Coming to an end

This past week at English Camp has been so amazing. God has shown me so many things about Him and His plan for my life. I was able to really be used by Him during this past week and was given opportunities to talk to students about Him. It was amazing to see Him change their lives in just a week. Students went from one extreme to the other and there was o other explanation other than Christ and His power! It was so amazing and just such a humbling experience to know that God doesn't need me to do anything, but He chooses to use me! Its so incredible. He has stretched my trust in Him and has shown His power and perfect plan for my life. I feel like as I have been gone God has put me in situations where I had to trust Him and surrender my fears to Him. It is amazing to be at perfect peace.. only explainable by God's perfect peace and timing. This past week has been a week I will never forget. I feel like if God placed me here in Tartu for the whole summer for just this past week, then I am praising Him for that!! He has provided the way and has shown His light onto my path. I will be forever thankful to all of you who has been supporting me and keeping me in your prayers and thoughts throughout the summer. I am starting my trip back home tomorrow morning and will be landing back in atlanta around 7 pm. Please pray for safety and for a smooth flight. Please never stop praying for the students who were touched by Christ and for those that have not yet been touched by Him. Pray that my mission here will not end, but that God would use me however He wants to in the future.

With love because Christ loved us first,

Bek

Time Flys!!

Wow.. its so crazy to see that the last time i posted was almost a month ago.. time flys by SO quickly. This past month has been amazing! I have really been able to get to know the students and hang out with them a lot! God has given me the opportunity to start up a bible study with a few girls that meets once a week and it is really amazing to see God working within that and really using me as a tool for Him! For the month of July we have been having church outside at a park on Saturday nights. It is a really relaxed environment with food being served, games, songs, and a talk. The talks are all very relatable and they are things that people go through and struggle with here in Estonia. One person interviews another person about a topic that they have really struggled with in the past. The cool thing about these services is that since they are outside people from all over just hear the music and come and want to know what we are doing and then they stay for the service! Its really amazing how God is drawing people in each week. The people who would normally not want anything to do with church sit and listen. There are always homeless people... non believers.. and this week we even have some drunk guys that were sitting for the service drinking throughout the whole thing. It was amazing because even if they don't remember the talk or remember what was going God, God had them to stay and we were able to talk with them about God and were able to hang out with them a little bit.

I feel like God has really been doing a number on my heart these past few weeks. Never in my life have I felt such a burden for lost people. God is really showing me what it means to give things to Him and let Him take control and to trust His plans. He is reminding me about how He doesn't need me at all fo what He is doing here or anywhere, but He has chosen to use someone who is so underserving like me. Its amazing to realize how powerful and huge God is and how small we are!

Today we leave for English Camp. It is a camp that we teach the students english by sharing the Gospel with them and loving on them for a week. It is very interactive and very high energy and fun! It is abut an hour away from the city so we are leaving to go today! There will also be a team that is coming in from Atlanta actually!! So I am really excited to see what God does there and how He moves. About %40 of the students signed up are non believers so please pray for opportunities to share our story with them and for God to do some supernatural things at the camp where we know that It is Him doing it!

Please continue to pray for me while I spend my last few days here in Estonia. Pray for God to use every part of me that is left during these last few days. Pray that God would use us through this camp to reach Estonia and then the World.

I praise God for amazing friendships and amazing experiences and memories.

With love because of Christ,

Bek

Elu on...

Life is...

Today at church the Pastor asked the church to think about and answer the question "Elu on..?" or " Life is....?" Some said love, beautiful, precious, a gift, sharing with one another. All those things are true, Life is all of those things. But what He was getting at was that Jesus IS life. The point of Jesus isn't a free ticket to get to have a life full of love, and happiness, and to have a beautiful life. Although He does do that, He brings us all of those things and when He is included into our life we receive those types of things. But the point was that Jesus IS life. What an amazing thought of truth.

The Pastor was finishing up a serious from John 14:6 : "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

It was a great series!

At Lift we are going through 6 groups of people in Tartu: Youth, Orphans, Elderly/ Disabled, Homeless, Widows, and Unchurch/ Unsaved. We are going through the reasons why it is so important to reach out to these people groups and we are showing them practical ways to do so. We have already visited an orphanage and played with the little children. We also have talked about Youth and had the students come up with ways to reach their friends. This week we are going to an Elderly Home.

Thank you all so much for your support and your prayers. Please continue to pray for opportunities to reach the youth of this city. We are having an outreach event with Sports this week so please pray that the people we need to minister to would come. As we visit the elderly home this week please pray that Christ's love would shine through us.

As always pray for lives to be changed and souls to be saved.

With love through Christ.

Jaanipäev

Yesterday was one of Estonia's national holiday.. its called Jaanipäev. We all just hung out and grilled and ate a lot! It was so cool to see everyone bonding and growing in the relationships that we have all made. I feel like we are all so close now! It has only been about 2 and a half weeks!

Sweet Evelin and Me.

