I’m too tired to label all of these right now, but I probably will when I get home.. There will also be more to come….
Old underground literature from the time of the Russian regime. @ The Methodist Church in Tartu.
Kitchen at the Methodist Church in Tartu.
Waiting for the bus to take Dustin and me back to Tallinn after spending the day with Maire in Tartu
Staircase at Camp Gideon
Worship at Camp Gideon
Worship at Camp Gideon
Worship at Camp Gideon
On the beach, Camp Gideon
Sunset at Camp Gideon
Tahiti
Ilja
Ilja
Tahiti
Ilja & Tahiti
This shot temporarily broke my camera. I was not too happy, but the picture was kinda worth it.
Preparing to decent into the mine
In the mine
playing with a long exposure and multiple flash bursts
This was supposed to be an exposure with 2 flashes that made it look like Dave was kissing himself… As you can see Ben decided to lean in for the 2nd flash and got close enough to rub noses.
IT’S A MINE!
Here are a bunch of photos that I have been meaning to upload…..
(Still haven’t fixed the scaling problem… sorry)
Happy friends on the trolley
The trolley
I don’t really have a caption for this one..
On the trolley
Baby bird
Spinning!
More Spinning!
The beach in Parnu (looking towards the lady’s beach)
The Tanklers singing
One of my favorite photos of one of my favorite people
She wouldn’t let me take a candid shot
MmMmMm….
Don’t walk off the pier.
At the pier
Pier, once again
More piering..
and more….
This pretty much sums up their relationship
Same caption as above.
Also… make sure not to drive off the pier
At Robert & Amy’s appartment
Christopher, Robert and Amy’s son
I like the old soviet wallpaper…
This is the shadow of a giant TV tower… We are on the top floor of the tower looking out..
In the TV tower
The explanation i received for this sign is “there are a lot of beggars around.”
Some crazy guy skiing in Old Town
I was told he was probably from Helsinki
The security guard at McDonalds and several inebriated Britts.
Wild Flowers
Denis and myself… Denis took this picture with my camera.
MORMONS!
Mormon talking to a man who always sits there and smokes..
The Lighthouse team arrived today. It seems that the time has flown by sooo quickly. It is hard to believe we have been in Estonia for nearly two and a half weeks.. and it is even harder to believe that we only have one more week before leaving Tallin and heading to Camp Gideon. I realized tonight that I no longer feel like I am in a foreign country. Estonia feels like home and I am really going to miss it when we leave. We went to a birthday party of sorts tonight, and looking around the room I realized that a lot of these people are now my friends. Even though I speak no Estonian (or in their case Russian) and many of them speak very broken English, they have become familiar to me, and I hope I have made the same impression on them. We have been to bible studies and worship services where we do not always have someone to translate into English, but it is strange how much you can still gather from people even when you can not understand the words they are speaking. Inflections, body language, attitude, you become much more aware of everything else, and it is still quite easy to see God through these actions. The way the people here, particularly the youth, pray is phenomenal. Everyone prays with such passion and charisma. While one main prayer is being spoken over a crowd, dozens of other prayers are quietly being whispered alongside it. It is a beautiful sound, and this is a very beautiful place filled with beautiful people.
I would like to begin by pointing out that I have been in Europe for two weeks and just minutes ago saw the very first urinal of the trip.
We went to Parnu this past weekend. It was really pretty, but I unfortunately do not have many photos from the weekend. I learned to not take the American hamburger for granted… and also learned that “ladys’ beaches” apparently have an unwritten law stating you must be old enough to qualify for social security to be present…. and naked. Okay.. So before this gets to sounding far too ridiculous let me explain what happened, because it was by no means our intention to wander onto a nude beach.
1) We arrived in Parnu around lunch time. Kulli, the woman who picked us up from the bus station offered to take us out for burgers with the kids from the Agape church (Asbury’s sister church.) Nothing against Kulli… or Estonians attempting to make American food, but the burgers were really really bad. The patty was made of loose meat, covered in a strange orangish/redish/whitish sauce, and the bun was really really really dry. Also the fries were served with “salad.” Think of something that involves vegetables but isn’t salad and that is it. Oh well. I guess McDonalds is just looking more and more like the official American Embassy. Moving on.
