Poriers' Ministry Newsletter - Spring 2012 Update

Settled, unsettled, ChAoS, NEW unsettled, and NEW settled.  
This describes the stages in the journey of a person becoming a missionary.  A year ago, Mindy and I attended a life-changing missionary training program to help equip us with tools and knowledge to not only survive on the mission field, but also thrive in our new culture and ministry.  We are beginning to see the impact of this training.  Over the last three years, we've gone from settled (our day-to-day lives in Colorado) to unsettled (preparing to become missionaries) to ChAoS (the days and weeks surrounding our move to Estonia), to NEW unsettled (adjusting to our new lives in Estonia).

 

 Right now we are still in the "NEW unsettled" phase, but each day we are stepping closer to "NEW settled" in our NEW culture.  All along the way, God has been SO good and faithful.  Our prayer each morning is for God to go before us and guide us through our day.  Some days are wonderful, some days are challenging, and most days are wonderful and challenging.   But we take comfort in knowing that each day, God is our leader and is guiding us into this NEW chapter of our lives.  We want to share some of "our NEW life in Estonia" with you, along with current praises and prayer requests.  To be honest, we had a difficult time putting our thoughts together, as it feels like we could write many pages about what's been happening.  So we pulled out some of the highlights along the way, and we hope you will join us in prayer and praise to God who is worthy to receive all glory and honor!

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Language Learning Lesson

• We have been making steady progress in our language learning.  Although speaking Estonian is pretty difficult for us, every day we can comprehend more and more of what we hear and read.
• Faith's English vocabulary continues to grow every day.  Talking and singing are two of her favorite activities.  Now her Estonian vocabulary and comprehension is developing as well!  She likes to count to ten in Estonian, and she has learned some Estonian folk songs already.  When she hears something she understands in Estonian, she has even started to repeat it for us in English.  It's amazing to watch a 2 1/2 year old learn a second language!

 RELATIONSHIP-BUILDING

Converge Worldwide's Nordic-Baltic Church Planting Summit Participants

A child looking at his NEW Estonian children's Bible

• We continue to be involved in the weekly youth group and junior high group at Kolgata Church.
• We have begun working with the youth group at a church in the nearby town of Viljandi.  We travel there once a month with some members of our youth group at Kolgata to lead their youth group night, with the purpose of reaching out, building connections, serving, and supporting their youth leaders.
• In April, Crick traveled to Tallinn to attend a church-planting summit, which included pastors and leaders from Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, and the United States discussing and exploring possibilities for new churches in the Nordic-Baltic Region.
• You may remember hearing about the kids from Faith Mountain (our home church in Lakewood, CO) and Northland Bible Church (Tomahawk, WI) who raised money at their VBS programs last summer for Kolgata Church to buy Estonian Children's Bibles.  We are pleased to announce that Kolgata was able to purchase over 100 Bibles!  On May Day, the Bibles were handed out to children at the church's Perepäev (Family Day).  This was a celebration which included games, Bible stories, crafts, food, and fellowship.  Several children from the community came to Kolgata for the first time that day because they were eager to receive one of these Bibles!

LOOKING AHEAD

• We will spend the last week of June at Kolgata Church's 5th Annual Teen Adventure Camp.  This is the camp we helped launch in 2008 along with a mission trip team from our home church.  The camp leadership team, which we are privileged to be a part of, is praying for about 100 campers this year.
• In July we will be hosting a mission trip team from The River Church in River Falls, WI.  They are coming to work with a day-camp program in Võru, Estonia and help launch Kolgata Church's first family week community outreach, which will include a VBS program, family activities, and seminars for parents and couples.
• As we head into a busy summer, please join us in praying!  Pray for continued successes in our language learning.  Please be in prayer for the ministry programs happening this summer.  Pray for new relationships to develop and for existing friendships with the Estonian people to grow.  Pray for God's guidance and protection over our family as we continue to transition into 'our NEW life in Estonia' and seek to find a healthy balance of our ministry and home lives.

Thank you so much for your love, prayers, and encouragement during this transitional time for our family.  As always, please let us know how we can be praying for you, too.

"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things" Rev. 4:11

With love and blessings,
Crick and Mindy

Youth Home Groups

Our primary focus during our first year living in Estonia is language learning.  We are working hard to be able to communicate in the Estonian language, including meeting 4-5 times a week with our language helper, going out in public each day to practice Estonian, and creating additional opportunities as often as we can to practice the Estonian language.  The stronger we are in language, the better we are able to do ministry with the Estonian people.

Lately, Mindy and I have been praying about how to serve and be an encouragement to existing ministry programs and leadership while still making language our main focus.  Is there even a way to do this?  Yes...Youth Home Groups!  About once a month, we are opening up our home for a youth home group to meet.  By offering our time and our home as a meeting place, we are able to help give the youth home group leaders a break and allow them to just be a part of the group.  We have found this ministry opportunity to be a creative way to build new relationships, study and grow together in God's word, have a time of fellowship, and to gain more comprehension and practice of the Estonian language.  We are serving in ministry and learning language at the same time.  To God Be ALL The Glory!

Mindy prepared the meal!  The food was awesome!

Interactive Devotional Message

The ladies building a dream house...

The guys building a dream house...

Message:  Jesus is the foundation, the Bible is the blueprint for life.