All of the girls at Jaanipäev

I feel like I have done so much since the last time I've written. I also have learned a lot as well. Graduations are a huge tradition to go all out for. People buy fancy clothes and they receive flowers. Guy or Girl, they get flowers. I thought it was so cool to see everyone walking around with piles and piles of flowers. It was amazing to see the youth so proud of themselves for graduating and moving forward in their education. It was also fun to see youth that I had met the first time coming here and not seeing them since and we remembered each other still. I have learned that they people here have full hearts of giving. It is so incredible to see people from, much to nothing to people who are greatly blessed financially giving anyone what they have. If it is an apple, they will share it with everyone who will share it with them. If its a sandwich, they will offer it to everyone without even taking the first bite. It is very humbling. They give everything they have to others even if its all they have. The christians here are also extremely passionate. They know what they believe and they do not back down. They will share their faith with absolutely everyone. People also ask very challenging questions. I met this guy and within the first 5 minutes of meeting him, he asked me what my testimony is. Like wow... If more people were like that and as passionate about Christ in the way these people are then lives would be changed all over the world! God is blessing the people here in a crazy way and I don't think they fully realize it. It is amazing. I feel like lately God has been showing me how patience is so important and how trusting in Him will make things a lot easier. I also think being here, away from home, and away from people and situations and obligations has really allowed me to begin to see what is important and what is not as important. God is blowing me away right now with learning about relationships and how important it is to surrender the to Him and let Him do what He wants with them. He is in control anyways and knows way better then me. It is just amazing to see when they are lining up. When His desires and my desires are the same. Its so cool.

God is also showing me how crazy big He is! And how powerful He is ( Isaiah 40 and Job 38). I could never begin to grasp His mighty power and knowledge. As an internship, right now we are studying Romans and this morning I was reading chapter 11. It started blowing me away with the very end:

" Oh, the depth of the riches of wisdom and knowledge of God? How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has ben his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen."

... Talk a bout a slap in the face when you wake up! God is just seriously showing me so many things about His character. Please Pray that He would continue to humble and and break down any pride that is within me that would hold me back from learning absolutely everything that He wants me to learn. Pray that I would have patience and that I would trust Him and His will for my life with the present, future career, and relationships.

God is good ALL the time.

Learning more and more each day

I feel like being here God has been showing me more about how He can use my past for His glory in so many ways. There are so many people here that are broken and dealing with issues that you can only understand if you have been where they have been and walked in their shoes. Its amazing to me to think of where God has allowed me to go and where He has taken me out of. It is such an encouragement to see that God is changing me from my insides.. I can feel Him moving and working in my life.

One thing that was amazing that happened yesterday was at a staff meeting When I went I did not think that I would learn anything, I thought it would just be usual "housekeeping" things for the week and catching up with other people that had gone away for a few days and hear about their times in other parts of the country. The meeting was coming to a close and we went around praying. Someone in the group was praying and He said that so many times we think that God has to do a huge thing for it to be a miracle, but in reality, a miracle from Him could be hugging someone when they are crying, or listening to someone who needs to talk, passing a random stranger on the street and praying for them.. etc., Gods miracles could be found in the little things too.

Wow.. thats so true. I feel like we get caught up so easily in the everyday schedules and busyness of life to realize that miracles are going on around us all the time! It was so encouraging yet convicting at the same time.

Another thing that was amazing during the prayer time was there were 3 languages being spoken. English, Estonian, and Czech. It was so cool.. to know that I cannot understand 2 of the 3 being spoken to God, but God could understand perfectly! I feel like I forget how huge God is sometimes... I feel like the box that I put God in gets smaller and smaller sometimes!

We had a surprise party for the other intern kyle this week and it was great to see all of the students get involved and come to fellowship and eat and laugh! We also started having World Cup parties every night at the church office. It is made for students to come and bring their unchurched friends into a fun and positive environment. We also are making our own little soccer games as well! Tonight we had the first "futbol" game of many over the summer! It was a great time to hang out with the students and meet other on the fields.

Please be praying for the church Risttee. It is an amazing church with people whose hearts are on fire for God. They serve them with everything they have no matter how much. Please pray for unity within the team. Pray that students hearts would be pricked for Christ and that He would change their hearts. Pray that God would break down my pride and anything holding me back from doing His work here. Pray God would tear me down, only to rebuild me again in Him.

Thank you for all of your support, You have no idea how much it means for me and How much God is using it to change not only my life, but the lives of so many around me!

With love through Christ.

THe first LIFT

Tonight was the first LIFT that I will be apart of while I am here!

It went really well!! There was about 25 people there and even though the numbers were not extremely high, I know that the people that were there were the ones who needed to hear what we were proclaiming. We had worship, a time of testimonies, and we broke up into prayer groups. Then after LIFT we had a World Cup party! A lot of people showed up and it was a great time of fellowship. People are starting to warm up to each other and kyle and I. It is so great to see old friends that I have not seen in a long time!

Please be praying for me and our team. Pray that God would continue to be our focus and that we would not be distracted by other things. Pray that God would be glorified through it ALL!

Isaiah 43

With love through Him.

Sweet friendships

Today was a lot of fun! We really started to get to work on planning for the summer and putting together LIFT for this friday. We also started to put together a party at the church for the World Cup. We are trying to make the environment fun for the youth and college age students that are going to come. We learned a little bit more about the Estonian culture and we also were able to understand how to draw the students in by understanding what is effective here in the country.

I also was able to fellowship with some of the girls here. Both the Estonian girls who I am already very close to and also a girl named Sam who is working here for the summer as well.

I feel like everyone is starting to bond great and we find ourselves in deep conversations about the Lord and what we are struggling with and getting encouraged by each other. It is so cool because a lot of us have gone through similar things in our past or are going through very similar experiences.

Here are a few pictures of the girls. Hanna is the first, who I am staying with, then Kati, who is my dear friend from here, and then Sam. My new friend we I am so much alike!!

Please pray for the team here at LIFT and also the interns for the english camps like Sam. Also please pray that God would bring the people into LIFT on friday that need to come! Help everyone to continue to stay focused on the reason we are here and that youth would cross our paths. Continue to pray for lives to be changed and souls to be saved!!

Learning how to love more each day. ( 1 Corinthians 13:4-8)