Tallinn Update: The Winter's Over edition..

Hello from a Spring-like Tallinn!  The snow is (nearly!) gone!  Only the last sections of the huge piles remain, and they are getting smaller by the day.  Winter was long this year, but we are greatly looking forward to summer, which we know will be light, and hopefully warm too!

The photo above was taken from Tallinn's newly reopened Seaplane Harbour museum, which is meant to be the best of it's type in Northern Europe.  And having spent a day walking around, and on, submarines, aircraft, ships and much more, we would not argue with that fact!  In this photo, we got to dress up in our choice of costume, much to the girls delight, and in true Estonian fashion, not only is there a camera to photograph us, but then it emails us directly with the photo!

It's been two very busy months since our last update, so here are the headlines as to what has been happening!

Following on from the last update

Anya started kindergarten on 1st March and has made friends there already, ironically one boy being an American whose family are also here to church plant!  They are part of a team running the Serve the City events, and we have been getting to know the founding couple, Brett and Tammy Toft, who also came around for dinner at ours last Tuesday night.

Our Estonian classes continue, and we have intensified our supplementary internet courses to often doing them every night, and with the lighter evenings already, have often had to stop ourselves at gone ten.

We are continuing to gather, having put on an excellent Easter meal as a team, for a few people.  A roast dinner was followed by an Easter egg hunt for the children, before separate discussions were had looking at what Easter is all about.  For one visitor, it was her first ever experience of Easter.
Earlier that day, I had also spoken at Praise Chapel, a small local Estonian church where we have been getting to know the leading couple.  And as also mentioned in the last update, I visited Hope Church St Petersburg again, this time preaching there, which was my first time doing so since being sent to plant in Tallinn.  It was my second return trip to Russia, this time going on my new multi entry annual visa, so for this next year at least, I will be looking to go regularly, maybe every 6 weeks or so.

Prayer for Business

Last time I mentioned how things had opened up so that I had founded a new business in Estonia, which long term we hope to be able to help support the work we are doing in the nations.  I'm looking to be able to combine ministry trips with business, so for example, when I was in St Petersburg in March, met with two schools in relation to study options in the UK.  A third school has since been in touch (they were unable to meet with me then because of a vacation).  Around Estonia I have also been having a little growing interest, but overall, still nothing concrete.  Please pray, therefore, for God's favour upon this new business, and for contacts to emerge all over Estonia, and wider in places like St Petersburg, Riga, Vilnius, Helsinki and Stockholm.
And as I said before, being in business has continued to open up opportunities with others in Tallinn - I met with a Canadian business man last month, and also will catch up with another Dad from Mia's school when he returns to Tallinn in May.

One Year On+

We've now been in Tallinn for over 13 months.  For those with 3 minutes to spare, I've put together a photo collect to reflect the changing seasons of Tallinn.  And here it is;


Team Growth

Last time I talked a little bit about folks looking to join us, and since then the young Estonian/American couple have confirmed they are moving to join us this year, arriving at the end of August most probably, ready for her studies to start in September.
And the British young lady I mentioned has also booked up a trip to Tallinn, coming for a month from 22nd July, initially, depending on what work options open up for her.  Please pray for her, and this other couple, that God would bless their plans over these next few months.
Today I also had confirmation of a UK church leader coming to visit us during his sabbatical this summer, coming for a long weekend and being part of our monthly Vision Sunday.
With summer fast approaching, the Hope:Tallinn team are looking forward to putting on a combination of indoor and outdoor events.

Social Action that impacts the city and effects the region

For a long time we have had a heart to bring genuine change for the good of this city.  We believe that is what the church is for.  And this was particularly highlighted when I was in London last November and met with a homeless lady called Anita, as mentioned in this previous update.
Two areas that are opening up are the following.  The first is with Rachel and a women's refuge centre here in Tallinn.  Many are women who have previously been trafficked into the sex industry.  This centre empowers them to get regular jobs and rebuild broken lives.
The other development, which is still in it's early days, is with the charity Care for Children, which up to now has been working mainly in Asia.  A mutual friend, after visiting us here, asked the director of this charity if they would consider working in Eastern Europe, and to our surprise and delight, said yes.  So far in Asia, they have placed 250,000 children from state systems, like orphanages, into loving homes.  They work at government level and God has opened some amazing doors for them in the past.  So please pray as we are at a very preliminary stage here in Estonia, but our hearts are to help support a similar ministry in this region too.

Singing

Mia is part of her choir at school and does love to sing (and dance!).  Recently, they sang as part of a kindergarten's graduation.  This is, of course, all in Estonian.  Mia has been taught the Estonian national anthem, and in this little video, standing on a large pile of snow outside our apartment, sings the first verse;

Prayer

So the above gives you a little more ideas to pray for us all here in Tallinn.  I am also personally having continued treatment for my back and leg, which is currently sessions of physio.  It's been over 4 months since the initial injury and I pray it is finally starting to get better.  I have at least three more physio sessions, which are good but quite painful, and maybe another 5 water sessions too before further assessment is made on my condition.  I'm still praying for total health, especially with summer coming, and life speeding up even more in Tallinn.

