Estonia July 2019 Day 3

ENGLISH TEAM

We arrived at the English camp yesterday and got settled into our rooms, then had a camp training session so we all knew how to properly interact with the Estonians. After the session, we had lunch then the students started arriving, we played a sort of game of soccer, I wasn’t very good but I played anyways. It was a lot of fun and we got to learn names, and just laughed a lot. After this, we started playing some ice-breaker games to get to know each other which were just as fun as the soccer game, a lot of laughing and just getting comfortable with each other.

Once dinner time came we started our journey of “15 minutes” to the restaurant we were supposed to eat at, this turned out to be about a 20-25 minute walk but it was super hot, during this walk we talked with some of the Estonians about what they liked to do for fun and just learned about their culture which was so interesting. They do a lot of things differently than we do in America. For example, based on the type of metal that their wedding ring is, judges whether they wear it on their right or left hand. If it is made out of gold, it is worn on the right hand, if it is made out of silver it is worn on the left hand...there are some Estonia facts for you. After all of this we went to main session where we learned our camp dance and just laughed so hard because all of us had no idea what we were doing, but we all got to laugh and embarrass ourselves together. We have small groups that are mostly Estonians and local leaders in their churches, then two of us from the American team. There are a lot of quiet people in my group, so me being the talkative person I am, I wanted to break them out of their shells. It wasn’t until we started playing spoon assassin that the quietest in our group really started to talk to us and laugh, it was so cool to see him have fun and just be open with us. We’ve had some really great conversations with the Estonians on our ways to and from our meals. They’re so interested in our lives and we’re so interested in learning about theirs, so we just go back and forth learning about each other, it’s one of the greatest feelings to be able to have someone who is so interested about things that we experience on a day-to-day basis but is so foreign to them. If there is anything I want to accomplish on this trip, it’s to help one of the campers find God and start their journey. I’m feeling such a pull to do that so I’m just waiting for the opportunity to do so. God has already called me to just open up my heart and just speak what He wants to be said. I know God is going to do life-changing things to me on this trip and I’m so excited to see what He has planned. He’s already working miracles, they’re small but they are definitely there, but knowing God he has something much bigger planned to happen to every one of us that are on this trip. Patience is something we have all really had to learn on this trip, so I’m going to remain faithful and patient, just to see what exactly he has called me to Estonia to do.

FUSION MUSIC TEAM

Me (Annika) and Betsy both had a break since neither of us had a workshop at the time. We started talking to two Estonians, one guy and one girl, the girl said that she loved the worship music and had never heard anything like it. I said how much I love worship music and both the guy and girl said they weren’t Christian but still respected us. They said that they didn’t believe in God because it seamed unrealistic for the world to be created by one being. Betsy asked if she could share why she believed what she does. And I also shared that I believe in God because I can feel his presence in all things. They continued to talk about their and our beliefs. The guy and girl both said at some point that our beliefs would be comforting to have and that Heaven is a beautiful concept. I loved how open they were and respectful they were of our beliefs. I pray God continued to move to in their hearts and lives and we will be able to continue to speak of his love and grace.

Olivia Gates, Annika Wilson, Betsy Robinson

- Olivia Gates, Annika Wilson, Betsy Robinson