I am pretty sick right now. It started Sunday with a little eye infection. Then it moved to a headache, sore troat and now an ear infection. Not sure what will be next, but I hope it moves on quickly. I am trying to make the best of it, but its a busy week. With English Camp a few weeks away we are trying to visit schools to do some advertising and also trying to get the talks done. Also, this Sunday the choir is performing and we are having 5 people share their stories of what God is doing. This is going to be very cool. I need to get well, cause tomorrow I have to get all the stuff done for Sunday.
Say a prayer for me and also Reena and the boys that they don't get it.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Cool passage
I was reading the bible this morning. I try to do this each morning upon arriving at the office. I have been working through Mark lately and its been kinda weird. I have been searching for something new, waiting for God to speak to me. Well today I ready chapter 6 and it was so cool to read about Jesus walking on water and how the disciples hearts were hardened and they couldn't understand. God was clearly speaking to me about a few things I need to work on in my life. Areas that have been hardened, things I couldn't understand. I was encouraged to see God talking to these men, trying to teach them, but they couldn't understand and that is like me so many times. I hope my heart can be softer and I can hear more often from God. Not sure about you, but ask God to soften your heart and hopefully you can understand what he is trying to teach you!
A good morning
Its Sunday evening, i took a little break in my study at home to write a quick update.
The kids are with Reena running around. They all have been sick for what seems like 3 months now. Fevers, runny noses, coughs, you name it, we have had it. But we are all taking 5 days of antibiotics to try to head this thing off. I hope it works cause if I have to wipe another nose I think I am going to go nuts!
This morning we had our service, we have over 50 again for the 5 straight week which has been very encouraging since moving downtown. We continued our series, more than a Book, which is about the Bible. Märt shared a great message about being rooted in God's word and we distributed a 7 day devotional for our people to try this week. We will do it again next week as we see how our people respond too it. Maybe its something worth doing weekly, we will just have to see. If it helps people grow in their relationship with Christ, then its a great usage of time and resources and I think it will be. Toivo prepared it and I formated it. In the service our band lead some worship music, Jordan made a cool video that presented the manuscript evidence of the bible comparing it to other historical works. He used some really cool music, and the facts were very cool, thanks to Tom at NW for the info. To end the service we did a song\testimony. The band played the song Precious Treasure from Charlie Hall and then as they played an interlude, a video of Innar, the newest member of our church Elders, shared about how reading the bible is changing his life. It was really cool and a great way to end the service. The only mistake was having announcements after that, it seemed to make a hard transition for Peep to get up after that. Enough of that stuff.
On Friday I spoke at Lift. It was a great night. About 40-50 were there and we talked about how to respond when other judge us. We looked at Christ response on the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do as the example. It was cool, except on girl right in the front row recording me on video the whole time. It was a little weird, but I guess thats a fact of life in our digital world. I just hope it doesn't end up on youtube or something like that, its always weird to watch yourself.
Busy week ahead of us. Services and events and all that fun stuff. Lots of English Camp to get ready for. Its just a few weeks away so please pray about that now. Its one of the most important weeks of the year and I am speaking this year, so thats another big responsibility on top of organizing a lot of things there. Keep in prayer the 70 or so kids that will come, the team from Ohio and also our local team that will be putting it all together. March 17-20 is the dates, so pray God will do something huge that week!
The kids are with Reena running around. They all have been sick for what seems like 3 months now. Fevers, runny noses, coughs, you name it, we have had it. But we are all taking 5 days of antibiotics to try to head this thing off. I hope it works cause if I have to wipe another nose I think I am going to go nuts!
This morning we had our service, we have over 50 again for the 5 straight week which has been very encouraging since moving downtown. We continued our series, more than a Book, which is about the Bible. Märt shared a great message about being rooted in God's word and we distributed a 7 day devotional for our people to try this week. We will do it again next week as we see how our people respond too it. Maybe its something worth doing weekly, we will just have to see. If it helps people grow in their relationship with Christ, then its a great usage of time and resources and I think it will be. Toivo prepared it and I formated it. In the service our band lead some worship music, Jordan made a cool video that presented the manuscript evidence of the bible comparing it to other historical works. He used some really cool music, and the facts were very cool, thanks to Tom at NW for the info. To end the service we did a song\testimony. The band played the song Precious Treasure from Charlie Hall and then as they played an interlude, a video of Innar, the newest member of our church Elders, shared about how reading the bible is changing his life. It was really cool and a great way to end the service. The only mistake was having announcements after that, it seemed to make a hard transition for Peep to get up after that. Enough of that stuff.
On Friday I spoke at Lift. It was a great night. About 40-50 were there and we talked about how to respond when other judge us. We looked at Christ response on the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do as the example. It was cool, except on girl right in the front row recording me on video the whole time. It was a little weird, but I guess thats a fact of life in our digital world. I just hope it doesn't end up on youtube or something like that, its always weird to watch yourself.
