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!

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..

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.

CHANGE OF PACE:

Now it is time for Pizza Night updates. For those who don’t know, every Tuesday night is Pizza Night in Tulsa (for myself and a large group of friends.) So we have been carrying on the tradition in Tallin. Here are photos from the past two pizza nights. (photos mostly curtecy of Rachel.. as well as the two above)

Maybe the best pizza of the whole pizza night adventure.

Pizza..

It gets my approval.

A shot I later took of the outside of the first pizza place

and another..

Now for the 2nd pizza night at the strange but delicious Pizza Americana..

Notice the postcards of Athens in the bottom right…….VERY American.

Not as good as Pizza Grande, but also good.

Approved!

For those of you who go to Asbury.. You should go to the 11 o’clock living room service this coming Sunday.. There just might be a special little video shown….
That is all I have for now, but there are a lot more photos on the way, so check back soon.

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.

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.