Parenting Advice

A funny thing happened Saturday. We were in town with our family enjoying the nice weather, we stopped and grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the playground in the park. The playground is small but has one cool piece where you have to climb up a ramp, across a rope bridge, then up a tower and down a really cool twisting slide. The temperature was right around freezing so some ice had formed on the various pieces. It was impossible to climb up the ramp even with the help of the rope. Oskar really wanted to climb up there and go down the slide so I gave him a little help so he could get up it. I then stood close by as he crossed the bridge and then there is one step that is a little too big for Oskar and he needs a little help. So I take my hand and use it for a intermediate step so Oskar can climb up and do it on his own. Its amazing at how independent a boy can be at age 2. Well, as I was making the extra step for Oskar, a small boy, about 5 years old is staring a few feet away from my face and staring deeply at me. I am a little taken back by this and not sure what to say. They boy then proceeds to say, "He needs to start to do it on his own." I was shocked and said back, "What?" I could believe this little boy is telling me how to parent. He boy then says is again, "He needs to start to do it on his own." this time with a strong and more definitive tone. I said he can't, he is too little, and its slippery so I am just helping him when he needs it and asks for it." The boy rolled his eyes, Oskar went down the slide and Reena said lets get going before the boys get to cool and that was the end of my conversation with this little boy.

What a strange moment. This particularly struck me because this is the day after we did a big high school event called, "LIfe without Parents". The point of the night was to encourage students to respect their parents, which is a big problem in Estonia. Well, here 24 hours later, I have a little boy giving me advice on parenting. I first argued in my head with the boy and did I trash him. He was completely devistated by my amazing whit and mastery of parenting and the english language. Again, this was in my head. Then I started to think more about this, was it possible that I was doing something wrong. Was I somehow hurting Oskar, or holding him back? Do I sometimes baby him a little too much?

I then turned this towards spiritual parenting. The idea of discipleship or mentorship, taking someone and helping them to become the person God intended them to be. There are a million different ideas and books and theories on this. I have read many of these and some are good and others are not very good at all. But one thing I have seen in culture and the world around me that shows me one option that can never enter into the church. The idea of letting someone do it all on their own, Hoping they figure it out. This idea really makes me frustrated and angry. I think me must come along side of others, carry their burdens and support them. After all, isn't that the point of the church. The church wasn't intended to be a place we gather on Sunday, or a place we serve, it was intended to be a community of people pursuing Christlikeness, who have figured out its tough on their own and therefore they do it together. This to me is the essence of the church. There are lots of different expressions of the church, but the essence is the same. I know that if we can do more of this in our lives, taking the attitude of a servant to those around us, pointing them to the cross and picking them up when they fall, carrying them when they are weak and celebrate with them when they succeed we are being great parents, just like we would with our earthly children.

Pointless Video

Found this today and thought you might enjoy a good laugh. Its so funny to consider all the strange talents that people have. Its not the talent, or the development of them, but rather, I want to know how this guy found out he could even do this. Somethings I will never understand.


721 Claps Per Second - video powered by Metacafe

Building Update and Going UP!

This friday we will have a Going UP event for students. We expect to have over 500 students and we hope this leads to many more coming to our church. The theme is "Life without Parents" We are trying to challenge the students to make a big effort in their life with parents, is kind of a play on words. I am working on a few video projects for the event right now and feeling a ton of pressure, I hope we can get it all done because Friday is coming so fast. We are also trying to do some cool decorations for the event so I hope we can get it all done. If you could pray for us, we could really use it

Today we had a chance to visit a new building. Its a former night club. Its been empty for a little while. It has a large room and also some smaller spaces for kids work and other things. Its going to take a lot of work to get it ready, but its a very good option. I think we will be able to start to meet there in a few weeks. We are waiting to hear from the owners on Wednesday. I am not sure what they will say, but I am excited about the space. One major blessing of the place is some good storage rooms that we could finally have to store our supplies. We are always short on storage space and right nw, we are constantly moving things back and forth between our meeting room and office. The space is available for immediate move in, so hopefully, if all goes well and God wants us to have the space, we will start moving in and remodeling as early as Saturday. Pray for this as well this week!

Pray for us!