Sorry it has been a long time without any updates - as always, because so much is going on, it makes it hard to actually share what God is doing!  We value every single prayer, and thank you all deeply for the love and ongoing support you have been showing us.

Tallinn Update - The Praise God Issue

Wow - it's been a massive few weeks with much answered prayer - I'm still walking with a limp, so that's something we'll keep praying into, but to bring you up to date on what else is happening, here we go:

Anya has a kindergarten place!
The waiting lists for kindergartens (nursery for our UK friends) are long in Tallinn - when we finally found out Anya's position on the list of our local choice, we knew the waiting would be long - she was number 306 on the list (bearing in mind each year there are about 30 places freed up per kindergarten!)  As most families have their children down for three kindergartens, even if the list jumped down by 60 each year as places are filled, we'd be looking at years rather than months.
Well, not long after Anya started praying herself about a place, with her parents fully away of the issues with that, Rachel got a call.  Another local kindergarten was opening a new class - and though the rest of the place was Russian, the new class would be Estonian.  We went there that same day (a week last Thursday), and because of the Russian element, could speak with the Director and understand everything.  The kindergarten we did have Anya on the list for was all Estonian (we want Anya to learn Estonian).  The issue for us would be communication with the teachers.  
Well, praise God, that is not an issue with this one.  We were told there are places, were given a form, and having handed that in, have been told she has a place - and can actually start next week!  We have a parents evening on Friday afternoon there, and we think we'll start Anya there on Friday, March 1st! (Got so delayed in sending this out that we've had the parents evening - which was all in Estonian so we didn't understand a word!  Thankfully afterwards, with a mixture of a little English and some Russian, we found out what we needed to know).  And Anya will be starting this coming Friday!
This is a major answer to prayer - and also a small milestone for us, as our 'baby' starts in her very own kindergarten, which will be totally in Estonian.  What's funny, thinking about how far we've come in this last 4 and a half years, is that at the parents evening, they will be doing it in Estonian and translating it into Russian for our benefit! (Erm, well, as you can see, this is what we had been told would happen :-))

Estonian Lessons
What's also new this year, and so far slipped through the net in regards us sharing with folks, is that Rachel and I have started proper Estonian lessons with a local teacher.  These are happening every week now, for about the last 5 weeks.  Progress is encouraging, and is supplimented by other online courses.  There has been some advantage having learnt Russian - with some natural overlap as well as grammar similarities, as well as the process of learning a language.  That said, Estonian is a whole nother level in difficulty, so we have a very long way to go.  With life getting busier by the week, we didn't want to get to the stage where language learning has not progressed enough to be able to speak Estonian with Estonian's in five years time (or maybe make that ten years!)

Business Links
They say that Estonia is in the top twenty places in all the world for ease of doing business.  And having had a week where in six days I literally went from not knowing the process at all, to signing the papers founding the company at the notary, I have to agree.  I have since been told I did it the longer way - it could have been done in minutes through my ID card.  Oh well, maybe next time...
Now obviously there is a long way to go before the business is actually doing anything - even longer before I can take any, if any, money from it.  The first option for that, should the case exist, would be well into 2015 when the annual reports first need to be published.
But what it has done now is open relational doors for me.  Just being in business has allowed me to meet with a number of people - Mia's school Director, the Director of the British Council in Estonia as well as a businessman parent of one of Mia's classmates, who was amazingly helpful to me in the process, even coming as my translator at the notary.  I'm due to meet with another dad next week sometime again because of the business.
So please pray for God's hand to be on me as I press on with this business idea.  If you want to know what the business is, it's called Tim Heath Language Agency OÜ and you can find the website here.

Team Growth...?
One of our fervent prayers over the last two weeks has been in relation to labourers in God's harvest field here in Tallinn.  We've been praying about a number of giftings which we need to join us.
And this week, we've had some great encouragements along those lines, though it is too early to say exact details for sure, but here is something in general.
I chatted for a long time on Skype with an young Estonian/American couple.  They are super gifted people and prophesied some spot on stuff over me even during our 90 minute chat!  Over the last 10 days (ha, sense the timing 'coincidence here') they have suddenly felt that their immediate future is not to be in the USA but back in Tallinn, where the wife is from.  So it's highly possible that they will move to Tallinn this Autumn and join the church plant team!
That alone would be a fab answer to prayer, and we pray it's just the start of people hearing the call to join us.
Later that same day, an English young lady who I'd met with on her last trip to Tallinn in October, wrote to me and stated that she is seriously looking at options to come to Tallinn this summer, and when asked, she confirmed it would be to join the church plant.  She has a real heart for children.
So we are encouraged in our praying and will pray all the more!  But praise God for these folks already.
A Russian girl from Hope Church in St Petersburg, who has always had the desire to join us, also commented that she is looking into a study option that would potentially allow her to join us this summer too.
And finally, another young guy who is based in the UK is making a three week trip to Tallinn in May/June with the view to moving here as well at some point (I guess on the back of how successful the visit goes!) to join the church plant.
God is the God who answers prayer.  And we know this is just the beginning.  The Tallinn church plant will also be getting some profile coverage at this years Mobilise conference in April and the Catalyst Festival in May.
So if you are going to either of these, be sure to listen out for the church plant there.

