Ministry in Estonia

This past weekend I (Chris) had the opportunity of visiting the small country of Estonia to teach on prophetic ministry and hearing the voice of God. The town we visited is a 4 1/2 hour bus ride from St.P and is called Silamie. Estonia's population is around 1.2 million and formerly was a part of the Soviet Union.

Although influence from the days of communism can still be seen, the feeling of Estonia is much different than Russia. Immediately when you cross the border you notice neatly manicured parks and boulivards, smooth newly paved roads with signs and painted lines, and newer buildings. The people of Estonia are also generally happier and friendlier than in Russia.

The team doing the ministry was made up of myself and John and Sara Russell (Directors of StreetCry). StreetCry is starting a school of prophecy in Estonia and will be doing a full day of teaching every four weeks for the next seven months. Upon leaving St.P we were told only fifteen people had signed up for the school, but when we arrived in Silamie we found out that almost fifty people were registered!

The crowd was made up mostly of people in their mid-late twenties. There was also a number of pastors in attendence who were new to prophetic minsitry and wanting training so they could bring it back to their congregations (very exciting!). We were very encouraged by the spiritual hunger and eagerness we felt in the people we met.

We found out that some people had come because they thought a prophet was coming to give personal words to everybody. To their surprise they realized we were there to train them how to minister to each other.

The ministry was very well recieved and a number of people gave a prophetic word for the first time. We were also able to minister to a number of people personally while there. Overall people left more confident in hearing God's voice and with an understanding of how they can minister prophetically to other people. We hope to hear some exciting testimonies next time we visit.

Click Here to see a picture me and Sara speaking

Just an update.....

The last week and a half have been refreshingly busy. We've been starting work and it's been going really well.

Here's just a few things of what we're busy with:

Crystal - thank-you letters/receipts for StreetCry support, inviting ministries to come to StreetCry to minister, prayer newsletter, other admin stuff, speaking/teaching, and school of the spirit.
Chris - website project, monthly newsletter, bringing Skateboard ministry to St.P. for visit, speaking/teaching, and school of the spirit.
We've been going into the office most days, although it's an hour-long commute so we try to work at home when possible.

Crystal's cooked a few times and it's been good. We're still getting used to the different foods here. There's lots of food but we can't always read the labels and sometimes even when we can, we're not sure what we'd do with it!

This next weekend, Chris and maybe Crystal will be going to Estonia. It's a country kind of south-west from where we are in Russia. It's former USSR but apparently much nicer than here. It's about a 3-hour train ride and Chris will be speaking at a pastor's conference with John. Crystal's just going along for the ride this time, but we'll probably be going back in a few months and then Crystal will be speaking as well.

We spoke for the first time at the Bible school this past Friday and it went really well. The students seemed very attentive and they absorb everything we say. We had a great time just worshipping the Lord to start with. They're amazing people and have even more amazing testimonies.

Yesterday, we went to the Russian museum which is in a huge palace. There were over 400,000 pieces and it was a beautiful building. Walking up to it, it's so grand and beautiful. The art was incredible as well. They just have Russian artists and there's pieces from the 13th to 21st century. We spent about 4 hours there and of course, didn't do it justice.
Here's a picture of the outside of it. There's one room they have set up which still has it's original furniture. It's the great hall, where guests would've arrived and it was breathtaking.

So that's the update for right now. We'll let you all know how this weekend goes. Keep praying for us and bless you all!

Extreme Makeover: Russia Edition

Well, we finally made the big trip to Ikea and bought several things for our home. It feels more like a home now that we've put some personal touches into things. And the money we had budgeted for housewares and furniture went farther than we could've possibly imagined! Definitely the Lord's blessing. There are still a few things more we'd like to get yet but they're not priority and we'll buy them as we need.

Here are some pictures of the place so far.
This is our living room. The massive wooden cabinets come with the place. They're a bit of an eyesore but great for storage.
This is the kitchen. We bought the green chairs and they make me very happy.
This is the bedroom. We haven't really gotten anything for it (except for the nighttables which are hillarious). We need to get a lamp or two and maybe a new bed covering.
Last, but certainly not least, is the bathroom. It's actually two separate rooms, I hope you can see that from the picture.

Well, that concludes the tour of the Loewen's "pad". If you want more details, you're just gonna have come over and see for yourself!