Flags Fly Across the Nation of Estonia Today: In it’s prominent blue, black and white colours, the Estonian flag symbolizes the skies, soil and purity of this small but historic nation.  It’s ancient people, unique in language and culture, first gained it’s independence on February 24th, 1918 after being ruled over by practically all it`s European neighbours.

It lost it’s hard fought freedom when occupied by the Russians at the end of the Second World War.  On August the 20th, 1991, this freedom was once again regained during the collapse of the Soviet Empire.  It was during this time that the Vähi’s came to Estonia to live and help establish the Estonian Christian Pentecostal Church which continues under national leadership and thereafter continuing to pioneer the Village of Hope.

Well aware of the real threat from neighbouring Russia, especially proven by recent events in Georgia, Estonia has incorporated itself into the European Community and  NATO to help ensure it’s future safety.  On the eve of this national holiday last night over 200,000 filled the national song festival grounds to celebrate 20 years since the start of the “The Singing Revolution”, singing national songs and waving national flags into the night until 3 am this morning.

Estonia also celebrated as yesterday 29 year old Gerd Kanter brought home Estonia’s first gold metal at this year’s Olympic Beijing games in the disc throwing event.  Jüri Jaanson and Tõnu brought home a silver metal in the double men’s rowing competition.

Estonia also has showed unwavering support to it’s national friend Georgia during the present crisis.  Last night’s, breathtaking and moving national song festival event, also included singers from Georgia as well as untold numbers of Georgian flags and symbols beside the blue, black and white flags of Estonia.

Today at the Village of Hope it is a day of relaxing, activities and films as the men enjoy the fellowship and time off from their regular schedule and duties.   We are all simply thankful and grateful for the good and great things God has done for us personally and for us as a nation.

The Dutch Group from Rotterdam Together With the Men from the Village of Hope: Both groups benefited from working  to times of sharing, praying and worshiping together.  Fond memories were left from both sides.

Regularly Scheduled Times of Sharing and Prayer are a Part of the Village of Hope Daily Schedule: Here just before starting to work again after noon lunch, in the mill yard, a prayer circle is formed where joys and concerns are shared and prayed over.

The Green House is Framed Up:  With most of the framing work done the next job is to install the ribbed transparent plastic sections into place. These are yet to be delivered to the site.

Barbecue Hosted by Our Dutch Friends: Randy de Geus , standing in the middle with the yellow shirt on, organized and financed the outdoor barbecue supper, while at the same time expressed with great enthusiasm the privilege it was, to put this on,  for the men at the Village.

Team From Holland Presently Working at the Village of Hope: Above are: Stephan Pollmann with his daughter Stephanie (actually from Germany near the Dutch border), Stehan van der Perk, Jos van Stapele, Rosalie Heijkamp, Ruben van der Perk, Kimberly van der Perk (wife of Stephan) and in the forefront Randy de Geus at the “Corner Stone” of the Village of Hope property.

Village of Hope Green House Going Up: Part of this team of hard working Dutch youth tackled the challenging job of erecting this green house which had been waiting to be set up. Although the foundation had been in place it did not take long for the structure to take shape in just a few short days. Though Holland has many green houses - this team is experiencing such a job for the first time!

Stone Roof Tiles Going Up On Staff Furnace and Wash House: The other part of this Dutch team tackle, at the same time, this second project under construction. This is one of the projects started by the Swedish group who started this building in late April.

Keeping Abreast With the Many Activities: Märt Vähi, with level, ruler and pencil in hand, gets around the Village of Hope on his bicycle to stay in touch with the various aspects of the different projects and visiting team.

“We are so thankful for those who come and help - we have had Swedes here many times who continue to come at least a couple of times a year and are such a blessing.” exclaimed Vähi. He continued: “We just had a group of Americans and the Canadians gave us a start - Estonians and Russians have helped regularly and now we have the Dutch who are here for the first time! - I think it is great! This way all of us together with our own men have built the Village of Hope!”

Coffee Breaks and Times of Fellowship: Everywhere in the world coffee breaks are part of the everyday experience though the Dutch we found out were avid tea drinkers as well. Here Alta Vähi makes sure our guests are well treated with refreshments during break.

Sharing and Prayer a Part of the Daily Activities: After lunch just before going back to work a prayer circle is formed and one of the men and one guests take time to share their personal testimony in the group. These are time of encouragement as well as times where each gets to know one another while also sharing in prayer.

The Embassy of the Netherlands in Estonia’s Capital of Tallinn: The group who will have spent ten days in Estonia at the Village of Hope will be returning on August 8th once again for Rotterdam where they are all members of the Filadelfia Church there.

Märt and Andrew Vähi visited the church last October while attending the ISSAC Conference in Holland which resulted in the present missions work visit. On his first return visit to Europe, Märt Vähi had early connections with this church, which was then pastored by it’s founding pastor Peter Quist, nearly 38 years ago.

Hearty Americans Working Tackle Painting Job at the Village of Hope Sawmill: Brian White of Pennsylvania, Brad Keisling of South Carolina, and Bruce Peterson, Evan Ernst and Josh White also all from Pennsylvania stand in front of the “Corner Stone” after hearing about the beginnings of the Village of Hope and praying together.

Not a Small Job to Paint the New Addition to the Mill: In the week these American friends were with us last month they applied a lot of paint to a large surface area. The new addition to the mill was constructed in the spring at the end of April during the Swedes visit with the men at the Village of Hope continuing construction up to this point.  As mentioned before - all working together makes such projects possible.

Special People for a Special Place: Märt Vähi stands at the “Corner Stone” at the Village of Hope with Danny and Cindy Kaiser of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. “This was quite an occasion” stated Märt - ” I have know Cindy since she was a little girl back in Fredericton and have known Danny for years back to the time we were building Smythe Street Cathedral” Vähi also was the one who married the couple while being their pastor in Fredericton.

Cindy and Danny were on an Europe wide trip and stopped for the day off of their scheduled cruise which was docked in Tallinn for the day. Both Cindy and Danny indicated that this was also one of the highlights of their European trip. It was a quick and short visit - but a wonderful day for us all!