Faith and Taavet

We had many board games available, but little did we know that Faith's Leap Frog Phonics Game would be a hit with the youth!  :)

Twenty-four of us all together in one room.

Karlova: Our Neighborhood

In March, the snow was beginning to melt away, and I decided to go out and take pictures around my "new" neighborhood, Karlova.  Karlova borders the historic Tartu town center and the Emajõe River.  It's a neighborhood of about 9,000 people who live in 400 wooden houses in just under one square mile.  Most of the homes were built in the late 19th century and early 20th century.  Some buildings have been renovated, and most buildings have a story to be told.  At any given time in Karlova, there are more people out walking than cars driving on the narrow roads, and you can always see gently black smoke coming from the chimneys.  Most homes here do not have front yards but have large backyard gardens.  Karlova is the home of our church and our mission field, and it's now also home to our family.  Join me on my stroll through Karlova...

Our apartment building.

Snow melting away on our street.

Tartu Kolgata Kogudus - Our church, which is only two blocks from our house.

At one point on my walk the sidewalk was still really icy and had a lot of puddles.  I decided to walk in the road to keep my feet dry.

St. Alexander's Orthodox Church

St. Alexander's Orthodox Church

St. Alexander's Orthodox Church

Ice melting away.

The first time I drove by this sign, I wasn't sure what it meant.  What do you think it means?

A little convenience store, where I bought an Estonian chocolate bar and a pop.

Off in the distance is Annelinn, the largest neighborhood in Tartu.

The old manor house of the Karlova neighborhood, built in 1793.

Language Learning: Learning from our Mistakes

Language Lesson with our language helper, Aire.

A year ago, Mindy and I attended a training on "How to learn a new language."  One of the first lessons they shared with us at this training was, "You will make many language mistakes every day, so learn to laugh about it."  Since we have been here, we've learned this is a very valuable thing to remember!  As we learn more of the Estonian language, it's important for us to step out of our comfort zone each and every day, even though we know we will probably make mistakes.  Actually, making mistakes has been a great learning experience for us.  When we know the mistakes we've made, we then learn from those mistakes, and have a good laugh or two about it.  So, we decided to share some of our more 'memorable' language mistakes we have made so far... we hope you get a good laugh...

Top 7 Language Mistakes We Have Made  :)

7.  Correct:  Minu tütar on vannitoas.  "My daughter is in the bathroom."
     Crick:  Minu tütar on vannituba.   "My daughter is the bathroom."  Oops!

6.  Correct: Ma läksin rongiga poodi.  "I took the train to the store."
     Mindy:  Ma läksin rongi poodi.  "I went to the train store."  Apparently, she wanted to purchase a train for our house.

5.  Correct: Pese hambad ära. "Brush your teeth."
     Mindy:  Pane hambad ära.  "Put your teeth away."  Okay, I don't have dentures yet.

4.  Correct: Pane riidesse.  "Faith, get dressed."
     Crick: Pane redisesse.  "Faith, put the radishes on."  I really don't know what to say to this one.

3.  Correct: Palun, mulle kana võileib.  "I'll have a chicken sandwich."
     Crick: Palun, mulle vana võileib.  "I'll have an old sandwich."   I guess I prefer old food over new.

2.  Saying "Tere" ("hello") when we mean to say "goodbye".  We have done this more than once.

1.  Correct: Mul mees on peavalu. "My husband has a headache."
     Mindy: Minu mees on peavalu.   "My husband is a headache."  I'm beginning to wonder if this really was a "mistake" by Mindy.  hmmm.

So bottom line, please continue to pray for us as we make mistakes, but ultimately as we challenge ourselves each day to learn more of the Estonian language!

Otepää: Winter Capital of Estonia

After living in Estonia for a month, we decided on our day off to start exploring this country.  Even after several mission trips and visits over here, I have never been here in the winter and there are so many parts of this country I haven't seen yet.  As Mindy and I were deciding of possible places to take a 4-hour vacation, many youth recommended that since I (Crick) am a snowboarder, to visit the Winter Capital of Estonia, Otepää.  If I wanted to go snowboarding in Estonia, this would the one place to go.  So we had to check it out.

The three of us hopped in the car in Tartu to drive about 40 km (or 30-minute drive) to the main place in Estonia for winter sports.  As we drove through the quiet countryside, we began to notice gently rolling hills.  The closer we were getting to Otepää, the more snow we saw.  Fluffy white snowflakes began to fall as we arrived in the small village of just over 2,000 people.  I saw white everywhere, with a ski jump off in the distant and many kids taking advantage of a steep hill to go tubing down with a beautiful old cathedral as a backdrop.  We parked the car, pulled out our sled for Faith to ride in, and started wandering the Winter Captial.

While exploring, we stopped by a large church on a hill, and I learned some interesting facts.  The 17th Century Otepää Maarja Lutheran Church is the oldest building in town (see pictures below).  It was in this church in 1884 the Estonian Students' Society dedicated its new blue, black and white flag, which later became the flag of independent Estonia. This made our 4-hour vacation pretty special.

In Denver, two days before moving to Estonia, I went out and bought a new digital camera.  This was the first time I had a chance to go out and try using it to do photography.  Enjoy!

Otepää Maarja Lutheran Church - Front Doors

Old Estonian House

Otepää, Eesti - 27 February 2012