Happy Easter From Estonia!

Happy Easter! Estonians say, Häid ülestõusmispühi!, which literally means, “happy rising out of bed”. Hopefully you rose up on Easter and proclaimed with Estonian Methodists the famous call and response, “Kristus on üles tõusnud. (Christ is risen). Ta on tõesti üles tõusnud! (He has risen indeed!). Christ is truly risen!  

              As we celebrate the reality of the risen Christ in our lives and churches during the season of Easter, here are a few updates related how we are serving our risen Lord in Estonia.

              Doug is teaching three history classes this semester: The Early and Medieval Church, The Reformation, and The Enlightenment to Today. Kulli is teaching Systematic Theology. This year, we have an amazing group of students who are highly engaged and ask a lot of good (and sometimes difficult!) questions.
 

What Would Wesley Preach Conference

              March 15-16 was the Estonian pastor’s conference held in Parnu. About 40 pastors, lay preachers, and students gathered. This was a continuation of the What Would Wesley Preach project the church began last September where a workshop was given on how to preach effective sermons. This session, over dozen pastors and students presented sermons inspired by messages found in Wesley’s Standard 52 Sermons which had recently been translated into Estonian. The preacher then received feedback from the group on a host of criteria to assist them to grow. Kulli  contributed by giving feedback to each speaker and delivering a presentation on What Would Wesley Read? She went over some of the books which are known to have either been read or owned by John Wesley and his opinions on certain works. Kulli had a large part in organizing this event. The main point was to give pastors new  ideas and tools for preaching but connecting them strongly to Wesley's theology at the same time.

 

Palm/Passion Sunday

            On April 21, Doug preached the Tallinn Methodist Church for Palm/Passion Sunday. It was an amazing time of worship as there was a group who was visiting from various parts of Northern Finland and Russia who are ethnically related to Estonians. These are people groups who have had contact with missionaries from the seminary in the past.  Their songs and colorful costumes added to the atmosphere of celebrating Palm/Passion Sunday.
 

Methodist Youth Conference      

On April 26-27 Approximately 40 Estonian youth gathered for a four-day youth conference at a camp in Southern Estonia. Doug was selected to share with the group on the topics, “What is Forgiveness?” and “What does it mean to be a follower of Christ?” Kulli translated. On Saturday night, following a prayer walk, the youth had a time where they could come up and pray about various needs in their lives or those they loved. We both prayed with several youth as did others. All told, at least 2/3 of the participants came up for prayer. It was a privilege and a joy to be a part of this ministry and to see how young people truly are hungering after a deeper knowledge of their faith with Christ at the center!

New Seminary Logo

On May 24^th, the Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary where we serve will celebrate its 25^th anniversary! The seminary has invited all previous graduates, current students and others to attend this important milestone. It will be a time of celebration and worship. We will share the history, celebrate the present, and share the exciting vision of what God has done and will do in our midst!

              Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Happy Easter once again to all of you who are interested in our ministry and supporting us through your gifts and prayers.

In Christ,

Doug and Kulli

Greetings!

It has been awhile since our last newsletter. The sunny warmth of summer has turned into the cold dampness and deep northern darkness of winter!
We welcome the advent. Darkness is overturned when the One True Light enters the world.  
 

In August, Kulli began here tenure as rector/president of the Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary. As the semester began, over twenty new students were greeted hailing from Ukraine, Russia, Finland, Ghana, Nigeria, the United States, and, of course, Estonia. 

Our kids also began a new year at school. Kristofer began first grade and his teacher tells us he is doing well. It is amazing how energized he is to go to school and is excited to learn his lessons. His Estonian is not perfect, but he pushes himself to learn! Karl is now in the fourth grade (Estonian schools start children one year later than American schools) and is doing well. He continues to be very active in Estonian dance and cannot get enough of building projects with Legos and Minecraft. Kalev started his final year of kindergarden. He has continued to practice Judo which is popular among young children in Estonia.

Kulli with some of her 2nd year  theology students: Olga, Julia and Viktoria are wearing Ukrainian festive clothing and our son Kristofer at seminary Christmas party.

Doug continues to work with a tutor on his Estonian. It is taking longer than he would like to learn, but he is making progress. He can understand some conversation. Estonian has some similarities to the Finnish language and both are considered difficult to learn. One of the new students from Finland shared an old joke with him about how Finnish is the language of heaven because it takes an eternity to learn, adding that we know that it is the language of heaven because of Jesus’s final words, “It is Finnish(ed).” 

In September, Kulli organized and Doug taught at a preaching seminar for the Methodist preachers and students preparing for pastoral ministry. The event was well attended with 44 participants. The theme of the seminar was What Would Wesley Preach in honor of the recent publishing of John Wesley’s Standard 52 Sermons into Estonian for the first time. Doug researched and did a presentation on early Methodist preaching and also preached a contemporary sermon based on Wesley’s sermon on The Marks of the New Birth. The seminar has a follow up where pastors get to present their sermons. It is hoped other ministers will also choose one of Wesley’s sermons and write a contemporary sermon based on its content and that we hope to publish these new messages for the greater Estonian UMC.
 
In October, we traveled to Berlin for a gathering of GBGM missionaries from around all Europe. There we were able to connect with other people serving in Europe and share our challenges and experiences as well as learn about how GBGM is preparing to lead in the future.
 
 

In December, the fall semester came to a close. We marked the semesters end with a Christmas party with students, faculty and staff. Celebration included food, games, singing, and a drama involving the Wise Men's visit to the baby in manger  acted by faculty/staff! Kulli thanked the students for a great semester sharing with them that part of her job as rector is to inspire the students, however, they were the ones who inspired her!

The students definitely are amazing. One of the leading ministers in Estonia whom was visiting the student chapel commented that the worship andstudents had “the smell of real faith”. We see and feel this too. It is a curious, active and spectacular group of students!

This is a sketch of what we have been up to (aside from our usual duties of teaching, English Speaking ministry, etc.) since last time we wrote. We thank you for your prayers, your gifts, and your good will.

WE Wish YOU a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Doug and Kulli