Sunbeam — The Beginning
February 2, 2012
Over the past several months, I’ve often said that ‘I may have some good news about Estonia soon’. Well, today I have some good news about our work in Estonia.
For over a year now, Stoneworks has been partnering with several people in the US and Estonia to help establish a day center for children with disabilities. There are over 100 children with disabilities in that area and they have no access to services; they are at home, quite isolated from the world. They need help, and we are called to help them.
An American donor is giving a significant amount to help start the program, and in the process we’ve opened an Estonian charity named Päikesekiiir (Sunbeam) to run the program. But we didn’t have a building. Until yesterday.
The city of Jõhvi has given us use of a great building in the city center. And here it is:
We have it for 30 years at no cost! We have the keys and will start renovation soon.The building is in better shape than it may appear. It has a new roof and new high efficiency windows, it has a new security system and recently had firewalls and fire doors installed.
Pastor Artur Põld, architect Andres Toome and myself are the founding board members of the Estonian charity Sunbeam. Stoneworks represents the US side of the project, and also involved are Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, Germans and Brits.
In addition to housing the center for children with disabilities, the building is large enough to house many more activities. It has a great assembly hall, conference rooms, we’ll build housing for mission teams, and host other events there. It’s in a great location, in the middle of town.
Currently a youth center and kindergarten use a few of the rooms. They will pay rent to help offset operating expenses. There is much more room for expansion. And there is a smaller building on the lot that we hope to turn into a wood-working shop.
There is much to be done to prepare the building for the ministry. Though some parts of the building are in good shape, we need to renovate several rooms, build two wheelchair accessible bathrooms, reconfigure and rebuild the entrance (ramps, roof, doors) and offices, upgrade the heating system, renovate the kitchen, build a fence, and much more. Here are the initial designs for the first floor, where Sunbeam will be housed.
So, now that we have the building, much more is needed: mission teams to do construction, funds for equipment and operations, people to help train volunteers, and on and on.
We hope to open Sunbeam on June 1 — International Childrens’ Day.The next four months will be quite full and quite fun! And I’ll be posting more news as we move along.
You can read more and see more pictures and videos here.
Donations to support the center can be made here.
Soli Deo Gloria — To God alone be the glory. He has put this in our hearts, and He is bringing all the resources needed to help these children. We thank Him for guiding us.
Meeting in Estonia
November 4, 2011
I was in Estonia for a few days earlier this week. Yasha & Olga Goncharenko and their children came up from Belarus, and it was nice to meet them there and introduce them to our Estonian friends.
The Goncharenkos stayed at our ministry flat in Johvi. Pastor Artur Pold and his wife Valya welcomed them with open arms. They took them to a spa and treated them to a fresh fish dinner (you catch your own fish). All in all, it was a great trip, though it was too short for me. We look forward to their next visit.
Yasha and Olga were able to take back a large load humanitarian aid, too. Now there will be many gifts for orphans this Christmas.
News from Estonia
September 1, 2011
Pastor Artur Pold, director of Camp Gideon in Estonia, wrote the following update from Estonia:
Dear Friends!
We have completed our 19th season of camp ministry. This was a special year. We had 14 events that involved 1300 people including children and adults. Below are some testimonies of children from our church who have experienced camp.
One other special thing is that we had orphans from Russia who were adopted by Russians or taken into foster families. I was talking to staff of the charity organisation «MIR» and they have told me that the kids were crying for three days wanting to come back to camp after they’ve left it. [Stoneworks, Love Russia and MIR partnered together to make this camp happen.]
This summer ministry teams from Brazil, USA, Russia, Britain, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, Australia, Denmark, Latvia. God id expanding our horizons making this camp international and cross-denominational.
Mike Cantrell from a United Methodist Church in Athens, GA who has been serving as a missionary to Russia for 10 years, has become the true friend. He is helping us collect funds for our ministry and is bringing teams to serve at camp. With God’s help we are hoping to rebuild the guard’s house and turn it into a house for missionaries. We hope this house will be a recreation for missionaries who serve in Russia and other places and who need a break. We’d like to build two apartments, one on each floor, so two families could stay there at the same time.
Now that the camp sessions are over, we still have builders, mechanics, water and heating system operators and an artist working at camp. We are finishing up walls in our main white housing. We’ll continue the work until the cold is here.
We are waiting for the missionary bus from Germany and we’ll do outreach in Johvi. The driver and the bus will stay at the camp.
We thank you all for your prayers and support.
Special thanks to:
- Asbury Methodist Church
- Ludmila Plett from Germany
- Saint James Methodist Church from Athens, GA
- Estlandskomiteen, Norway
- The leadership of Methodist Church of Estonia and Taavi Hollman and many more faithful friends!