2) After lunch the Estonian kids took us to the beach… We walked barefoot down and back on a mile long breaker. It was fun, but kinda tiring. Then we went swimming… but before we could swim we had to walk further down the beach to the “better” part, which just happened to be past the womens’ beach. The kids just took us straight through it, because they claimed there was no other way around (the next day we found there probably was.) I have never before seen so many out of shape naked people in my life and hope to never see any ever again. Oh those crazy Estonian kids… BUT we did make it to the beach and swam, and by we swam, I mean I swam and everyone else (not the Estonina kids) complained about how cold the water was. Afterwards they all buried me in the sand.
As seen here.
We also went to The Casino of Jesus Christ
As seen here.. What you can’t tell is that the paintings have twinkling red Christmas lights around them and that yellow thing is a rope light like you would buy at Walmart. This is actually the Russian Orthodox Church in Parnu, not a casino.. but it looked like one.
HOORAY FOR CLEAN CLOTHES!
HUH!
At The Lighthouse
Dustin shot this photo.. it is one of my favorites from the day.
On the way back from Old Town
Overlooking Old Town
Dustin
Self Photo
Old Town (click to see correct scale)
Old Town (click to see correct scale)
4 shots without a tripod… I think it turned out pretty good. Still having problems with scaling.. Click on the photo to see it in the intended size.
It’s hard to believe we have been here for a week already. It’s also hard to believe I have not really blogged anything yet.
This past weekend we went to the Island of Saarema for the celebration of 100 years of Methodism in Estonia. The very first Estonian Methodist church is located on the island. Methodists from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, America and even South Korea were there. It was pretty amazing to see. We shot a lot of video and a lot of photos of the events. There was a parade through town led by the Norwegian brass band. It trailed from the first church to a castle where the celebration was kind of kicked off. There were several great speakers in several locations throughout the weekend. It was a lot of fun.
Needless to say, the past week has flown by extremely quickly. We are now settled in the Baltic Mission Center where we will be for most of the remainder of our stay. We have free wireless internet in the building and things aren’t quite as crazy as they were when preparing for the celebration, so I should be blogging much more. The one thing I really miss about the first place we stayed in is the breakfast, especially the coffee. …and maybe the Estonian television as well, not that it was particularly good… it was just entertaining.
Last night we kept up with my summer tradition in Tulsa. We went out for pizza at a little hole in the wall restaurant. To be honest, it may have been the best pizza I’ve had since starting pizza night. It was this small place hidden away in Old Town, the old part of town which still has cobble stone roads. Old Town is kind of a touristy area.. It reminds me of Six Flags a little bit.. except everything is real. It is also home to the American embassy… AKA McDonalds. Not that I really like McDonalds, but it is the closest thing to home.
And now….
PHOTOS!
some of the pictures are not scaled correctly… I’m working on that…..
In the Swedish airport
Ditto
And another..
I was not aware he got into the business of making pizzas in Estonia….
Dustin rockin it
Rachel rockin it
H. Eddie Fox (AKA Jimmy Carter)
Emily catching some sleep on the way to Saamema
On the ferry looking onto the island
View from the hotel on the island
Our bus driver really liked American flag air fresheners…
Celebration at the landing site
Ditto
Singing guy… (AKA aged Steve Carell)
I dunno…
This is Dudley (AKA Don Knotts) at the parade on the Island. He is a part of the camp Gideon construction team for this week.. And yes, they are all about his same age.
Norwegian brass band
Dustin and the Norwegian brass band
The parade
The parade and “Jimmy”
The parade
The castle
An old man at the castle
Babushka on the Island
The first Estonian Methodist church
Inside the church
Another babushka
ST Kimbro speaking
Bishop Sundo Kim (AKA The Emperor)
Can’t believe this was intended for children…
Employee of the month at the American Embassy
More to come
I promise.
We are in Estonia now. There was a missing bag (actually a tub, to get technical) but it came in from Stockholm yesterday. My laptop charger was inside, so I have been unable to use my computer, and this is the first chance I have had to get on the internet with it. it is 3:30pm here, 7:30am back home. We are currently on the island for the 100 year celebration. I need to go now, but I will probably post some pictures and other stuff later tonight (this morning/afternoon for you) if I get a chance.
Hello everyone! As you can see the website is up and running. We leave in exactly one week. I am extremely excited about the trip, but a little nervous at the same time. I’ve never been out of the country before, and I have never been away from home for anywhere close to five weeks. I am not worried about the trip, just very curious about where God is going to lead us.
That is all i really have to say for now. I’m sure there will be much more to write about in the coming weeks.