Risttee Church is now in a very difficult time. We are most likely out of current building by the end of November. This is a big concern for us. We don't know what God has in mind for us, but we know its going to be exciting. We may have to set up in someones home for a few weeks, or something even cooler, but Risttee is not a building, its a community. Please pray for our relationship with owners. Right now, they are treating us very poorly. This Sunday morning they had a company install the security system during our service which meant there was a lot of drilling during my sermon. It was a little distracting, but it actually helped to make the point. I will keep you updated on what happens.

Tough Day

I arrived back in EST yesterday. Travel was good, nothing special. Had some good chicken fingers at the Fridays in the ATL airport. Reena and Oskar greeted me at the bus which was very cool. We then grabbed the suitcases and headed home on the bus.

Today we spent the day together. We went out to the store on the bus. This was a lot of fun at the start. Boys were all wrapped in their winter coats and pants and we hit the Rimi Market. Got a bunch of stuff and then the adventure started. At the time the boys were a little bored and a little hungry and a little fussy. We headed out the store and it took like 10 minutes to walk 100 meters. Oskar didn't want to go out of the, Alex was tired and crying, I was carrying the bags or stuff and Reena tried to keep peace. We made it to the bus stop, then I took my phone out to see what time it was. I notices I had a text message. The message was from Märt, who works at the church and is my brother in law. The message told me that the owners of the house want to kick us out again and we had about 2 weeks. What a kick in the stomach! Took the wind out of my sails, boys were still a little wound up. I called the owner, but he didn't want to talk, he said its done and over with. We waited a few more minutes for the bus and then it came, we got all us up in the bus. I was pretty worked up at this point, feeling a lot of stress and who is standing next to us, a couple of Mormons. These guys are blind to situations. Two screaming children, I have my mean stressed out face on, Reena is stress as well and he asks, "Hello, have you spoken with us before, we would like to talk to you." I looked at them and said, "I am a missionary and I have no interest in hearing from them right now." They were kind enough to leave us alone, but I wanted to throw them through window of the bus. Unless your going to give some lad to build a church, or have the magic cure for a crying upset child, then leave me alone. I then had to go to the front of the bus to buy a ticket. I sometimes have tickets in my wallet, but I was out. On the way to the store, the checked for tickets and Reena talked the guy out of giving me one. So I finally bought my ticket, squeezed my way back to the area we were in the bus and the mormon guy tries to strike up a little conversation and I just looked at him and he got the point. 10 points for courage, 0 points for timing. We made it home, talked some things out and now I am doing better.

Its a funny thing with our situation. We are being asked to leave AGAIN! This brings up the question, what should my reaction be? THANKFULNESS! Thats the correct reaction. I need to be thankful for all that we have been able to do. Thankful that so many people have grown in their relationship with Christ from that place. Thankful for the amazing ideas that were created in that facility. Thankful for the people that accepted Christ there. Thankful for the laughter, tears, prayers and everything else that happened at Näituse 26. See, when times are most tough, when stress and bad news knocks on your door, when you lose something that can't be easily replaced, you need to be thankful. This type of attitude keeps your joy, it keeps your focus. You turn to God first and remember his massive provision. I am doing that now! Thanks God for Näituse 26! You gave us that place and you will give us a home soon. After all, the place isn't the point, its You, Your the point, helps us to remember that!

Pray for us at Risttee. We need most of all the right attitude about this situation. We need to turn to God and pray this happens. Pray for a new location, or temporary location. Pray for our leadership as we make a decision. Pray for the owners of Näituse 26, pray that somehow they meet Jesus through this time.

Texas wrap up!

I spent the last few days in the Dallas area with my extended family. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable time there. I put the laptop away for a while and spent time visiting, watching football (Browns and Buckeyes both lost, so maybe I should never watch in Texas again), eating a ton of meat and even swimming outside in my cousins pool.

First up, I attended Bridgeway Church with my family. What a great Sunday! I had some time before the service to briefly share about the work in EST and then attended the worship service. Coffee and donuts greeted us at the door along with a friendly handshake. Not sure if your church does this, but coffee is never a bad idea. Service was great and the sermon was very good. They are a portable church right now that moves in and out of a nice banquet hall each week for their services.

