receive their prizes, they had to come to the next band event, which was a great way to tie everything together and to give the folks from Risttee another chance to connect with these students.

Monday's competition: Petanque Tournament (with a little Corn Hole tossing on the side for fun.) Petanque is very similar to Bocce Ball that is played in the states and in other countries, and apparently, the Corn Hole Toss is something that comes from the states, though I don't think I've ever heard it called that before.

We ended up having a great turn out for our first afternoon event of the week. The event took place in a park just behind the town hall square where students come in the afternoons and evenings to hang out, usually with a beer or some other alcoholic beverage of choice in tow. One interesting point of note was the experience of our arrival at the park where we were to meet Viljar to help set up for the game. We arrived at the park, five American's all in bright orange Bear Week t-shirts, and as we weren't sure exactly where we were meeting Viljar, we walked through the park trying to work out that detail as all the young Estonians followed our pace with their eyes and very inquisitive looks. Another note of interest is that this particular park, known as drinking hill to the locals, is the exact place that one Estonian had told us we shouldn't go without an Estonian along. With that warning on my mind, you might expect the level of discomfort I felt as we walked through this place - American's, alone. And just to give you an idea of the people who were hanging out in this park, there were many dressed in "Goth" garb and most others in leather with chains and brute looks about them. What we found later was that they were simply curious of out presence rather than in any way dangerous, thankfully. :-) In fact, a handful who had watched us walk through the park came over and joined the games and several others, with much less daunting appearance, joined us as well after coming by one of our breakfast stations on campus that morning and hearing about the game. All in all, it was a really fantastic time and a great start to a week that would hold more in store than we could ever imagine!

Tuesday's Competition: City Photo Contest. This was a great competition! We had seven teams and around 30 people participate. Each team was given a list of seven themed photos they had to take at different landmarks around Tartu. Photo themes included summer vacation, animals, city bus and many more. The winning team of five people had some very creative photos that we hope to post on the blog if we can get our Estonian friends to send them over to us! Sorry we don't have them to share now!

Wednesday's Competition: Railroad Pump Car Race (in the rain!) We also had a great turn out for this event, but even more exciting was that we had more than one group of repeat participants. The pump car was pretty cool, as I'd seen it in cartoons and the like but never in real life. If you aren't sure what this is, it is the small car that sits on the railroad track with people on either end of the car and they pump the lever up and down to make the car move down the tracks. We held our race on a quiet track by the river that is used to bring coal into Tartu every three months or so. Everyone had a blast doing this, although the car was VERY heavy making it much harder work than people expected. The same team that won the photo contest won this race. These guys and girl were so friendly and seemed to really be enjoying all that Bear Week had to offer! See photos from the Railroad Pump Car Race.

Thursday's Competition: Drawing Competition. This was really fun and is apparently becoming pretty popular in Europe - or at least in Tartu. There were no rules about actually being able to draw, so we saw a pretty wide range of "artists" during the competition. The way it worked was the emcee would ask members of the crowd watching the competition to give theme ideas from which the "artists" had to draw a picture in the alloted amount of time. Themes included things like "Smurf on a Deserted Island", "Car of the Future", "Mermaid", "Karma", and the final theme "Student's True Thoughts on Geometry/Physics". The competition went in rounds, ending with three finalists in the last round. All of the finalists were very talented, though I believe the winner may have been an artist by trade. This was very fun to watch and brought on a lot of amazement (and laughter in a few cases) at the talent of the participants. See photos from the Drawing Contest.

Kristian and Band Play at Big Ben Pub

We cannot believe it is Wednesday night, and we are already half way through our time here in Estonia. It is almost midnight Estonia time as I write this, and we just got back from the Big Ben Pub in town where Kristian Stanfill and the band played for a couple of hours. This is the second night they played at Big Ben, and we have seen a great turnout of warm, energetic students from Risttee Church and new students who learned about the event from stopping by one of our early morning breakfast stations or participated in one of the afternoon events that have taken place on campus this week.

I think we are all amazed at the response to the activities planned for this week. There are “repeat customers” to our three breakfast stands and many groups of students who are participating in the different games each afternoon. Some of those same students are coming to the Pub each night.

