Progress Report 5_02

Tallinn, October 29, 2002

Summer is gone and so is the first quarter which means we are in the middle of the first school break of this study year in Estonia. At the moment I have just put 27 kids and 3 counselors on the electric train to Keila to spend a day at the indoors water park there. This means I can enjoy the quiet of Apteegi for some hours and catch up on my other responsibilities.

I have been extremely busy since my return from the US where I had a wonderful time and got to enjoy that good old Southern hospitality once again in its entirety in all the places I visited—Atlanta, Jasper, GA, Birmingham, AL, Houston, TX, Nashville, TN, Tullahoma, TN, Kingsport, TN and Knoxville, TN. I apologize for not keeping up with y’all. But I really appreciated so much what you all were doing, the dinners (and the breakfasts! and lunches) you provided, the miles you put in and the fellowship we enjoyed.

We’ve been somewhat short-staffed and I’ve had to spend additional time with the kids. At first Eve’s little girl was sick for some weeks and now the other teacher Alla has come down with some mysterious flu and has been fighting that for four weeks. Please pray for her complete recovery.

Like I already mentioned, this week is school break and we have a lot of special activities planned. On Monday it was a big board game day, today they are at the water park, tomorrow we will do crafts and then go to the circus (to see a visiting group from Moscow), on Thursday we will have a singing lessons, where Kulla- Siiri Kant will do songs from an Estonian children musical. We might even give a short performance on Sunday night at the BMC. On Friday the kids will go to the theater in the morning and I will host the “Child-at-Risk Round Table”, a group consisting of all the organizations in town, concerned with and involved in solving the problem of the children at risk in Tallinn. I will make a presentation of the Lighthouse and then among some other presentations the Vice mayor of Tallinn will introduce the issues with the new city council, relevant to all of us and our work. In the afternoon, we will have sports in a nearby gym on Vene street.

Last fall we had a strategic planning meeting where we reviewed all we had done so far and made plans for the future. Its fall again, and there are some issues that we need to struggle with. First, we feel we’ve been called to minister to the needs of these children who can and will live at home, but who are underprivileged. In other words, they are on the verge of becoming street children. Our location, however, brings us a lot of those children who are already on the streets and unfortunately, the format we can offer here is only like a band-aid for much more serious wounds—oftentimes they come here just to rest their feet and get fed. Moreover, their problems have usually been dealt with and they’ve been placed somewhere but they choose to live on the streets and escape any time they get a chance. At the same time, these children who really need us find it a long way to come—you need to use public transportation for 20-30 minutes from most any place you come from and then walk for 10 minutes through the streets of the old town. This year, our core group has also become older and their classes end later, yet their little siblings are not allowed alone on that 40-minute trip. Ideally, we should be situated between the kids’ home and school. All that reasoning has brought us with the Board and the staff to the place where we strongly feel we should be where the truly needy kids are. We have talked to the social workers of Põhja-Talinn (Northern –Tallinn) because that’s where most of our client children are from. They are very excited about this idea because we have worked together on a number of occasions. We have even found a building which would be ideal—a two storey wooden house, a lot of space inside as well as outside. Now it is up to the city council to allot this building to us or not. I will have an interview with the representative in the near future. Please pray for the discernment for all of us involved and please also pray that the Lord’s will be done and His name be glorified through this move. If this building or any other is given to us to rent, we will need to renovate it and any volunteer groups will be welcome. I will give an update as soon as I can.

As to the daily operations, the attendance has dropped to 12-15 a day compared to the summer with close to 30, only to shoot up again during the break. That too, tells me that they will come if they have time and possibly, if they can spend more time here. Part of the drop in the attendance is due to the fact that a more permanent solution has been found for some kids—Artur and Aljosha, the little star of my camp report are both in a newly founded boarding school in Lasnamäe, a district of Tallinn.

But nevertheless, we have our hands full with the kids we have. There are those moments of sunshine when someone gets a good grade or comes through for another one; Or when a 7-year old Regina aka Pipi plays soccer with a 14 year old Dima and Andrei—and scores! There was a disciplinary issue when a teenage girl challenged most everything and I told her she didn’t have to come if she didn’t like it here. She stopped coming for two weeks but is now back, a different person, kind, helpful, humble. Praise the Lord!

Most of the effort still goes to tutoring. Eve Jarv, one of our teachers, has contacted several schools and inquired about our children's progress. She is also giving the kids web-based tests to interest them in their studies. As to homework, I have a very special friend, Rebeka Norak helping us once a week and she is doing a wonderful job. Kaidi Nommik is also volunteering some nights a week while completing her final year of studies in social work. In addition to difficult kids and raiding deserted houses with the police to catch the kids who spend nights there, Nikolai is in charge of computers and he built us a network, so that the kids can also be on the internet. Their address is lapsed@lastekeskus.ee but most of them have their own web-based addresses as well. The kids also come to church sometimes and the other Sunday I had thirteen children with me (might have had something to do with the field trip we took after the service). But from week to week we have classes in singing, sports and crafts. We have decided to do a project for the elderly in the church—a “God’s Eye” for every one for a Christmas ornament. We have completed about 1/3 of the 150 we need to do. We don’t yet know what to give to our kids for Christmas.

Last but not least, we are very grateful for all the financial help you have provided. Special thanks to the Shades Valley Rotary Club whose generous donation bought us an office laptop computer and a digital camera. We are deeply indebted to all other partners and sponsors New Lebanon Presbyterian Church, Carole Mangrem, Clarksdale, MS; Metodistkirken, Estland from Norway; Chapelwood UMC, Houston, TX; T.N.Dunnam, Houston, TX ; Celia Gulbenk, Nashville, TN; Mr and Mrs James Rainer, Birmingham, AL; Thomas A. Ritchie, Birmingham, AL; as well as contributors VIM team from Mt. Bethel UMC, Marietta, GA (in honor of their Estonia team leader Candy Tourtellott); Chris and Janet Mullins, Kingsport, TN; Deborah and Charles Beavers, Birmingham, AL; Paul and Millie Atkinson, Marietta, GA; John and Margaret Burns, Houston, TX; Ann and Dudley Tipps, First UMC, Tullahoma, TN; First Broad St UMC, Kingsport, TN; Maurice and Nancy Moore, Tullahoma, TN; Lee and Jacqueline Davis, Kingsport, TN; Ann Adams, Birmingham, AL; Mr and Mrs Robert Waudby, Birmingham, AL; Virginia N. Morgan, Birmingham, AL

In conclusion, I would like to thank you for your faithfulness. God is good, and He sure has a special way of showing it. May He Bless you and Keep you in all your ways!

In His Light,

Kersti Raudsepp
Children Center Lighthouse