Continuing to Gather
As a church plant we are continuing to gather together every week.  At our meal event last Sunday, we had seven different countries represented, including our first Iranian visitor!  It was a great success.
We've also been continuing to build strong friendships with the other churches in Tallinn.  Before the meal on Sunday we were able to visit a church called Praise Chapel, having got to know the couple leading the church well over this last year.  They have also asked me to speak at their church on Easter Sunday, which is a great honour and something I am really looking forward to.

Estonian Indepence Day
Having not got round to publishing this update until now, we can share about the celebration of Estonia's 95th Anniversary of their original independence from 1918.  In Freedom Square, which has a permanent memorial to this event, there were over 1100 troops marching, followed by a convoy of military vehicles and then a fly-by of various aeroplanes, helicopters and fighter jets.
It was the final festival that we had yet to celebrate, and maybe Estonian's most precious.  This coming Friday marks our own year anniversary since moving to Tallinn. 
One big festival that we are yet to see, which only happens every five years in Tallinn and is happening in summer 2014, is the Song Festival, which gathers around 100,000 people and, on the worlds biggest stage area, has up to 15,000 singers at some points.  So we look forward to experiencing that, in time.  Before that, we have a lot more adventures to have!
Thanks for reading.  We love your comments and emails, but even without them, we know that many people are praying with us for breakthrough in this most spiritually needy country.

Walking with us - Tallinn update

It's been two months since I last managed to write an update.  Even this is on a borrowed computer because our laptop stopped workin!  This will mean no photo's in this update as they are all on the laptop.
And even if the computer was still working, the ongoing back and now leg pain has made it really hard to sit at the desk and work.

Yes, lot's has happened in this last two months, and though we are still working through some of it, there is loads to update you on!

A Significant Week last December

My last update talked about me going to the Global Cities conference in London on the last week of November.  I flew back to Tallinn on 2nd December, and really sensed there was a lot I was working through, processing what had been a very interesting, and moving, three day conference.  On the one hand, I was being given so much amazing wisdom, input and information.  Churches that were much further ahead of our own situation were sharing from their experiences, both good and bad.  Specifics were discussed.
The two things that really touched me, all the above good stuff aside, was actually something very different.  On the first day the visiting speaker, an Australian now living in New York, talked about his leadership team prayer walking for two hours each day.  They walk their neighbourhoods, and pray.  Much of it is listening prayer, but it's giving God permission to work, and their church growth (7 campuses in 7 years) was put down specifically to two things - the power of prayer and answered prayer.  Wow.  This alone really got to me and started stripping back all the layers that we want to add to make us 'good' at what we do.  So the first thing I was left with is "I really want to pray a whole lot more!"
The second thing to impact me was a ten minute encounter with a lady named Anita on the lunch time break of the final day.  We'd been inside a lot over the course of the conference, and breaks were usually filled with getting to know people.  The guy leading the Madrid church plant, for example, was there.  A group from the Stockholm plant were also there.  These conversations were greatly encouraging.  But with snow gently falling outside on that Friday lunch break, I felt I needed some fresh London air (if I can call it that!), partly to continue processing all that I was experiencing.
Outside the building, which was just off Oxford Street in central London, as the Christmas shopping season was well underway, sat a homeless lady.  She was, I guess, in her 40s or 50s and her name was Anita.  I asked her what she was doing on that cold, late November lunchtime.  She told me she was waiting for Christmas.  When I asked her what she meant, she explained she was waiting for the 'Crisis at Christmas' event, when for one week a year, she is fed, looked after, talked to and sheltered.  She explained she didn't want to be on the streets.  I could see this wasn't someone wanting handouts but someone effected by circumstances outside her control.
It really impacted me.  To think her one thing to look forward to was one week (out of 52) to feel human again.  And that was still about a month away.
Someone brought out some food for her and I was left deeply impacted - in fact I left London with a note saying two things.  1 - I must pray more (the must being my desire). 2 - I must remember Anita.
Because, while I knew as a visitor to London and the UK to that end, I could not effect the life of this Anita, there were Anita's in Tallinn as well.  What good is there if we plant a church that gathers thousands and yet has no impact on the Anita's of the city - those marginalised and cut off from the church, and society in general.
Those two things got in my soul, agreeing with the Spirit of God - I felt we had a much truer sense to who we are to be as a church plant in Tallinn.  To pray God's agenda over all we do, God's timing - God's plan.  And to pray that the church in Tallinn would reach the unreachable.  Love the unloveable.  Remember the forgotten.
I flew back on the morning of Sunday 2nd December expectant with fresh vision.  There was a meal at our home that same Sunday.  On Monday I met with Arnoud to talk through the whole conference and in particular these two things I was left with.
On Wednesday 5th we had our weekly prayer meeting - I shared again there and there was faith rising in the room.  We agreed this was something from God and what we would go for.  I had already taken two prayer walks that week around our area, meeting a guy on the second day who gave me a lift home - he turned out to be a neighbour of ours.
We finished the prayer meeting with praying for the supernatural - the sick being healed.  My final words were that this would be a sickness free church.