In Dallas they have a million restaurants. I think I sampled some of the the best. I started eating at a place call Babes. They have 2 options, Fried Chicken, or Chicken Fried Steak. That's it! It was very good. Then I had awesome Mexican and steaks and attended my first Brazilian steakhouse. This place was out of control. You sit down, grab some salad from the salad bar and then you have a little card. It has green on one side, red on the other. If its green the mean guys come buy and put off pieces of different meat. You get like 15 choices. Then you just eat and eat and eat. They bring some sides, but those are an afterthought. I don't think I ever consumed so much beef.

I got to spend a lot of time with family and really enjoyed playing pool last night with my 3 cousins, Brian, Tim and Scott. We used to spend summers together when we were younger, so being together again for something other than a wedding or funeral was very enjoyable.

Now I am passing through ATL, then Amsterdam and then Wednesday morning, American time, I will arrive in Tallinn.

I am very ready to make it home. I have been pretty homesick and can't wait to hold each of them and get back into family life. I also have to prepare my sermon for Sunday. I am wrapping up our joy series and will even ben sharing a little American history there.

Check later for a few pics from my Texas time!

Is everything really bigger in Texas?

I am sitting in the Atlanta airport looking out at my next flight that will take me to Dallas. I am spending the next couple of days with a big part of my family that I don't get to see very often. My Uncle, Aunt, their 3 sons and their families are live down in the Dallas area. I have been looking forward to this part of the trip or a long time. I haven't seen many of these family members or many years. I will be going to church with my cousin Scott and his wife Kristen and I will have a chance to share about the work in EST, which is very cool.

We wrapped up the conference yesterday and headed back from Ashville to ATL. On Thursday we went to the Biltmore. This is a huge huge huge mansion built form 1889-1895. It has 200+ rooms and is one ma massive estate. Now is a working farm and a tourist destination. We sent there, toured the farm and other facilities, had a great dinner (Prime Rib) and then toured the mansion. This place was out of control. Huge rooms, all decorated and it was something from a movie, in fact I think that many movies has been filmed there. Not sure why a guy needs such a big house, but it was fun for me. During the tour I spent a good deal of time with Edwardo from Brazil. He is the pastor of a church there and a really fun guy. Brazilians are so much fun, they laugh and hug and are polar opposites from Estonians. We talked about life, church, kids and share many laughs.

Okay, they just called my row to board, I will hopefully put some more pictures up soon! Later

ATL-Day 5

Today has been a really interresting day so far. I am an incredibly beautiful place. Side of a mountain with incredible trails that you can walk, listen to streams, enjoy the fall colors and its just amazing. At the same time, i am having the hardest day of my trip. I am really missing Reena and the boys and feel like I am in the wrong place. I long to be home with them all, crawling on the floor, wrestling, changing Alex's crappy diapers and all that fun stuff! I guess its a result of slowing down and having time to think. Here at the Billy Graham Training Center, there is a beautiful chapel. I visited there this morning and had a chance to visit their prayer room and take some time to be still and I spend the majority of the time praying for my family, friends, and Estonia. It had been a long time since I connected with God in this way. To be able to have this quiet time in a special place it just amazing. In fact, this place is extremely special. You feel the presence of God all around. The way people treat you, the whole environtment all gives you an incredible feeling. I really believe this is a special place. But in special places, you get special feelings and thats what I have today. I can't really accurately describe what I have inside me right now, but I so long for home. I called Reena a little whille ago and she said that Oskar, today continued to say, "Da Da plane, Da Da plane!" Ahh, the got tears in my eyes just imagining in my mind his cute little face saying these things and me grabbing him, spinning him around, putting him down and chacing him all around. I MISS MY FAMILY! I am now use to these type of crisis in my life and I have 6 more days till I head home. I know I will survive, but It won't be easy. Anyway, this is just a quick update of things. I am heading to the Biltmore very soon, should be a cool afternoon and I will try to post some pictures a little later. Peace out!

ATL-Day 3 & 4

So the conference content is wrapping up, and the relaxing time is begining.

The past two days have been full of diferent sessions. Andy Stanley has been the main speaker. Monday Afternoon he walked through the history of North Point. Then Tuesday he talked about some of the main practices of the church and in the afternoon a Q & A session. I also attended a session on service programming session and a session on administration. These were both very cool. The best was the conversations after the session with the different people who were leading them. I had a great discussion with the music director from Buckhead and the video guy from NP. I invited both to come to EST sometime and help us out, so we will see. This morning, Durwood, the leader of Global X, NP missions dept. spoke and dared us to move ahead with our work and take those next big steps.

