Lembitu's Concert

Last night we were privileged to attend a concert by one of the many bands Lembitu is a part of. Lembitu is an adherent at the corps who was an alcoholic living on the streets. He came to the Army's Hope House for a meal and after talking with people there, decided it was time to get his life back on track. With the help of Mother Theresa's Sisters of Charity, he was able to stop drinking and now is very generous with his life. He is a good man and we are privileged to know him.

During last night's concert, he was celebrating another year of sobriety as well as his 50th birthday. He played two trumpet solos, and at the end of the concert, person after person came up to him to present him with flowers and say kind words about him. What an honor to have people like Lembitu in our lives!

Lembitu playing one of his cornet solos

The leader of the band Lembitu was playing with presents him with an award

Other friends present him with flowers, gifts and words of greeting

Evelyn presents Lembitu with flowers on behalf of the corps. He plays trumpet in our corps band.

For the final piece, Lembitu led the band

Visit from Agathe

Today Agathe, one of the long-time pensioners' club members surprised us by stopping by the corps for a visit. She greeted Evelyn with a big hug and wanted to chat together. She is a charming and lovely lady, and Evelyn and Sirje had a great visit with her as they enjoyed some tea and pirukad together.

First teen night!

We had our first teen night at the corps last night, with 9 kids in attendance! We were so happy, because we weren't sure if we would have anyone show up. The theme was balloons, and we did many different games with balloons, which was lots of fun. We planned on going for an hour, but one mother wasn't coming to pick up her son until 9:00, so we went for two instead! When I went through my list of games, the kids came up with their own, which made for a wonderful interactive evening. It was an interesting mix of Estonian, Russian and English languages, but the kids all pitched in when they understood something in one language to help others understand, which drew us all together. And several of the younger kids were proud to show their English language skills in particular. We are so grateful to God for His provision and pray that He will continue to bless His work here at the corps!--Tim

Teen work is more of Tim Clark's thing and I was mainly serving as translator (ha ha! yes, you can laugh! but it was my role -- he would speak in English then I in Estonian then 17-year-old Robert would say it again in Russian) and snack coordinator. But at the tram stop I was able to minister to "my" people as well. A man fell off the bench and hit the side of the shelter pretty hard, then stayed on the ground (he was pretty drunk). I ran over to see if we should call an ambulance. Robert came over to tell me not to (memories of Chris Clark at age 17 protecting his mama). Then I remembered the leftover pirukad at the corps, and asked Tim to run back and get them. He did (literally running, wonderful man that he is!) and I was able to share them with everyone on (and next to!) the bench, and invite them all to church on Sunday. I was also able -- eventually! -- to get the man, with another's help, at least off the ground and onto the bench. And we didn't even miss our tram to take Lena Anna Kotrikadze home to Kadriorg!--Evelyn

Second Sunday

What a difference one week can make! Our second Sunday at the Tallinn Kopli Corps was as wonderful as the first, but also dramatically different.

There were many people who were away for one reason or another. The men from Lootusemaja (Hope House) were at a retreat at the Army's camp at Loksa, so that took away around a third of our regulars. A good number of our regular soldiers were away for various personal reasons, so we knew that would also reduce our attendance. On top of that, today was the Tallinn Marathon, which takes place all around the city center. This meant that the trams were not running, many buses were re-routed, streets leading to the corps were closed, and getting anywhere in the vicinity of the corps would be a challenge.

Tim was supposed to preach, with one of our soldiers translating from English to Estonian, and someone else translating into Russian on the headphones. But we learned just before we left for the corps that the soldier was called into work, and with no one else to translate, it meant we had to quickly change plans and have Evelyn lead the meeting and preach in Estonian!

Knowing that none of the public transportation we needed wouldn't be working, we walked to the corps through Old Town, which takes about 30 minutes. That gave us time to talk through the plans for the meeting.

In the minutes leading up to 11:00, people slowly trickled in, primarily the faithful pensioners. There were mostly Estonian speakers, with a few Russian speakers (but most of those said they understood Estonian). We had a wonderful time of singing (accompanied by CD because the band members were away), testimonies and various people doing Scripture readings. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the fellowship together, even though it was very different than usual. After Evelyn began to preach, one man even offered to translate from Estonian into Russian for those who needed it. Overall, it felt like we were a family together, helping one another, sharing together, and worshiping our common Saviour.

So from an attendance of 80 last week, we had 30 this week, but that led to a much more homey atmosphere. We are grateful to God for His constant provision, even when the unexpected comes along. We look forward to seeing all that He has planned for the Tallinn Kopli Corps!

Welcome and Installation

We had a wonderful welcome meeting and installation on Sunday. We felt so warmly welcomed by the people of the corps, both those we knew before and the many new folks as well. It didn't matter if they spoke Estonian or Russian, we felt warmly received and genuinely loved as the new corps officers.
Please pray that God will give us and the soldiers of the corps a clear vision of His will for the corps, especially the programs that should take place, how we can work together for spiritual growth, and build our "one church with two congregations" into a united family of God.
Click here for some pictures of the day that we posted on Facebook.
One of the special joys of the day was seeing some of the soldiers that we had enrolled while we were previously the corps officers of the Tallinn Kopli Corps, including Kristel, Eero, Vesse and Tiit. Tiit is one of our pensioners and one day in June 2008 after church he really wanted to have his picture taken with Peter, so we obliged. This Sunday, we made sure to capture their meeting again.



Peter & Tiit in June 2008




Peter & Tiit in September 2015

Today is the day!