Resistance to Change

Any spiritual breakthrough in a city brings change - people move from one kingdom into another.
What we all experienced in the week that followed that prayer meeting, I believe now more than ever, was resistance to change.  
As Christians, when we talk about spiritual warfare, it's not that we go out to make war; that we go out to put ourselves in danger.  No, it's realising the truth.  That left as we are, we are already in a war.  We are born into this world and controlled by it's ruler.  We are captives and don't even know it.
As Christians we therefore come as liberators, taking people from the power of Satan and his control and bringing them into the love of God and his ultimate authority.
There is no sitting on the fence.  You can choose not to fight, but no one get's to remain neutral.  If you have not been liberated into God's love, then you are still under the otherside's total control.
And I say this because within a week of praying this, we saw a backlash.  Elisabeth, Arnoud's wife and fellow team member here in Tallinn, suddenly had a reoccurance of a health condition that hadn't effected her in months and yet over that week suddenly had several episodes that really effected her.  She needed to see the doctor and on going tests are due next month.
By the weekend I too was unable to walk (kind of limiting when the aim is to prayer walk my neighbourhood as much as I can!).  It's unclear exactly what I did to cause this, but I think in the natural it was a combination of some form of muscle pull in my chest while playing volleyball on the Monday (3rd) and then moving snow around and playing outside with Mia and Anya on the Friday (7th) and Saturday morning.  Once in on the Saturday, we sat down to watch a film and I couldn't stand up after.
By Monday I was taken to hospital by ambulance still unable to walk and in great pain.  I was examined, injected, put on a drip, tested and then told I had not broken anything and could leave!  The only issue was, I still couldn't walk.
With Arnoud's help, we got home and Rachel was able to pick up the medication I was to take.  She was warned when she picked it up that if I could avoid taking the stronger one, I should.  But that was the pain killer and I needed that to beable to start trying to move around again.
The side effects from that drug were very difficult for me, almost as hard as what they were trying to stop.  Reading up on them on the internet, I decided to come off them, which I did, though the night before we flew back to the UK for Christmas, as a side effect, I was unable to sleep at all, all night.
I was cleared to fly, albeit with assitance as required, and was able to speak to a doctor in the UK, who also suggested I come off the other drug as well, because of the risk of addiction.
Just before new year, to add to the back pain, I caught a virus that would last for two weeks, and would also then come out in the rest of the family over the next three weeks.
We arrived back in Tallinn on 2nd January in a bad way.  Mia would miss the first eight days of her new school term, and Anya was only given the all clear on 21st January.  So the new year felt like it was taking ages to start back on.
As well as the back pain (which is thankfully much more like a dull ache at the worst of times), the pain has now moved down my left leg, making walking difficult at times, mainly after getting up from a sitting position.
So working at the computer, as I am doing now, will mean I will not be able to stand up straight once I get up.  And at the end of January the computer stopped working, so letting you all know about things to pray with us was not possible anyway!
But two months on now from that prayer meeting, the message we are singing out is this - you've not stopped us Satan.  We're still standing! (Even if with a little pain!).  I've managed to start up the prayer walks again, and Rachel does her own route as well.  I love these times and the connection it makes with the area, the people, and God's heart for his city.

On the lighter side...

Now that's out the way, we've had a few visitors again already.  Nick and Nadia came over from St Petersburg.  We'd postponed them from December and they came in mid January for the weekend.  Nadia was part of the original church plant team in St Petersburg.  It was also great for our Russian, as Nick (though vastly improved from when we last saw him!) is a non English speaker.
After that, and for just a day, we had Phil & Emma Whittall with their two children, Noah and Anna, come over to Tallinn from Stockholm.  They are planting a church there, at the same stages as we are in Tallinn, and it was great to properly spend time together as families.  We are excited for Stockholm that these guys are serving there.
And then last week, we had Dave Henson with us, who came on the bus from St Petersburg with another pastor, Kakule, who leads the other Newfrontiers church in the city (I mentioned in my September update how it had been an honour to be back in St Pete's to see All Nations church welcomed into our family).
These guys prayed for us, even did the prayer walk with me, and basically blessed and refreshed us.  
Dave was also talking with me about his langauge academy, which I'll build on and mention in a bit.

