The camp of the Lut­he­ran Church of Es­to­nia, Talu, is lo­ca­ted in Saku twen­ty ki­lo­me­ters away from Tal­linn, the ca­pi­tal city. Talu is Es­to­ni­an and me­ans a ’farm­hou­se’. And we ac­tu­al­ly saw cows and hor­ses gra­zing around the camp. Hens were pec­king for food on the yard, and our lit­t­le daugh­ter was al­lo­wed to col­lect their eg­gs. The Ap­ril sun was shi­ning so warm­ly that the pe­op­le who had gat­he­red at Talu for a Bib­le study cour­se de­ci­ded to keep some of the les­sons out­doors.

Groups of stu­dents wor­ked to find ans­wers to qu­es­ti­ons per­tai­ning to the events of Via Do­lo­ro­sa, the road along which Je­sus wal­ked to­ward Gol­got­ha car­rying His cross. We found this way of wor­king use­ful. Each group inc­lu­ded at le­ast one trans­la­tor, pos­sib­ly al­so one spe­a­ker, and lo­cal pe­op­le from dif­fe­rent parts of Es­to­nia. Af­ter the group work ses­si­on the groups sha­red their thoughts on the con­tent of the Bib­le por­ti­on they had stu­died. We thus en­ded up with an ove­rall un­ders­tan­ding of what had hap­pe­ned on Via Do­lo­ro­sa. Co­lor pho­tos and a map of Is­ra­el hel­ped us lo­ca­te the events ge­og­rap­hi­cal­ly.

The Sun­day ser­vi­ce furt­her il­lust­ra­ted the Eas­ter time events. Stu­dent feed­back inc­lu­ded po­si­ti­ve com­ments on the way the group as­sign­ments comp­le­men­ted the con­tent of the ser­mon.

Re­li­gi­on is not taught as a sub­ject in Es­to­ni­an schools, and many pe­op­le and whole fa­mi­lies lost their con­tact with the church du­ring the So­viet era. Tra­ve­ling in the Es­to­ni­an count­ry­si­de, it is qui­te touc­hing to see a white-was­hed stone church with a we­at­her­cock or a cross on the roof in the mid­d­le of eve­ry small vil­la­ge. Many of these churc­hes have se­ats for hund­reds of pe­op­le, which shows that Es­to­nia used to be a truly re­li­gi­ous count­ry.

When doing mis­si­on work in Es­to­nia, we need to be awa­re that not all lis­te­ners are fa­mi­li­ar with the na­mes of church ho­li­da­ys or the pe­op­le of the Bib­le. It is good to study por­ti­ons of the Bib­le slow­ly and simp­ly – by re­a­ding, exp­lai­ning and dis­cus­sing. Pe­op­le may al­so be un­wil­ling show their ig­no­ran­ce by as­king qu­es­ti­ons, and it is al­wa­ys ea­sier to ask or won­der about things in small groups. Yet, there are al­so pe­op­le who have par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the ac­ti­vi­ties of a church or a La­es­ta­di­an as­so­ci­a­ti­on for a long time and know their Bib­le well. In that way we can all le­arn from each ot­her.

The an­nu­al cour­se for mis­si­on work trans­la­tors has al­re­a­dy been ar­ran­ged four ti­mes, and we now met in Saku for the se­cond time. It was both ea­sy and na­tu­ral to study Es­to­ni­an in Es­to­nia to­get­her with the ot­her spe­a­kers and trans­la­tors. The cour­se al­so al­lo­wed Es­to­ni­an be­lie­vers to meet each ot­her and their Fin­nish friends. There was a bus to pick up pe­op­le from Tar­tu and Tal­linn and anyw­he­re on the way.

Alt­hough we tire and seem to lose mo­ti­va­ti­on in mis­si­on work, such cour­ses give us new hope. There is light, there is hope, there is love. There is an in­te­rest in God’s word. We hope and pray that even more pe­op­le in Es­to­nia might be­co­me in­te­res­ted in God’s word. While li­ving in Es­to­nia for one ye­ar, I have of­ten thought that the hu­man he­art is rest­less un­til it finds rest in God. I am sure each per­son’s dee­pest de­si­re is to find rest – and that is pos­sib­le even to­day.

Text: Eli­na Heik­ki­lä-Kop­pe­roi­nen

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

You will find the ori­gi­nal fin­nish blog post here.