The interesting thing is that Estonians are very closed at first and don’t readily approach people they do not know, even in a setting where they agree they would like to get to know new students. One of the most engaging and involved students, Helena, was so surprised at how much she enjoyed talking with three girls who came to the Pub last night. She said she has never walked up and introduced herself to anyone (which is unbelievable because she is super fun and warm when you get to know her even a little bit) and would never have done that if Jamey in our group hadn’t started talking to them and invited her to join the conversation. It felt like a small “yay” tonight to see her sitting with those girls again and enjoying getting to know them.

That is our purpose here – to do whatever we can do to support our friends at Risttee Church in their big plans to reach out to the thousands of students in this community. With really busy days that go from 7 a.m. to midnight, we are tired but so energized by the response and the hope of students getting connected to Risttee, because we know they will hear Truth there and experience genuine people who love God. (I know that is a run on sentence but it is late!)

I’m off to bed now. There is so much more to tell, but I just can’t stay awake any longer and 6:30 a.m. will be here soon. Think about us and pray for good weather tomorrow night (around 2 p.m. in Georgia/9 p.m. Estonia time.) We have our big event of the week outside in a park near campus and three bands set up to play with no rain plan!

Catie B.

Kristian and Kerri Stanfill and the rest of the band arrived in Tartu on Tuesday afternoon after enduring the same 19+ hours of travel the rest of the team endured a few days earlier. Despite being worn out and weary from the travel, the band made their first appearance at Big Ben Pub on Tuesday night. I really don't know how they managed it, so I suppose all I can say is "Thank God, literally, for adrenalin", because otherwise, I'm not sure what they accomplished that night would've been possible!

We had a great turn out at the pub and were all excited to finally have the band with us in Estonia. The rest of us had been promoting the band's first appearance at Big Ben on Tuesday night at the breakfast stations and other events on Monday and Tuesday as a band coming from America that played groups like U2 and Cold Play. Much to our surprise, without even so much as one secular song to warm up the crowd, the band jumped right into playing worship music - rock style of course, breaking out "All Because of Jesus" as the second song of the night. While we all love the song, we cringed a little, looking around to see how many people would get up and leave at the mention of Jesus. We were happy and hopeful (and a little relieved) to see that not only did no one leave but they stayed and stayed to continue to listen to Kristian sing songs that clearly praised God and Jesus and all they have to offer in our lives. Apparently, everyone was impressed and appreciative of the bands performance, including a member of a local band who asked who they were and wondered if they had songs on iTunes. Not bad!

The second night at the pub went well also, with a slightly smaller crowd and a few secular cover songs from U2 and others but still plenty of worship songs, camaraderie, and many familiar faces including our new friends from Risttee Church and many of the students we'd met in the week. Tomorrow night, Thursday night, is the big concert near the town square with the band from Risttee and an Estonia band called Crux as openers and Kristian and band as headliners. It should be awesome, though very cold and, as Catie mentioned, hopefully dry!

We are having a great time and continue to have amazing experiences that suggest the impact we are having in our efforts to help Risttee Church reach out to the university students of Tartu. We can't wait to see what else He has in store for all of us!

Love and blessings to all,
Shannon

P.S. For my Daddy and any others who may be wondering, the food here is pretty much like what we eat at home, except maybe the Estonian hamburgers that Rich and Craig picked up at the burger stand down the street from Craig's house as a snack to nourish us after we finished all our prep work for the week's activities. Some of the other Estonian foods we've tried include fried black bread with garlic and garlic sauce and spicy lamb kabobs (YUM!) and some sort of yogurt type shake that was not very cold and quite sour tasting (YUCK!). Otherwise, it has been pasta, pizza, american hamburgers, eggs, bacon, etc. Oh, and very yummy chocolates. :-)

Serving Breakfast on Campus to Promote Bear Week

See photos of the team serving breakfast to students and others on campus each morning. Every morning this week, we are getting up bright and early - 6am Estonia time/11pm Atlanta time! - to get ourselves ready to head out to help the Risttee team serve coffee, hot chocolate and sandwiches to students (and others) on campus to promote Bear Week, which is the festival and activities planned to help the church reach out to the college students in Tartu. While many were a little leery at first of why we were handing out free breakfast, the word must be getting around that there are "no strings attached", because the number of people willing to stop and connect was noticeably larger this morning (Tuesday). We've already been blessed in so many ways by this experience, and it's only the second day. Imagine what is yet to come! Again, more details to come!

Bear Week Schedule for the Team

Saturday 9/8
Arrive Tartu, Dinner with Kuldir

Sunday 9/9
Risttee Church 11am, lunch with folks from Risttee, afternoon rest, dinner and team meeting at Craig & Reena's

Monday 9/10
Serve breakfast on campus 7:30-10:30am, team meeting 11:30-12:30, lunch, afternoon break, Petanque tournament 5-7pm, Dinner with team, sandwich prep for Tuesday breakfast on campus

Tuesday 9/11
Serve breakfast on campus 7:30-10:30am, team meeting, lunch, breakfast prep for tomorrow, City Photo Race 5-7pm, Kristian and band at pub 9-11:30pm

Wednesday 9/12
Serve breakfast on campus 7:30-10:30am, team meeting, lunch, sandwich prep for breakfast tomorrow, Railroad pump car races (in the rain) 5-7pm, dinner, Kristian and band at pub 9-11pm

Thursday 9/13
Serve breakfast on campus 7:30-10am, team meeting with band and Peep, lunch, afternoon break/stage set up for tonight's concert, Art Drawing Contest 5-7, concert in part 8:30-11:30pm with Risttee Church band, Crux and Kristian Stanfill band.

Friday 9/14
Serve Snickers bars on campus 7:30-10am, afternoon free, Living Room at Risttee Church 9-11pm

Saturday 9/15
FREE DAY!!

Sunday 9/16
Church at Risttee, Kristian and band lead worship, lunch with Risttee friends, say goodbye and head to Tallinn for the night before getting on plane on Monday to head home

Monday 9/17
7am flight from Tallinn to Amsterdam then fly home to Atlanta arriving 1:40pm!

See you soon!

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!)

With planes, trains and automobiles, we finally make it to Estonia!

We left Atlanta at 4:45 on Friday afternoon and after 8+ hours on a plane to Amsterdam, another 2+ hour plan to Tallinn (the capital of Estonia), a two hour train ride to Tartu and a 15 minute taxi to the hotel - not to mention about 6 hours of layovers and waiting, we finally made it to our destination. We all made it safely, and most of us with our luggage. Sorry Jamey! When we got to the airport, we were so excited to have Kuldir from Risttee Church waiting for us to escort us on the train to Tartu.

So after many hours of travel, we arrived at our destination tired but excited. After arriving in Tartu and quickly checking into the hotel and freshening up, Kuldir led us to La Dolce Vita for a quick and excellent dinner before heading back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. Note: the Auburn and Georgia fans on the team all talked big about getting up at 12:45am and 4am on Sunday morning to catch our football games on the Internet, but we all had to confess this morning that it was easier said than done. Of course, we found out this morning that it wouldn't have been a sacrifice worth making as both teams lost. Oh well!

This morning (Sunday) we all awoke rested and ready to go. (Mind you at 9am here it is is 2am in Atlanta.) We had a nice breakfast and then took the 15 minute walk through town to Risttee Church for the service, where we had our first meeting with most of the Risttee team we will be working with this week, including Peep (the pastor), his wife Anna, and many of the college students from the church who will help with outreach on campus this week. It was such an amazing experience. And while the songs were sung in Estonian, there was a moment when I knew for sure God was not only in the building but in the hearts of these Estonians as they gave Him glory through their song and prayers. Craig, an American who has been in Estonia for seven years, is married to an Estonian girl, Reena (pr. Rayna), gave the sermon in English while Peep translated in Estonian. Very cool!

After church, we all had some lunch with a couple of our new Estonian friends, walked around a shopping mall that felt very American, and came back to the hotel for a brief rest before heading out again. Tonight was very special as Craig and Reena hosted our team and the college team from Risttee Church for dinner, planning and preparation. It was such a great time of bonding, team work and good old fashioned laughter. Courtney, Bryan and Stacey painted bear sign for this week events, while the rest of us made sandwiches and did other prep work to get ready for tomorrow, which will start with serving breakfast to students at three locations in town. I absolutely cannot wait to work with this team to help them connect with these colleges kids and to see what God has in store for all of us this week! There is so much more to tell, but it is11:14pm here and we have to be up and out by 7:15 tomorrow morning so I must go to bed now!

More stories tomorrow and photos to follow as soon as we have some time to post them. We miss everyone at home and again thanks to all of you who helped make this trip possible for us! Stay tuned for more and GOOD NIGHT!

With love and blessings from Estonia...
Shannon and the rest of the Estonia College Ministry Team