Also in the News...

Teaching English was something that God opened a door to for me in our last year in Russia, and while I thought it would be something I'd be doing in Tallinn, lately it's been Rachel that God has opened the door for this here.  What started with helping coach one student from Mia's class in English, has now grown to four, over seven lessons during the week.  It is also great for building relationships with these four families.
Some Russian neighbours of ours, who own a flat on the floor below us, also want lessons when they are in Tallinn, using their flat as their holiday home from life in Moscow.  On their previous visit, I taught the mother and Rachel taught the daugther.  Due to ill health, we did not teach them over New Year, but they are planning to be back in the summer for a long time, so we'll have to see how that works out!
And staying on the English language theme, another exciting development has  emerged through Dave Henson.  He is now the Managing Director of WE-Bridge International, which is a language academy in Cardiff.
Over the last month, we've been talking together about me working with him in the Baltic region to connect students with his academy.  The long term option is that the academy has it's own Tallinn base, but before that, there is a whole load of opportunity to really back a successful business here.  Today I am meeting with the Director of Mia's school to talk this all through with him about opportunities there are for them.  I'm meeting with the British Council on Thursday to discuss partnering with them, and asking them loads of questions.  I'm also meeting a businessman tomorrow (one of the parents of a child in Mia's class) who has started a number of businesses in Estonia, to talk through the process with him, so that, though it's apparently a very easy process here, I know exactly what is needed before I set out.

Prayer Points:

- Please pray for this business option that I am exploring over this next month.  It has all the potential to be a very important partnership between business and mission.

- Please pray for complete health and healing for us all, and specifically this leg pain that I am struggling with.

- Praise God that Rachel, Mia and Anya are now fully recovered.  Please pray your blessing upon them, especially Rachel, as it's hardest on her with me not being so mobile!

- Pray for more workers to join us in Tallinn.  We have a guy visiting us from the UK in June who wants to move here.  Please pray for that, and others like him - there is room for so many more so if this is something you feel God speaking to you about, please get in touch with me.

- I've applied for a year long multi-entry Russian visa and am due to preach at Hope Church St Petersburg on March 24th.  Please pray that everything comes together for this and that God would use this time to continue his story for us with Russia.


Thanks for reading and praying, and sorry there are no photo's, but trust that next time there will be!

With love,

Tim, Rachel, Mia and Anya xxxx

Our Christmas Greetings to You

We hope you have had a wonderful 2012!

Thanks for all your care, encouragement and support this year.

Rich blessings to you all

Love Tim, Rachel, Mia and Anya x

An Interview with...A Church Planter - 7 - Tallinn, Estonia - Series Conclusion

What's been great in hearing back from guys planting churches into The Hague, Stockholm, Riga, Smiltene, Helsinki and Spokane, in the USA, is that there is so much overlap in what they are all saying.

In bringing this series to a close now with my own input from having planted into St Petersburg, Russia, and now starting again in Tallinn, Estonia, I'd also like to draw together the common held views and hopefully further encourage you along these lines.  Because, having read what has already been shared by these great guys in these six other nations, I am certainly encouraged by their words.

This series has been a very popular series indeed.  It leads me on to mention the next series, where again we will hear from other men and women, looking at the subject "How God Speaks to Us" - I'm sure it will be fascinating to read!

So here are my answers to a few of the same questions I've asked the guys in this series:

Some people might look at church planting and feel they have no idea what to do - what would you say to help them?

This is the reason I wrote this series - looking at the question 'What actually IS church planting?' Do any of us really know what to do?  We helped plant Hope Church St Petersburg, which launched in 2009.  Moving to plant into Tallinn in 2012, it doesn't mean we know how to do it here - we need to learn all over again.  So I would say, don't focus on getting to 'know how to church plant' but instead focus 100% on 'getting to know God' and I assure you, the church planting bit will flow easily!

Called to just church plant, or called to a specific city - or both?  And does it matter?

Obviously if you know the city you are called to, it helps a lot.  For instance, is a new language or culture involved?  That changes things.  Can someone be called to church planting in general - yes, absolutely.  I've met lots of people like that.  But at some point God needs to speak (through all the ways He does - and let's see how that is in the new series coming soon!) with the specifics of the city you are to plant into.  So if God has not yet given you the specific location, then I suggest you wait in the place you are in until that is clear.

Calling verses Gifting - where do you stand?