Busy week ahead of us. Services and events and all that fun stuff. Lots of English Camp to get ready for. Its just a few weeks away so please pray about that now. Its one of the most important weeks of the year and I am speaking this year, so thats another big responsibility on top of organizing a lot of things there. Keep in prayer the 70 or so kids that will come, the team from Ohio and also our local team that will be putting it all together. March 17-20 is the dates, so pray God will do something huge that week!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Tuesdays Thoughts
I am at the office and its 8.30. I have been here already for over an hour. I got up early this morning so I could get in and get some things done. Mainly I needed some extended quiet time to work on the talks for our March English Camp. I will be speaking this year with our theme Hero. I am really excited about it. I am stealing some ideas from a series I have on DVD but one part that I am really looking forward to tying each talk back to the story of Jesus. As we talk through all the qualities of a hero, it sets up perfect to present Jesus as the greatest hero of all time. I am really excited about this camp!
As I left the house this morning, Alex was in bed with us. He has had a fever off and on for a day or so and then developed a bad cough last night. This winter has been out of control with sickness in our house. Reena, the boys and myself have all been hit hard several time. Winter is long and hard in Estonia but with sickness we always have one help, thats the cold. When the weather in January gets down into the -20 to -30 area, then a lot of the germs and bad stuff die off in the cold, then people can stay healthy. This year, we haven't had much cold, in fact its been around 32F (0C) most of the, so that means no snow and certainly no destruction of the germs. We hope that it comes soon, so we can get healthy, but winter is quickly disappearing, days getting longer and soon spring will be rolling in, so thats not a problem at all. If you could pray for little Alex and the rest of the family and our healthy, we would really appreciate it.
One other I want to share is a big highlight from this past weekend. It was LIFT, our weekly youth event. After the Going UP event the week before with 500 people we wanted to see at least 20 students come to lift the next week. This has been a difficult thing for us, but this time it was incredible. About 30 totally new people come to LIFT and had a great time. They had a time of worship, some game and then introduced a new series on Judging others. They had a long interview with one student how they had been judged, judged others and how its affected their life. This Friday I will be talking about how to we live as the one being judged. I am going to talk about how Jesus responded to his judgement on the cross, when he forgives the people for what they are doing, cause they have no idea what they are really doing. I think its going to be exciting. Also be praying about the cafe we are using. there was about 60 students at the event last week and this is cool, but thats a lot of teenagers and it can freak out business, so pray the cafe will continue to allow us to meet there until we can find a more permanent facility.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Recap from this weekend
Here is a brief update on how things went this past weekend. In brief it was incredible. We have been hearing so many stories and support from people who were touched. I am so excited about what God is doing in the lives of the people at Risttee. How they love this city and the people who are there and will go to great lengths to make it happen. I hope this can inspire you.
Friday night we had a big event for high school students. Over 500 came and we shared a challenging drama and message about life after death. The audience was perhaps the quietest I have ever heard. The audience was really engaged in the talk and this was really exciting for us.
After the event, we hosted an after party at the normal location for our youth events, a cafe downtown. 200 people attended this event, which was totally amazing, and really showed how effective our event was. So many people wanted to come and hear more about our ministry.
Also On friday night and Saturday, we hosted our first Going UP Conference. This was a great success. 40 different youth leaders from 6 different cities came to hear more about how God has blessed us and what we have done there. I had a chance to lead 2 of the sessions and spend some time with the people for the various ministries.
Saturday night we start up our childrens program called "Backyard" again. This ministry had been suffering and we considered shutting it down all together. But God did a miracle that night. over 125 people attended the program and several of those joined us on Sunday morning.
Also on Sunday we gathered for worship again in our new rented facility at the conference center. We had almost 60 people and this has been our 4th straight week more people are coming. We finished a series called "Fields of Gold" about generosity. Our church was so excited about this and we are seeing God work in peoples lives as they respond to his leading.
Friday night we had a big event for high school students. Over 500 came and we shared a challenging drama and message about life after death. The audience was perhaps the quietest I have ever heard. The audience was really engaged in the talk and this was really exciting for us.
After the event, we hosted an after party at the normal location for our youth events, a cafe downtown. 200 people attended this event, which was totally amazing, and really showed how effective our event was. So many people wanted to come and hear more about our ministry.
Also On friday night and Saturday, we hosted our first Going UP Conference. This was a great success. 40 different youth leaders from 6 different cities came to hear more about how God has blessed us and what we have done there. I had a chance to lead 2 of the sessions and spend some time with the people for the various ministries.
Saturday night we start up our childrens program called "Backyard" again. This ministry had been suffering and we considered shutting it down all together. But God did a miracle that night. over 125 people attended the program and several of those joined us on Sunday morning.
Also on Sunday we gathered for worship again in our new rented facility at the conference center. We had almost 60 people and this has been our 4th straight week more people are coming. We finished a series called "Fields of Gold" about generosity. Our church was so excited about this and we are seeing God work in peoples lives as they respond to his leading.
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