After the sessions wrapped up, grabbed out Chick-Fil-A boxed lunch and boarded a bus. I am now writing this from "The Cove" The Billy Graham Training center near Ashville, NC. This is an amazing place in the mountains. Its quite big. There is a big hotel where we are all staying and a French chef making the food, so everyone raves about it. We are here for two nights. We will also visit "The Biltmore" which was built by the Vanderbilts. We will tour the facility, big house, gardens and stuff like that, have dinner, check out their Christmas lights and then head back to ATL for Friday night and then Saturday morning I am heading to Dallas to visit my family there. Should be a pretty cool trip. I am excited to see all of them

All in all its been great. The conference was very challenging about some of the things that we are doing at Risttee. I see some of our biggest weaknesses and now we have to do something about them. I hope we all have the courage to deal with these things and make it the place it needs to be to reach the people of Tartu who are currently not in church.

ATL-Day 2

Day 2 in ATL was at Buckhead Church. After getting some much needed sleep , I headed to Buckhead to see their builidng and also to spend some time with their service people. This was an especially cool time. I met the Director whos name is Carlos. Attended a few meetings and got to wear a headset during the service, so I felt very offical. After being around for a couple of their services, meeting new people and see lots of familiar faces of those who have made it to EST, I went to my first polo game. One guy, Jim, who had been to EST, was playing and the proceeds were for a ministry here in Atlanta that ministers to families of kids that are going through cancer. It was a pretty interesting time. The weather is amazing, warm and sunshine, which is different from Tartu, where its cold and snow is on the ground. Sunday night wrapped up with a dessert party with some veterans of EST. We had some snacks, told stories and just enjoyed being together. I think I will look forward to more of these meetings. Below are some of the pictures from the day, I hope you enjoy them!

ATL Day 1

So yesterday I traveled from EST to ATL. It was a pretty normal travel day. No real problems. But one strange yet cool thing happened on the flight from Tallinn to Amsterdam. We were sitting in our seats, on the plane when a voice came on the speakers there. It was a mans voice and he identified himself as the captain. He asked everyone to look up to the front of the plane and low and behold....the captain was talking to us! Face to face!! It was amazing. He took the time to explain why we would be delayed, first in Dutch which is a very rough sounding language and then in English. I I have flow a lot and have been delayed a lot sitting in planes, wanting to understand exactly what's going on and then your only connection to the truth is some strange voice on a sound system that some stole from a 1980's MacDonalds drive through. But not on KLM, there the voices are attached to very dutch looking pilots. If you fly to Europe, come with KLM you won't be disappointed.

On the long flight we had the personal entertainment system in the back of each seat, so it was a short 9 hours. I watch some TV shows, movies, discovery channel type programs and played a little Tetris. I also got some work done. The entertainment system is the coolest things since sliced bread. I am convinced its the only way to fly!

Upon arrival Rodney from Buckhead/NP/Global X picked us up at the airport. Stayed the night at Rich's house and had an amazing hamburger at Houston's. Watched a little college football, of course it was SEC football but hey its better than watching ND which lost to Navy!!!

Bucks won, so lets hope for 2 more and see if they can't make believers out of the rest of the nation!!

Sunday morning I am heading to Buckhead to shadow the Service Programming director, his name is Carlos and his blog is here, so should be a fun day.

She's Gone!

I had a really cool roommate in college and several years after college. His name was simply, Lehotsky. Lehotsky loved 80's rock music and at first it was annoying, but I eventually developed my own affinity for it. There is one song that came to mind yesterday, not sure who sings, but the line was "She's Gone! Out of my life....". Now you maybe asking, who's gone? My sweet sweet first girl in Estonia, my BMW!

I finally sold her yesterday some guy looking for a car for his father. I didn't get a lot for it and in slight of the sounds, leaking oil and gas, the smell of gas, the rust and everything else, I think he got a good deal and I got rid of a big headache. So now 1/3 of our car plan is complete, once we get the van fixed we will then sell that and then look to buy something that will hopefully not need any work for a long time!