First a note!
You can view the story of our working in Eastern Europe over the past ten years by going to www .kubik.org/east or by clicking here

On with our story....

Today is one of the most wonderful days that I've had with our Estonian brethren EVER! I sense real Christian growth in a developing congregation that will be able to support further growth.

Before coming here I wanted to have a social get-together for all the brethren on Sunday. The people came through with organizing a picnic at the home of Leile Liblik. She is a widow of seven years who lives less than one kilometer from Saad Jaerv, a beautiful lake about ten miles outside of Tartu.

Three of the brethren own cars. They came to the hotel we're staying at and we all packed into the vehicles and headed out to Leili's. Before getting there we stopped at a historic Lutheran church at Aksi and an old Soviet Pioneer camp on one shore of the lake. We had a most enjoyable day in every aspect . The weather was a sunny perfect with the temperature in the mid-eighty's....extreme for Estonia. A picnic lunch was prepared. We grilled chicken and lamb on two grills for the 17 of us. It was wonderful to see the Estonians interacting among themselves and talking about all kinds of topics in a sociable manner. I had the opportunity to talk to all of them personally. I feel guilty at times at not coming to Estonia more often because I can speak to all of them without an interpreter and can truly communicate heart to heart with most of them.

One of the ladies, Helgi told us that after the dinner yesterday at the Vanemuine that as she was going home she became dizzy and called for help at the café. They called an ambulance and took her to the hospital where they found that her blood sugar was dangerously low and that she was close to fainting. She is going through chemo-therapy for her cancer, so she has had serious health challenges.

As part of our all day get-together, we held a Bible Study that dealt with the question about how God is speaking to us today . We discussed the various ways that God talked to man starting in the Garden of Eden to how Christ communicates with us today. They really liked a topic like this and hope that we can continue it in the future...perhaps I will on one of the telephone services that we hold with the Estonian brethren on Skype telephone Sabbaths at 6:00 am in the United States. Our Bible Study is hampered by the fact that there is no one common language understood by all. I do best by speaking in English. Imbi translated into Estonian and Basil Kopey helped Henrikas with Russian. This takes away from spontaneity, but it's a fact of life for working here.

After the Bible Study we had dessert and then headed to the lake to swim. Five of us ventured into the water for a refreshing swim.

Then back to Tartu and saying good-bye to all. I truly felt a warmth with the Estonians and appreciated the kind comments from them indicating a really fine response to the Word of God reaching them . All of the new attendees have come in through the efforts of the Bible Study Course advertised on Pere Raadio in Tartu.

Just before 8 pm I walked with Henrikas Klovas to the bus station and saw him off back to Lithuania. Basil and Liza Kopey left on another bus at the same time back to Tallinn and then back to Moscow.

Broken record: It was a great day for all of us and one that will continue to help us build a stronger church in this part of the world.

The days are ultra long here. Sunset is at 11 pm and dusk continues for hours more. Our foursome of Bev, me, Katherine and Kassy walked around Tartu stopping at an outdoor café for dinner and then back to the hotel to write this blog and handle other electronic chores.