Tere!
With the sun shining and warm weather, summer camps are popular throughout Estonia. We, as a church, were invited to attend a camp on the island of Muhu or Muhumaa. Muhu is the third largest island belonging to Estonia and is about 2 hours from Tallinn. We drove out to the Baltic shore line, took a ferry with our vehicle, and 25 minutes later we arrived on the Island. Only to drive a few minutes to the camp destination. We pulled up to a 2-story main house and one more smaller house equipped with three outdoor restrooms, basketball court, volleyball net, plenty of small gardens including a potato field, and a large tent where our services would be held.
Although the camp event itself wasn’t very large with hundreds of people, there was a surprising amount of variety in the speakers. From good ol’ America to Sweden and Finland. On the second day we had an outreach in the islands main town named Kurassare, about 1 hour away. We sang and gave testimonies and even though we didn’t talk to alot of people, we pray and know that the Holy Spirit was able to speak to people in the crowd. There was one man who was listening, who later came to the camp with us and asked for salvation later at our night service. For us, it was worth it.
In the end the camp was a great experience for us being foreigners to see how christian camps are here and to just listen, when we could understand, how God is using people and the message he has for Estonia. I felt the Holy Spirit challenging everyone one that was there to be open and self-less when it comes to those who aren’t saved or newer Christians. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own world, we don’t have time for people that need us. I know here, Christians are in their own world, I was happy to know that everyday of the camp, they had scheduled outreaches in the city. Sometimes we need to go back to the foundation and basics to continue to move forward. We’re grateful that God allows us to travel with the church within Estonia to serve in whatever way we can. After all that’s what we’re here for, to serve.
-Vanessa Menchaca