For me, it's got to be calling.  Especially from a cross cultural perspective (which is my only experience).  To go somewhere that's very different to your own background, you have to know you are called when the hard days come (as they will).

When planting into your own culture, gifting will get you so far, but I would still say calling is also vital.

If you have planted into another culture & language, talk through some of the issues and experiences you've come across so far?

It's been a huge honour to have lived in the different places we've lived these last four plus years.  With this also comes testing, faith and responsibility.  

All of our personal experiences are found recorded on the pages of this blog so I won't repeat myself here. What I will say is this; in the modern world, nearly anyone can live anywhere in the world and feel happy and secure on a good day - it's when the issues come and problems arise that makes living in a new culture so much harder.  It doesn't matter how simple the issue, until you learn what to do and who to contact, it's at these times that you feel most alone and vulnerable.

What challenges have you had to over come?

I've definitely covered these in some detail already in older posts, but it's amazing how quickly you move on.  We had huge issues getting what we needed in place for us to own the home we were trying to get.  Some of that came out of not knowing the system, but much, as I understand now, came from a cultural misunderstanding which meant I wasn't asking the right kinds of questions, and I wasn't being told the right answers because for them, at the time, it didn't matter what the answer was, there was nothing to act upon, so they agreed with what I was saying.  It's when they actually had to do something about it that the banks told me what they really thought!

What challenges remain?

The Estonian language is a hugely difficult language to learn, so there is a challenge there.  The fact that, as a non-linguist, I'm now learning my third language, it makes me smile at what is possible with God - all things!

For many reasons, Estonia is a divided nation on ethical lines between Estonians and Russians. To plant a church that reflects the city of Tallinn, bring unity to a divided nation, is going to be a huge challenge.  With very different languages and personalities, we need to find God's way through in what we go onto do.

Can people still move to join you?

Absolutely!  We are at the exciting pre-launch phase. We've seen some team coming together but for us to truly reach our vision here in Tallinn we need others, called of God to be in Tallinn, to join us and together help us plant this church.

How can someone pray for you and your church?

Pray all sorts of prayer for every occasion!  As the most secular nation in Europe, Estonia needs God's powerful hand of breakthrough.  Tallinn represents a third of the whole population of Estonia - if Tallinn gets a new heart then so does the nation.

We need to see vast numbers of people saved.

Do you need a team to go church planting?

I love team.  While I agree you don't need a team to move to church plant, I would say that you can't start the church plant phase without a team.

It was an honour to be part of such a great team in St Petersburg, and when our time came to move to plant into Tallinn, while we went alone, the value of team was there.  We knew of someone from Russia wanting to join us, but they'll need a visa for here and that has still yet to sort itself out.

As team was such a high value we had, we didn't start doing anything in the city regarding our own church plant until Arnoud & Elisabeth had moved to join us during the summer.

What challenges do you face with raising children in a 'foreign' setting?

What might be a challenge is also an amazing opportunity.  If you can see through language learning issues and culture adjustment, raising your children bilingual (or tri-lingual in our case) is an amazing honour.

We of course have no way of knowing how our kids would have been growing up in our own background. What they do have ahead of them is a rich, multicultural understanding and experience, which I hope is all the better for them.

Personally, with Mia, I think we've got her into a better schooling system than we ever could have had access to living where we did in the UK.  For that, and so many other things, we feel blessed.

Is outside financial support vital for church planting?  What other ways are there that you've come across? What advantages does having financial support for at least the first year have in the life of a church plant?

I'll answer these together.  In the UK I have always worked in business (I mean, I was never paid as a full-time church leader).  Moving to Russia, and now Estonia, the issue with all my experience and ability (as good, or bad, as that might be) is that it largely doesn't matter - without language you are rather unemployable.  In fact, my English language became more valuable in the fact that I could teach - something I had no desire or passion to do in the UK!

The point is, things change when you move countries.  What outside financial support offers is time.  This is the most valuable thing we have and it allows us to learn some language and build relational links into the city - links that will lead to church plant growth - the very reason we are here in the first place!

Church planting into a new culture has huge pressures - so to have the financial issues removed by outside support, while things are getting off the ground, is a huge help.

Finally, if giving for the right reasons, having outside sources of financial support, helps build relational links with those people and churches.  A Kingdom connection gets established - one that prayers, sends and supports.  And that is a very worthwhile thing!

What one piece of advice would you give to someone feeling called to plant a church somewhere?

Enjoy it always, endure it at times, and let me know if there is anyway I can help.

So that's it.  The end of this Church Plant series - though maybe we'll revisit these churches at some point in the future to see how they are getting on!

I am part of the team leading the Hope:Tallinn church plant.

Contacts:

Church Email: hopetallinn@gmail.com

Twitter: @timinthenations

Tim's Email: timintallinn@gmail.com

Blog: you are reading it!

Thanksgiving, Beach and the start of the Christmas Market

What a fun week it has been.  Today in Tallinn the Christmas market opened.  This is now known to be one of the best markets of its kind in Europe and will be around for the next six weeks or so, usually finishing about a week into January.  It is located in Town Hall Square, which is the centre of the Old Town, Tallinn's very beautiful medieval section.  All that we need now is the snow to come - which is forecast for later this week - plus Father Christmas ('Jõuluvana') to turn up (which he does next weekend), when I guess the Christmas tree lights get turned on properly as well.

 So it is starting to feel very much like Christmas is nearly here, which it is in one months time!
The market sells a wide range of local products - from the very traditional wooden items to the woolen clothing that will keep you very warm for the winter weather to come.
They also sell cups of Glogg, the local mulled wine as well as other local Estonian food's cooking away on large open grills.  The smells and sounds, especially once it gets dark (which it does by about 4pm already) is really special.  The snow covered winter market from our first visit to Tallinn in January 2011 is one of our best memories.
We will be no doubt returning a few times to the market, and once the snow comes, will be able to share further photo highlights from this special place.

This week was also Thanksgiving - and with great American friends around us here in Tallinn, we were invited to share dinner with them.  It actually became a church plant meal as the three families were able to be together with three other people there too.  Nathan and Laura did a wonderful job of hosting us and cooking a delicious dinner, it was special for us all to be a part of this holiday with them.

With the temperatures now on their way down (the minus figures are coming back again this week, as well as the snow) we took our visitor, Sarah Watson from Stockport, to the beach today, though she declined the opportunity to go for a swim!  Once again we are thankful to God for the place He has rooted our family firmly into - we are looking forward to seeing all that God will do in Tallinn.

This coming week - and something I'd love you to pray for - I am flying to London for a conference.  My last trip, two nights, was quite hard on the home front as both girls really seemed to not do so well with me being away.  Due to the way the flights work, I will be away this coming week for six days.  They both now know I am going away, and I hope the promise of me buying them a gift to give them on my return will help them when I'm gone, but I would really value your prayers for Rachel and the girls while I am away - at least we still have Sarah with us until Thursday, which is a great blessing.  I arrive back on Sunday, about two hours before we have a church meal at our home.
The conference itself is something being run by David Stroud and his Christ Church London team.  He has invited a church leader from New York and the conference is called the Global Cities Conference.  Please pray that I learn everything I need to learn from these three days that I am with them.  The first day is much smaller, with a round table discussion, and the last two days are larger with a classic conference feel.  I want to meet with God.  I want to be encouraged by others ahead of me in similar settings.  I want to gain all I can.  And I want to bring back, and help implement, everything I can for Tallinn too!
Finally, tomorrow is Vision Sunday for the Hope:Tallinn church plant.  Please pray that it would go well (maybe you are reading this after Sunday, so thank God it went well!).

Until next time!  Be blessed.  (Below is a video taken today, while it was still light, from the Christmas market).

The Filming That Was House Hunters International in Tallinn

So our Estonian episode of House Hunters International has finally aired on Monday 12th November at 10pm in the USA.
And while we have not been able to see the program ourselves (living in Tallinn as we do) we've heard a little feedback, and what didn't get mentioned.  So seeing that it has now been aired, I wanted to talk about the experience it was when the camera (singular - see why, later!) came to Tallinn! 
(People have already been searching from the US, having watched the show, trying to work out who we are and why we are in Tallinn - so I will be using certain keywords that will make it easier for future searches)  Because sadly, having stated to the producers of the show our reasons for moving to Tallinn, and therefore our requirements and desires for the home we would live in, they failed to actually make any reference to it in the show, despite a noticeable amount of recording done where we were talking all about the reasons we are in Estonia.