Respectfully, Arthur Pold
Children’s Testimonies–
Amina: I liked being in the camp. God has changed me in the camp. I want to come here again.
Gabriella: I like camp Gideon. I spent really good time in the camp. I liked to take part in the games, competitions and skits. During the camp God taught me to pray and it became easier for me to do it. God has changed all the kids. I would really like to come here again.
Natasha: I really liked camp Gideon. It was very funny. I liked everything in the camp. God was helping me. God’s changed my attitude to all the people during the camp. I’d really like to come in the camp Gideon again.
Martha: My name is Martha and I liked the camp, it was really funny and wonderful. I really liked the games and crafts. God has been working with me in the camp, He kept giving to me strength and energy to play every day and pray more confident. God’s changed the kids in the camp their obedience and mood. I’d like to come here every year, because I liked it here.
Dasha: I liked the camp very much. It was funny interesting and nice here. I liked that we had played every day, been doing different crafts. Every day God has been helping me in different activities. God’s given me the new friends in the camp. I would really like to come back here.
Nikita: I liked being in the camp. God has touched me in the camp. I began to obey the adults. I’d like to come here again.
Yanek: I liked the camp. There was no fighting here. The crafts were interesting. I’d like to come here in the winter.
Ride For Russia
June 21, 2011
From MIR Executive Director Masha Oshkina:
I will always remember this June as a motorbike riding adventure. On the 1st June 2011 an intrepid band of bikers, and trikers, embarked on a 2000 mile trip to Moscow, Saint Petersburg and back to raise funds for the Genesis project. I had a privellege of joining them on the ride to Estonia and Latvia. (See videos if the Ride for Russia here).
The band arrived to the Palace Square on June, 9
I couldn’t miss my chance to look at all the bikes.
The British Consulate of Saint Petersburg showed their support and hosted an outdoor lunch for the bikers. Alex gave a speech as well. Read more
Ministry Flat in Estonia
February 23, 2011
I’ve been looking for a ministry flat in Estonia recently. Olga, Valerie and I will spend more time in Estonia over the coming year or two (as we build the center for disabled children), and I thought it would be good to have a home base in Johvi. I’ve also wanted to find a place where Christian workers in Russia can take a retreat.
Well, we have a place now. The owner is an Estonian lady who now lives in the UK. She is willing to rent it to me for just the cost of utilities. Isn’t that something? We don’t pay rent, only utilities. I offered to do some remodeling in the bathroom, since it’s in pretty bad shape.
Members of the church will help remodel the bathroom, and already a few people in Russia have expressed interest in staying there. The flat is within walking distance from the bus station, so it has easy access for people coming from Russia. It has one bedroom and a living room. The kitchen and bedroom have been remodeled. It has a washing machine (which is nice). The living room needs some work, and the bathroom is a wreck (which we will fix).
I hope it will become a sanctuary, a place of rest and retreat.
Snowy Beginnings
January 25, 2011
This may not look like much, but we hope this is where we will build a center for disabled children in Jõhvi, Estonia. The mayor has offered us this lot of land and will present his proposal to the city council next month. The municipal government is very supportive and many people in the community are ready to help.
Right now, the vacant lot is a jumble of earth and snow, but it is in a very good location very near the city center on good roads.
I am meeting with government officials, the architect, ministry leaders and various advisers. Today Andres Toome (the architect) and I visited a center for NGOs and received advice about the best legal structure to use. We also talked through preliminary plans for the building. Over the next two weeks, we’ll prepare a charter and file to found the organization. Artur Pold is taking a leading role in getting the ball rolling.
It’s great to see things taking shape, and we hope to start building this summer. Please pray that we’ll walk in God’s time and ‘lean not on our own understanding’.
Growth in Estonian Ministry
September 18, 2010
I’ve just been in Estonia, researching ministry opportunities. In addition to our plan to send several short-term mission teams next year, a donor in the US has offered to give significant funds to help build a center for disabled children in Jõhvi, in Northeast Estonia.
My trip was a first step for Stoneworks in gathering information and beginning to make decisions about the project. We have a long way to go, but I am encouraged that we will open the center.
There are about 100 disabled children in the area; these children live with their poor families and have no support at all. They are not mainstreamed, don’t attend school, and rarely leave their homes.
A couple of years ago, a group of Estonians started the process of opening a center to help disabled children, but their funding fell through. As a result, there are several people who are ready to make this center a reality.
Here are some of the people who are involved:
First is Artur Põld, pastor of the local Methodist Church and has a vibrant ministry. Artur is also a ‘deputy’ (an elected official) who is very active in the community, particularly with social services. He oversees soup kitchens, second-hand shops, and other services to the poor.
