A day for dependence and independence

What a blessing to be spending our last evening in Estonia at Peep and Anna Saar's house in Tartu! Julia and I came to Tartu last night so we'd have a chance to spend time with our friends at Risttee and my good friend Liisi.

Liisi is the reason I was introduced to Estonia in the first place. For those of you who don't know the story, I will give the short version. I met Liisi on a Lord of the Rings chat room back in college. God had already given me the desire to be a missionary, but hadn't shown me where or how. While getting to know Liisi, my heart became drawn more and more to Estonia until finally I prayed and asked God to show me how to get there. The rest is history.

This morning we went to a baptism for Risttee church. It was great to reconnect briefly with some of the people I met 3 years ago and to see how they've grown and matured. Later this afternoon, we met with Liisi and wandered around Tartu, visiting the toy museum, the best swing in town, and a local pub.

Tomorrow we begin our long journey back to the States. Please pray for our endurance! There are many stories we haven't shared on this blog, but feel free to ask us questions. God is moving mightily in Estonia and in the hearts and lives of those who will offer time and energy toward His ministry in this place. We've been blessed to share some of this journey with you and hope some of you will be able to join us in person sometime soon.

It's official

I can't believe I'm awake past 1AM now. We stayed in bed till 11 this morning, so most of the day was uneventful. Daniel is now on his way back to England. :(

This afternoon we walked to downtown Tallinn and caught a bus to Saku for debriefing and the afterparty! We grilled sausages and bread, played camp games and new games, etc.

Tomorrow we will have another debrief with the teams from the other camps. This is the first year there have been more than one camp at a time, so it will be interesting to see what kind of stories the others have.

Camp is over :(

Camp has officially ended. Today was just a half day. Instead of telling a story this morning we talked about the concept of a perfect world and God's plan to redeem the world. We only got around 4 hours of sleep last night, so it was hard to keep going strong, but we made it.

Julia and I are staying in Tallinn with a couple of ladies from the local youth leadership team. Tomorrow afternoon we will debrief with the team and then in the evening is the AFTER PARTY!!!!! We'll be playing all the camp games, dancing the camp dance, singing the camp song, and just having a great time.

The best part is....we get to sleep in tomorrow!!!

Julia's Post

I am in the middle of a loud dark disco party, so I will try to write well. Please forgive me if not all of it makes sense. :)

Today was the last full day of camp. In the main meeting, we talked about Jesus talking Nicodemus and Jesus with the woman at the well. Afterwards we had a really good discussion in our small group about what we believe about God and Jesus.

Our English environment for the day was Facebook. We made profiles for people we made up and we played charades with things you would do on Facebook.

During free time, Bekah and I took naps. That worked out well for us because it's 12:55 AM. We get to stay up extra late since it's the last day.

In the evening meeting, we did an outside personal thing where we went to different stations and had to do things like write a letter to ourselves, write down the names of the people we needed to forgive on a pebble and throw into the woods, etc. There was a lot of crying, but of the good kind.

Now I'm gonna go join the dance party, so we will post more later.

-Julia