Described as 'community leaders' on the recent episode, we are actually planting a church here in Tallinn.  We moved from St Petersburg, Russia, in March, having been part of the church plant that is Hope Church St Petersburg - a vibrant Russian international church that is now over three years old.  We are part of Newfrontiers, which is a global family of churches in something like 48 countries.  Hope:Tallinn, as we are calling ourselves, is the first Newfrontiers church in Estonia.....it will not be the last as we look to plant again, in time, into other parts of this country.  (Interested in hearing more about this church plant - comment on this blog or email timintallinn@gmail.com)
We have seen a team moving to join the church plant over the summer and have been starting to gather over the last two months, seeing over thirty Estonians and Russians, plus a few internationals, coming to events we've put on....actually, for more information on this, you might prefer to read other blog entries, the last of which is here.
From here on, I will talk more about the filming that took place over four consecutive days at the beginning of August. 
Us appearing on this Home & Garden Network flagship show in their November episode last night came about through knowing Brenda Mitchell, herself in real estate, but actually the connection was through Elava Vee church, where her and her husband Barry are leading and they are friends of ours.  We had been going there most weeks in our first few months here, as we looked for relationship and getting to know other local churches.  So Brenda knew some months before we moved that we were coming to Tallinn to church plant - and when, therefore, she was contacted by the House Hunters International production company asking if she knew any English speaking families moving to Tallinn, she mentioned it to us.
One of the things we learned in St Petersburg, especially in the early days, is to say 'yes' to opportunities as you never know where they will end up - and this television show option for HHI in Tallinn seemed too interesting to turn down.
It actually turned out to be nearly four days of acting!
The truth about finding our home, the process of which started back in 2011, is told in detail from a post back in May this year - after we won our battle with the banks - you can read about that here.
The show was to, as best as possible, 'retell' the story but there was lots it needed to change.  We found our apartment online, and purchased directly from the developer.  There was no agent involved - we didn't actually look at a single other apartment in Tallinn - we knew God had shown us the one home that was for us.
Obviously, for a show like HHI, that doesn't really make very good television, and didn't fit their profile.
We were not going to misrepresent ourselves though, either.  We were clear that we had come to church plant - it was God's idea for us, not any natural desire to live here.  Though we do absolutely love Tallinn and hope to live in this beautiful city for many years to come as part of a vibrant, church planting, God loving, soul saving church.

The filming was to take place over four consecutive days, with Brenda joining us for the last two days as we did the three viewings.  Only once we had confirmed the purchase of our apartment did the show get the go ahead.  We moved in a week before filming started - the lorry in the pictures on the right was to pack up our belongings from our new home on day 4, just one week after moving in!  It was, for me, the hardest part of the filming.

The crew of three - Ben, the director, Gordon the cameraman and Noel the sound man - all came from the UK.  These guys were experienced and great fun to work with - thank you for being patient with us guys!  Filming was to be done over just four days (even though, as far as I know, the show looks like it's filmed over some months).  I understand this though - to keep costs down, and to guarantee a confirmed outcome, it needs to be filmed like this, once the family are actually in their home!  The biggest thing though was the presence of just one camera and cameraman.  Obviously, the cost of a camera means you can't afford two - and anyway, with two you need two cameramen, two salaries and tickets etc....costs are too much.  Having just one camera eliminates the problems of them catching each other in shot.  What it does mean though, which we were quickly to learn, is that each scene is shot at least three times, sometimes as many as six times.  This is to get different angles, to focus on different people (in a conversation, for example) which meant we were having to do a lot of acting over the four days.  This was because maybe first time through we were saying things as they came to us - the next five takes, though, we'd have to repeat what we'd said - harder than it sounds, especially if I'd made a joke (which might have sounded natural first time, but fifth time I'm not so sure!)  Rachel and I had the first two days to start to get used to this - we felt for Brenda, joining us on day three, who quickly had to get used to it too.  She did great!

The first two days were 'our life in Tallinn' and was actually, I guess, the end of the show, showing how we'd settled in etc.  We were filming as a family with our two girls - in the Old Town at various places, as well as showing life in the apartment and around at the beach and on bikes (I'm not sure how much got shown!).

This was a lot of fun and about half the photos shown here, including at the exercise area, reflect this period.

The last two days with Brenda, reflected our 'house search'.  The list of things we told Brenda we were looking for did actually figure in our thinking and hopes as we contemplated the move to Tallinn - it was just God that found us our home - the first result on the first search for homes in Tallinn!

The two homes she did show us, besides our own, are ones she is trying to sell, and fitted a similar bracket of home as ours - though having seen them, we are so happy with our choice - which was both much nicer and much cheaper too!

It's amazing the things you learn about looking around a home, while being filmed!  You need to take in the whole room, but avoid looking at the camera - that was the big no no for the whole four days of filming, which even our girls were great at doing.  There were a number of laughs during the time, as I tried to remember what I'd just said, and taking in the crews advice.  One I remember was walking around one of the kitchen's, and being told to make comments about things (it is TV, after all, so you need to think out loud) I'd said how the cooker was a great height, so it was safe for our children.  On the next take, the crew said I was to open on my comment - and I proceeded to start by going to the oven, and saying "That'll be great for the kids"....to which the cameraman burst out laughing, saying "You can't say that!"  Clearly, it sounded like I wanted to cook the kids....I'm trusting that isn't the one they used in the show!  When we do see it, which might be in about 4 weeks when our DVD arrives, I might have a little more to say!

The other aspect that I am not sure if it got mentioned in the show, was my novel being published, which happened this summer in Tallinn.  It's called Cherry Picking - and you can find the ebook here on the Amazon.com - it's also available in paperback (really good quality - a great Christmas gift!) and is available on all Amazon sites in Europe, the UK, USA, India & China.  So please do check it out - you can read the excellent reviews on the UK and US Amazon sites.

Here are the front and back covers for you.