Estonia Mission Trip - Josiah Venture Team - Day 1

Hello from Estonia! We arrived into Tallinn at about 1500 yesterday afternoon (That’s about 3 pm for all you non-Europeans back in the States!) and immediately went to baggage claim to find out if Tyler would be without shampoo for the next week. By the miracles of God and Air Canada, not only did Tyler have shampoo, all the rest of us did too!

Deb and a horde of Josiah Venture interns collected us and our luggage, and we set off into the wild blue yonder. A train, a bus, and a long walk later, we arrived at our hotel. This hotel was a 1980s resort pretending to be a hotel, and it was like a small city inside. We thought we got a workout just getting to the hotel, but we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into upon entering it. After navigating the hallways, corridors, stairwells, elevators and lobbies, we were sad to find out that it was, in fact, dinnertime rather than nap time.

We broke into our groups, English camp and Fusion camp, and walked to dinner. English camp went to a Thai restaurant, which they reported was indeed better than Thai Mint. Fusion camp went to a classy restaurant where they offered us a choice between Caesar salad, Chicken, and Pork, all of which were very tasty. We spent the rest of the night playing card games and even took a trip to the beach. The sun set around 2130 and we got some great photos. We finally gave into the jet lag and sleep deprivation and headed to bed.

Today, we were very busy! We set our alarms for 7am, but didn’t actually get out of bed until 7:30. We had an authentic Estonian Continental breakfast and got to try things like aerated eggs, triangular sausages, thick crepes, and lingonberry juice. Of course, no matter whether or not we liked any or all of the above, we made sure to say « Aitah ! » to the staff. We then went and took post-breakfast siestas, wandered around and scared Estonian birds off the roof and stared at the Estonian hotel walls as we waited for the JV training to begin.

We spent six hours downing pastries, pizza, coffee, and of course water as we learned about discipleship, camp rules, and what God is doing in Estonia through all of us. We then wandered down to the beach, cooled off in the Baltic Sea, and departed to our camps. English camp went to go set up camp to start tomorrow, and Fusion camp went to the city of Keila-and the church sponsoring this week’s camp-where we laughed and played games and ate dinner.

Tomorrow, Türi English camp begins, and frantic set up for Keila Fusion camp commences. Thank you for all your prayers, please keep praying for us as we fight jet lag and culture shock this next week. Now, to Him who is able and WILL do great things through us- goodnight from Estonia!!

- Deb Brown