October 2020 Prayer Requests

Dear Friends,

We are in a time when there is so much uncertainty and anxiety. We want you to know, as your brothers and sisters in Estonia, that we pray for you as your country battles the Covid-19 pandemic. We hope that the Lord keeps you safe and strengthens you as you serve Him in these challenging circumstances.

Thank you so much for your prayers for us in Estonia. The second wave of the pandemic has hit Europe and Estonia as well. We are thankful that in spite of the rising Covid-19 cases here, the Lord has kept us safe. We ask for your continued prayers that the virus would not spread and that there would be no new restrictions needed for churches.

Please also pray for our pastors’ gathering next weekend that it would be a time of great fellowship and learning. Over fall break, there will be different youth events. Please pray for our youth leaders as they prepare for these events and invest in our young people. We also pray that the young people who participate in these events would grow in the Lord. We are so grateful for your prayers!

Pray both for Baltic Methodist Seminary and the Estonian nation as we continue to deal with the coronavirus. There has been a significant surge in cases in some parts of Estonia including Tallinn. Presently, most businesses and services remain open. However, traffic with Finland closed on September 28. Therefore, our students from Finland will have to continue to follow their classes online.

Prayer for God to give us wisdom on how best to go about the school year. Currently, most students are able to meet on-site for classes. We have been following the same standards and procedures that similar schools are following and are keeping our students at the appropriate distances apart when education is taking place in the classroom. In some settings, we have had them wear masks.

Continue to pray for all the students in general and the first-year students in particular. Our hope is that God will use their time at the seminary to strengthen their faith and mold them for ministry.

Pray for faculty and support staff. Our IT needs are higher than usual at this time and in September we lost a key IT worker. Pray for endurance and strength to the team to assist students.

I am thankful to God for a wonderful and active year with youth, who I have had the privilege to lead. God is real and his provision is amazing. God has changed young people inwardly through the camps of this year and through the church youth work. Because of that youth are more ready to take initiative and yet they need to be discipled. Pray, that there would be enough grown-ups who have a heart for youth! Pray for the new season to be in the mighty hands of God, so that the local youth ministry teams would grow stronger and that their passion for God would touch the non- Christian friends around them.

I am grateful for the event that happened at the end of September, we had a festival called Bible Days. It is an ecumenical event where young people come together from all over Estonia to worship God, meet other youth, be encouraged, and inspired by powerful stories and by God. We participated with our Methodist youth group and it was a blessing to all of us!

Together with our team, we are preparing the event called the Growth Stage of Methodist Youth (23.-25.oct), which goal is to create the best environment during one weekend where youth could grow- we believe that God is going to be at work in them and shape them as He has planned.

Pray for our prayer and praise evening on the 1st of October. Pray for the Spirit coming and filling people ( and people coming).

Pray for small groups, that they will grow in faith and wisdom and that they all will be safe when they meet.

Pray for people who have lost their jobs, that they will survive and find new workplaces.

Pray for wisdom to our leaders, so that they make the right decisions.

I have been living in Paide for a month now. I have got some new contacts with locals, have started to understand the atmosphere of the city. Please pray for the city of Paide, it is called the heart of Estonia as it is located in the center of Estonia and yet the spiritual atmosphere is quite heavy. There seem to be many people without a purpose in life and hope.

Pray for cooperation between the 7 churches we have.

Pray for me to have a heart for this city and to be able to minister to the people living here. Especially I ask to pray for youth. They tend to gather in the park during the evenings, drinking and smoking- may have a vision for how to reach them.

We are thankful to God that thanks to the volunteers, we have given furniture to the families of some of the children from the center, to improve their living conditions.

We ask for God’s help in the family of a new girl. There are 3 children in their household and the father is violent towards the mother. Let the Lord help solve the situation at home.

We also pray for the 9-year-old boy in the children’s center, who is being raised by his grandfather. He has no motivation to study and prefers to walk around the city instead of attending school.

We pray for teenagers who do not want to study, wander around the city, and spend time in different gangs that have a negative effect on them.

We pray for the 11-year-old girl from the children’s center whose mother is in alcoholic rehab. She’s coming back next month and we ask God to help solve the housing issue.

We thank God for the health and care and continue to ask Him for protection from disease and violence!

On 10 October we will start the Alpha course for non-believers teenagers.  Pray that the teenagers will accept Christ as their personal Savior and grow in Christ.

An adolescent city camp will be held from October 18 to 22.  Pray that the Spirit of God will act in the lives of adolescents and that Jesus would become the best friend for the children.

The 6th season of the “Year of God” project started, this year there are two participants, bless us in conducting and organizing a new season.

This year we focus to open the new church, where interns will serve. Pray for internship finances.
God is always good.

Pray that the bathroom and kitchen in Pähkli house would be ready to receive guests by New Years’. It was purchased as a location for prayer, fellowship, small group teaching and relational discipleship for a new generation of believers.

Pray that Corona numbers would fall, allowing our teaching ministry in school, in the Seminary, and in the churches to happen as planned.

Pray for Freeman, as a new graduate, as he develops into the leadership role that God has prepared him for.
Karl, Kata & Martin are doing well. Keep them in your prayers as school and work environments have changed due to the coronavirus crisis.

Pray that God would provide the financial support needed for our ministry. He has never let us down!

Thank you for your continuous care and love! We had great joy, that Aivar and Andreas were able to visit us for a month!

We have prayed very much for the situation in America, for Revival and renewal, and peace. May the churches have wisdom and revelation from heaven what and how to do!

Prayers:
Võru city council members have coronavirus and are all in isolation plus all schools are back in distance learning. The church can operate, but wisdom and protection, how to do it – we celebrate an Anniversary this Sunday.

How to organize children and youth ministry in this context – we should have children’s ministry opening this Sunday and Youth ministry team-meeting today.

Some youth have gone to other places, that the new youth-ministry team will form and the youth-ministry will start again.

Food-banc ministry is growing really – wisdom how to administer it and for dedicated workers.

Discipleship in every area (forming good small groups)

That our sound project will be finished and that the worship team will become stronger again.

I am grateful for health and still having my job.

I am praying for the major changes in Global Ministries as the new General Secretary has started in his post in September. I pray that the upcoming significant structural changes would support the work we do in God’s mission field.

I pray for my previous assistant who lost her job early this year and has yet not found a job, and I pray for my previous supervisor who was laid off a few weeks ago.

Thank you for your prayers!