March 2020 Prayer Requests

Dear Friends of Estonia!

As we celebrated our Independence Day on February 24, we are grateful to God for our country, for the freedom we enjoy and for the people who live here. As the Methodist Church, we are blessed to be a part of the wider Body of Christ in Estonia and do our part in being the salt and light here. Please pray that we could reach more people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and make disciples of Jesus for the transformation of our country!

March 5-7, there will be a Church Planting Seminar, organized by the Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary together with the Asbury Theological Seminary. Please pray for this important event and that it would be a blessing and inspiration to many pastors, students, and church leaders.

March 20 and 21, there will be a gathering of pastors in Kuressaare on the island of Saaremaa. Please pray for our time together, as we encourage each other, learn together, and discuss important issues for our church.

March 22, there will be a special offering in all of the Methodist churches in Estonia for the Camp Gideon. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful place that is used most of the summer for different camps, retreats, and conferences. But some renovations needed to make it better and safer for the campers. We are planning to change windows in 16 dorm rooms and remodel some of the rooms. Please pray for the success of this project, both in fundraising and practical work. (if anyone wishes to contribute to this project in Camp Gideon, please contact me at robert.tserenkov@metodistikirik.ee )

Please pray for the Seminary’s March 5-8 Church Planting Conference. The Methodist-Related theological schools in Europe with Asbury Seminary and Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary will gather at the Baltic Mission Center for a four-day conference on the topic of developing and multiplying disciples. Pray for the speakers who include two from our seminary (Taavet Taimla and Douglas Childress).

Please also pray for me as well as the conference organizer as I coordinate the event and the staff. Your prayers also for the preparations of the Friends of Estonia meeting. Pray for my travels as I plan to attend.

Thank you for your prayerful support, in late February we completed a teenage camp attended by over 30 people. It is nice to see the younger generation seek the Lord.

A family seminar is planned on March 6-7, we expect to see young people at it, bless that young people accept knowledge on how to form a family and how to be a member of the family.

Every month we spend an evening of worship “AWE Tallinn,” in which about 80 young people take part. On March 28, will be our next evening of worship, please pray for the presence of the Holy Spirit, so that young people might receive answers from Heaven to their questions, and maybe they can learn about their calling from the Lord.

Pray for our youth and kid’s activities, youth meetings and Sunday school.  Pray for Bible app presentation day on March 14, that all participants will get more knowledge about Bible study programs.

Pray for our church, that we all take more time to search God and His will.

Pray for people’s health, there are a lot of virus diseases and other kinds of problems.

Pray for two elderly women, they have health problems too but the priority is their salvation. Their children are believers, but they are not yet.

Many blessings! We praise God for His grace and love towards us. Praise God that we had good ministry time in prison and were asked to come again. Now it seems that also Jõhvi prison is opening.

• Prayer for security and protection to all as the Coronavirus spreads all over the globe.
• Aldersgate conference in UK and Church Growth conference in Tallinn.
• Continuous ministry in Thea’s workplace.
• Youth ministry growth.
• Prayer for Summer conference preparation.

Praise God for He is good and His steadfast love never fails!

I have had an intense study period, and it will continue. Pray for wisdom and peace amid all responsibilities.

As well for my missional practicum in Ethiopia. I am going to Ethiopia on the 18th of March until the 2nd of April. Pray for safety in travels and God´s guidance.

We have been able to buy and install an additional heating system for the church, and it reduces the need for someone to heat the stoves.

We see the need for a larger team to reach out to the people in the city of Paide and be more effective. We believe that God has a plan for the town and in his heart, there is a desire to reach many with the Gospel. Pray for Eivin and me to recognize the people who could be part of the team and to have the wisdom to encourage them and continue the work.

Pray for the Bible Study Day March 14 for Tapa, Rakvere, and Sakusaare congregations. Pray that God would speak through Mark & Livia as they teach and use this day to help the congregations take real steps forward in their walk with God.

Pray for the Seminary as we transfer to a new student database system for tracking grades, etc.  It is one of the very time consuming and stressful bureaucratic necessities that make it possible for the Seminary to train church workers. Pray that the changeover would go smoothly.

I have been struggling with the workload after the position of my full-time assistant was eliminated early this year. Please pray for this situation and continue to pray for Mary, who lost her job. I need wisdom about how to cope with the challenges due to the loss of staff in my office.

I am grateful that a very capable person has been identified who does support me at least part-time.
These days with many complications in our church, I need special wisdom to be in the midst of many relationships. I love my church. I love the people on every side that I am relating to, and I want to serve them all with the love of the Lord, who is still in mission and has also called me to be part of it.

UMC Youth work
We thank God for fruits of winter camp in youth lives.

It`s such a joy to see how youth work is going on regularly in many Methodist churches.
UMC Pärnu youth organized wonderful Valentine Youth evening where youth all over Estonia came together.

Estonian Methodist Church Youth Committee had a very productive time with Russian Youth leader Anton Djurjagin. He was sharing and teaching about camp teamwork and camp preparation. His cooperation so blesses us.
Let us keep praying for youth leaders.

At the moment we are organizing the Spring Camp, let’s pray God’s leading and wisdom.

Many youths are preparing for entrance exams, so let us keep them in our prayers.

UMC Räpina
I am working on coming to FOE.  As a leader of my own Reading Club, I need the wisdom to delegate this work and trust it to my husband and coworkers’ hands. Many things need to be done before, but I put my trust in God.

Let us pray for the architect who is working on Räpina Church project.

Let us pray for UMC Räpina during this forthcoming challenging time.

One unconstant church member has borrowed troubles; let us pray for wisdom and solutions.

We thank God for Daniel, who started playing the piano in worship. It is a big help and blessing! May God encourage and lift him up.

We are thankful for Family Day, we organized it in the middle of February, but unfortunately only 4 parents came. This was a great disappointment to many of the children. Most of the parents are not interested in kids and what they are doing. So please pray for the parents and situations in their
homes.

I am very grateful to God for this period in my life. I can rest some after intensive jobs in previous years. I am feeling more energy and more inspiration comes to me. The few last months have given me a good time to recover physically and mentally. So I am now up for the new challenges.

I am grateful to God for the more prominent youth ministry going on in Agape church. I can see there many new leaders coming up. These are the fruits after years of ministry with children who grew into adulthood. Sometimes people cannot see the changes in the churches, because they are with the same people all the time. I have noticed the difference and am so glad to see those gifts from God.

Please pray for me, as I am getting ready for the driving exams. I will have three exams in the next two weeks. Two of them will be in the class, and the very last one is driving exam by the bus. If my exams are going well, I can start my part-time job as a bus driver. Let it all be in God´s hands, and He will help the new employment to complement my pastoral ministry.