He’s also he director of Camp Gideon, a Christian camp where we had a team last summer.
Artur has desired to open a center for disabled children for many years. He has helped build a team and is the visionary who is guiding the process.
We are partnering with Artur in many ways. He is very open-hearted and I like his emphasis on spiritual unity.
Here he is with his wife Valya; they made a great dinner for us, look at that salmon.
I also met with Andres Toome, the city architect. Andres is a strong Christian and will design the center, if we build a new building or restore an existing building.
Andres has identified city property where the center may be located. We are waiting to hear if the government will allow a center to be built on that land. It’s in a great location, right in the heart of the city. We hope to know in a few weeks if it will be possible to build there.
This project has the full support of the local government. I even met the mayor briefly. While in the county offices, we prayed for the center and openly spoke of our faith and how the Lord is leading us.
Sirli Tammiste is the director of social services in Jõhvi. We had a great meeting where she voiced her full support for the project.
She supports partnership between the government and the church. She said that the municipal government will provide funds for ongoing expenses for the project, once the building is complete. Government funds may also be available for part of the building project.
She also introduced us to the director of programs for disabled people. It’s great to have such support from the government.
Artur has made many friends, and they are all ready and willing to partner with us.
Lena Shevnina is a teacher who will be the director of the center. She is a very strong believer who is very excited about overseeing the center.
Her life story is very interesting. She came to Estonia from the far north of Russia just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. When Estonia became independent she was ‘trapped’, no longer a citizen of the USSR and not a citizen of Estonia.
There are many people like her in Eastern Estonia — those who are ethnically and culturally Russian but who found themselves outside of Russia when the Soviet Union fell. Lena has a great attitude, and her faith is fully apparent as she lives with joy. She will be a great director of the center.
Please pray that we will abide with the Lord and follow His leading as we make decisions about how to best serve disabled children in Estonia.
Here are pictures of the lot where we’d like to build:
Sin at Work
September 9, 2010
This is from John Neese, director of SAC, one of our partner mission organizations:
The Narva (Estonia) Orphanage Director says graduate orphans that know younger orphans that are about to graduate will threaten them with their lives if they don’t hand over the graduate orphan stipend they know they will get when they graduate. That leaves many graduate orphans with nothing and corrupt graduate orphans with money for drugs in their hands.
As our work expands into Estonia, there is a sense of excitement for what is to come. We must remember that we are moving into an area of ministry that is dark and dangerous. This is a spiritual battle that will only be won by abiding in Christ and allowing His love and truth to touch the hearts of people.
Estonia, a first
August 3, 2010
We celebrate a first for Stoneworks. We have sent our first mission team to Estonia. They return to the States on Thursday.
For the first part of their trip, they lived in a camp with orphans, ministering the gospel. The orphanage director, Riho, is very supportive of our work and has invited us to continue working with him and helping the children in his orphanage. The doors are open.
The second part of their trip was focused on fact-finding in preparation for future ministry. The team visited several orphanages, rehabilitation centers, camps and private ministries where they met leaders, learned about programs, and discussed possible future ministry. Stoneworks will use their research to help build other teams.
One very good connection is with Artur Pold, the pastor of a local Methodist church. He also directs Camp Gideon, a beautiful camp on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. Artur is on the local ‘county commission’ and oversees many projects helping people in need. Several members of his church have been ministering in nearby orphanages. Their church has been very supportive and we look forward to future partnerships with them.
This team now has tentative plans to return next summer to help run a camp for orphans at Camp Gideon. We hope that other teams will go to Estonia next summer, too. It’s a joy to see the work expanding into areas where people are asking us to help.
Here you can learn more about opportunities in Estonia; scroll to the bottom of the page for info the country.
Good Days
March 25, 2010
We’ve just finished our Stoneworks retreat. We met near Tallinn, Estonia for several days. We shared meals, saw the sights, and were encouraged by fellowship.
This was the first time many people had met other Stoneworks affiliates and workers. We were very blessed by the unity we have and how much we enjoy each others’ company. Here is the whole crowd, Russians, Belorussians and Americans:
seated: Katie and Melissa Bull; Christina Melton — Montenegro; Mike and Olga Cantrell — Russia; Liz Hulley — Russia, Matthew and Mark Bull
standing: John and Karen Bull — Russia; Olga Goncharenko, Masha Goncharenko and Alesya Kuleshova — Belarus; Katya Plusnina and Masha Oshkina — Russia
And here is a picture Liz Hulley took –
People shared slide shows of their work; we had times of prayer, worship and teaching; most of all, we were able to spend time together and increase our sense of unity and common commitment.
And we got to see the sights. Here are Olga and Christina in the old town of Tallinn –
And some of us had good rest:
