Tallinn Mid Summer Update - A Church Plant on the Move!

So much has happened since we last updated you here back in May.  That does seem a long time ago now.

Here are the headlines for this update:

• Estonian Song Festival
• July Outreach Week
• Long School Holidays Start
• Kids Club
• Red Arrows Come to Tallinn
• The 'Street Cafe'

Thanks for all those who have been praying for us - a lot of effort has gone into events that have happened here in the last month or so, and its great to have been covered in prayer as we've done what has been needed to be done.

Schools Out

As was the case in Russia, schools in Estonia break up very early compared to schools in the UK.  Mia's school actually was a little later than most, finishing for the summer in the second week of June. The highlight of this period for Mia was her school ball.

For two years now, one on Mia's regularly weekly lessons has been ballroom dancing.  She put her skills to good use, as did all her classmates, in the May Ball, which happens every year for the first 4 grades. Having missed it last year, due to us being in the UK for a church weekend away, she was glad to be a part of it this year.  For those that are on Facebook, you might have seen a few of the videos posted from the dance.

Long school holidays do pose a bit of a challenge for working families.  Most locally based people send their children off to the grandparents.....sometimes going a month or two with only the occasional visit.  For foreigners, like us, this isn't an option.  Summer camps are also common, and Mia went to one last year, though not this year.  We did however put on a summer camp ourselves, albeit for just three days, as part of the July outreach week, which we'll get to later.

Red Arrows In Tallinn

June also saw the famous British aerial display team flying the skies of Tallinn!  Arranged by the British Embassy here, the Red Arrows were here as part of the connection between the Estonian and British forces.

It was a great show, and thousands of people packed along the roads next to the bay to watch.  For a few more pictures, and some video, check out my Facebook profile on the 23rd June.

St Petersburg and Helsinki Trip

The end of June/beginning of July also saw our family return to St Petersburg for the first time since we moved away on 1st March 2012.  I've been back several times myself since, but just on my own, or with others from Tallinn. We had heard that if you take the Peter Line Ferry from Tallinn, you can be in the city for one day and do not need a visa (a three day option is also possible from Helsinki).  So we'd planned the dates a while ago, picking the one where it landed in St Petersburg on a Sunday, so as to be able to see our friends at Hope Church.  And so it was, on the evening of Saturday 28th June, we were on board the ship, which left Tallinn at 7pm, ready for the overnight to St Petes.  It docked at 9:30am on Sunday morning, and we were at the place where Hope Church meets by 11am - in good time for the 11:30 start. We shared a bit from the front about Tallinn, before catching lunch with folks after church in a nearby shopping centre.  We were driven back to the harbour by about 4:30pm (so had just five and a half hours with the church!) ready for our departure.  The ship left at 7pm, and then docked in Helsinki again at 8am Monday morning.  We had the same cabin for the overnight crossing, having been able to leave our belongings safely there whilst in Russia for the day.  It was more comfortable than we thought, which was a bonus.  We left the ship once in Finland (this one does a round trip- SPB-Helsinki-Stockholm-Tallinn-SPB) and was met by Kevin Jones, who's family moved to Finland last year in order to church plant in the Helsinki area. It was the first time our two families had spent time together.  Again, I'd met them all before but not the girls.  We stayed with them for a night, our children getting on well, and because they were all sharing a room together, not getting to sleep before midnight!

We were then on the Tuesday morning ferry back across to Tallinn.  We even met someone we knew well on this ferry - it seems even a sea crossing is a small enough world to meet someone we know!

The Newfrontiers church plant in Finland, as well as being at a similar stage to us in Tallinn, is the closest relational link and for this reason especially, it was great to spend time together with them.  We should see them again next week - more on that later.

The Crowds in Tallinn - on the Worlds Biggest Stage

The 5th and 6th July saw Estonians (and just a few internationals!) gathering for the 26th Estonian Song Festival, which now only takes place every five years. Literally hundreds of thousands of people converge in Tallinn, bringing costumes and traditional dress from all over Estonia. There were over 100,000 people at the song festival grounds - we have never been anywhere so crowded before!
Every choir in Estonia took part, including Mia's school. The festival opened with a parade.  This started in Freedom Square and went for about 6km all the way to the song ground - and took hours!  They marched in order of cities, starting with Tallinn of course and worked out.  The Tallinn choirs must have numbered hundreds - it took over an hour just to get through our city!
Here are a few video's that were taken from that day:


Tallinn Starts the Procession

Four Hours Later - Showing the Starting Point of the Parade



From the Song Ground Festival Itself




It was a very hot day - the start of a very hot month in fact!  A great memory indeed!  It's funny to think that in five years, when Anya will be 9 and Mia 13, they both might be singing in the next one!


July Outreach Week
A huge focus of church activities this summer was the arrival of a team, from various churches, coming to Tallinn on 18th July.  Actually, that was when the first group arrived. Between Friday 18th and up to yesterday, Sunday 27th, we had people with us.  The main group, and reason for the week taking place in the first place, came with Colin Baron from CCM (Manchester, UK).
Two people also joined us from Hope Church St Petersburg, there were three from Open Door Church, Kettering, UK, and two others as well from different Newfrontiers churches in England. 
The week had been planned some months ago but there was still a lot to do in the final week - in fact, just days before coming, we were only just picking up t-shirts from the printers, as well as church contact cards and Kids club fliers. The website was also just getting finished (check out www.hopetallinn.ee and let us know what you think!)
With the core down to just six for the summer, there was a lot resting on the small team in Tallinn. The main events in the week were as follows - church (both Sunday's), two BBQs, a 3 day kids club, some teaching sessions, and a joint meeting with another church.  We also fed everyone pizza on their first night in Tallinn.  On both Sundays, we looked to invite others to the church meeting happening in our home.  The first Sunday, 20th July, was hot - the temperatures rising higher as the week progressed.  We had 25 adults and 5 kids in our home, to worship together and then hear Dave Wade (Blackburn, UK) bring an encouragement. Yesterday, with the team mainly gone already, we still had 11 adults and 10 kids, including a first time visitor from Tallinn, and a Dutch family of six on holiday from Maastricht (southern Netherlands) where they are part of a church. Adrian Horner (Kettering, UK) was our guest speaker this time.
What has been exciting, is that in two of the last three times we've met for church, there has been a locally based visitor coming for the first time.  Rebekah headed up the Kids Club, which happened from 10-1 over three days. We rented a school hall, that she had found, nearby to where we all live.  Its in a very needy area, and some children from a nearby social home were able to be a part of things too.

The team were brilliant.
We had the issue of language - there were Estonian only, Russian only AND English only speaking people present - so it was trilingual! 
Our vision at Hope:Tallinn has always been to plant a church that reflects the local city we live in - so this was a good taster for things to come.  We believe in unity, not separation, so while the language issues make it harder to do things, we'll take the time needed in order to do them properly, and more truly reflect this great city we get to live in.
We were praying that there would at least be some children!  We were so encouraged to see so many come - there were in fact between 26-28 each day, with quite a few only there for a day or two, so an amazing group of new families that we've now made connections with.
Something that happened that had been unplanned (at least from our end!) was what became the 'Street Cafe' that was happening outside the school gates during the time of the club.  It was there to offer the parents a drink and a time to chat, but soon was catching the attention of anyone passing by!
Even passing vehicles were not left out - there is a great photo on the Hope:Tallinn page of a passing lorry, the construction workers being passed a drink through the window!  Language was sometimes an issue for the cafe team, but I was able to be there for some of it, as well as Enrico from the team here.  We were able to pray with a few people, and invites were given out with our contact details on.  We will see what comes from all that.
At the end of the club, every child was given a medal and certificate, and offered the chance to pray.

Hope:Tallinn - What Next?

We've been praying for team growth - going into a summer that saw the team reducing to six adults, whilst Stephen and Ketlin where back in the USA for a few months, you'd think things might have felt quieter.  In fact, two people have already joined. There are others looking in too - some already moved to Tallinn, and looking for a church to call home.  Two others are currently still in the UK, but exploring what it might look like to move and join us at Hope.  One of these visited us last week - the other is coming over in September.  It seems God doesn't go on holiday in the summer!  This has built a sense of momentum.  Some bigger things are around the corner - September is already looking like an exciting building time. More on this in due course - all in all, it does feel as if we are taking another step forward when we enter the Autumn.

Finally - Latvia next week

Starting next Tuesday (5th August), there is a conference - Presence of God - in Latvia, hosted by the Riga church plant, but its happening about an hour east of Riga, in the countryside.  Mike Betts and a team from Relational Mission (Newfrontiers) are coming across for these 4 days.  As well as our family, Arnoud and Elisabeth are also going with their children, as is Enrico from Tallinn.  Rebekah is off to Russia that week with a Love Russia camp in the St Petersburg area.  In Latvia, we'll also see the families from Helsinki, Stockholm and some other places. A truly Baltic gathering!  As a family, we are taking two days to travel down (stopping off at two places on the way down, and back again) as well as camping for four nights at the venue. Please pray that we'd get really refreshed and encouraged from this time away.

Praise and Prayer Points:

• Thank God for a great week last week - the team served us well, they seemed to love the city, and many new relationships were formed.
• Praise God for visitors to our church events.
• Pray for continued growth within the team - God is passionate about bringing the right people to us at Hope:Tallinn.  The team are not people I've recruited, but people God has called!  That means so much to us!
• Pray for a great week next week in Latvia, especially with all the nearby church plants being represented too.
• Pray for the months ahead - for the seeds scattered this last week, and for much fruit to come

Thanks for bearing with me!  There's been so much going on, I hope you feel encouraged reading this, as much as we are seeing it here.  God bless!

Tallinn Update - First trip back to Russia and more...

By the end of this week, it would have been quite a ten days for us...

Firstly, looking back;
On Thursday 20th September, I took the coach, making my first trip back to St Petersburg, as planned, for a conference that Hope Church was putting on.  David & Scilla Devenish were coming over for this weekend, and though Dave Henson's back condition did not allow him to be there, Hannah Henson was able to come instead.

Arriving in the city in the afternoon, I was immediately struck as the bus approached the station at the amount of traffic.  The roads were blocked in every direction.  People were walking through the gaps in traffic, going about life. There was no doubt - I was back in the big city!

And I've never 'visited' somewhere before where I am so familiar with the place, and even have the foreign language....I was to get to speak a lot of Russian this weekend, not that we'd got out of practice in Tallinn anyway, with Russian being widely spoken here too.
Descending the metro it was no more unusual than when we lived there.  St Petersburg has the deepest underground (metro) in the world, so you descend and ascend for about 3 minutes each time.  I was not in much of a hurry, and had bags with me anyway.  
What was strange, once at the hostel I was staying at, was being in the city and yet neither (at that point!) being with people, working or at home.  The hostel was very central so while that made getting around easy enough, there was noise from the cars and people moving around in their thousands all day (and all night!)  But it wasn't like I'm not used to it....it's just been 6 months.
On that first evening I made the trip out to where Hansie & Lena live.  It was the end of their home group so I was able to see three of the Russian ladies (plus baby Gleb who was just two months old when we left and I'd just seen once).  I then went out for a chat with Hansie after that to catch up on the news and to see how he was doing really.  
Friday morning again felt strange.  I went down to the church office but at 10am (what was I thinking!) of course it wouldn't be open.....that's still like the early hours in St Petersburg!  (The days do start later and finish later - Tallinn is a little more like Europe regarding office hours).
I then went to a nearby cafe and spent a couple of hours working on next Sunday's notes for our first Vision Sunday (more on that in a bit!).
Though there was a set plan for that evening and then the whole weekend, there was still quite a bit of time on Friday with nothing as yet set.  Realising that I needed (wanted!) to be with some of the folks from Hope Church (the reason I came back after all!) I sent some texts around and soon had back to back meetings that afternoon.  So I met with two home group leaders first and then went onto meet with another two after that.  In the evening was a meal for 10 couples, plus myself and Hannah.  There were two couples from Hope Church, three from All Nations, an Armenian couple from the Newfrontiers church in Tver, plus three other couples representing four local churches, together with David & Scilla.  David would share some things, tell some stories about what has been happening and answer some questions. 
It was a really relational evening and great to chat and meet up with so many wonderful people.  A theme of the weekend, it would again show me just how many people I've had the honour of meeting and getting to know over these last four years.

On Saturday morning there was the start of a two day conference titled "Together on Mission".  The first day was held at the Christian University where I used to study Russian over the last two years.  David did a wonderful job in telling the story of some of Jesus' ministry, before reading back through the scripture to show us that what he said was in the Bible.  I really got a lot out of his teaching and his style was really engaging - I like story-telling too (as an author, that's hardly surprising!) so it was a great experience for me too on that note.  In the lunch break I also got to speak with another two home group leaders.  All in all these conversations had been about encouraging their groups to multiply and releasing new leaders into this.  This is now something I will look to help them do over this next month.
Saturday evening, after the conference, I went back with Hansie & Lena, David & Scilla and Hannah to their flat for a meal.  We were joined by another couple and talked and shared stories.  Later on, I then had some time with David and Scilla to talk about Tallinn and get their advice and input on some things.  It was a very helpful and equipping time - one of the many 'value added' things in being part of a wider family of churches like Newfrontiers.
On Sunday morning it was at the hotel where Hope Church now meet - Hotel October - in the centre of the city. There were two churches together (Hope & All Nations) plus another 8 represented as well.  It was amazing to see the hall packed out, and all available chairs needed.  There was easily over 300 adults.  Worship was passionate and God focused.  It was multicultural, with over a dozen nationalities represented.
I shared an update on Tallinn from the front.  People were so happy to see me again and gave loads of gifts for both Rachel and the girls, who were not able to be with me on this trip.  Faith was stirred and they prayed for us all here.
Not long after that, one of the real highlights of the trip happened.  David welcomed into our Newfrontiers family of churches All Nations church.  These guys have been working really closely with Hope Church for a few years and hearing their African pastor sharing what it meant to him, it was truly humbling to think, that even in a small way, God has involved us in his plans and purposes in St Petersburg.  None of us went to Russia to get other churches to join Newfrontiers, but to plant a church.  This has purely come out of relationship and their desire to be joined with us under the same vision and calling to change the expression of Christianity around the world.
So after four years of first moving to St Petersburg, there are now two vibrant and passionate Newfrontiers churches in that great city.  There is room for dozens more too!
The conference finished at around two and then, once the hall was cleared and chatting with people was finished, I joined the dozens going to a local food court in the neighbouring shopping centre to eat together and continue relationship building.  While here, I saw a young lad with an Estonian scarf on, so I went up to him (I think this seemed odd to him!).  It worked out that he too lives in Tallinn and when he asked what part I lived in, he responded in surprise that he lived 300 metres from there!  Who would have thought, of all the millions in far away St Petersburg, I'd meet someone living so close.
And on Sunday night there was a leaders meeting for those from Hope Church and All Nations.  And this was in the hall where Hope Church first started.  It felt fitting.  It was another encouraging and powerful evening.
On Monday morning I was back on the bus and heading home.  The weekend had shown me what was possible.  To meet with so many and encourage where ever I could.  To bring some fresh faith from outside, with the heart and knowledge of what is going on in Hope Church.  There were invites near and far to come back when I could.  And long term, this is something (in God's wisdom and knowledge) that I feel is part of us being based in Tallinn for.

And Finally, looking forward;
So getting back to Tallinn, faith has been stirred.  This weekend we have our first Vision Sunday for the church plant. Having been gathering socially to invite friends and neighbours, and build community, once a month we are meeting to be reminded of vision, to be encouraged from the word and to worship together, launching us into the next month with faith, passion and vision for all the further gathering we will be doing.
Please pray for us this Sunday.  I will be starting a series talking through the story of Acts, taking a chapter or two each month to draw on encouragement and examples from the life of the early church, into the life of this early church in Tallinn.  The two weekly toddler groups also continue to go well.

The next two months will continue to build forward.  We'll be hosting a special weekend in Tallinn (news on that next time) that will see several other city church planters together here, as well as a couple of trips for me - one being to Riga, where I will be speaking four times over a weekend telling the story of the book of Ruth.  And the other is for a special cities gathering in London that I have been invited too.  Both these trips will happen in November, so more on these nearer the time.  We also continue to have many visitors.  On all these above points, life in Tallinn continues to be very different to what life had been like for us personally in St Petersburg.

Thanks for reading - I hope you have been encouraged as much as we have!

Coming up next;
The Church planting series continues with news from Latvia, Helsinki and even the USA......you don't want to miss it!

Four Years In.....and counting.....

July 2008 - Leaving the UK

Feb 2012 - Leaving St Petersburg

Dates and timing are important - I think so anyway.  It's good to reflect on what has happened, and when you hit certain dates, like today, it's really good to declare all the things that God has done.


It's been four years since we flew out from Manchester airport, via Heathrow, for St Petersburg, Russia.

March 2012 - Boxes arrive (and remain packed) to our
rental flat in Tallinn

In those four years we have done three major moves - the first being to St Petersburg, of course, when stepping out onto the tarmac at the airport, it was my first time I'd ever been to that city - quite a way to do it!
And then, three years and seven months on, we moved again - another move, another nation - to Tallinn, the Capital of Estonia. 

July 2012 - Boxes arrive (and get unpacked!) at permanent
home in Tallinn! With the help of friends from Elava Vee.

Here we spent five months in our rental flat, getting documentation ready and having just a little hassle from the banks trying to arrange the home loan we needed, before, finally, ending our four years of renting by moving into our permanent home - with no more moves again for a long long time, we hope!  
Moving so often and so far has proved a great way to 'de-clutter' ourselves, each move providing the opportunity to give away items too big to transport - from sofa's, TV and beds, to a washing machine and garden furniture.  That meant when moving from furnished rental properties, we had quite a few gaps that we've had fun replacing!  We managed this only by selling our UK house a couple of months ago, and once the mortgage was paid off (thankfully this was relatively small), and another loan paid back, there was still a little to make these essential purchases - we look forward to things settling down so that we know where we stand with our cashflow - but having seen all that God has done these last four years, we have total trust and confidence that it's all safely in His hands, anyway!

Setting up base camp - What is exciting, and why we are where we are now living, is it was God that showed us this flat, and dared us to believe Him that we could get it, not just to be a blessing to our family (though it is that as well, because God is a good God and simply loves to bless) but so that it would be (one of the) great venues to help facilitate the church plant here in Tallinn.  We look forward to hosting many things, to putting up many visitors, to having many people over for food, which starts tonight, actually!  God has given us a haven because He knows all the things that are to come, and at the end of the day, some days especially, I sense we are going to need a haven to recharge our batteries in.

Of course, the significant part of these last four years was being a part of the great church plant team that started Hope Church, St Peteresburg - which in just over a months time will be celebrating it's third birthday and is already gathering well over 100 adults on a Sunday.  Arriving on the 1st August and joining Dave & Hannah Henson, who had themselves just arrived a few days before, little did any of us know as to what would soon unfold over the coming months, and now years.  What was clear, even back then, was that God had spoken over the future church in St Petersburg and said that it would plant into Tallinn.  So I guess, to some degree, it's not a total surprise that we are now in Tallinn!

As well as the three moves, there has, of course, been the need to learn new languages - Russian is still a work in progress, though very proficient now, and Estonian - well, we've started at least!  We thought Russian was hard - Estonian is in it's own level of complexity, matched only with Finnish, these two languages themselves being quite closely related.  So please pray for us that we would also pick up Estonian, and, come the next four years, maybe could also then write that we are a little more proficient too with this difficult but beautiful language.

Welcome to our new flat - 3rd floor on the left
Postal address;
Helme 16/2, 39
Tallinn
10614
Estonia

Mia and Anya enjoying the balcony, outdoor space at home that we've not had in the last four years.

What's been great over this time is all the great cultural stuff you pick up - like savory pancakes (which we are cooking again tonight) and how the Russian's cook шашлык (shasklik) on the BBQ - and we did that last night as well!

Life in another culture (or two) certainly isn't all bad!  In fact, it's quite the opposite.  We feel all the better for having experienced what we have - it's vital that when you enter a new culture, you engage in it and, in time, actually learn to enjoy and appreciate it too.

Mia was two years and eleven months old when we left England, so has now spent more of her life abroad than in the UK - home is a fluid term for someone now so used to moving around.  Anya, at three months old when we flew her back to Russia, doesn't know what it is like to live anywhere other than where she is now - at nearly two and a half, it'll be Estonia, and therefore Tallinn, that shapes her childhood years - and this excites us, to see how their outlook and lives will grow and change with this different upbringing to mine or Rachels.  Anya is doing well, talking lots - she's very funny!  It's hard to know how things are effecting her, if indeed they are - she is a loving and sociable little lady.  Mia is also a very outward girl (nearly 7 year old!)  And last night, while reading Acts chapter 10 with her, she then asked if she could be filled with the Holy Spirit like they were in Acts - so we both prayed with her, and after she started crying and saying how it's a shame Jesus had to die for her, and why couldn't there have been a lamb!  


And it was four years ago since this blog was launched - we arrived in Russia with Microsoft email addresses and a blog, yet in our flat neither worked - so we started again on Google.  And three years ago I turned on the option on the blog to record the statistics as to who was reading the blog from where - and this has grown to be a huge encouragement - as we've seen people standing with us.  As our sole means of communication now, it's great to have seen a huge jump in readers since we made the move to Tallinn.  In fact, of the over 8000 viewers on this blog since July 2009, 52.5% of these have been in the last five months, since our move to Tallinn - that's an average of 859 per month!  And the top 10 countries are (in order from 1-10) UK, USA, Russia, Estonia, Ukraine, Australia, South Africa, Germany, Latvia and Finland.  These make up 90% of the following, with South America and the Far East making most of the rest.  So where ever you are reading this from, thank you!  Thank you for praying for us, for walking with us, for joining us on this journey.  We are just four years in...there is a long way to go yet!


Unity. Team. Spirit.  Three words that came out of an afternoon seeking God for what shape the church plant will take - more on that later - some photo's of the coastal scenes captured on that sunny July day are here.


News Flash -  This Friday (3rd August) we are being given a car!  A real answer to prayer, and though the bus system is very good (and we'll continue to use it as much as possible) a car will just give us some extra freedom, as well as making doing the shopping lots easier!  Friday is also the date when, 13 years previously, God first spoke to me about the former Soviet Union (yet more 'dates' and more on that next time!).
This Saturday 4th August, until Tuesday 7th August, filming starts for our episode on House Hunters International!  We've seen the schedule now, and as well as being lots of fun, we hope, it's clearly four busy days of filming!  We're also trying to organise a BBQ on Saturday night for the three families so far with us in the church plant, exciting seeing a team come together....


Prayer Points;

• That these days of filming will be smooth, fun and above all, glorifying to God and what He is doing with us in Tallinn.  It's also potentially a very good profile raiser for the church plant as well as my novel.
• That our families of those in the church plant would settle quickly into our new homes and be ready for an exciting Autumn.
• That our Estonian language learning ability would be given favour by God.
• That what God has done in these last four years would be nothing, compared with what He is about to do!

Stay connected - there are loads of ways of staying in touch with this blog - 'Join this site' by clicking on the button at the bottom of the right hand column, subscribe by email by entering your address in the box at the top or feeds from the site again on the right hand column.

Coming soon; 

September onwards -  More regular entries as life settles into more of a rhythm.

Church Planting series - where I look to dispel the myths, with lots of input from other city church plants we are in relationship with.  Don't miss it!

Contact Details;

Address: Helme 16/2, 39, Tallinn, 10614, Estonia

Email: timinrussia@gmail.com (timintallinn@gmail.com currently disabled by google!)

Facebook Group: God Loves Tallinn

Cherry Picking (Tim's novel) FB page

For regular or one off gifts please contact our 

UK base church who are administering this for us: 

finance@stockportfamilychurch.org.uk

The Tallinn Church Plant - Story of the first month

The story of our first month in Tallinn - a series I called 'Breaking New Ground', as I wanted to record the journey of our first month as we look to get started with life in Tallinn, who we met and what we had to get sorted in order to register our arrival - plus a whole lot more, as it turned out!

Below in the BNG links you will find each entry that takes us through the first month.  Below that is a link to the story behind our arrival, looking at the journey and how God got us this far - the first is titled 'Where is Tallinn?' as this is also something many of you might be asking if you've just come across this blog for the first time.


Breaking New Ground - March 2012

BNG - 1

BNG - 2

BNG - 3

BNG - 4

BNG - 5 - The First Week

BNG - 6

BNG - 7

BNG - 8

BNG - 9

BNG - 10 - Two Week's In

BNG - 11

BNG - 12

BNG - 13
BNG - 14
BNG - 15 - 25 Days Later
BNG - 16
BNG - 17
BNG - 18 - End of the First Month

Yesterday we spent the afternoon with our new friends here, leaders of another local church, at their home in Viimsi, which is north of Tallinn - here we tried the traditional Estonian swings!  You stand up to make them go faster - we are told that the locals get it so that they are basically horizontal at the top of the swing!

The Story of Our Journey To Tallinn

We were sent from our wonderful base Hope Church in St Petersburg to plant a new church into Tallinn.  I detailed that transition and how God had first called us in a mini series called Towards Tallinn - and here is that series;
Part 1 - Where is Tallinn?
Part 2 - He's Got Us This Far
Part 3 - A Storm Is Coming
Part 4 - Are You Up For A Challenge

The Original Journey to Russia - Adventures of Faith Series

Four years before moving to Tallinn, we were well on our way to moving to St Petersburg, where we were to join Dave & Hannah Henson at the start of what would become Hope Church.  And at that time, in a series called Adventures of Faith, I covered the whole process, from God first speaking to us, through to the challenges, then leaving the UK, our first insights into life in Russia and then finally after living there for a year and the last one after three years.  So to complete this blog entry, below are links to all these posts, which I hope, along with what's been shared above, will encourage you that you too can go and plant - whether it be the next city or another nation.  God bless you!  And may God go with you!

Part 1 - The Build Up
Part 2 - The Six Month Countdown
Part 3 - The Going
Part 4 - First Impressions
Part 5 - One Year On
Part 6 - Three Years In

Tim & Rachel Heath
Tallinn church plant (a part of New Frontiers and plant from Hope Church in St Petersburg, Russia).

St Petersburg Update

I've written a lot recently about our future but in our present we are in the exciting city of St Petersburg, where a new church called Hope Church has been making some rather big steps forward over these last few months. So time for an update from the home front...

July & August 2011 saw the passing of the second summer period for the church and as we passed our second birthday in early September, we could see that our Sunday venue was to be the most pressing thing to address, as numbers were high and space was now very limited.

Dave Henson & I had seen a wonderful venue back in April - at a hotel in the very centre of the city. The problem had been the cost - 20 times what we were currently paying (that's because our existing venue was greatly reduced compared to the normal rate, and this new venue was bigger and at the going rate).

With the summer months passing and the hall full already, we knew our current situation would limit any further growth - for two reasons. First, people might think there was not 'room' for them in Hope Church. Secondly, there was not much room for any more people in the hall!

In the middle of September we took people away for a church weekend - about 40 adults were there. We had invited Andre from Ukraine to come and speak to us, and he took the weekend to speak on faith. It was very encouraging! (It was that weekend that we first shared with the church about our plans for Tallinn, saying at the time how we thought that would mean moving in the summer of 2012, little did we know then!)

What Andre did was to ignite something in us all that was to have real results - and quickly! That very next week, we were to go see the hotel again, offer a reduced rate and see what they said - and they accepted it! We were to meet there from the beginning of October! So I think after the weekend away, we had about two Sunday's in the old hall before the move!

Making the move was to be a real step of faith - but we'd heard God clearly now and so made the step. Financially October onwards would be a testing time - had the church not stepped up so generously, that we saw a 50% - 100% rise in offerings from October to December. It was wonderful to see the whole church united with us in this big (and some might say risky) step.

We now had a venue that could fit up to about 300 people in, maybe a few more, but would also work well from our 60 to about 150 growth, such was the layout of the hall. It would have been hard for a group of 60 not to have felt lost in a much bigger hall. So the venue serves us well.

Little did we know what God had in store for us over the next few months!

About a month into our new hall with all this extra space, another local Pastor came to Dave and shared something he'd been praying about for a year - they were to move back to the US, and instead of their organisation flying in a replacement, he felt he was to shut the church and suggest they join Hope Church. This took some discussion and we are still working through this all, but as a church, they did close down at the end of November, and as Hope Church, we opened our doors to any of those that felt like they could be a part of us in time.

We'd long arranged a conference in December to which David Devenish was coming to, as well as Andre back again from Ukraine, so it was really timely as many people from the closing church were able to come and just get to know folk at Hope. We also had a group from two other small churches outside the city - we'd been asked to help them a little, their pastor a good friend of ours, and this is something we are also starting to working through now as well.

So as we met in December, Sunday attendance was now over 100 adults, plus at times something like 20 children! In our old venue, there would have been no way to have accommodated any more people - but only after we took the step, did we understand why it was so important.

It's now the beginning of February as I write this - in just under three weeks my family move to Tallinn to start the church plant there - this is another big step for Hope Church, to be planting another church less than three years itself having been planted. But praise God we leave behind us a healthy and growing church with a great team leadership - we also leave many friends, people that at most we've known for three and a half years, but relationships forged in pioneering and working hard together, the friendships deep therefore in such a short time.

In October we successfully multiplied the international home group that was meeting in our flat - having gathered about 10 regularly, the first week of the two groups at two new venues on different nights gathered between them 20! And they've continued to be that size. What was exciting, and especially with all these new people coming to Hope Church in December, was last Saturday gathering together 18 of our leaders, and from a discussion that came out of that meeting, multipying our three current home groups into 8!

One challenge we've had since moving into the hotel (which saw lots of new people joining us) is that the sense of Spiritual gifts and contributions in the Sunday meeting has greatly reduced. This could be down to a number of reasons - there has been a lot of change, new people from different church backgrounds are with us, the hall is much bigger, the crowd there bigger too! It just feels harder, or more intimidating to bring something. But its an area we want real break through in. What is clear though is that we are not to under-estimate the work of God.

Someone commented about last Sunday's meeting as being really hard, and worship feeling dry (compared to the near outbreak we'd just seen together on the Saturday with our 18 leaders). I encouraged them with what happened on Sunday - 6 or 7 people had put their hands up in response to the gospel, there were a number of first time visitors, the word was preached - and there was a good offering (January had been the lowest for months and we'd said how the church funds were now really low - so the offering was a sign that people were with us in faith). It's hardly as if God wasn't doing something - people got saved - it's just not the way it used to be.

Of course we do want a stronger sense of the presence and involvement of the Holy Spirit - with the free use of the gifts He so readily gives out. So we won't settle for what we have, but neither can we say God isn't working in us all either!

In time, after we have moved to Tallinn, we will visit Hope Church again (& again) and it'll be great to see this beautiful church continue to flourish and walk into all the promises there are for the church, one of which was that it would plant into Tallinn!

And with that I sign off on my (probably last for a long time!) update on St Petersburg - do keep praying for this great city and it's beautiful church.